Throughout history humans and other live forms have, over generations destroyed their environment and suffered for it. Relatively small communities of humans have starved or forced to migrate because of damage done to their environment. This generally takes generations to accomplish. We are now a global community. There isn't any place to migrate too. Over generations it is possible to ruin our global environment. In fact, our free market encourages it. "A free market is a market where the price of each item or service is arranged by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers" The free market is a wonderful thing. The theory is that consumers try to pay as little as possible and producers try sell things for as little as possible. New technologies and methods are rewarded provided that they bring some kind of value to the free market. As consumer needs change the market will adjust as well. Everyone is motivated to create better technology, products and services. In an ideal free market. The government has no say in the price of things. Yet the government does have a purpose in a free market. The governments job is to create the scaffolding in which a free market can exist and thrive. The government should establish a standardized currency. The government should punish thieves that steel products and services so that producers and consumers are able to focus on making and buying products, rather then protecting them. The government should attempt to make its citizens feel safe to participate in this free market. People shouldn't feel that fighting, steeling, cheating pays. Large numbers of fear driven and hopeless hippies don't like where the free market is taking us. Global warming is a big issue right now. America consumes oil and other polluting energy sources at an increasing rate. Some people what to live in a world where everyone is guilt tripped into conserving resources. Do you really need to drive to go buy that new product? Do you really need that new product? Its true, our free market is destroying our environment. It must be. Little by little there are less trees, less variety of animals, more CO2 in the air, less ice in the ocean. Its because of one little reason. "Producers are encouraged to take as much from the environment as possible in order to provide a cheaper price to consumers." The governments have another role in a free market. Just as governments must prevent citizens from steeling from other citizens in order for a free market to work, governments must also prevent producers from steeling from the environment. Its a free market solution to an age old problem. "Make a mess, clean it up!" If you can't afford to clean up the mess at the price you are selling the product for, you have to increase the price of the product or quit selling it. If you sell oil that puts co2 in the air, then you must pay someone else to remove it. This might seem like bad news for consumers. The price of things will increase. Right now the prices we are paying are artificial. We are buying products on the black market. However the a proper free market should create better cheaper products naturally without steeling from anyone, or the environment. Forcing producers to pay the natural clean up costs for their product creation does a very wonderful thing. "Producers are encouraged to maintain the environment as much as possible while providing a cheaper price to consumers." If you don't clean up your mess you will live in a mess. Ultimately this simple concept is the only way I can think of to avoid environmental catastrophe. The governments of the world need to require that producers pay the environmental costs of their products. This kind of government intervention isn't an attack on the free market. Its an attack on the black market.