Can capitalism solve climate change?

Capitalism is often talked about as one of the big drivers behind climate change. The belief is that our obsessions with buying stuff and growing the economy have destroyed the planet. But what if capitalism isn’t the real problem? “Capitalism only goes in a direction that political choices steer it. And we’ve just made a couple of bad political choices that have caused polluting industries to overpollute,” said Shi-Ling Hsu, D’Alemberte professor at Florida State University College of Law and author of the new book “Capitalism and the Environment: A Proposal to Save the Planet.” Whether or not you believe capitalism is to blame for our climate crisis, Hsu says we could harness the power of capitalism to get us out of this mess. On today’s show, we’ll talk about the tools that could help us reverse course and why that hinges on having a healthy democracy. In the News Fix: Is natural gas the new Big Oil? We’ll explain how it’s shaping geopolitics. Plus, our social, political and economic lives may start to look really different depending on where we live, thanks to the Supreme Court. Later, the debate over how many spaces to use after a period is far from settled. Listeners weigh in. And, what about a Kai-sigh index? Here’s everything we talked about today: More on professor Shi-Ling Hsu’s work “The case for a carbon tax” from the last time Hsu stopped by Make Me Smart “Capitalism is killing the planet — it’s time to stop buying into our own destruction” from The Guardian “Supreme Court will hear NC case with 2024 presidential election implications” from The News & Observer “Supreme Court to review state legislatures’ power in federal elections” from The Washington Post “Natural Gas Soars 700%, Becoming Driving Force in the New Cold War” from Bloomberg “Many St. Louis area students will pay for school lunches again when free program ends” from St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Congress extends pandemic-era school meal program, with caveats” from The Washington Post “School lunches aren’t free to everyone anymore. Some advocates think they should be.” from Marketplace We’re looking for your answer to the Make Me Smart question: What is something you thought you knew that you later found out you were wrong about? Send it to [email protected] and (508) 827-6278 or (508) U-B-SMART.