Losing respect for Rand Paul

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Not at all. In renewable energy, for example, it's a very new advancement, but wind and solar PV are handily winning free market bids on providing electricity in many places, like Mexico, countries in South America, and the middle east. Wind especially can get extremely cheap (we're talking 2-3 cents per kwh quite commonly). Such that they are the choice of a lot of developing nations building out power grids for the first time, because it would be more expensive to build a coal plant.

It's hard to generalize because the cost depends on an area's conditions and when the plant was built, but this in an example (a bit outdated because it's from 2016 so things are cheaper now, but it emphasizes the complete lack of subsidy necessary):
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon...d2ed5044a9

-and it's the cheaper, dirtier solar winning those bids.  Exploitation is simply more cost effective -to the producer- in the absence of strong regulation.

I mean, I'm planning to go into the energy industry where this isn't as much of a problem because you sell to a power utility. But sustainability marketing is something I'm really interested in as well, and it would be how you'd go about doing this. But I would argue educating the populous is even more of a challenge for people who think democracy will save them.

Educating the populace is best done by schools, not product advertisers..for reasons that ought to be fairly obvious.  Funny how four out of five dentists choose every brand of toothpaste, amiright?  

Largely I can shove solar or wind power down your throat whether you like it or not: if it's cheaper, you don't need to care about the environment to use it

-and you'll get crushed by anyone willing to cut environmental corners...we know this, because that's what already happened.

I get where you're coming from..but I don't think you're fully appreciating the reality of the market.  I hope you find a way to turn the trend around..but you're not going to do so with a free market..or by competing on price.

I get what you're saying, but in this kind of field, I'll take 'cheap solar' over coal any day, and that can compete on price as is. I'd love more government regulation on environmental issues - nothing would make my job easier. But I'm not going to rely on it for the next few decades. Ideologically I agree with you about what's ideal, but in a practical sense, it's not actually impossible to apply our poorly regulated capitalism to some sustainable endeavors.