Brian Gordon is a Canadian Green Party member and candidate trained by Al Gore to present An Inconvenient Truth.
I’ll save you the trouble of reading further if you believe in the infallibility of markets and have dangerously high blood pressure: I’m on the side of moving very rapidly to a new green economy.
New York Stock Exchange. Image by U.S. Department of the Interior
I used to be a climate change sceptic until I did the research; the results were frightening (I have children and even a grandchild) and eye-opening. We really have no choice: We cannot continue our foolish, wasteful, and harmful ways.
George Soros, who has made billions in ‘the market,’ calls those who worship the infallibility of free markets: Market Fundamentalists. I would agree, and most of the opposition to doing something about the climate crisis (we’re way past global warming) comes from these Fundies - who are anything but fun. Anyone who has had the misfortune to be involved in a debate with any of these people will have noticed that they are impervious to facts. No matter the weight of evidence on the side of human-caused global warming, no matter the rather obvious danger we face, they find some reason that negates all of it. Thousands of peer-reviewed scientific studies over decades all pointing to one conclusion? No problem, there’s this guy over here who says it’s all wrong. He may not have published anything, the scientists may think he’s a fool, you may be able to point out how his argument has been thoroughly discredited - doesn’t matter. The Market Fundies will believe whoever and whatever supports their idol.
Really, it can get a bit depressing. The saddest part - not including that these people are going to wipe humanity off the face of the planet, starting with the poor - is that most of them are quite well-meaning and don’t realise they’ve been duped. Just as the Communist leaders devoted enormous resources to perpetrating the glories of the socialist revolution and each Five-Year Plan, so do many of us fall for the rubbish claiming that global capitalism will solve, some day, all our problems. Just not today, and not this problem.
Capitalism and the market work well when there are many competitors and they live where they do business, thus giving them a vested interest in the local area. Capitalism fails when it goes big and remote. Capitalism fails when businesses can externalise costs like climate change, or when those costs occur in the future and the manager’s pay and promotions are tied to this quarter’s financial performance. Capitalism has gone big - global - and is as remote as it is possible to be without being located on the moon.
The Market Fundies will not acknowledge the failings in their system. I have become convinced that most - probably all - humans are hard-wired to believe in something greater than themselves. That’s why there are so many religions, why many who are not religious call themselves ’spiritual,’ and why atheists believe there is no god/God (rather than simply saying they don’t know because they see no proof).
Market Fundamentalists have swapped God for The Market, and that is why they see the market as infallible, as the source of all solutions, as the way to organize the entire world - and why they will not listen to reason, or science, when it comes to the climate crisis.
译文:
环境捍卫者 VS. 市场开拓者
如果您是市场笃信者或者有危及生命的高血压，为节约您的时间请勿往下阅读：我在此提倡快速建设绿色经济。
在做研究之前，我之前是个对气候恶化持怀疑态度的；研究结果令（我这样有子辈和孙辈的）人害怕，大开眼界了。我们实在无从选择了：我们不能愚蠢，浪费，破坏环境了。
George Soros是个已从市场上赚了几十亿的商人；他称那些膜拜自由市场不败的人为市场开拓者。我承认，对改善气候恶化(我们正在经历全球气候变暖)反对者大多是这些市场开拓者——他们绝不是为了好玩。任何已不幸被卷入这场和他们进行争论的人都已发现他们对事实无动于衷。无论用来证明是人类导致全球气候变暖的证据多么充足，无论我们正面对危险的事实是多么明白，他们会找些理由将其完全否决。近二十年来有千万个远见卓识的研究都指向这个结论？没问题！总有这么个人会说，一切结论都是错的。这人可能没发表过任何文章，科学家可能认为他是个傻子，你也可能指出他的论点完全是不足信的——没关系。那些市场开拓者会相信能支持他们所膜拜的市场的任何人，任何东西。
的确，这实在令人沮丧。最令人伤心的是－不仅是这些人正计划从贫穷的人开涮，把人类从这个星球上一扫而光—这些指责的人大多数意图很好然而未意识到已经被骗。就像社会主义领导者倾其资源致力于成就社会主义革命伟业和制定五年计划的勾当一样，我们中的许多人也做些垃圾般的断言，声称全球资本主义在将来某一天会解决所有的问题。只是不是今天，不是这个问题罢了。
资本主义和资本主义市场运作良好，许多竞争者在他们经商的地方生活着，这使得他们对当地市场十分有兴趣。当他们的市场越来越大，越来越远，资本主义就落空了。当这些事业以似气候恶化的成本被表现出来时候，或当这些成本在将来算进了经理的薪水，和与季度财政挂钩的晋升连系在了一起的时候，资本主义就落空了。资本主义已经变得很大了－全球性－扩展得遥远到它可延伸的任何处所，就差月球了。
市场开拓者不会承认他们资本主义体系中的失败。我已经确信大多数的人类，可能是所有，固执地相信那些比他们自己强大的东西。这就是存在如此多宗教的原因，是那些非宗教信仰者称自己是灵性的原因，是无神论者相信神存在的原因（而并非简单地称其无证据可视而称他们不知道）。
市场开拓者把上帝和市场做交换，这就是他们视市场为绝对可靠，视其为所有答案的来源，视其安排这个世界的方法的原因－这就是为什么在气候恶化这件事实上，他们不听理智，科学。