Is Environmentalism Compatible with Capitalism?
This is the question asked, and pondered quite intelligently, by Richard T. Stuebi on the Cleantech Blog. Among other comments of note:
We aspire to free-market capitalism in the United States, and we come pretty close to achieving it, closer than most countries in the world. And, because we are very capitalistic, it is easy to make the leap that American consumerism is inextricably a co-product of capitalism. It is not.
Furthermore:
Capitalism and environmentalism can be reconciled — theoretically, at least — once energy price signals more accurately reflect their environmental costs. Right now, each unit of fossil fuel burned generates greenhouse gas emissions, which have a societal cost, but the consumer faces no burden in their wallet associated with this societal cost.
Certainly, we’ve been rewarding people with unchecked automotive use up until quite recently. Driving is easier and sometimes even cheaper than using public transportation. Furthermore, it takes less time, which is a valuable commodity for most folks. And, as a nation, we’ve put more of our infrastructure efforts into the expansion of roads and freeways instead of trains and busses.
Ironically, it may be the oil companies that get us out of our fossil fuel mess, if only because they have a need to make money and they can’t make money off a natural resource that no longer exists. They will be the ones to switch us to alternative fuels, most likely. They’ll have to, or die. And that may be the only way capitalism saves us from ourselves.
Tags: capitalism, corporations
