Capitalism is not the reason that humankind has so badly mistreated its environment. It is true that capitalism has taken a very wrong turn, and having gone down this route, it is difficult to change it. But there is nothing about capitalism preordaining it to produce environmental destruction. Capitalism has taken on a malignant form, but it has been steered by mistaken political choices, born of political failures, greed, tribalism, and that toxic cocktail of human arrogance mixed with abject ignorance.

In May 2020, during the COVID-19 crisis, which pummeled markets and industries of almost all types, fourteen Republican senators and two Republican congressmen wrote to the President, urging him to “use every administrative and regulatory tool at your disposal to prevent America’s financial institutions from discriminating against America’s energy sector … .”