The same is true at the corporate and national levels. A recent newspaper headline put the trouble succinctly: “Stable climate demands most fossil fuels stay in the ground, but whose?” Every corporation (and, to some degree, every nation) is better off being a bit more reckless than their peers for the sake of competitive advantage. Yet if they all act more recklessly, it leads to a ravaged Earth, and all for nothing: there’s no economic advantage for anyone relative to where they started.
