Can Capitalism Save The Environment?

This video shows the case being made for allowing the profit motive to serve the cause of environmentalism.  I can imagine how many members of my generation would recoil at the thought of doing so.  I, however, see no reason to reject the idea, and several reasons for embracing it.

Progressives in this country have, for the most part, made peace with the existence of capitalism, provided that the public sector is strong enough to combat its excesses and otherwise right its wrongs.  Correspondingly, they have made peace with the idea that government cannot do everything to serve the public and, in at least some cases, should not even try.  The environmental movement, however, up until recently, has remained stuck in a 1970s mode when it comes to promoting its cause, always looking at private industry as the villain.  Of course, it often is.  But it is also the source of much of what we take for granted in our lifestyle.  Which means that, every time a green advocate attempts to make a reasonable statement on behalf of the environment, someone on the right can scream about how our economy is being threatened again by the loony left--and, sadly, be believed.

The best argument that greens can make is one which shows that economic and environmental progress are not enemies, as in fact they should not be.  As I've said any number of times, one can have an environment without an economy, but one cannot have an economy without an environment.  And the solution to many environmental issues requires innovation--something that the private sector does far better than the government.  One does not have to look far to see examples of this type of innovation already occurring:  here's one, and here's another.

Above all else, what is needed to solve our environmental problems is a level of human cooperation that stretches across national boundaries--and, within those boundaries, stretches across all demographic boundaries, including political ones.  Especially political ones.  And we have no real idea of how little time we have to solve any of them.

Let's end the argument about who should do what, and work together to save the only thing all of us truly share:  the Earth.