Windfarms for all, but without using steel or concrete

Only Global Poverty Can Save The Planet, Green Extremists Insist

By Guest Column Dr. Benny Peiser (Bio and Archives)  Friday, May 18, 2012 | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

Extremist green campaigning group WWF - endorsed by no less a body than the European Space Agency - has stated that economic growth should be abandoned, that citizens of the world’s wealthy nations should prepare for poverty and that all the human race’s energy should be produced as renewable electricity within 38 years from now. Most astonishingly of all, the green hardliners demand that the enormous numbers of wind farms, tidal barriers and solar power plants required under their plans should somehow be built while at the same time severely rationing supplies of concrete, steel, copper and glass.—Lewis Page,The Register, 18 May 2012

It’s not just resources that are limited, in the WWF’s view: human potential itself is up against a hard limit beyond which the race cannot ever advance. Even progress thus far, as seen in the wealthy nations, has been achieved only by an unfair and wasteful over-use of precious resources: we rich Westerners are already beyond the practical limits that humans should ever aspire to achieve in terms of health, wealth - and even of education. That’s not economics - that’s religion. And not very nice religion either.—Lewis Page, The Register, 18 May 2012

Leading members of prominent Indian NGOs have slammed the UK government’s “racism” in directing “tens of millions of pounds” to sterilise India’s poor in what they say is a misguided attempt to combat global warming. A news report on RT Today visited India and spoke to local police who told them that they had raided the offices of local aid agencies and confiscated videos showing the horrific mistreatment of women. In an interview Dr Abhisit Das, Director of the Centre for Health and Social Justice, said the whole program stank of the old imperialist mindset of “colonialism” and “racism” where the poor were blamed for the excesses of the wealthy.—Haunting the Library, 17 May 2012

At Rio+20 next month, the world’s elites will meet in Brazil with the aim of holding back human progress. Forty years ago, two ideas about humanity’s relationship with the natural world caught the imagination of the richest and most influential people. The first was that the demands of a growing population were taking more from the planet than could be replaced by natural processes. The second, related idea was that there exist natural ‘limits to growth’. These two reinventions of Malthusianism became the basis of a new form of global politics, which has sought to contain human industrial and economic development ever since.—Ben Pile, Spiked, 17 May 2012

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today asked young people from all over the world to “make some noise” to help accelerate progress on the negotiations of the United Nations Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20) which will take place in Brazil next month. “The truth is I am disappointed with the negotiations. They are not moving fast enough. That is why I need you,” Mr. Ban told students attending the 13th Annual Global Classrooms International High School Model UN Conference, taking place at in the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters in New York, on Thursday evening. “When I say make some noise, I mean raise your voices. Demand real action. Shame those governments into doing more.”—UN News Centre, 17 May 2012

Investments in renewable energy could be put on hold while European governments develop clear policies on shale gas, according to a biomass energy expert. The prospect of increasing production of cheap shale gas in Europe has impacted investors’ forward planning, Chris Moore, CEO of MGT Power, a UK-based large-scale biomass developer, told a forest industry conference in London on Thursday. Until clear policies emerge on whether countries will allow the exploitation of shale gas reserves, investments in biomass and other renewables might be put on hold, while investors assess whether better opportunities lie in shale gas than renewables.—Environmental Finance, 17 May 2012

The cost of household energy has risen seven times faster than household income since 2004, according to a study. The cost of energy is now the top household worry for Britons.—The Daily Telegraph, 18 May 2012