Good News, Bad News for Addressing Climate Change
First the bad news: To address anthropogenic climate change, capitalism will have to be replaced as the dominant world economic system. How do we know this? Well, we know that eliminating ongoing exposure to a poison is a prerequisite for curing an illness due to poisoning. We know that any hope of modifying a dog’s aggressive behavior requires, at a minimum, that you stop rewarding the animal when it bites someone. In short, we know that to solve a problem you must eliminate the causes before you can hope to effectively treat the symptoms. But is capitalism itself part of the problem? Are private ownership and management of the world’s resources, energy supplies, industry and infrastructure compatible with the current needs of society, the environment and our planet? Is the current system sustainable when it rewards industrial titans for maximizing returns at all cost, while existentially punishing any who might forgo profits for the public good? These are crucia