Economists have crunched the numbers. Business as usual and ignoring climate change will ultimately cost world economies more than acting to mitigate it. But on an individual basis, there are those corporations that stand to gain in the short term as they stick it to the rest of the world. The wealthy and powerful don’t really mean to destroy the environment or mess up the climate, but sustainability often takes a back burner to profit. The barons have always lined their pockets while trickling down some jobs. According to the Associated Press as of June 2014, a CEO earns about 257 times the salary of an average employee. Don’t forget - before unions and government regulations, workers were often sucked dry with long hours in dangerous dead end jobs.
Negative externality and externalizing costs are capitalism’s terms that translate to the military’s term collateral damage - or more precisely: Oops! We blew up the wrong target - followed sometimes with an apology, sometimes with a cash settlement, but oftentimes - Oops! is all you get.
Oops! We contaminated your water supply. Oops! We made the air unfit to breathe. Oops! We contaminated the soil. Don’t worry, the shareholders are happy. The fines are far lower than profits. A government program will attempt to clean it all up, if that’s even possible. It’s all good. You - as a taxpayer - will fund the attempted clean-up and we’ll have dinner on the yacht. Cheers!