Fighting Climate Change with Capitalism | Roger Ballentine | TEDxFoggyBottom

[@alexkruzel]

Not seeing what is new or visionary here . . . without the how, this is just buzz and an attempt to keep things as they are. This comes across as more of the same "greed is good" mantra, which got us here. If the speaker is serious, I'd like to see a framework for how negative public externalities are truly solved

[@TheRoland19111]

Fighting climate change with capitalism is like fighting a fire with gasoline

[@sonny01red]

you fight fire with fire when forests burn down tho

[@TheDuck1234]

Well it’s the only thing that is working, for the better or worse.

[@7516-g8l]

@@sonny01red he said gasoline that's why

[@sharlynemadrigal4075]

The speaker fails to address exactly how transparent these corporate business are with their "environmental performance"

[@justjulia5116]

so true! This just sounds like we shouldn’t even try and consume less, simply change how products are made, at least thats what I understood

[@GIGATHEBOT]

nuclear power is clean and efficent

[@coolbeans6148]

Correct, it is currently the best option at the moment by a large margin.

[@AUGUSTINEMINH]

Sadly not many people know about this

[@GIGATHEBOT]

@Raghav Varma i mean salt reactors are nice too.

[@felixbeutin9530]

@@GIGATHEBOT not to mention experimental

[@GIGATHEBOT]

@@felixbeutin9530 if they work it will make power much cleaner

[@shocken90]

You cannot have infinite growth on a planet with finite resources. Overthrow capitalism to save the human species.

[@shejednwjsfj2064]

Your mad at capitalism because it is so good that it creates to much stuff. What do you want? Flatlined economies? Declining growth? There is enough materials on this earth to last thousands of years

[@7516-g8l]

@@shejednwjsfj2064 thousands of years are less(negligible) form an species point of view

[@LisaScharin]

Excellent! I copied this and will post it on my Congress Members facebook pages!

[@SpirallingUpwards]

I was on the fence before this but now I'm leaning on the side of socialism as a solution rn. Feels like all of what was said here doesn't rely on concrete enough tactics, just trends - perhaps if he spent more time on social media he'd understand that trends are fleeting and a dozen a penny.

[@leftylaura9164]

Socialism is the only way. It is foolish to expect big oil and other large industries to roll over and let green policies cuck them. It is clear that the goals of profit are antithetical to the needs of the larger human population. Therefore, the only way forward is a system where the profit motive is eliminated entirely.

[@SpirallingUpwards]

@@leftylaura9164 Yeah I think this makes logical sense actually. Capitalisms quite a rough and imprecise way of actualising social needs. Much better to have pointed, well thought out and deliberate programs for these things.

[@aurelio7870]

@@leftylaura9164 Socialism does not solve the problem. It can even make everything worse. And when we talk about other topics, not only about climate, it is a huge disaster. I talk from experience and empyrical data

[@carlbennett2417]

@@leftylaura9164 socialism doesn't eliminate profit entirely, that idea is from the hysteria of free market fundamentalists. The capitalists own us currently. Under socialism, society owns the capitalists, so we let them play in a constrained market and not with the life support system of the planet.

[@7516-g8l]

@@aurelio7870 how it could worsen things ?

[@BeefT-Sq]

" We cannot fight against collectivism , unless we fight against its moral base : altruism." -Ayn Rand-

[@rv9097]

can anyone find the source of that survey saying under 30s biggest fear is climate change?

[@ryza2859]

Thanos has an idea...

[@BeefT-Sq]

" America is still the country of self-made men, which means the country of the middle class---the most productive and exploited group in any modern society." -Ayn Rand-

[@kimlibera663]

The energy market has always been interfered with. The problem with carbon markets is you must maintain polluters on the market in order to capture revenue & redistribute. So whose back yard?

[@Ar-sn9ho]

If companies use environmentally friendly measures as a tool to increase profit and achieve a competitive advantage, then the continuation of these measures is linked to profit. We are now facing a real crisis that threatens humanity. Corporate activities should be environmentally sustainable because it is the right thing to do. The saying "doing well by doing good" is too late. I think we can tackle climate change by following the rules of capitalism. Climate change crisis can be an opportunity to correct many wrong situations socially, politically, and economically. We need radical economic and political change. I am optimistic like Mr. Ballentine, but I only fear that the response of humanity will come late. Climate change is an emergency crisis that requires the combination of all efforts to address. We must abandon our selfishness. The main reason why the West is richer than the rest of the world is that it discovered how to exploit fossil fuels much earlier than other countries. Carbon is a commodity priced below its true cost, so carbon taxes are necessary to fix the biggest market mistake. Perhaps the most equitable way is that countries with the historically largest carbon emissions (USA, China and EU) should take more responsibility in order to drastically reduce their gas emissions and help developing countries. Our economic system was built from the start on the promise of endless growth. But endless growth is incompatible with the policy of drastically reducing carbon emissions.

[@karlwheatley1244]

Smart, serious guy, but he apparently hasn't studied the parameters of our Earth Emergency or how the core features of capitalism are incompatible with solving it. Capitalism seeks and need growth but only a non-growing economy is ultimately sustainable, and we need it's footprint to be 50% smaller than that of the current economy. We wants green greed and competition to drive the train but only love, cooperation, and sharing can save us. He sees profits as a catalyst for fixing things, but profits are waste that shouldn't be give to rich folks but instead should be plowed back into more of whatever the solutions are. Capitalism creates vast and growing inequality, but that has made democracies corrupted by their capitalist masters and unable to rein them in. Instead we need broad redistribution of wealth so people and nations to poor to make green choices in the past can make them in the future. He bristles at "command and control" but the only way to solve these problems will include a muscular government enacting high taxes on wealth and carbon and very tough regulations to limit or phase out the dirtiest and warmest technologies.

[@karlwheatley1244]

@xxyyzz "capitalism doesn't need anything." Sure it does: It runs on loans (new debt) which assume the economy will grow in the future in order to pay those debts. If the growth stops, it collapses because the debts can't be paid. Now you COULD automatically forgive all debts every so often (the Jubilee process), but capitalism doesn't like that. There are other forms of market economy we could have: It just so happens that the nature of capitalism is incompatible in the long run with the limits and laws of nature. That's why our economic system is destroying Earth's ecosystems.

[@karlwheatley1244]

@xxyyzz You posted something 7 hours ago "Capitlaism doesn't need anything" that I replied to hours ago. Did you reply to me response?

[@guillaumelane8392]

this video is perfect a bit of reality condensation, plus a little "tacle" as we call it in france, to my fellow age group

[@SpirallingUpwards]

The fact that he quotes a villain at the end says it all 😅 (also completely fails to address the social darwinist reference made in the quote)

[@baller6218]

Social darwinism is based af

[@flamischpeti]

People will never have equal life standards in Capitalism

[@shejednwjsfj2064]

Equal life standards should never be the goal, only equal opportunity

[@colronke7366]

There is a statement at which past historical evidence shows; climate change is a planetary cycle not a man made error. The emissions that we have put into the atmosphere have no doubt increased this change in terms of speed. However, when countries around the world think solely about themselves and do not look after the poorer countries and try to guide them, climate change is the least of the problems. The human race will have a division that will inevitably tear it apart. It must be remembered that this planet was around long before mankind and will still be around a lot longer after mankind.

[@karlwheatley1244]

in the PAST, climate change was driven by natural cycles, but after taking all those natural factors into account, scientists have concluded that virtually ALL or all recent global warming was caused by human activity. WE raised CO2 levels from 276 ppm in 1776 to 416 ppm now and warmed the planet ~2 degrees F.

[@nealtauss1715]

....at the Same time we started hyper-injecting fossilized carbon into our atmosphere.... we began PROLIFERATING Iron Plow Tillage.... agriculturally disrupting photo-synthetic carbon sequestration.... effectively Doubling the Damage....at LEAST. We MIGHT be able to turn THAT around faster than anything else we CAN do.... EXPONENTIALLY increasing Soil Carbon Retention by adopting all-around no-till organic agricultural methods.... MANY beneficial Societal effects here... MO' Bettah Food&Health/Mo' Bettah Money (at GROUND-level.... where LongGreenMoney makes Mo' Bettah Benefits in a trickle-UP eco-nomic model) & LESS money to the Manufacturers of Agri-Toxins.... where Mo' Money makes Mo' Profit$forPoi$on and NOTHING else.... and THERE's your trouble.... NOW we know why it's so hard to even TALK about making beneficial changes much less understand root Need for So doing AND....Root Cause for NOT. Go ahead.... Wave your magic Wand.... even WITHOUT climate crisis.... these agri-poisons cause Air/Water/Food AND Health Pollution.... so IF you should find yourselves mentally incapable of grasping a Wider Scope for this Impending Horror... understand clearly NOW.... that carcinogenic agri-chem residues are CURRENTLY doing to your body&being what the manufacturers of those chemicals are doing to all Life IN and ON Earth. It is Time to Change.... not just how we generate and use our energy (Roof-top Solar w/BatteryBack-up.... NOnukes) but how we grow the very food we eat....and in So doing we can.... in ALL likelihoods.... RESOLVE our Climate AND Pollution PROBLEMS.... in REAL Time.

[@Ahmad-nf9ez]

looks like bruce willis

[@aishwariyasweety2433]

Yeah lets fight fire with fire. Cool.

[@sunny787]

Superb.....Optimistically Climate Friendly Capitalistic Profits..........Welldone Sir.......

[@bds3919]

Replacing the machine with another machine isn't going to help. It's too late.

[@wendlerkurt]

Do you like getting rich? I do

[@kellerr13]

I will NOT pay a carbon tax. NO exceptions.

[@garysarela4431]

Putting a price on carbon makes polluters take responsibility for the true cost of their product. It helps shift climate change & healthcare costs back on those who are responsible, and who can reduce pollution through renewable energies such as wind and solar.

[@kellerr13]

Fine, then I put a price on it, and you can send the money to me. Climate change is a natural event and even if man contributed to it, I'm not responsible for what others do. If government was serious about climate change they would... Pass a law that all new factories must be 100% green. Stop trying to charge $6,000 for a simple permit to put up a windmill or solar or the like. That high price doesn't inspire me to go green. Stop complaining when people collect rain water. For every gallon you collect, that's 1 gallon that doesn't have to go through the water treatment plant, or be pumped through the pipes to your home which cost more energy and wear and tear on the equipment. No matter if you drink it,, dump it on the ground, or let it evaporate, it goes right back into the environment. 100% renewable with only gravity impacting it.

[@John-zq1xy]

You ever drive a car, use electricity, eat meat, fly, or use any consumer goods? Yep. "Even if man contributed to it, I'm not responsible..." Do you not include yourself as being part of "man?" ... I encourage you to try and be less intellectually lazy. Do you believe smoking causes cancer? Only 94% of docs do... 97% of scientists believe in man-made climate change... look into it.

[@zsmith141]

I installed solar panels on my residential home in January of this year. I am paying less per kwh than I would be with my electricity provider. Yes, a small sample size, but encouraging.

[@QuantCoder]

Do and think as you will. Soon, it will be difficult to find a place to buy gasoline or diesel, and difficult to find a place to get an ICE vehicle repaired or find parts. Continue to heat or cool your home with fossil fuels, and you'll be paying 10x as much as your neighbors for energy. What do you think that will do to the resale price of your home? Take away all the incentives on all energy, I say, especially fossil fuels (no eminent domain for pipelines, thank you very much, no Natural Gas Act of 1938, thank you), and let them compete. Fossil fuels won't last 10 years.