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You can blame capitalism all you want, but the issue is deeper. This is a well studied market failure called tragedy of the commons. People and markets have not

You can blame capitalism all you want, but the issue is deeper. This is a well studied market failure called tragedy of the commons. People and markets have not been paying the true cost of their consumption, which has resulted in overconsumption of fossil fuels. Your whole premise ignores the billions of people who happily use electricity and fuel everyday and happily ignore the consequences. These same people then (literally) riot when prices go up by a relatively small amount. People are greedy. They want more for less. We can disagree about the best form of economic association, but it’s disingenuous to ignore the reality that climate change is driven by the masses.

nicoburns 4y ago
Market failures are a feature of free market capitalism! Most of the solutions to market failures are some kind of regulation, restriction or tax which tend to be opposed by proponents of “pure capitalism”
mschuster91 4y ago
> but it’s disingenuous to ignore the reality that climate change is driven by the masses. And the answer to a "tragedy of the commons" scenario is regulation: either intervene directly by banning undesired behaviors (e.g. ban flights on routes that are served by rail, such as France does) or tax it to make undesired behaviors unprofitable. The problem with the latter is that you will always have people rich enough to simply pay whatever tax is asked and social resentment will grow as a result ("why should the lower classes bear the load of climate change and the rich enjoy three-minute flights to save a 40 minute road trip [1]?"). [1] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/kylie-jenner-climate-criminal-private-jet https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/kylie...