The mad rush to deal with climate change, even if it works (it won’t), has a nasty tradeoff (more global poverty).
The Wall Street Journal asks Will the World Bank Choose Climate Change Over Poverty?
That should not be a statement, not a question.
Well-off nations seem to have forgotten that while they’re no longer plagued by poverty-related ills such as hunger and illiteracy, most people in the world still are. Increasingly, the Biden administration and leaders of other high-income countries are putting climate policy ahead of these core development issues.
It’s easy to treat reducing carbon output as the world’s priority when your life is comfortable. Things can still be tough for people in high-income countries, but the 16% of the global population who live in those countries don’t routinely go hungry or see their children die.
Much of the rest of the world, however, is still struggling. While conditions vary, across poorer countries five million children die each year before their fifth birthdays and almost a billion people don’t get enough to eat. More than two billion have to cook and keep warm with polluting fuels such as dung and wood, which shortens their lifespans. Although most young kids are in school, education is so dismal that most children in low- and lower-middle-income countries will remain functionally illiterate.
Opportunity is restricted in particular by a lack of the cheap and plentiful energy that allowed rich nations to develop. In Africa, electricity is so rare that total monthly consumption per person is often less than what a single refrigerator uses during that time. This absence of energy access hampers industrialization and growth. Case in point: The rich world on average has 530 tractors per 10,000 acres, while the impoverished parts of Africa have fewer than one.
Efforts to divert development aid to climate policy also smack of hypocrisy. Though rich nations refuse to fund fossil-fuel-related projects abroad—either directly or through international financial institutions—high-income countries still get almost 80% of their energy from fossil fuels. This is in large part because solar and wind power remain intermittent. To make them reliable is expensive, as they require massive backup from batteries or fossil fuels.
A Step in the Right Direction
On September 21, 2023, I commented A Step in the Right Direction: UK Prime Minister Trashes Climate Change Goals
Cheers to UK PM Rishi Sunak for pushing back climate change goals from 2030 to 2035.
The reaction was swift by jet-setter hypocrites like Al Gore and John Kerry.
Gore, now one of the world’s foremost advocates for swift action to avert the climate crisis, told CNN: “I find it shocking and really disappointing … I think he’s done the wrong thing. I’ve heard from many of my friends in the UK including a lot of Conservative party members who have used the phrase, ‘utter disgust’.
Global Elites Took 150+ Private Jets to Fight Climate Change in Davos
Fox News reports Global Elites Took 150+ Private Jets to Fight Climate Change in Davos
Klara Maria Schenk, a campaigner for environmental group Greenpeace International, said in a statement ahead of the conference: “The rich and powerful flock to Davos in ultra-polluting, socially inequitable private jets to discuss climate and inequality behind closed doors.”
What About John Kerry?
I’m glad you asked. Please note John Kerry’s Family Private Jet Emitted Over 300 Metric Tons of Carbon Since Biden Took Office.
Also note John Kerry Says We Need “Money, Money, Money, Money” to Combat 1.5 Degrees of Climate Change
CBAM Tax the Poor
To save the world from climate change, the EU Imposes the World’s Largest Carbon Tax Scheme as Inflationary Madness Sets In
An EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will be set up to equalise the price of carbon paid for EU products operating under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the one for imported goods. This will be achieved by obliging companies that import into the EU to purchase so-called CBAM certificates to pay the difference between the carbon price paid in the country of production and the price of carbon allowances in the EU ETS.
CBAM will cover iron and steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizers and electricity, as proposed by the Commission, and extended to hydrogen, indirect emissions under certain conditions, certain precursors as well as to some downstream products such as screws and bolts and similar articles of iron or steel.
Spotlight Africa
Let’s tune into a Tweet Thread by Faten Aggad Senior Advisor Climate Diplomacy @AfricanClimateF.
The Shocking Truth About Biden’s Proposed Energy Fuel Standards
In case you missed it, please consider The Shocking Truth About Biden’s Proposed Energy Fuel Standards
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA did an impact assessment of 4 fuel standard proposals and compared them to the cost of doing nothing. Guess what.
The NHTSA conclude: “Net benefits [of stricter mile standards] for passenger cars remain negative across alternatives” vs doing nothing at all.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has concluded Biden’s mileage standards have “Net benefits for passenger cars remain negative across alternatives” vs doing nothing at all.
And to top it EVs don’t do a damn thing for the environment. See Biden’s Solar Push Is Destroying the Desert and Releasing Stored Carbon
It’s easy for hypocrites to trot the world in their jets preaching the world will end if nothing is done.
Meanwhile, Germany has turned to coal while getting rid of nuclear and the US is heavily subsidizing offshore wind farms that are are economically unfeasible even with subsidies. In addition, wind farms kill whales in the process.
Countries in Africa don’t stand a chance. They have no money for anything let alone subsidized wind farms that make no economic sense.
But that is what Biden, AOC, Kerry, Gore, demand.
“This is in large part because solar and wind power remain intermittent. To make them reliable is expensive, as they require massive backup from batteries or fossil fuels.”
Or the backup could be from hydro. Or from what is now being called “gravity batteries” that is nothing but mechanical systems to use potential energy from gravity. Or from biogas, that should run gas power stations just as well as natural gas, since it’s the exact same molecule.
The conclusion to be drawn from climate change arguments, and from arguments for similar causes, is that the Global North is too affluent, beyond the carrying capacity of the planet, and that the solution to these problems is to transform the north to southern standards of living. Also to implement socialist principles, so that everyone receives “enough”, and that the leaders and the most productive receive not much more than “just enough”.
Your assignment, whether you accept it or not, is to transform your life towards ‘poverty’, to use much less of the world’s resources, to reduce your footprint on the planet, to train and assist others to do the same, using just enough and little to no more than enough and finding ways to use less.
Yes. That is essentially correct. Which is why global warming is such a difficult problem to solve. On an individual level, only a tiny percentage of the global population is willing to lower their personal standard of living. The same goes for each country. No country wants to deliberately lower living standards.
Many people are already positing that more poverty (and death) is the whole point behind the climate change hoax.
This is why China is becoming the leader of the Global South.
No low income country is going to accept lower growth in the name of climate change.
The rich world thinks we have the right to demand they stay poor by avoiding fossil fuels. China helps them build infrastructure and wealth.
Except most developing nations are in the tropical / subtropical zones, where they’ll be most affected by climate change.
Moreover, many greentech initiatives are already cheaper than traditional fossil fuels, and often their structure (distributed solar, for instance) makes them more suited to governance environments in the developing world.
When environmental issues, likewise, seep into pure quality of life, like horrible air pollution in India and China owing to industrialization and high population density, greentech is a solution, not a problem.
***
End of the day, the problem with greentech for Western countries isn’t that it’s expensive and impractical, because it’s not, but rather that the Chinese control most greentech industries (IIRC, the largest producer of wind turbines is Indian).
If Western countries wish to completely cede control of greentech to the Chinese (and later the Indians), it’s completely in their power, but you should respect attempts to do otherwise.
Don’t disagree, but poverty is always cast as a problem that arises outside of us, because there is not enough or too much of something.
Poverty is a man-made problem; no amount of stuff will lead to its demise.
No society is poor because they lack electric cars or no one has heard of them.
The poor are kept poor by how we organize.
I accept the science of anthropogenic global warming and climate change.
I also accept that mankind is failing to do anything significant about it in spite of 3 decades of trying.
I accept that the impacts of global warming are already costing the world a lot in terms of human suffering and less economic growth. And that it is going to get a lot worse.
Finally, I accept that nothing I do or say will change any of the points I just made. All I can do personally is to try to figure out how to profit from what is going on.
The world is facing a conundrum.
We are addicted to economic growth and improved living standards. Which requires more energy. Yet using more energy is making the problem of global warming worse.
We are not meeting our ever increasing energy demands with renewables like many had hoped. The much ballyhooed energy transition has disappointed. So we are continuing to use more fossil fuels every year. Which is leading to a unique situation where the much maligned and hated oil and gas companies have now become excellent investments. Low or no debt, very strong balance sheets, huge free cash flows, extremely low valuations, a commitment to emphasize profits over production, and a promise to reward shareholders going forward. Which is why I own a lot of them.
You want lower carbon emissions? Talk to Exxon engineers and implement their ideas.
Never take a career politicians advice, such as John Kerry’s.
The world needs higher carbon emissions to keep food prices low.
Solar panels, Windmills and EVs cannot make a dent in reducing Carbon produced by WARS, Poorly controlled Forest Fires and over building Glass Towers from Weapons manufacturing profits.
STOP FUNDING the UKRANIAN WAR .
“It is quite bizarre that it was Israel, along with its NATO counterparts, that recently supplied all kinds of arms to Ukraine. Some of the military aid ended up being resold (…) by Ukraine’s military personnel and army officials. The great number of it was resold in a completely unmonitored way. Ironically, Israeli soldiers are now being shot with their own guns and weapons, transferred to Ukraine by NATO,” alleged Gagin.
Hey! You stole that line from Sputnik! That’s plagiarism.
Yea, but he gave it away…like Robbin Hood.
Have a guess what will happen if Ukraine is defeated. Russia will set up an attack position on the Nato countries of which America is a member. The only option America will have is to not comply with the NATO treaty.
Russia and China will take Europe.
Once Europe is taken, America will be next.
America is largely already gone, down its own socialist hell-hole ?
It sounds like you have intel from the heart of Putin’s government and Xi’s government if you know all their plans – why not sell your intel to the US government?
Given that fascist Ukraine is already defeated after America’s 9-years of “support”; and given that China’s economy is imploding, where do all the resources for this imaginary invasion of the west come from?
If our models for the effect of climate change policy on the economy is more poverty; then poverty was one of the goals of the green initiative.
Have you ever thought about what climate change will do to the American economy? There won’t be any cars or other types of transport.
Do you have any lottery numbers? I presume you will be using your clairvoyancy powerball winnings to invest in all the things that people will need in the post-apocalyptic dystopia that is forever just beyond the horizon?
It would appear to me, that Climate Change Virtue Signaling has progressed via the Progressives. Where it used to be the U.S. Government to U.S. Citizens, it has now become the U.S. Government to The World.
I will give them credit, as they have a much bigger wallet this way. They can Carbon Tax everybody now, and have it pay for their Virtue Signaling cost.
Just goes to prove the Scam is alive and well, and much bigger to Biden Inc. and there collective wallets, than the needs of a few small Countries somewhere out in the wilderness…
I think there is going to be a cataclysmic climate event soon that changes a lot of minds. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Can you give us a hint or do we have to buy your book?
Chapter by chapter… and price reduced by 47.9% …but only for the next 23 hours!
Like a volcanic eruption that cools the earth. If yellowstone goes it will be w nuclear winter. Largest caldera in the world.
You forgot asteroid impact and alien invasion… not to mention the flipping of the Earth’s magnetic core… come on, don’t be shy…
Farts from all the poor people that can only afford to eat garbage.
Unfortunately, people are way too complacent about what is happening. But when they start wailing for government help it will be too late!
Unfortunately, they are not complacent; and unfortunately, the establishment media, politics, public sector, and education systems are infested with climate cultists pushing Melonism – green on the outside, red on the inside.
Like a nuclear war?
I have read somewhere that even if the US emits 0 pollution it would make a minuscule dent as the rest of the undeveloped world contributes more than 90 percent of the pollution.
Would make any sensible person wonder what the real motive is
That doesnt matter. We have jackasses in charge who are complete morons. You cant talk sense to them youll trigger them.
The root cause of poverty is over population. War, famine, and pestilence self cure the problem. The war on energy helpfully causes famine. This time next year Europe will have more hungry beggars. Peace on them.
Root cause of poverty is overbearing government
million+. Overpopulation -> economic, environmental destruction -> famine -> war -> mass migration -> old stable economies turn to dust. The end.
The root cause of poverty is education… why? because education is the root cause of overpopulation… and it’s the root cause of overbearing government… economic growth requires complexity and rules, and education ensures that most people play the game; failed states lorded over by thugs are places of low education. Low education breeds superstition (like the climate cult), corruption (like the pandemic), disease and authoritarianism. Innovation cannot really happen without liberty and regulations.
“The root cause of poverty is over population.”
You have said what nobody wants to hear, although it’s true. The people who disagree must love sitting in traffic. Demography is simply another Ponzi.
“The root cause of poverty is over population.”
Not population in and of itself.
But rather: Population per Available-Energy.
Population growth coincided with increasing wealth for a while, due to increased availability of energy per capita (burn down the forrests/coal/oil/gas/nuke..)
Once energy availability starts/started to decline, you get decreased wealth. No amount of pretending wealth has anything to do with various arbitrary “measures” of money printing, will ever change that. Wealth effectively IS energy availability.
The strict Green agenda is being pushed back everywhere. By overselling Global Warming, it has created a backlash as people start to feel cheated when the catastrophic scenarios turn out to have been either made up or exaggerated and those who promote it do not seem to be worried enough to change their individual behavior even while they insist we must change ours. Too much money went into supposedly “non-profits” who used the money to promote lies instead of promoting good works as they were intended. We are going to have to rethink the tax-free donation industry. It has become just a way to keep control your money and not have to pay taxes on it. It’s been gamed to such an extent that “donating” money is a good way to get political influence to get what you want. It’s a scam now.
That video clip is a gift to meme generators… it’s overt grift now… it’s a shameless global shakedown, and the worry is that these creatures are so greedy that they will drag the world into as much war as they can to secure their grift.
Francis and Blase Cupich are also NWO climate change stooges.