THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 82, March 31, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WHAT REALLY THREATENS OUR FUTURE?
Beware of Anti-energy Policies
Claiming to Prevent Climate Change.
By Dr. Willie Soon & Barun Mitra
THE REAL CHALLENGE & THREAT TO ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY: GOVERNMENT PLANNING, CONTROL, & DIRECTION
OF THE ECONOMY -- GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN ENERGY PRODUCTION & USE ACTUALLY RESULTING IN REDUCTION OF
THE AVAILABILITY, RELIABILITY, & AFFORDABILITY OF ENERGY -- ENERGY STARVATION POLICIES MADE & IMPLEMENTED
BY GOVERNMENT IN THE NAME OF PREVENTING CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE, THAT IS, HUMAN-INDUCED GLOBAL
WARMING
FULL STORY:
Energy sustainability is not about resource availability and pollution. Capitalism and human ingenuity have already
addressed “sustainability” in these regards, if the statistics are to be believed.
The real sustainability challenge and threat concerns government intervention in the name of “sustainability,” because
it is political and bureaucratic intervention that reduces the availability, reliability, and affordability of energy. The real
sustainability challenge is also about overcoming the forces of nature, via with ever stronger energy infrastructure
around the world. That is a job for capitalism, not central planning.
Consider these examples.
Japan’s recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident have brought rolling blackouts, as authorities strive to meet
electricity demands with reduced supplies and crippled transmission lines.
However, power cuts and inadequate power are routine in developing countries like India. For them, going without
electricity for hours or even days is the norm, not the exception.
But now, the United Kingdom’s power grid Chief Executive Officer is warning Brits that their days of reliable electricity
are numbered. Because of climate change and renewable energy policies, families, schools, offices, shops, hospitals,
and factories will just have to “get used to” consuming electricity “when it’s available,” not necessarily when they
want it or need it.
United Nations IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri justifies this absurd situation by sermonizing, “Unless we live in
harmony with nature, unless we are able to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy
sources, and until we change our lifestyles, the world will increasingly become unfit for human habitation.”
Thus, people in poor countries who never had access to reliable electricity may be denied it even longer, while people
in rich countries could soon face new electricity shortages.
Citizens of the world’s sovereign states with poor and emerging economies: Beware of claims that the greatest threat
we face is from man-made climate change. They are wrong. The real threat is from energy starvation policies
implemented by government in the name of preventing climate change.
Everywhere one looks, people are enjoying modern technologies, improving their lives, realizing their dreams. Other
people want the same opportunities for themselves and their children – and they should have them. Every person in
the world should someday enjoy access to similar levels of energy that people in developed countries enjoy today.
The technologies, trade and transportation networks, the legal, property rights, economic and banking systems have
all been developed. If countries and communities take advantage of them, a better future will require only one more
thing: energy.
Energy is the Master Resource, the key to everything else. Only our Ultimate Resource – our creative intellect – is
more important. People who have abundant, reliable, affordable energy – and the freedom to use it – can turn dreams
and ideas into reality.
Those who must rely on human and animal muscle, or open fires, remain poor. Certainly, wind turbines and solar
panels are far better than primitive energy. They can bless remote villages with electricity. But they are nothing
compared to reliable electricity from hydrocarbon, hydroelectric, and nuclear power.
However, policies based on false claims that we can control Earth’s climate restrict access to energy and increase its
cost. They perpetuate poverty, and prevent people from building better homes, having comfortable lighting and
heating, using computers and modern conveniences, preserving food and medicines, and even surviving natural
disasters and adapting to climate change.
Using computer models, thousands of scientists say human carbon dioxide emissions are responsible for recent
warming. But thousands of other scientists say the sun and other natural forces still control our complex,
unpredictable climate.
Earth’s climate has changed repeatedly throughout history. Its temperature rose slightly during the last century, as
our planet recovered from the Little Ice Age, but not in a straight line. It went up 1900-1940, then cooled until 1975,
warmed again until 1995, and has been steady since then – all while global CO2 levels were rising. Flood, drought,
hurricane, and other weather patterns also change periodically.
Earth’s climate is influenced by far more factors: solar, planetary, atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial. Climate models
are useless, even harmful, for setting energy policy.
But, even if carbon dioxide does affect climate, China, India, and Brazil are building power plants and automobiles at a
record pace. Their people are rapidly climbing out of poverty, using coal, oil, natural gas, and hydroelectric power to
achieve their dreams.
Leaders of these countries are not going to tell their still-poor people that they cannot enjoy the benefits that plentiful,
affordable, dependable energy can provide.
Europe, Canada, Australia, and the United States became modern economic powerhouses by using fossil fuels. They
gave people wondrous technologies, improved their health and living standards, and doubled their life expectancies –
using hydroelectric and hydrocarbon power.
Some people in rich countries talk about ending their fossil fuel use. But they have not done so – and cannot afford to.
They talk about switching to wind and solar power. But they can no longer afford massive renewable energy subsidies
that destroy two jobs in other sectors of their economy for every “green” job they create.
People in rich countries will not give up their modern living standards, electricity, automobiles, airplanes, hospitals,
factories, and food. Mr. Pachauri certainly will not. Why, should people in poor countries give up their dreams?
During the Cancun climate summit, rich nations said they would give poor countries $100-billion annually in “climate
change reparation and adaptation” money. But these are empty promises, made by nations that can no longer afford
such unsustainable spending.
Poor countries that expect this money will end up fighting over table scraps – and whatever funds do flow will end up
in the overseas bank accounts of ruling elites. The poor will see little or none of it.
For awhile longer, rich countries will continue supporting global warming research and conferences. Researchers,
bureaucrats, and politicians will continue issuing dire warnings of imminent catastrophes, while they enjoy the
benefits of modern energy, traveling on airplanes, attending talk fests at fancy hotels in exotic locations – all powered
by coal and petroleum.
They may continue telling the world’s poor how important and admirable it is that we keep living traditional,
sustainable, environment-friendly lifestyles; getting by on small amounts of intermittent, unreliable, expensive
electricity from wind turbines and solar panels; and giving up our dreams of a better, healthier, more prosperous life.
Ultimately, the climate change debate is really over just two things.
Whether we, the world’s poor, must give up our hopes and dreams. And whether we will determine our own futures –
or the decisions will be made for us, by politicians who use climate change to justify restricting our access to reliable,
affordable energy.
Which should we fear most? Climate change that some say might happen 50 or 100 years from now? Or an
energy-deprived life of continued poverty, misery, disease, and forgotten hopes and dreams?
Our future is in our hands.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Science, Ethics, & Human Health:
Human Health & Public Policy
Dr. Willie Soon, a native of Malaysia and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering (University of Southern California, 1991), is
an astrophysicist and climate scientist with the Harvard Center for Astrophysics. Holding an undergraduate degree in
Electrical Engineering and a postgraduate degree in Marine Engineering, Indian journalist and public policy expert
Barun Mitra is Founder and Director of the Liberty Institute, a non-profit, independent policy research and educational
organization that promotes free-market economics and is headquartered in New Delhi, India.
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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