Free markets - good for the environment

So, I recently became an anarcho-capitalist. Yes, there are things you might not expect possible in a fully private system, such as education, health care, retirement, police, arbitration/justice, but they are very possible (if not even better) and already exist to some extent (to resolve the needs not met by public institutions).

In order to try to invalidate this crazy and ridiculous belief, I wanted to verify my expectation that capitalism tends to go nuts about resources - polluting like crazy.

I created a plot of the Economic Freedom Index (how free the capitalism is in a country) and the Environmental Performance Index (how well a country takes care of the environment). I totally expected a clear, definite inverse correlation. However, what I got blew my mind.

So, this is actually a weak positive correlation (see the data here). I find this very intriguing and unexpected. And my belief that no government at all is the best government is reinforced. Please prove me wrong.

Edit 23 Dec 2013: I found a video of an AWESOME guy who offers a great solution for protecting the environment without a government.

Global warming and society

So, there's this figure from "Estimating global impacts from climate change", a meta-study by S. Hitz and J. Smith:

It shows how the mean temperature affects the world economy.
While the studies may disagree on the actual damages done, they seem to have a consensus on about +0.5 degrees extra being the optimum to support human activity (such as agriculture and industry), while reducing the damages caused to it (such as rising sea levels, .

The current temperature anomaly is +0.64 ± 0.11. Which means we're on the right side of the sweet spot right now. However, the temperature is rising, which means the benefits are decreasing.

The world economy, based on capitalism, should spontaneously adapt and perform corrections as needed. This could be done using contracts between persons, which are enforced by the government.

However, it is difficult to create a contract between everybody on the planet. So, in order to prevent unnecessary damage while capitalism struggles with it, governments should help. Governments have the power to create contracts with the people and corporations (through the law), as well with other governments (treaties). The Climate Change Conference of Parties is happening as of writing this article, and is an example of the negotiation I'm excited about.

 But it takes time for governments to react, as well. The only way to speed it up is through activism, fighting ignorance, and raising awareness. And that's what this article does.