Proxy Prevention – Science Poems

What shines
Not always beautiful –
The record has been refined
With soot from other places.
The city is sunny
That throat
of the residue,
The smoke room
Threadout
On the cargo ship route,
In the lungs
That doesn’t vote
For policy
Or a promise.
Somewhere,
The kiln breathes
At other prices:
Ash maker,
Skyliezer –
A dirty job
For signalled virtues.
And still
The number increases,
Stacked like a wooden frame
Under the banner
It never left
That coast.

This poem is inspired Recent researchdemocratic states are often seen to appear greener because they are offshore pollution to fewer democracies.

Democracy is often seen as better at protecting the environment than authoritarian regimes, but this picture is more complicated than it appears first. Many studies draw this link, but the evidence is mixed together and important questions remain. One problem we are paying less attention to is how countries shift environmental costs of consumption elsewhere. In a global economy, it can seem “greener” simply because environmental damage linked to a wealthy democratic nation is far beyond borders.

The study looks closer at the patterns by examining data on greenhouse gas emissions, offshoring of pollution and democracy levels in over 160 countries since the 1990s. Findings suggest that democracies often maintain cleaner national records by outsource fallout in the consumption environment to other, often fewer, democratic countries. In other words, the success of the obvious environment of democracy may come from costs borne elsewhere. These results challenge the idea that democracy alone leads to better environmental outcomes, and that truly sustainable policies must explain the global outcomes of local actions.