People become short-term thinkers as they struggle just to provide for their families' basic necessities. People can no longer afford the emotional or financial luxury of dealing with long-term personal or societal needs. Only productive societies generate the wealth necessary to invest in environmental protection. Of course, there is no need for such a downward spiral to occur. If as a society we restore moral education to the primacy it one held, we can prosper both materially and environmentally.
Pollution is caused by selfish individuals who lack self-control.
Polluters put their personal comfort and immediate convenience ahead of the long-term health and safety of their community. Polluters do not mind taking what is not theirs. There are legitimate limits to everything. Moral capitalism recognizes that profits are not the ultimate goal of human existence. If laissez faire does not extend to purse snatching or drug dealing then it does not protect the wanton destruction of our environment.