Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

late-night thoughts about democracy S 57
markets for food grown sustainably are growing and are increasingly
profi table, and the technology necessary to reduce or eliminate
fossil fuels is becoming available. But ecological design does
not necessarily solve larger problems, such as the provision of
basic services, health care, fairness, or emergency services at the
scale that will be needed. And a design revolution won’t go very
far without a major overhaul in public policy and the tax system,
as well as imaginative public investment in research and development.
Ecological design, in short, is a promising step in the
right direction and could reduce or eliminate many problems that
perplex politicians and baffl e government bureaucrats, but it cannot
eliminate the need for competent government to create the
larger conditions that make it possible on a societal scale in the
fi rst place.
A third, and related, possibility is to make capitalism an environmentally
constructive, not destructive, force. 5 An ecologically
enlightened capitalism would place value on “natural capital” such
as soils, waters, forests, biological diversity, and climate stability
while retaining the dynamism and creativity of markets and entrepreneurship.
It would, in other words, internalize costs that were
formerly off-loaded onto society and future generations, thereby
eliminating pollution and waste. If this is successful, the driving
forces of capitalism, such as innovation, entrepreneurship, constant
change, economic growth, and even those less likeable features of
greed and miserliness, will be fi ne as long as prices include the
true costs of using natural capital. It is said that fi rms operating
by the rules of natural capitalism inevitably will be more profi table
than those that do not. Perhaps with better design, improved
technology, and ecologically smarter business we don’t need much
government at all. But again, let’s take a closer look.
Without anyone quite saying as much, the case for natural
capitalism begins with the assumption that government and politics
cannot be bettered and that improvement in human behavior
or corporate motivation is both highly unlikely and unnecessary.