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As obvious as it may sound, developing countries need more fast-paced development, not moral policing on matters of energy, development, and environment.
The onset of the twenty-first century saw the international community coerce developing nations into adopting economy-choking environmental policies.
Earlier environmental laws focused on more tangible and empirically verifiable environmental problems, like deforestation and toxic air and water pollution. But in recent decades, attention has turned toward global warming, which has become the most talked about sociopolitical environmental issue, impacting every decision made by governments and institutions.
When it comes to energy and development, developing countries have been on the receiving end of things. The anti–fossil fuel resolutions made by the international community require poor countries to reduce their use of conventional energy sources and adopt less certain, newer technologies for their energy needs.
This is in line with the dominant hypothesis that a reduction in fossil fuel–based carbon dioxide emissions will help us contain climate change and stop global average temperature from reaching dangerous levels.
Yet there is no guarantee in the first place that global average temperatures will reach dangerous levels. Predictions about future climate states are mere forecasts, not actualities.
In fact, a simple analysis of past predictions (1979–2016) amply demonstrates that forecast accuracy for global average temperatures is wide of the mark. Both past and present predictions are highly inaccurate, erroneous, and contradictory to real-world temperatures.
In light of these complexities in climate-predictive abilities and the increasing political influence in the discourse of climate science, it is critical that the official governing bodies of developing countries revisit their “climate commitments” made to the United Nations.
Development — the kind that is fast-paced, stable, and affordable — cannot happen without fossil fuels. Most of the current economic superpowers of the West were built on fossil fuels and continue to depend on them.
Without fossil fuels, poor nations will have to offset their poverty alleviation goals, owing to a more prolonged transitional phase of the economy (from developing to developed). Developing countries cannot afford that, especially when there are zero quantifiable benefits from emission reduction policies.
Moreover, countries are beginning to understand the superfluous nature of emission reduction benefits. Consequently, they are putting their national energy interests ahead of unquantifiable, erroneous predictions about a future climate.
The United States government, for example, pulled out of the Paris agreement and reaffirmed its faith in conventional energy sources, re-energizing its fossil fuel industry. As a result, it became the largest producer of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. Even the U.S., with all its might, understands that fossil fuel is critical to ensure economic growth and meet domestic energy needs.
Developing countries are way behind the U.S. in terms of economic achievement and cannot afford acts that are largely symbolic when people are dying of hunger. Instead of stooping to international pressure, developing nations should make the right move and reap the benefits of a growing international fossil fuel sector.
Developing countries must revoke their commitments to the Paris agreement and revamp their domestic policies on carbon dioxide emissions.
Chaamjamal says
Excellent analysis. Thank you. Somewhat related to my post on climate change racism.
https://tambonthongchai.com/2019/10/14/racism/
louis wachsmuth says
Look, the earth moved! E. Calvin Beisner on 2 October 2019, in a news letter admits “that human-induced climate change is real” Here is the quote:…
“From now to the end of October, as our way of saying “Thank you!” for a donation of ANY size, we’ll send you a copy of our new booklet, Warren Cole Smith’s Clear Thinking about Climate Change. Smith, a genius of a writer, makes a clear case, one that non-specialists can understand and pass on to others, that human-induced climate change, though real, is probably small, benign, even beneficial, and that spending trillions of dollars to reduce it is folly of the highest order.”
So, one day we will read that even Cornwall will admit the situation is very serious. What a couple of days ago a massive tornado tears through Dallas Texas-what next?
Ian says
Hi Louis,
answers.com says:
“Tornadoes are common in Texas and are usually in late spring and early summer. They occur often for the reason of unobstructed winds and heat sources.
Texas also is ranked 1st place compared to all the other states. It is hard to exactly say how common there are.
They have around 130 tornadoes every year so they are actually very common.
This would mean that they come every 2.8 days!” [spelling/grammar corrected]
Now if there were no more tornadoes in Texas and Alaska became the tornado
capital of the USA that definitely could be considered climate change, human
caused or otherwise and worthy of serious investigation.
E. Calvin Beisner says
Lou, as I’ve said before, I say again: I wish you’d read us more carefully. We’ve said all along that human emissions of infrared-absorbing gases almost certainly make the atmosphere warmer than it otherwise would be. For you to say otherwise is to bear false witness. I hope you’ll repent of that.
So a massive tornado swept through part of Texas a couple of days before your comment. Yes, and massive tornadoes have been sweeping through parts of Texas (and other states) for thousands of years. There’s no evidence that that one was caused by, or intensified by, global warming, whether natural or manmade. Indeed, there’s been no upward trend in the frequency or intensity of tornadoes during the period of (partially) manmade warming (that is, since about 1960). NOAA records (https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/24/2018-u-s-tornadoes-on-track-to-be-lowest-ever-noaas-temperature-trends-blow-a-hole-in-climate-correlation/) show that from 1954 to 1985 an average of 56 F3 to F5 tornadoes struck the USA each year – but from 1985 to 2017 there were only 34 per year on average. And in 2018, for the first time in modern history,not a single “violent” twister touched down in the United States.