Free-market capitalism benefits people in many ways. It makes people more prosperous and happier. What activists won't tell you, however, is that it also benefits the environment. Those who advocate socialism for the sake of the environment are sorely misguided.
Many journalists and activists routinely blame free-market capitalism for the world's environmental ills and just as often promote left-wing "solutions" that greatly reduce freedom, increase taxes and extend government control over the economy.
The Green New Deal championed by the US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described socialist, is "the best [answer to climate change] humanity has right now", according to Daily Maverick's Our Burning Planet series.
The Green New Deal, according to CNN, "isn't a simple fix for what ails the US. It would equal taking American society back to the drawing board and rebuilding it from the safety net up."
It consists of a wish-list of pie-in-the-sky ideals, which might cost upward of $1-trillion. It demands "meeting 100% of power demand through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources", "building or upgrading to energy-efficient, distributed, and 'smart' power grids, and working to ensure affordable access to electricity", "upgrading all existing buildings and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency,...