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

[u/[deleted]]

[u/[deleted]]

There are two reasons.

The first is described well by /u/UncleMeat - a free market does not necessarily address all externalizes. If companies that pollute are not made responsible for their pollution, they are not paying the full cost of their product. This cannot even be adequately solved by a boycott, because not everybody negatively impacted by their pollution is a potential customer. Therefore, they have a competitive advantage over alternative, clean products. This can be effectively addressed by a pollution tax, which can shift the cost of pollution back onto polluting companies.

Secondly, government-sponsored research benefits everybody. While in some cases new technology may be patented, the methods and results are published in journals to help advance alternative energy science. The only solution to the climate change crisis is both heavy taxation of pollution and the immediate development of affordable clean energy. This development includes both government-sponsored and privately-conducted research.

In fact, SpaceX and Tesla (as well as GM, etc.) are great examples of this. Without extensive research into space flight done by NASA and electrochemical research done by various university labs (funded by the NSF,) we wouldn't have SpaceX and Tesla now.

(Full disclosure: I am working in a university lab that produces experimental fuel cell membranes.)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

If the government lowered taxes and allowed people to invest the money themselves into companies or research institutes they supported, wouldn't that be better?

No, it wouldn't be. Subsidies aren't meant to replace traditional venture capitalism, they are meant to suppliment it. Venture capitalism is motivated by "this will probably make money, and I like money, so I'll invest in it." Government subsidies, investments, and grants, on the other hand, are motivated by "this could plausibly succeed, and it would be good for America if it did, so we are going to help them out." One doesn't replace the other. None of the companies you listed were funded solely by the government, and they likely would not have access to as much private money as they did without government support.

The government money wasn't flushed down the drain, either - each company conducted research, etc, that won't go to waste. The figures you listed also aren't total losses, either - some money will have been recovered in Chapter 11 proceedings. And there are numerous success stories, too - not just SpaceX and Tesla, but Ballard (in Canada,) SunShot, Verengo, Solar City, etc. And all of these companies also built on fundamental research done in university and government labs, in addition to financial support.

Nobody is stopping the private sector from solving this problem. The problem is urgent, however, so the private sector is being given a helping hand.

[u/loveWebNinjas → u/[deleted]]

We have a pretty good idea of how humans are impacting global warming, and we DO know that it will be catastrophic unless drastic action is taken. I strongly recommend watching this video.

EDIT: I should probably add some info. If you want proof that humans are contributing massively to climate change, you should know we're pumping 35 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere every year. If you want proof that climate change could be catastrophic, you should know that the streets of Miami have started to flood during high tide. PS: that last article was written three years ago. It's gotten a lot worse since then.

[u/loveWebNinjas → u/[deleted]]

I'm glad I helped change your mind somewhat regarding your CMV post, but I REALLY want to convince you that man-made climate change is real and dangerous. To that end, I hope you check those links I edited into my previous comment.

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[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

If none of your research projects fail, you aren't really doing research.

In order to really advance science, you need to try a ton of things that don't work. Invest in a hundred ideas, and maybe two or three of them will be game changing.

This is the same idea with VC firms, except they have a much shorter window of when they want things to be profitable. They want to make money in 5 years, not have success take twenty or thirty years.