On Climate Debt
In recent days, there have been statements made in Copenhagen and in the press regarding the so-called Climate Debt. It has been said that the developed world (i.e. Europe, the US, Canada and Japan) owe a debt to the developing world for having emitted the majority of the anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere over the last 150 years. The developing world wants “reparations” for this to help them “green” their economies, plus they expect the developing world to make far deeper and more rapid cuts in emissions, as we are to blame for the climate crisis.
Now, as readers of my blog know, I am no believer in AGW. But let us look at this question of who owes who what for a minute…
First of all, the developed world is essentially those nations and peoples who underwent the transition from tribalism and theocracy to enlightened rationalism. Using reason and the power of human imagination and inventiveness, western civilization drove the industrial revolution, the agricultural revolution and the technological revolution of the last 250 years.
No other culture or society did this. Without the advances made by the “enlightened” peoples of the west (including Japan in the last 100 years), the world would never have had a population as large as it is. The world now grows enough food for nearly 6 billion people. Never before have so many people had so much to eat. Fritz Haber, the chemist who figured out how to synthesize ammonia and thus give us fertilizer, could only have arisen in an enlightened, rationalist society. The tribal societies of Africa, the feudal society of China (until Deng Xiaopeng) and the theocracy of the Islamic nations would never have given rise to Dr. Haber. Because they couldn’t allow someone to think for themselves and try something that hadn’t been done before without the authorization of the chieftains, emperors or mullahs. And rarely does an autocrat see opportunity in change.
On another front, Newcomen and Watt developed and improved the steam engine in 18th century Britain because they were free to do so and had the rule of law to protect their inventions. And they didn’t need permission to try. This led to numerous advancements, through the internal combustion engines of Otto and Diesel, Parson’s steam turbine and beyond.
The development of the natural sciences in the modern era is almost entirely a western phenomenon. Be it chemistry (Haber) or Physics (Einstein), the advances that allow the modern world to exist were developed because of freedom and reason. And capitalism allowed these ideas to be turned into technology for the masses. The advances of Einstein, Edison, Marconi, and others gave us electrical power, lights, radio, television, satellite communications and more!
The computers, mobiles phones, radios, television, electrical power, cars and trucks, large scale shipping, air travel, satellite communication, fertilizer, modern agricultural tools, water treatment, modern medicine, antibiotics and all technologies invented in the last 250 years and used around the world exist only because of western civilization and are products of the Enlightenment.
The world owes the west a great big thank you for the advances of the last two centuries. If they would prefer the world Malthus forsaw, give back the technology. But don’t ask me for money – we’ve given you more than enough instead.
I’m frequently amazed, almost every day, to hear some politician, either local or from away, tell me how we need more government to regulate, control, or operate every aspect of society, yet every time it has been tried, it has been a dismal failure, imposing great suffering on millions of people. Yet we are supposed to buy into the idea of doing it again. Why, pray tell?
Tell all these whining, sniveling countries to get off their useless butts and take responsibility for making their lives better. And all you social engineering types can shut your yammering traps about how these poor excuses for nations are being abused by the west. A little over two hundred years ago a group of clod kicking farmers, backwoods trappers, and small merchants felt they had enough of being dictated to by the big boy on the block. They got their act together and booted one of the world’s supper powers out on their ear and formed a republic that became the most prosperous and mightiest on the planet. These people didn’t have a history anywhere near as long as those in the countries that are now decrying their success. If the U.S. can do in 200 plus years what these clowns haven’t been able to do in 2,000, I say tough. Wallow in the pigsty of your own making.