Journalist and author Henry Hazlitt offered in his book “Economics in One Lesson” this insight. “The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate, but at the longer effects of any act or policy,” Hazlitt wrote.
“It consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group, but for all groups.”

His lesson hasn’t been learned — as evidenced by a myriad of public policies enacted with disastrous results. One of the latest examples includes the implementation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores around the world. The scores quantify company behavior and are used by socially conscious investors to screen potential investments. 

In less than 20 years, the ESG movement has grown from a corporate social responsibility initiative launched by the United Nations into a global phenomenon, coercing countries to go “green” to increase ESG scores. It hasn’t taken long to see the folly of such initiatives. 

As Stephen Moore wrote in “The Story of Sri Lanka,” the Asian nation enjoyed commerce, wealth and a thriving middle class. But government officials started listening to the advice of anti-growth greens. They adopted an anti-capitalist agenda and achieved the highest ESG scores in the world. They were going save the planet while gaining wealth. 

But unintended consequences followed. Sri Lanka is now in a state of economic collapse. Schools and businesses are shut down. 

While Sri Lanka had been self-sufficient in food production, there’s now hunger. Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides were banned by the former president, who “fell under the spell of Western green elites peddling organic agriculture and ESG,” wrote Michael Schellenberger, author of “The Death of Environmentalism.”

Hunger exists everywhere in Sri Lanka as food prices rose by more than 80 percent. Angry citizens stormed the official residence, and the president resigned. Sri Lanka is under emergency law, and food is shipped in to prevent famine. 

“Decades of economic progress have been squandered,” wrote Moore, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Victor Davis Hanson, a historian at the Hoover Institution, put it this way: “Sri Lanka may be the first modern nation to adopt deliberate policies that have led to mass hunger and bankruptcy.”

Sri Lanka isn’t an isolated case of adopting policies without considering the longer effects for all groups. Guilty of “going green” and closing coal and nuclear power plants, Germany has insufficient energy and recently announced families will have to burn wood this winter. The Netherlands have dramatically cut the components in fertilizers to protect nature reserves, reducing the amounts of livestock and agricultural products available for consumption. Against the advice of his agronomists, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau forced a reduction of chemical fertilizers. Here in the United States, the Biden administration has canceled oil and natural gas leases causing fuel shortages, yet begs Saudi Arabia to produce more oil while selling part of U.S. strategic fuel reserves to China.

Nikolaos Antonakakis, an economics professor at the University of Portsmouth, said societies should rethink their approach toward environmental sustainability and promoting renewable energy resources as a reliable alternative. No country adopting ESG or green energy policies has shown economic growth. 

The unintended consequences of “going green” will prove as disastrous to the United States as it has in Sri Lanka.