Originally a comment by Rob on Just sprinkle in a few sustainability coordinators.

A long time ago Kim Stanley Robinson wrote about this. He called it Götterdämmerung* Capitalism. He made the point that free market Capitalism will never surrender a resource or technique for exploiting the resource no matter how inefficient or dire the consequences until it is economically imperative that it does so. Really, you say, but we live in a capitalist society and companies adopt practices to look after the environment and reduce emissions. That’s true, but it’s only because regulations have actually forced that on them over decades of incremental change – pushed by activists and researchers working to change both societal and governmental attitudes.

For large and complex problems, especially with long lead times, the free market is woeful. Action has to be taken by governments to regulate responses from both companies and individuals. In democracies we tend to vote that kind of ‘nanny state’ or ‘socialism/marxism’ down. Non-democracies tend not to do it unless forced to because they rely on a complacent population to keep their heads. Fifty years ago we might have got ahead of the curve enough to blunt the effects. Now we’re going to spend the next 10-20 years arguing while doing almost nothing, and the next 40 years fighting vicious wars over dwindling supplies of food and water in habitable parts of the globe. it’s a huge shame. A crime really. Because even now if we acted globally we could at least avoid most of the wars.

* “Twilight of the gods.” Figuratively, the term is extended to situations of world-altering destruction marked by extreme chaos and violence.