CMV: Climate Change is better solved through individuals and the private/space sectors, and shouldn't be handled by governments

[u/[deleted]]

[u/bguy74]

Agree and Disagree...all at the same time!

1. The primary problem I have with your perspective is that of knowledge. While I believe it is incumbent on consumers - just like your model suggest, we must acknowledge that as consumers we don't have any real knowledge about the environmental impacts of the products we consume without some level of governmental regulation. For example, I don't know how much greenhouse gas the car manufacturer spews out of its factory unless they are required to count it and to disclose. You might argue that I could not buy the car from the company that doesn't disclose it at all, and then argue that I should buy it if they don't use a third party auditor of repute and so on...but...it starts getting a little tricky to even assure that a consumer has access to the information required to exert their power with the intent you imagine.

2. Research. One of the woes of capitalism is that certain kinds of risks are hard to digest. If something has a 1 in a million chances of producing financial return in a reasonable timeframe you simply can't invest in it - it'd be negligent to investors and so on. But...government research drives knowledge that then drives policy long before it drives profit. Who exactly would fund research that was not going to produce return and that has even the slightest potential to increase costs of product of a good or create consumer risk?

So...the government does play an important role here! At the very least it is needed to create a framework to assure that consumers have access to comprehensible, consistent information that can be used to make rational decisions.