I don't think there's any way to talk about this without running into the problem of anthropomorphization. So I tried to be really careful with it in the book. You'll have to judge for yourself if you think I got it right.
And I'm especially sensitive to the question of accountability because you're right: today we mostly want to see these problems as being done by individual villains, because at least we can hold individuals accountable. How well is that going? It seems like we are breeding a class of people that are completely above accountability. I don't think that's tenable. I think in the long run, this system will collapse if it cannot hold the people responsible for atrocities accountable.
Personally, I think the best way to do this is to understand the systems that are causing these behaviors today so that we can locate responsibility in the right place.
I’d much rather we let things burn more quickly - there’s nothing sacred about these companies and no reason to believe they should not be transient.
When you try to halt every small forest fire, like we have done since 2008, then uncontrolled destruction becomes inevitable.
You’re too emotionally and financially invested in the status quo to be an instrument of change.