Here's an eloquent expression of the cast of mind of modern man: "The energies of our system will decay, the glory of the sun will be dimmed, and the earth, tideless and inert, will no longer tolerate the race, which has for a moment disturbed its solitude. Man will go down into the pit, and all his thoughts will perish."
This quasi-religious doomsday cast of mind litters our newspapers and magazines. This quotation comes from a book by former British prime minister, Arthur Balfour: "A Defence of Philosophic Doubt: Being an Essay on the Foundations of Belief". It was published in 1879.
It may come as a surprise, therefore, that the people who witnessed the 20th century's innovation and growth, the reduction in poverty, the eradication in most developed countries of many killer diseases, the doubling of the human life-span, and the improvement in nutrition even in the poorest parts of the globe, continue to subscribe to the dark depression of a Victorian who wrote a 19th century introduction to theology.
More books on the "Silent Spring" (Rachel Carson, 1962), the "Population Bomb" (Paul Ehrlich, 1968), the "Limits to Growth" (The Club of Rome, 1972) and "Earth in the Balance" (Al Gore, 1993) set out our modern pessimism with dire prophesies, some of which were pure invention and none of which have come true.
The only people who propose to actively change the climate are those who fear climate change.
Ivo Vegter, ITWeb contributor
Today, with considerable irony, the only people who propose to actively change the climate are those who fear climate change.
Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times, said on a recent visit to South Africa that solving the energy issue (as he casts the environmental worries of today) is a problem for innovators, and not regulators.
However, he adds: "If we do not put a higher price on dirty fuels and subsidise clean fuels, we won't be able to go green and have a green evolution." He also describes the effort required as comparable in size to World War II.
How Friedman proposes to achieve a war economy - complete with price controls, high taxes and liberal subsidies - without regulation, is beyond me.
If massive intervention, state control, confiscatory taxes, and patronage industry is the goal of the green movement, it is no surprise that the people who actually created the 20th century's innovation and growth, its reduction in poverty and disease, its improvement in nutrition and life-span, do not subscribe to this dark depression.
When a room full of CIOs and IT managers were asked who, among them, were motivated by green concerns in their plans for more efficient data centres, only two put up their hands. Most are motivated simply by reducing costs and improving performance. That being green is a side-effect of these efforts might give the marketing people something to work with, but the goal is economic efficiency.
That the economic efforts of businessmen and innovators happen to have environmental sustainability as a side-effect, is no accident, however. The King III report is right when it says the long-term economic value of a company lies in much more than its short-term financial wealth. If certain resources are expected to become scarce, a smart company will improve its use of those resources, or seek alternatives. And it will, in any case, aim to produce the most value for customers, by investing as little capital, effort and time as possible. That is how economic decisions are made.
That is why the decision to go "green" has nothing to do with the environment, and everything to do with rational decisions about sustainability. Moreover, that is why Friedman's "higher price" and "subsidies" will cause companies to pursue goals other than efficiency and sustainability.
For example, if I were big business, my first investment in the world envisioned by green activists would be to spend a great deal of money lobbying for regulation and licence conditions that benefit me, at the expense of my competitors.
So, if you want a world in which big business owns the politicians who control you for your own good, join the doomsday cult of the green activists. Your World War II will come.
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