do you agree or disagree - why or why not

In economic terms, pollution and waste emittance is a negative externality. This means that pollution will be continually overproduced (more than the quantity that people find desirable) until some mitigating factor or regulator comes into play to control the output.

Conservatives believe that pollution is necessary for the success of a capitalist market structure and that pollution cannot be reduced without serious tradeoffs. These tradeoffs, they argue, would negatively affect the consumer and the health of the overall economy. Normally, conservatives lobby for pollution producing projects by masking their impact and presenting pollution's impacts in misleading ways.

Liberals used believe that a certain degree of pollution was necessary for a healthy free market and economy. They also believed that the government was responsible for regulating firms and their pollution outputs. However, more progressive liberal views indicate that the firms themselves are should be more responsible for their pollution. Firms should be controlled by both regulations and by the firm itself. This has been more common lately, as many firms attempt to use this approach as a strategy to win over customers. Firms use the terms "carbon neutral" and "smart" to reflect their eco-friendly performance. They do this, hoping that customers will feel better about buying their products.

Radicals believe that there is no way to reduce pollution without firms and the economy taking a hit and that, even if there were relatively easy methods to reduce pollution, the damage has already been done unto the environment. In this way, they take a position of apathy because capitalism is innately contrary to the environmentalist movement and there will be no middle ground.

I believe that the liberal stance is appropriate. Most companies are wasteful to begin with. The only advantage to efficiency and polluting less is profits. As it is only human nature to want more and more, companies are going to produce to meet the demands of consumers. Consumers need to reform their habits of overconsumption and disposal, and only then will firms respond to the change.