Innovation Via Markets
We believe in markets. Markets are global, and climate change is a global problem. We need innovation, the kind that only markets can deliver. And most of all, we need speed, this is a problem that needs to be addressed right now.
It’s undeniable that the incredible power of capitalism has irrevocably transformed our world. And while that power may be responsible for the current climate crisis we all face, it also presents us with an unmatched set of tools to rise up and meet that challenge.
On August 27, 1859, Edwin Drake struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, an achievement generally considered to be the seminal event in the creation of the U.S. oil industry. Within weeks, dozens of other wells were in progress in the area. Within just a few months, enormous quantities of capital and resources were being deployed to exploit this new resource. By the turn of the century -- and with simultaneous scenarios playing out in places ranging from Baku to Sumatra -- the oil industry was a truly global affair, set to drive the course of history for a century or more.
The primary catalyst for this fundamental change was not the top-down command of authority, but spontaneous self-organization. Driven by demand from the newly invented internal combustion engine, the invisible hand of the marketplace acted with lighting speed, rushing to cover the surface of the earth with wells. This fundamentally changed the nature of geopolitics, and as we've come to learn more recently, raised the issue of global climate change and again threatened to affect the very concept of life as we know it.
Though it's hard to remember in the context of the current crisis, oil was once considered a major environmental success story. Cheap and plentiful, it had a remarkable effect on reducing pollution and disease in major cities caused by extensive use of horses, and may have even saved the whales, previously the primary source of lamp oil.
So what does this have to do with carbon offsets? We believe that the same market-driven forces that got us into this situation can be equally powerful in bringing us to a new era.
Remember when acid rain was considered our gravest environmental threat? It didn't go away, but with a scheme that has close parallels to our emerging global carbon marketplace, a combination of regulatory guidelines and protocols, and a robust market for SO2 allowance, trading has had dramatic effects on threat levels.
It's easy to be a pessimist when the headlines preach hopelessness. But we prefer to side with optimism; we believe that innovation, technology, and creativity can ultimately solve this seemingly intractable problem. However, for markets to work there have to be incentives. And that's why we're asking you to join us - and you can say that no matter what regulations may bring, I'm living carbon neutral right now. I'm part of the solution.