*** Official Global Warming Thread ***

[Renton]

How are regulations blocking the free market from fixing the climate?

I think its more like the state itself makes its harder for the free market to address climate change. For example, most world energy is produced by the public sector, and it is a well-known fact that public sector jobs have a lot of inertia. Yes, governments do a lot to subsidize alternate forms of energy but that doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of energy production is fossil-based and produced by governments. Privatize energy and expect it to get cleaner and more efficient. There's just no reason not to. The private sector is doing a fine job producing all the food we eat, there's no reason it couldn't provide our energy as well. It would be one thing if the state was giving away electricity for free to the poor, but last I checked everybody had to pay his electric bill.

All that said, I think the bigger factor is just the idea of land as a common good. So much of the land on earth is owned by no one in particular. A huge percentage of the oceans is owned by no one in particular. It is very difficult to protect an environment that no one has a vested interest in, particularly when there can be such a profit in trashing it. Obviously the governments of the world could simply start doing a better job curbing pollution, but, to put it scientifically, generally people care better for their own shit than they care for someone else's shit.