Beijing shuts last coal power plant in switch to natural gas

[Igel]

18. Yup.

When a society gets to be affluent enough attention turns to quality of life. Even before legislation is passed, pressure is placed on polluters to clean up effluents and emissions.

Environmental quality in the US improved for several years before environmental legislation was passed in the US, and continued to improve at the same rate for several years after the legislation passed. It wasn't until there was enough support for the legislation that it could pass, and by that time pressure was great enough in some places for polluters to take action without compulsion. (Yes, it's an unpleasant fact, but there you have it. Similarly, most economic stimuli also occur at peak unemployment, meaning that by the time legislation is passed the decline's mostly or entirely stopped and things have bottomed out; then by the time the first money is disbursed things are on the mend. But government takes credit for what happens under its watch, and the counterargument is hard to get presented. It's one government versus hundreds or thousands of individual, small players each of which can claim at most a small portion of the credit. One gets press, and the other to get heard has to claim credit obviously not duly deserved.)