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I'm going to make an argument that will probably be very unpopular, but here we go. The global economic system is the primary incentive system for human behavi

I'm going to make an argument that will probably be very unpopular, but here we go. The global economic system is the primary incentive system for human behavior. Under global free-market capitalism, firms are incentivized to increase profits. Unless a superior profit incentive exists for reducing environmentally hostile practices, energy and manufacturing firms will continue to make profit-optimizing choices at the expense of the environment. With our current predominant global economic system, laissez-faire capitalism, there is no way to make firms act in an eco friendly way if it's less than optimal from a profit perspective.

Recurecur 10y ago
The problem is not capitalism, it's lack of ethics. Since our educational process (which used to include religious teachings promoting ethics for most people) no longer instills an ethical framework, anything goes. Transition from capitalism to some other economic system will do nothing to help, since unethical people will still maximize their experience at the expense of everything else. Witness the communist USSR - it was the worst offender in history as far as the environment goes. China, while arguably more capitalistic in recent years, is also a huge environmental offender. Until humanity in general, and the US in particular, returns to a concerted effort to improve ethically, we remain in deep trouble. That process of ethical improvement had gone on for hundreds of years, but seems to have regressed since around 1950.