For fifty years, the United States has been cleaning up the air we breathe, the water we drink and the trash we leave behind. Economist Donald W. Jones explains what it cost, what it bought, and why so few of us noticed.
Meet Donald W. Jones. For decades, he has worked as an environmental economist to answer one vital question. What actually happens when an environmental policy is put into practice?
Good intentions are not enough to solve environmental problems. We need evidence. From his twenty years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to his major studies for the U.S. Department of Energy, Donald tests the real costs and benefits of our choices. His work shows us how to build environmental solutions that actually work for our communities and our economy.
Years of U.S. Policy Impact
Communities
Economies
Benefits of a Half Century of Environmental Policy
Why does pollution exist, how do environmental policies control it, and were they worth it? This book walks through the answers in plain language, then follows the policies into farms, roads, power plants, landfills and the wild places we are trying to keep. No economics degree needed. A sense of humor helps.
Companies can tell you what a new scrubber costs. Nobody can send you a receipt for the heart attack you did not have.
Donald has a second, unexpected passion: the economies of the ancient world. He has published on the Bronze and Early Iron Age archaeology of Crete and the eastern Mediterranean, and he has written books that bring modern economic ideas to archaeologists and historians. It shows up in his environmental writing, too.
