A global agenda?

A global agenda? Sauvik Chakraverti

Thursday November 22 2007 16:49 IST The Newindpress,

The enormous prestige of the Nobel prize notwithstanding, the concerned citizen worried about the future of humanity should pause to reflect on the 'knowledge' credentials of Al Gore and the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who share this year's peace prize. 

Innumerable failures of such government-inspired 'knowledge' have occurred in the recent past — from the central economic planning of 'scientific socialism', and the centralised management of money, banking and credit of 'Keynesianism', all the way down to the 'intelligence' behind the Iraq War. Even the 'population explosion' scare which led to a UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) lies totally discredited today. From each of these failures of 'government knowledge', we the people have learnt the hard way that the personnel of government are interested not in our welfare, but in their own. The wiser citizen of today should therefore view the claims of an American politician (that too, a statist Democrat) supported by an unwieldy mass of government-sponsored scientists from all the governments of the world with deep skepticism. 

Undoubtedly, this politically orchestrated scare-mongering about climate change will lead to massive funding of various government projects and, as always, wealth will be transferred from the people to their rulers, on the pretext of 'mitigating' some imaginary impending catastrophe. What is also likely is that important liberties will be lost. Edison's light bulb may be banned, barely 100 years since it was invented, and before many, many poor Indians have even been able to use one! (Laloo Yadav's election symbol is the kerosene lantern.) What is extremely unlikely is that Indians will enjoy clean and cheap energy, ever. This is because government monopoly over our automotive fuels, power supply and cooking gas will not be broken. Inefficient diesel generators will continue to pollute every city market throughout India, with noise as well as smoke. And our poor villagers will never cook on gas or electricity, but forever continue trekking for firewood. That is, our real-life problems regarding energy will lie unresolved. But lots and lots of money will change hands. 

Consider this: I was cruising along Delhi's Ring Road, and my dashboard meter reported the outside temperature as 39 degrees Celsius. Inevitably, I was stuck in a huge jam. Within minutes, the temperature zoomed to 49 degrees! Local warming? In my book, if India is to reduce her impact on climate change, she needs to knock her transportation system into shape. Our road surfaces need serious attention. Every Indian street, throughout the length and breadth of this huge sub-continent, is a potholed moonscape. This is how we waste fossil fuels. Funny how TERI, the energy NGO whose boss, the scientist R K Pachauri who heads IPCC, never makes any noises about road surfaces ever. TERI is headquartered in Delhi, with plush, centrally air-conditioned offices in the swank Habitat Centre — a government-promoted piece of real estate, whose first chairman was none other than our current prime minister, Manmohan Singh. 

The environmentalist's position on the energy debate is fatally flawed. If our poor people are to progress, they will need energy, energy and more energy. If all sources of energy are sold at competitively determined market prices, every individual energy user will choose the most cost-effective means. That is, there are serious 'economic' reasons why people use energy 'efficiently' in their own financial interest. That is why they switch off the fan or the air-conditioner whenever they leave the room. 

Now, over time, some sources of energy will dry up, causing a rise in their price. This will immediately make alternatives economical, and they will be supplied, as they always have been in the past. From 'dirty' petrol we will then move to 'clean' fuel cells, and from 'dirty' gas turbines we will move on to 'clean' electricity generation using the waves of the oceans. There is no need to 'conserve' energy. History tells us that the more energy we use, the more is produced. We have moved on from firewood, charcoal, peat and whale-oil but not by conserving any of them. 

Even if increased energy use in the Third World causes the climate to change drastically, if sea levels rise, and typhoons lash our coasts, the effects will be local, and responses must therefore be local too. For poor people in poor nations, what matters first, then, is prosperity. If they have private wealth, they will be possessed of the means to deal with any catastrophe. Hurricanes hit Florida as regularly as they hit Haiti, but Florida recovers quickly, with very few lives lost, while Haiti lies devastated for years and thousands perish. The Gore-IPCC agenda is a 'global' one, and a 'governmental' one at that. This leaves out the individual, who must be free to achieve a reasonable level of prosperity, and the locality he lives in, which must prepare itself for any foreseeable climate change. Note that when New Orleans got laid flat by a hurricane recently, almost all the residents got into their cars and headed down the highway to safety. How will coastal Indians get themselves automobiles and highways, in order to escape Nature's fury, whenever it is unleashed? 

Thankfully, the world is possessed of at least one senior statesman opposed to the hysteria of the Al Gore-IPCC camp: Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic. In a recent address to the United Nations, Klaus called for another committee on climate change, so that the monopoly of IPCC on public opinion is broken, and an open debate between IPCC and those who disagree with them can inform the world. Coming from a East European nation whose government attempted to 'mastermind' everything, with horrendous consequences, this warning should be carefully heeded in India. Klaus also delivered a fantastic parting shot: He told the UN that if they were so concerned about climate change, they should turn down the air-conditioning in their enormous building! I would add: Ditto for the Habitat Centre! 

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