water

Legislation like the Clean Water Act has helped check the effluent flowing into rivers and streams. Though that fight is far from over, a new, all-too-modern danger has meanwhile seeped invisibly into waters around the world: legal and illegal drugs. And their effect on the ecosystem is poorly understood.

Because climate change is a global phenomenon and its potential effects diverse, understanding the economic impacts is highly complex. Agriculture, fishing, migration, health and tourism could all be affected; in many ways the impacts are likely to be negative, but some could be positive.

Just as nations have different levels of population, industrial and agricultural production, income and education, so they have varied environmental impacts. Such impacts aren’t stable over time: Countries’ use of resources and generation of wastes often rises as production grows, then may fall as cleaner technologies and better environmental practices come into use. While this trend has been theorized, empirical evidence has been mixed.

The U.S. government regulates many sectors of the economy and American life, from health and the environment to energy and food, and most rules come with tradeoffs. For example, regulations that ensure food safety or clean air — which may prevent future health or other costs — may also raise compliance costs for businesses. As the administrative state and the number of regulations have grown, the proper scope of regulation has been a topic of continuous, and often contentious, debate.