A call for the Left and Right - the business community and environmentalists, bankers and activists - to join together, reclaim capitalism, and force profits to align with the planet.
A warming climate and a general distrust of Wall Street has opened a new cultural divide among those who otherwise agree we must mitigate climate risk: anti-market critics such as Naomi Klein target capitalism itself as a root cause of climate change while climate-savvy business leaders believe we can largely continue with business as usual by tinkering around the edges of our economic system.
Rand argues that both sides in this emerging cultural war are ill-equipped to provide solutions to the climate crisis, and each is remarkably naïve in their view of capitalism. On one hand, we cannot possibly transition off fossil fuels without the financial might and entrepreneurial talent market forces alone can unlock. On the other, without radical changes to the way markets operate, capitalism will take us right off the climate cliff.
Rejecting the old Left/Right ideologies, Rand develops a more pragmatic view capable of delivering practical solutions to this critical problem. A renewed capitalism harnessed to the task is the only way we might replace fossil fuels fast enough to mitigate severe climate risk. If we leave our dogma at the door, Rand argues, we might just build an economy that survives the century.
Is modern capitalism capable of solving the unfolding climate crisis? Is a stable climate compatible with the voracious growth demanded by the modern capitalist global economy? The answer isn't obvious. In The Case for Climate Capitalism, author Tom Rand provides a pragmatic, economic response to the world's foremost issue.
Tom Rand is a recognized thought leader and public speaker on the necessity and economic upside of a rapid, global transition to a low-carbon economy. Tom is managing partner of ArcTern Ventures, a new father, sits on a number of boards, and finds it hard to believe we're still having this conversation. He is the author of Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit (2010) and Waking the Frog: Solutions to Our Climate Change Paralysis (2014).
Climate change defies the traditional divisions between left and right. The response from the far left - led by Naomi Klein and the Pope - targets market forces, economic growth, and capitalism itself as the enemy. Yet climate solutions need all three. The far right - dominated by market fundamentalists like FOX and the Koch brothers - view unfettered markets, unlimited growth, and unregulated capitalism as unassailable foundations of the twenty-first century. But that view is incompatible with a livable planet. The simple ideologies of left and right are unhelpful in trying to solve this problem. It's time to let them go. Common sense provides a better basis for climate solutions than political or ideological preference.
Climate Capitalism is a pragmatic response to a messy problem. To rewire our economy in time to head off disaster, the left and right need to throw out a bunch of comfortable assumptions. The idea that we're going to jettison capitalism itself is as absurd as it sounds. We need high finance. And market forces. Yet both must be tamed. Unbridled market forces make for great toys and factories but will take us straight off the climate cliff. Not everything can be valued in money or commerce. Some things have worth that can't be contained in a spreadsheet: the human spirit, our place in the world, values and ethics, our planet itself.
The current intellectual trend claims all of human activity can be captured in value-free quantitative analysis. That view is false. We can't speak to the climate issue without the deep, reflective language of moral philosophy. Intergenerational justice is not measured by what economists call the "discount rate." The value of nature - the Amazonian rainforest, biodiversity, heal
