Economic and technological development will do absolutely nothing to solve the problems of a changing climate in the absence of any state intervention. These two can only help when the economic incentives align with the desired outcome. If a technology is needed for energy with little to no carbon emissions, then there is currently no incentive to do so absent state intervention. Cheap natural gas while more efficient than coal is by no means clean and instead incentivizes further investment in producing more natural gas instead of a technology with no carbon emissions. Add to that the urgency of time and clearly we don’t have the luxury to wait for the free market to align with the moral goal of cleaning up the environment.
So do tell us how exactly the free market would solve this one without any government intervention? I mean before all fossil fuels are exhausted and we’re long dead.
By developing technologies that produce energy efficiently with significantly less or even zero carbon emissions (like nuclear and natural gas) and then the government NOT regulating them to the point of inefficiency (like nuclear and natural gas).
Oh wow… economic and technological development has already provided a couple of very good options to either slow or eliminate the threat of climate change, but the government is preventing them from being widespread, cheap alternatives to traditional fossil fuels.
I’m so glad that we have the government “helping” us with this problem.
Yeah what did government ever do for nuclear development? Or even hydraulic fracturing for that matter? I suggest you look into the development, research, funding and tell me if thats all free market.
The free market is quite adept at incremental innovations like economies of scale, miniaturization, commoditization, aesthetics/design etc. Public investment is much more beneficial with revolutionary innovations when profit isn’t likely and necessity still drives development. Behind every revolutionary innovation is public investment - internet, gps, radio, microwave, aeronautics, and on and on.
I am aware that the government takes a lot of money from people and then throws it at things it finds interesting… some of which are things that end up being beneficial to society, others which end up killing large portions of society.
I don’t think that shows that the free market is better at “incremental innovations” while public investment is better at “revolutionary innovations.”
I know that guy. It was funny…I was listening to a podcast on youtube and I fell asleep, and then the next one was an interview with him. I had a dream that I was talking to my old semi-friend about whatever he was talking to Rogan about. I woke up and realized that my semi-friend was the guy on Rogan’s podcast. I had no idea that he had carved out this niche for himself.
Yet all I see from you are platitudes and no evidence to prove your point. Once again, walk me through how the free market with no public intervention whatsoever will solve climate change…I mean before we’re all dead.
I’ve given you a list of historical examples not where the government was throwing money at private institutions, but invented the actual technology! We must’ve massacred so many people getting to the moon.
How am I supposed to know how the free market will solve the problem? That’s the point… No one knows what technologies and developments are coming. Why don’t you tell me how the government is going to solve the problem? By forcing China and India to drastically slash CO2 emissions even though they are two developing nations with billions of people who rely on cheap energy for survival? Good luck with that… It’s far more reasonable and likely that we will see humanity’s ability to COPE with a changing climate increase than we will see a meaningful political development that manages to avoid climate change.
You’ve provided a short list of some things that government threw massive amounts of money at. And no, your list isn’t confined to just things that the “government invented” (whatever that even means). The internet, for one, was not invented by the government. It was developed by universities as a means for transferring and sharing data and was later expanded with investment from the government. Most of the innovation that we now associate with “the internet” was privately funded.
