It would appear form the source that the US has not been inactive. Just because it is not government mandated like in Europe, doesn't mean its not working. The US is much more private sector focused than Europe. The first example that comes to my mind is Tesla. They've been a non government mandated positive that would be impossible in other countries
More could be done. This can not be left to the vagaries of the markets. The whole world is committed, except the US, even after being the biggest polluter, currently, cumulatively, per capita and per GDP.
The US is not the biggest polluter according to those ranks in fact. You're claiming that despite your own setup proving that isn't the case.
China is the biggest output source of CO2 on earth and their output is rising aggressively and is likely set to continue doing so as their people see their standard of living climb. The overwhelmingly majority of their energy comes from coal, and they have no intention to put an end to that. That means China is going to keep right on widening the gap on their CO2 output lead.
The US is not the leader on CO2 emissions per capita. Saudi Arabia and Australia as both higher. And at the rate Canada is going, it's either already higher or is going to be soon.
The cumulative data isn't a valid excuse. Any nation that had the largest economy from 1890 to 1990 would have been the leader by default on cumulative emissions. There were no good renewable alternative approaches, and until the 1960s nuclear power wasn't practical at all. Besides, at the rate China is polluting, it's going to rapidly overtake the US on every cumulative point: its economy is radically bigger than the US economy was both 50 and 100 years ago and is putting out radically more CO2 (in every respect).
Every year of CO2 output by China is equal to 20+ years of US CO2 output prior to WW2. For one example, just look at the size of the US steel industry in 1930 vs China's today. It won't take China more than another few years at their current rate of CO2 output, to perpetually own the cumulative figures across the board. China's economy is already twice the size in real terms of the US economy in 1965, when the US owned 1/2 of all global manufacturing; in just one decade, China will be 4x the size of the US economy in 1965.
But it's not just "not government mandated", it's that the current US president went as far as to ban the term "climate change" building a list of "phrases to be avoided".
Surely that doesn't help, no matter how private sector focused the USA is, in fact it's actively undermining the effort to save our planet.
Speaking of which, what incentive does the private sector have to save the planet beyond its own back yard?
Why does Tesla do it? Isn't it like, Elon Musk's personal mission, his own choice? Is this a common occurrence yet, then, in the US automotive industry? Are they gaining an majority yet on the other companies, you know the ones that couldn't give a rat's ass about saving the planet. Cause I only ever hear about Tesla being a unique outlier, saving the planet through capitalism instead of regulation. But since the US private sector is doing such a great job without regulation and the government's deafening silence, I guess there must be a ton more of these companies operating at similar scale, developing new tech to help solve climate change. Are other industries doing the same?
Are there any historical examples where unregulated capitalism somehow ended up solving ecological problems of its own creation? Of course I mean, adjusted for the amount of times it wrecked ecosystems because of its tendency to deep dive into tragedy-of-the-commons scenarios.
The really large scale ecological problems I've seen (somewhat) solved in my lifetime have all been through government regulation. Acid rain and ozone holes, to be specific.
Isn't it, if you think about it rationally, a capitalist solution can only solve problems on a local level. If it doesn't affect the bottom line, then there is no incentive to be "better", because companies measure "better" in profit, anything else is meaningless. As soon as the company grows to control things on a global scale, and therefore be incentivised to keep their resources (living environment) intact on a global scale, then it might as well be a government. At least in terms of power.
