I first began driving in 2000. As a directionally challenged adolescent, any drive not to a friend’s house or McDonald’s required directions. Hour-long trips to soccer games with somewhat familiar highways and far less familiar backroads were challenging. I had printed maps in the back pockets of the front seat, but my real saving grace was MapQuest.
MapQuest launched on the Internet in 1996 as a free online mapping tool. You could enter your destination, and MapQuest would give you turn-by-turn directions with how long you’d be on each road. A printed-out copy was my co-pilot on countless drives.
A quarter century later, MapQuest is a relic of the past—a “Remember when we printed out directions, rolled up our car windows, and played CDs—hoping they wouldn’t skip because they were scratched?” With several apps to choose from, including navigation embedded in the vehicle, technological advancements have made navigation a near-thoughtless endeavor.
The progression from maps to MapQuest, and then to apps and voice navigation, is one of the countless ways technology and innovation improve our lives and make the planet a little cleaner. More precise navigation saves people time and money, and for those who hate getting lost, personal frustration. They can help drivers avoid tolls or find a more scenic route and have also positively impacted the environment. The fastest route saves gas and emissions from burning fuel and can optimize delivery routes for trucks and shipping services. Navigating away from traffic congestion helps to reduce the pollution from idled cars. Even showing directions by foot or bike incentivizes people to choose a greener mode of transportation.
Innovation is often beneficial for families, businesses, and the environment. When entrepreneurs have the freedom to experiment and profit from better solutions, they invent new technologies or find efficient processes that provide value to consumers and grow the economy. It is the evolution of capitalist progress that Joseph Schumpeter described as “the perennial gale of creative destruction.”1
Importantly, nearly everything we make and do has environmental impacts. Moving from MapQuest to Waze saves paper, gasoline consumption, and reduces congestion and pollution. However, the production of the app and materials used to manufacture devices like the iPhone still require energy. Some studies have shown that because digital navigation has made driving more convenient, people drive more. Further, the use of navigation apps can increase noise pollution in residential areas, as they reroute drivers away from congested highways.
Curtailing economic freedom in the name of environmental protection often backfires, leaving both people and the planet worse off.
In other instances, harnessing market forces with minimal government intervention often leads to the most cost-effective pollution reductions.
This isn’t a call to abandon modern conveniences or avoid innovation that has environmental effects. Rather, it highlights the economic and environmental tradeoffs policymakers must consider when shaping environmental policy. Further, curtailing economic freedom in the name of environmental protection often backfires, leaving both people and the planet worse off. In other instances, harnessing market forces with minimal government intervention often leads to the most cost-effective pollution reductions. Strengthening property rights, leveraging market forces, and unleashing human creativity are the most effective ways to enhance human and environmental well-being.
Every day, people innovate to make the world a better place. The path to a cleaner, healthier planet isn’t through less economic freedom – it’s through more of it, properly structured. When people are free to innovate, create wealth, and demand better environmental quality, they tend to get all three. That’s not just theory – it’s the story of human progress over the past century, and it’s our best hope for tackling environmental challenges in the century to come.
- Joseph A. Schumpeter, “The Process of Creative Destruction” in Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, p. 81-86, New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1962 http://www.compilerpress.ca/Competitiveness/Anno/Anno%20Schumpet-er%20CSD%20Ch.%20VII%20Creative%20Destruction.htm[↩]