Environment Capitalism

These are technology and programs that help solve environmental problems directly or indirectly while increasing or generating capital for their company or organization.

Explanation and Examples
An environmental problem is any problem that causes the environment harm directly or indirectly. This can include a wide variety of issues like deforestation, greenhouse effect, over population, depleting natural resources, polluting of water, and landfills to name a few.

All of these problems have a detrimental effect on the environment. So people and companies are producing and working on new technologies and programs aimed at fixing these problems while making a profit. This new emerging market has stimulated many new companies to start up with the goal of being “green”. This “green revolution” is fueled by a few factors like the media, and the government passing stricter laws dealing with environment protection. Because of this we see lager growth in new technologies and industries dealing with helping the environment .

There are many fast growing sectors in environmental capitalism one being the bio-fuel industry. These companies take renewable resources like corn and oil producing plants and turn them into fuels that can power anything from a car to an electric generator. Last year in the United States we produce 4.5 billion gallons of ethanol with the prices per gallon of ethanol being about 1.25 it is big business. Because of this there are about 106 ethanol plants operating and many more on the way. The current production capability is around 5.1 billion gallons a year with new growth the production capability will be around 7.5 billion gallons a year by 2012. Because of the success and the renewable aspect of bio-fuel many other countries are starting to take a look at bio-fuels which will lead to new markets opening.

Another area of environmental capitalism that is growth fast is in green construction. Many business and construction companies are make “green buildings”. These are buildings that are made from recycled or renewable materials and lower energy and water consumption. There are many befits to these green buildings they are cheaper to run and have less of an impacted on the environment. Because they are cheaper to run some of the expense to build green is gained back over time. This industry also helps other sectors of environmental capitalism by using recycled or renewable materials or other green technology’s you care a higher demand for them which helps that sector grow [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/realestate/13cov.html?scp1&sqit%27s+getting+easier+to+be+green&st=nyt].

All of these sectors of environmental capitalism all have one thing in common they are create new jobs at a fast growing rate. These new jobs are called “green collar jobs” and there are millions of them from installing solar panels to building giant wind turbines. Most green collar jobs are blue collar jobs that also deal with environmental issues. The pay for these jobs are some times higher the other blue collar jobs because of the skill requited to do some of the jobs. Some look at the new job market at a good way to help low-income families get higher paying job . Environmental capitalism has also brought growth in existing markets. Silicon Valley has greatly befitted as green technology has grown. In 2006 clean technology investment grew from 34 million to 290 million in about 9 months. Also in that time semiconductor companies grew 15 percent. All this growth has brought on the need for new workers in all aspects of production[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/technology/29valley.html?scp1&sqsilicon+valley+rebounds&st=nyt] With new laws and regulation being set by government official’s environmental capitalism is going to be a growing industry for many years to come.

Historical Background
Most of the early technologies that we would consider to be environmental friendly where developed to fill a purely capitalistic needs. Like hydroelectric power the first plant open in the US on September 20, 1882. It was create to solve the power needs for a growing nation. Which it did for a while in 1900 hydroelectric power supplied 60 percent of the power need of the nation . Now about 10 percent of the United States power is gotten from hydroelectric plants most of our power is made by burning coal. This industry has been around since before the 1600’s, recycling. The first paper recycling mill open in Philadelphia in 1690 but it was many year before the government realized the need find a better way of dealing with trash. In 1965 the federal government created the Solid Waste Disposal Act. which was created to figure out what to do with the trash. Over the years the recycling industry has grown into big business in “2000, 56,000 private and public facilities employed 1.1 million jobs and $236 billion in annual sales.” The industry is also a very fast growing sector of the economy with an employment growth rate of 8.3 percent .

Debate
The debate in environmental capitalism is over green technologies. Some people debate whither there is a need for any of these technologies that they are too expensive and that they don’t do that much to help the environment anyway. Also that the new technologies don’t work as well as old ones. Like in the case of cooling systems in buildings there have been reports of them not working as well as an old fashion AC. Others say that these new technologies are putting older less green companies out of business and make people lose their jobs .
The other side of the argument is that even though these technologies are expensive they will create saving in energy and water use as well as reducing the impacted on the environment. There are also government incentives that will aid in paying for the technologies. Also this new business is helping to stimulate the economy and create more new jobs which will offset the job lose in other industries.

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