One thing climate advocates love to point at is how the EU managed to reduce carbon emissions without taking a significant blow to their economy. The glaring problem (least as it seems to me) is that at the same time all those emissions were going down, America and Europe’s industrial production capacity was all being shifted to China and such places. Which essentially means it allows Europe to have a services economy, while simultaneously benefiting from the cheaper labor. The companies are happy because now they don’t have to pay workers as much. Governments are happy because they can point at how much they reduced emissions. Everybody knows that you can look at almost anything you see around you and find a ‘Made in China’ somewhere on it. Then the carbon output of countries of China and India continue to rise. Yet, India and China still have nowhere near the carbon output of countries that had more quickly industrialized. Why? It’s not for any ethical reason, it’s simply because China is poorer than Europe is. The average European lifestyle requires more resources than the average Chinese one does. China, oh course, benefits from all this and their country is growing more wealthy and its citizens have a greater capacity for consumption. That’s the point where emissions will likely shoot way up.
Until Europe can discover a way to keep their manufacturing in their own countries and meet their own climate goals, then I’ll forever be skeptical. Keep in mind, most of the people who champion green like to claim that they can meet green targets while maintaining a similar quality of life as we have now. They are also usually rather for globalization and claim to be pro-worker. They just chalk it up to fat people at the gas and oil companies who are spoiling the world, and if we only take them down then all our problems will be solved. It’s delusional. You see, you can only trick people to such an extent. When people notice their food prices have doubled, they’re going to be hard pressed to vote the same people in office, no matter what smooth words they try. People are dumb, but even they can notice things like that. Then I can guarantee, when China begins to be on parity with the ‘developed world’ in terms of carbon emissions, you’ll hear great posturing from all the Western media about the evils of China and its government. It’s so predictable.
In general, I think you have three sorts of people.
- People who honestly don’t know any better, and take the shiny, animated videos their science teacher back in middle school showed them at face value.
- Scientists who may possess extensive knowledge of their field, but have little grasp of politics and human behavior.
- Scientists who are actually knowledgeable, and are willing to have an honest conversation about the consequences of what they advocate for.
*The third group is, unfortunately, quite rare, and their voices are rarely amplified by major institutions.
And that’s not even beginning to mention that oftentimes ‘science’ is wildly off. Oftentimes scientists will continue to run simulations and models until they get the result that they want. Scientific papers reward that kind of behavior. Then, I’m not even sure if a ‘services’ economy is even stable in the long run. Eventually these countries are going to catch up, and won’t need Western know-how anymore. Maybe only at that point will people lament why they let things get to this point.
How brave.