Many on the left say that the growing climate crisis is the inevitable result of unbridled capitalism. And market fundamentalists argue that loosely regulated markets allow for the best economic outcomes. But that view ignores a key reality, according to Naomi Oreskes, professor of the History of Science at Harvard:

“The whole ideology is fundamentally based on a lie. It's based on asking us to trust that these corporations will behave themselves, when in reality we have abundant evidence that they don't.”

Oreskes’s earlier book, “Merchants of Doubt,” detailed how corporate executives and a handful of rogue scientists helped mislead the public about several subjects, including climate change. In her new book, “The Big Myth,” Oreskes and her co-author Erik M. Conway point to a concerted effort from American business groups to push the myth that only unbridled markets can generate prosperity and protect political freedom. 

“The reality is that government has always been involved in the marketplace for better or worse,” she says. “But the idea that business leaders somehow do this all on their own because they're so tough or so smart or so talented is really part of the myth.” 

New York Times reporter David Gelles details the embodiment of this philosophy in one man in particular, General Electric CEO Jack Welch. In his book, “The Man Who Broke Capitalism,” Gelles explores how Welch exploited the myth of the markets and undermined the foundation of what - for most of the twentieth century - had been held up as a model corporate citizen. Welch’s singular focus on increasing profits – at the expense of all else, including the environment – set the tone for decades to follow. 

“It's an extractive mentality that I think so much of American industry inhabits when it comes to their relationship with nature,” Gelles says. For more than 50 years, fossil fuel companies suppressed climate information from their own scientists to serve their short-term financial interests. And they’ve continued to do so even as climate disruption grows greater every day.

“They’re still out there funding climate denialism. They're still out there trying to interfere with regulations that would actually constrain their ability to continue to extract and drill and emit fossil fuels.”

Together, Oreskes and Gelles unpack how  today’s hypercapitalism and shareholder primacy  create big obstacles to moving toward cleaner energy, which has short term costs but big long-term benefits. From there, these authors go on to illustrate how industry’s push to limit the role of government has amplified the climate crisis.

“If we actually had appropriate regulations, appropriate rules of the road, we wouldn't be in this position of having to beg corporate leaders not to destroy the planet,” Oreskes says.

Related Links:

The Big Myth

The Man Who Broke Capitalism

Merchants of Doubt

Seed Commons

Youth movements are rising to restore people and planet. De’Anthony Jones, a former President of the Environmental Students Organization at Sacramento State, Chloe Maxmin, co-founder of Divest Harvard, and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, hip-hop artist and Youth Director of Earth Guardians, say there’s no better time to be born than now because this generation gets to rewrite history. It could be known as the generation that brought forth a healthy, just, sustainable world for every generation to come.

Even conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh thinks the Sackett case that sacks wetlands protections went too far.

The recent Colorado River “deal” is short on details and may not be enough to save the iconic river.

The Montreal Protocol had an amazing—and unexpected—side effect.

How seagulls decide what foods to steal from our picnics.

Daniel Curry had had recurring dreams about wolves, long before he chose to devote his career to helping them. After working with captive wolves for several years, he became a "range rider," a human intermediary between predators and the cattle they might want to eat. In this episode of Constant Wonder, we'll discover Curry's extraordinary empathy for both domestic and wild creatures, and we'll hear how he works to keep them all safe.

Guest: Daniel Curry, range rider and wolf advocate in Eastern Washington