My children come home from school and say things like, "I am contributing to global warming" when they forget to switch the lights off.
At the dinner table to day we were discussing those countries running a trade surplus. My wife ran through the list, and Japan and China were also on it. After she explained to our son what a trade surplus was, he immediately said, "Everything is made in China, made in china". His next comment was the world was being polluted by all this production. It seemed that he was focused upon China's impact on the world (read cost to the world), as a result of the economic growth achieved. Even though he is a very long way from explicitly discussing the concept of "opportunity cost". He did sum it up very neatly with his statement. If you are interested there is quite a lot around that you can read about how the environment is affected by us and vice-versa. One well known author and journalist who returns to this theme is Thomas Friedman, his book Hot Flat and Crowded (to me at least), made quite a dramatic read.
I am going to keep thinking about us and the environment, it is a recurring topic at school so maybe my children will help me learn what I need to understand and do. Then I can say I know my environmental footprint. I might also then be able to work out how my company should and can talk about its environmental footprint as well.
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