The key to wealth and prosperity is economic growth.  Yet economic growth almost entirely consists of the consumption of resources: oil being extracted from our oceans and our forests, factories producing plastics, and consumers frantically spending their excess capital on new phones, new fleece tops, and other disposable goods. 

For what now seems like a brief period, climate change was a major social and political issue.  Vice President Al Gore won both a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his climate change documentary. Conservative politicians were starting to recognize the threat to our environment and voice concern.  Even notorious polluters in the oil and coal industries started trying to go ‘Green’.   

The ‘Green’ movement was gaining such force it became trendy to hop on board.  Urban Outfitters sold shirts that said, “Recycle” on them.  Every book shop prominently displayed books giving you hundreds of tips on how to go green: from allowing your hot food to cool before putting it in the fridge to unplugging appliances when they are not in use.

In a fleeting moment, it appears people’s exuberant environmental enthusiasm has been reduced to a passing fad by the recession.  And, sadly, understandably so.  When faced with an intimidating present, the short-term will always trump the future.   Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, a world prominent applied game theorist at New York University, argues in Clive Thompson’s New York Times Magazine article Can Game Theory Predict When Iran will Get the Bomb that, “If you want to predict political events…you need to be an expert not in statecraft but in the way individual people make decisions.”  And how can you blame a parent for wanting people to continue to buy new cars, if that means they can keep their manufacturing job and provide for their family?

Since people value having a job more then they value the reduction of CO2 into our atmosphere, politicians in a democracy will always value job creation over environmental policy that could raise energy prices and reduce consumer consumption.  Clive Thompson summarized Bruce Bueno de Mesquita’s view on the possibility of World Government’s passing climate change legislation by stating, “No democratic government will seriously limit CO2 if it will hurt its citizens economically.”  The underlying cause of environmental degradation and climate change is not just that people are wasteful or not environmentally conscious, but that people (American’s in particular) consume too much.  So while politicians of all stripes were clamoring against climate change, when faced with an actual reduction in consumption because of the recession, economic stimulus packages were passed to stimulate consumption.  President Obama’s ‘Cash for Clunkers’ is an interesting example.

The U.S. government will give a $4,500 discount to a car owner who trades in a less fuel-efficient car (you can visit the government website to see if you car qualifies: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/CarsSearchIntro.shtml - your clunker has to get 18 miles to the gallon or less) for a new car that gets better gas mileage.  At the outset this seems like a win-win.  People are driving more fuel-efficient cars and the demand for new cars increases with the Government’s rebate, allowing automobile manufacturers to continue producing cars and employing the people who make them.  However, the continued consumption of new raw materials and the CO2 needed to manufacturer these cars has to nearly, if not entirely, offset the CO2 reduction from the often minimal increases in MPG that the new cars provide.  

Is it really possible to both preserve our environment and stymie climate change, while simultaneously experiencing economic growth?  The seemingly inverse relationship between climate change and poverty is one of the most pressing and trying issues for the Millennial generation.  Both are crucial issues that cannot go unmet.  The question is: How do we fight both at the same time?

Sean McBride has a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently the Program and Research Coordinator for Khulisa Management Services  in Washington D.C. and Johannesburg, South Africa.

More Info

Al Gore’s New Thinking on the Climate Crisis

CARS - Car Allowance Rebate System

Clive Thompson’s New York Times Magazine article, “Can Game Theory Predict When Iran will Get the Bomb?”

The White House’s Economy Page

The White House’s Energy and the Environment Page

U.S.A. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S.A. Department of Commerce