NEW PODCAST: Join KPBS under the neon glow of the historic Les Girls Theater for Stripper Energy: Fighting Back from the FringesS1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , you know , much of corporate America puts profit and shareholders first. It is the way they do business. But it often comes at the expense of the environment. And society will talk to the author of a new book who lays it all out.
S2: Sure. So it sounds like a real sort of , I guess , wonky economics or accounting term. But really the concept of externalities is really very simple , and it's the idea that , you know , companies , when they produce products , services , you know , who actually is paying for the cost of the of those products and services. So for instance , carbon emissions are a really well known example of this.
S2: Thank you. That's a really , uh , really important question. It's actually and this is why one of the reasons I wrote this book , uh , is because , you know , these are not neutral costs. Companies have been working for decades to really mislead the public , uh , as to their responsibility , because , you know , they want to actually have a lower bottom line , sort of lower set of costs so they can have a higher , uh , bottom line.
S2: So one , you know , it's pretty clear that many of the climate issues that we've been experiencing or accelerating , you know , I mean , the disasters , uh , you know , hurricanes , flooding , wildfires , uh , so that's sort of one sort of issue. I think also , you know , you mentioned challenges with governments , but I think that the actually one area and I don't want to get sort of too bogged down in boring details of government policy.
S2: I do think a lot of the responsibility frequently is put on consumers. It's like , oh , you know , we need to have conscious consumers or sustainable consumers or O millennials and Gen Z. So , you know , they care about the environment. They're going to they're going to save us. And I think consumers are totally I mean , consumer choice is important. I'm not saying it's not.