Celebrity climate activist
Greta Thunberg delivered
a speech to the UN Climate
Action summit in New York.
She demanded huge cuts
in carbon emissions
-- more than 50%
over the next ten years.
She also filed a legal complaint
with the UN on Monday,
demanding five countries
(Argentina, Brazil, France,
Germany and Turkey)
more swiftly adopt larger cuts
in carbon emissions.
The complaint is legally based
on a 1989 agreement, the
Convention on the Rights
of the Child, under which
Thunberg claims human rights
of children are being violated
by too-high carbon emissions.
Her inclusion of Brazil and Turkey
is strange -- both countries have
large populations living in poverty.
Cheap energy from fossil fuels
for desperately needed for
economic growth.
If a country wants
to get richer, it has to
create things of value
for other countries.
The only economical way
to produce these things
is by using fossil fuels.
Carbon emissions growth
and economic growth
correlate well.
Fossil-fuel powered industrialization
over the past thirty years has
significantly reduced extreme poverty.
The World Bank
says worldwide
extreme poverty
was reduced
from 35% in 1990,
to 11% in 2013.
Access to clean water
has increased, literacy
has increased , and
life expectancy
has increased
— especially in
lower-income areas
that have been
most rapidly
industrializing
in recent decades.
Greta Thunberg,
ignores history,
mocking economic
growth as a "fairy tale."
But for people in the
developing world,
economic growth
translates into
a longer and
better life.
Thunberg's disregard
for the benefits
of economic growth,
is coming from someone
from a wealthy country,
built with fossil fuels.
China is the world's largest
carbon emitter — by far —
with total carbon emissions
double that of the United States.
And while the US and the EU
have been cutting emissions,
China won't even pledge
to cap its emissions
any time before 2030.
India more than doubled
its carbon emissions
between 2000 and 2014,
and its prime minister
refuses to pledge to cut
its coal-fired power generation.
First-world school children
think it's fine to lecture
Chinese factory workers
about the need to cut back
their standard of living.
If economic growth
is stifled by climate policy,
one hundred million people
lose out on clean water
and safe housing as a result
— that's a big cost.
It's easy to sit before a group
of wealthy politicians and say
"how dare you!".
How about telling a Bangladeshi
tee-shirt factory worker
that she's had it too good ?
How about telling a Brazilian
laborer to forget about
a family car or household
appliances or travel
at vacation time ?
Many Indians, Brazilians and
Chinese are willing to have
a little harmless global warming
in trade for a small piece
of what wealthy first-world
climate activists have been
enjoying all their lives.