Will capitalism save us? Here's hoping!

Doom and gloomer that I am, I worry incessantly about a) the prospect of fascism taking hold in the US; and b) climate change making large swaths of earth unlivable. 

Capitalism isn't all that likely to do much about the former. After all, if you look at, say, fascist Nazi Germany, businesses did pretty well - I.G. Farben, come on down! - until the not quite so gemütlichkeit aspects of fascism, like militarism and nationalism, came to the fore, resulting in the nearly total destruction of Germany. 

But since we can't seem to get out of our way politically  to address the climate crisis (although the Biden administration is gamely trying), it looks like it might be up to capitalism to save us.

I've long maintained that insurance companies may lead the way, since they'll be the ones that weather-wrought destruction will cost bigtime. We're seeing insurers pull out of the homeowners business in Florida. Maybe that'll nudge things along a bit. (A girl can hope, can't she?)

I'm also guessing that the airlines - dealing with increasing (and increasingly costly) delays and cancellations caused by unprecedented weather incidents - are going to be putting some energy behind climate change initiatives. 

And - assuming the money going in is smart money - there's this bit of good news:

Investors are spending big on climate projects. Global warming helps make periods of extreme heat more frequent, longer and more intense, and it will continue

getting worse unless humans essentially stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, scientists say. Venture investing in climate tech has boomed since the post-Covid recovery began (though it fell, along with venture funding overall, in the first half of the year). And global public and private investment in climate finance, on projects ranging from decarbonizing architecture and transport to developing renewable energy initiatives, more than doubled from 2011 to 2021, to an estimated $850 billion, according to the Climate Policy Initiative, a nonprofit climate advocacy group. (It will top $1 trillion with the passage of the Biden administration’s sweeping climate bills, the European Union’s Green Deal and China’s low-carbon development initiatives announced in its latest five-year plan.)

“There’s been huge, huge progress” in developing green technologies and bringing down their costs, said Bella Tonkonogy, the U.S. director of Climate Policy Initiative whose funders include the Bloomberg Foundation and the German government. (Source: NY Times)

Then there's investment in solutions that will help us adapt to the damage that's already been done - and can't be undone.

While this type of investment is a relatively small proportion of overall "climate finance" - roughly 7 percent - it's growing. 

I'm sure we'd all like to see the majority of investment going into long term "stop the problem" solutions that, e.g., wean us off fossil fuels, but it's reassuring to learn that some money will be going into projects that will help us withstand the heat, the water, the storms. 

The downside of investing in adaptation projects is that it may lull us into taking our eye off the prize of trying to make sure that atmospheric conditions don't get any worse. Still, investing in adaptation strategies is, I'm hoping, mostly for the good. 

Will capitalism save us? Here's hoping!

As for fascism, don't get me started.