That's really interesting. I kind of wish I took more classes that attacked this issue from other fields' point of view.
If only I could remember the specifics from the economic courses I took last fall. What a difference half a year makes, huh?
I really should know, seeing how I have a Economics degree.
I have a feeling that the efficiency and effectiveness of each solution depends largely on which discipline you look at it from. The net benefits of each option from an economist's point of view could differ significantly from that of a physicist. The class I took, Environmental Economics, attempted to bridge that gap, but I found that it left me with more questions. In that class, we took into account the net benefits of not only production, but also social welfare, too, which is quite a bit more vague.