Are the Climate and Capitalism at War?

Many contemporary environmentalists share two important beliefs: a) that anthropogenic climate change is the biggest threat to the future of humanity and b) that a profit-based economic system is the biggest barrier to addressing that problem. A new short documentary from Reason TV makes the opposite case, arguing that accelerating economic growth and advances in technology are the best strategy for mediating the impact of both the planet’s growing human population and the future dislocations climate change will present us with.

Featuring interviews with former Competitive Enterprise Institute journalism fellow Ron Bailey and Breakthrough Institute founder Ted Nordhaus, among others, “Population Control Isn’t the Answer to Climate Change” refutes some age old misapprehensions about population and resource use, but also relies on modern research on economic development and rising living standards to show that going backwards—taking a “de-growth” attitude toward the global economy—is the worst possible path.

For more video content on similar topics, see the previous posts “Thanos Was Wong about Humanity” (February 1, 2019) and “Johan Norberg on Resource Scarcity vs. Abundance” (April 19, 2019).