Capitalism fuels the climate crisis. Can it also offer solutions?

This is the December 15, 2022 issue of Boiling Point, a weekly newsletter on climate change and the environment in California and the American West. sign up here to receive it in your inbox.

How many solar and wind farms will it take for the United States to stop burning coal, oil, and gas? How much energy will it take to power hundreds of millions of electric cars? And where will we mine enough lithium to build the batteries for those cars?

As an energy reporter focused on the climate crisis, and a young man looking forward to a long life on this planet, I spend my days asking and trying to answer those kinds of questions. But what if they are the wrong questions?

What if instead of replacing fossil fuels with renewable electricity, we focused on reducing our energy use as much as possible? What if the key to maintaining a stable climate and protecting Earth’s declining biodiversity is to accept that our current lifestyles and consumption habits, at least in the developed world, are simply unsustainable?

What if trying to solve climate change by doubling down on capitalism (renewable energy tax credits for wealthy investors, requirements for companies to sell cleaner products) only perpetuates the broken economic systems that got us into this mess in the first place, exacerbating the income inequality? and fueling the continued destruction of the natural world?

Those are tempting questions. And I’ve seen them posing a lot lately, especially while writing…