THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # , 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
COPENHAGEN DASHES THIRD WORLD EXPECTATIONS
By Dennis T. Avery
ECONOMICALLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, GLOBAL WARMING, & REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH TO THIRD WORLD
COUNTRIES: THE INDUSTRIALIZED SOCIETIES DECLINE TO SPREAD THE WEALTH TO "POOR" COUNTRIES -- HOW
THE 2009 UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE AT COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, MANAGED TO YANK
"ECONOMIC PROSPERITY" AWAY FROM THE THIRD WORLD
FULL STORY:
Once again, the “rich countries” have managed to yank prosperity away from the Third World. And at Christmas too.
We’d promised them billions of unearned dollars in guilt payments for something called “global warming.” They don’t pay
that much attention to thermometers, and weather is something they mostly live with, rather than forecast.
But we, ourselves, had warned them their islands were about to sink beneath the waves. It hasn’t happened yet, but the
computer models say it will be so.
We warned them their food crops would begin to fail — though crop yields around the earth have, so far, continued to
increase.
We told them that wild species like the polar bear would go extinct — if not yet, then sometime soon.
“The heaviest burden of global warming will fall on the poorest countries,” said the best and brightest of our thinkers and
climate modelers. “We must pay billions to the third world to finance greener energy systems so they won’t burn coal or
kerosene.”
Then, at Copenhagen — the “last chance” for humans to save the world — we decided not to save it. Can we blame the
Third World for being angry and mystified?
Villagers on the South Pacific island of Tanna still worship a ghostly American named John Frum, who was stationed there
during World War II. Every February 15th , the islanders stage a ceremony, complete with GI “uniforms,” bamboo rifles,
and an American flag. “John promised he’ll bring planeloads and shiploads of cargo to us from America, if we pray to him,”
a village elder told writer Paul Raffaele of Smithsonian Magazine in 2008.
Such “cargo cults” were common when primitive peoples were visited by sailors who had compasses and chronometers,
and later radios and TVs. Third World peoples mostly still haven’t seen our shipyards, railroads, and nitrogen fertilizer, so
they don’t understand what supports our abundance.
They don’t know how we learned that global warming was coming, and they haven’t seen any evidence that it will. But we
said we’d make them rich, and since we decided not to, they’re unhappy.
The Chinese, of course, are different. They’ve got 4,000 years of court records, detailing how Chinese crops and wild
animals shifted north with the repeated global wamings during the Bronze Age, the Roman Empire and the Medieval period
— and then shifted back south during the intervening cold periods. Chinese researchers have studied their own ice cores
and fossil pollen. They can’t have much respect for the Western computer models, which repeatedly forecast the runaway
warming that hasn’t appeared. Their own thermometers have detailed the non-warming since 1998 — but they’d take our
carbon subsidies.
In the wake of Copenhagen’s collapse, my wife was asked, “With so many poor people in the world, shouldn’t we share our
abundance — global warming or not?” That’s been the hidden agenda of the Hard Left through the whole global warming
campaign: “spreading the wealth.”
My wife, however, had spent 15 years living in four African countries. She replied she’d never vote to give American money
to Africa’s tribal thugs. It would simply disappear, as have so many billions in government handouts, enriching Swiss bank
accounts not creating sustainable prosperity for the people.
“They aren’t poor because we’re rich,” she says correctly. “Nor are we rich because they’re poor.” In the Pacific Northwest,
early Indian tribes had a culture based on “potlatch.” Whenever anyone had good fortune, they threw a party for the tribe.
The wealth was spread, but no one was better off after the party than before.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. He is an environmental economist and was
formerly a senior analyst for the Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global
Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years. Readers may write him at PO Box 202, Churchville, Virgonoa, 24421, or email to
cgfi@hughes.net
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XII, 2010
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity