Some thoughts on environmental issues

 I have some thoughts about environmental issues in my mind and I hope you can give me some insights:
(1) Enviromentalists call for recycling papers for sake of forest preservation, but the scenario may be that paper companies will lose the very incentive to plant and preserve trees.

(2) Some environmental groups appeal to us that we should use metallic silverware instead of plastic ones. But remember that nothing is free and metal is SCARCE. Metal like silver and iron has far more alternative uses than the plastic do and suppose that all the metal were used to make spoons, the price of iron-made machine will shoot up to an exorbitant price simply because...well, there is no iron around.  So, in other words, transforming metal into a lot of silverware may not be efficient and it may lead to more costs than plastic ones.
BUT I have a question: how do we cope with the problem that plastic is not easy to compose?

(3) We should use mass transportation.
Well, if you travel by bus or underground, the cost for you is that you have to go to the stop and wait for it (to some extent, this means that you are not the commander of your own time and schedule, but since most of us are employees, who have to obey the rule and schedule of employers, we may have got used to that.). But one thing for sure is that you will feel less comfortable than if you ride your own cars. So this is the cost of energy and time and physical well-being.

What's more important is that the source of the problem is not the cars, but that driving on the road is not properly priced and charged. Since road is a common good, the lack of excludability and rivalry in consumption allures more people to drive, which lead to congestion and excessive emission of gas during the waiting time. If we could tax drivers every time they drive, and tax them more during rush hour and crowded places, we would eliminate the car congestion issue and the pollution issue.

Some people may say that cars are evil because the advent of cars marks the beginning of car accidents and pollution of gas. BUT house manure could be dangerous, it pollutes the air and water. Besides, thanks to cars, we travel more and farther, we save more life (just imagine how you get a doctor 10 miles away without cars) and more entertainment. Nothing is free, and what we should do is measure the net effect of one thing rather than be fastidious about the shortcomings. (ALSO, cars themselves have no problems, they cannot drive and emit gas themselves.)

But maybe one good thing about mass transportation is that you see more people, which may make you happy. From my experience, the best place you see really pretty girls in Shanghai is the underground stations.

(4) Don't use air-conditioners.
OK, but take into account the number increased to see the doctors with the ban of air-conditioners. If you cared a certain group more than others, fine.
Question: how to cope with the emission?

(5) Use clean-energy cars
Please: 1. Let the companies themselves decide whether to invest on the program. 2. Let the costomers themselves decide whether to buy the clean-energy cars.
If government interfered, 1. THE problem of subsidies. 2. Property right is hampered.

If we can get the incentives right, nothing will be wasted. SO rather than call for environmental protection, we saved the time and energy to solve the real problems. If every person was an angel, certainly there would be no problem in the world; if the world was an utopia, Ok nothing was scarce and there would be no place for economics and economists. BUT life simply is not like that. The world is not short of people who tell us what we should do and what the world should be; remember that incentive can backfire; devote more time thinking about what the world will be, this is a better way to solve issues with real effect.