The ongoing climate catastrophe was brought about by idealism. It is commonly blamed on the greed of the petroleum industry, but the most effective source of climate denial has been a single determined libertarian who thought that he was creating a better world.
To understand what has happened, you need to understand this man’s idealism: where he got it from, the moral vision that animates it, and how, in his hands, it has been betrayed and corrupted.
I explain in a profile of the political philosophy of Charles Koch at The Daily Beast.