Chem395:March 7 discussion

Many environmental disasters such as Love Canal raise an awkward issue: Who pays to clean up the toxic mess?

The simplistic answer is, of course, "Polluter Pays." This is fine if a working factory pollutes a river, or an unsafe product causes harm. But I lived in a neighbourhood in England where sometime people's houses would suddenly start to crack and even begin to collapse - all because a coal mine shaft underground had collapsed. But the mine may have closed in 1850....! So who pays?

Even in modern times, the situation is not clear cut. If I buy a gas guzzler and cause pollution, should I be the one to pay? Or should it be the manufacturer of the gas guzzler? Or the oil company? If my company makes a battery containing toxic cadmium, and you buy it and later throw it away, should the company pay for the toxic cleanup or should you? What if my company has a responsible recycling program, but my competitor doesn't? How can you know which company's batteries are causing the pollution? Should we just write this off as the tragedy of the commons, or can we do something?