A HITCHHIKER’S JOURNEY THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE TERIGI CICCONE WITH JAY LEHR, PH.D. 2020 CHAPTER 7.3 SOCIAL INJUSTICE, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND SOCIAL-ECONOMIC THEFT
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7.3 SOCIAL INJUSTICE, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC THEFT Open your heart and your brain. Look at this photo, 7.3.1.i Look at it again, and again. Don’t be lazy, don’t be squeamish; look at each face; each has his or her unique gift from nature and God. I want you to view and think and reflect because this is my reference image as I’m writing this book. It’s also the image I want you to think about after you read the next alarming headline about CO2. Or 7.3.1 the next time your wellintentioned do-gooder friend, politician, or overly educated moron pontificates about saving the planet with their green energy plan. Think of this and countless similar images the next time you’re going to produce your climate change poster. Because they are already suffering and dying by the tens-of-thousands because of our collective hubris, misguided ignorance and “good intentions.” In this short op-ed, I will draw your attention to the connection between this photo and why we need to rethink our views and actions regarding climate change. Despite the many success we have made in the U.S. and other developed countries in reducing pollution, it will continue unabated for years worldwide. In many cases, it will get worse, maybe even for decades to come. But that may be good for humanity in the long run. Was that heresy I just spoke? Am I now an enemy of the planet just as the Mohawk Valley Sierra Club accused me of being? No way! First and foremost, I am a lover of humanity, and right alongside that, I’m a lover of nature. This is a false either-or decision, as many would have you believe. They are compatible and harmonious. But the manipulative press, politicians, and opportunists will continue to conflate and confuse pollution with CO2. Why? Because pollution IS always harmful to the planet and for humanity. But as we demonstrated, the increased CO2 in the past century has been a gift for the earth and humanity. We have documented scientific facts in this book, proving that CO2 is not only useful but essential for life. We have presented data that confirms that more CO2 is better for all life than too little CO2! Why have we been conditioned, like Pavlov’s dogs, to confuse CO2 with pollution? That’s the question we will answer in this section. What follows may not all be scientifically proven facts backed by 100% reliable data. They are my observations based on my general 2
knowledge accumulated over the decades of my life. I now want to share them with those of you who have not yet completed your journey. We demonstrated how, in the USA and other developed countries, we have the affluent class being subsidized for their good intentions by the poor and working middle class. That is an immediate outrage, but it’s far worse than that in third world countries. Let’s look at the underdeveloped and developing countries and see how they, too, are exploiting the unfortunate and starving people around the world. “This is outrageous, preposterous, totally fake news,” you might say. “Our wealthy, socially responsible people are generous with their money and their time. They are investing in climate change practices, policies, and products like recycling and banning plastic straws. They are good people!” But like a skilled surgeon or a forensic coroner, we are going to take out our sharp scalpel and see what’s going on beneath the veneer presented to us by the self-promoting media, grant recipients, politicians, and activists. The green delusion: To start with, let’s draw a simple distinction between these two societies. For we, in the developed world, can afford to buy the backup power plants needed for our solar and wind electrical plants. Furthermore, we have the means to pay the continuing rising premium rates for this electrical generation. This allows us to enjoy these privileges for ourselves and our children and still have a cleaner environment at a price we can afford. But let’s look at the developing countries around the world and especially the weak ones. There, the lives of hundreds of millions, maybe billions, of people are not so good. Each day they live on a knife’s edge for their very subsistence. They have little food because they cannot afford the cost of tractors or fuel to power them, or fertilizers or the pumps for water and water treatment systems to supercharge their agriculture as we can. Adding to their plight is the lack of electricity needed for preservation, sterilization, refrigeration, transportation, and storage of the little food they have. Many get sick and die because of food spoilage. To make matters worse, they don't have the electricity for clean water to drink, clean, or wash their clothes or dishes. They lack medicines and all the other blessings provided to us by affordable and reliable electrical power from fossil and nuclear plants. In the USA, life expectancy for women is nearly eighty-seven years old. In contrast, in many places such as Africa, South America, or Asia, women would be lucky to reach fifty-five.ii They live in misery and die at a young age.
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In underdeveloped countries, people do not have access to technologies to reduce pollution and alternatives to minimize CO2. Most likely, many do not even know what technologies are available or affordable and which to prioritize. When their country’s UN representatives return from the UN conference, they repeat to their less educated people about the exotic beauty of green technology. They excitedly talk about how they don’t need to spend their precious little money on expensive fuel costs and, on top of that, how the green electrical plants cost much less to install and operate and have zero pollution. So, when they get financial grants or near zero-interest loans from the World Development Bank, they will be told that they must use that money only for “green technologies.” But all too soon, they are faced with the fact that none of these “free green energies” can be used for more than a few hours a day. If they have already started the construction on their coal-fired plants, they are told to shut it down. Or even if they have not, the policymakers who were misled find themselves in a pickle. They had built up the expectations of their general population, and now they can deliver neither coal nor green energy. Maybe some commissions were already skimmed by their “upper/ruling class.” What are these local rulers/decision-makers to do now? The sad answer is nothing good can come out of it. No matter what they do or not do, their poor people will continue to suffer the most because they won’t get the electricity they need to climb out of their poverty and depressive existence. But rest assured, the manufacturers of these “green machines” in the developed countries, who built and sold the green generation equipment, got paid their full prices, and probably before it was even shipped. A sad and undeniable fact: First and foremost, how dare we, in the lucky, affluent, and long-living comfortable world, be so quick to criticize the people of the underdeveloped world for trying to get some electric energy at a price they can afford? Or criticizing them for polluting their environment with their cheaper and “dirtier” coal power sources. Contrast this hungry world with the world of the “caring savants” and “priests of climate change.” Living in their lusty villas of Carmel, California, or the fashionable beaches of San Trope, France.iii And all the while, sipping chilled chardonnay, jet-setting to Monaco, and yachting all over the world to preach to these unfortunates on why they need to reduce their “carbon footprint.”
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While on the sub-Saharan desert edge, the poorest of the poor are praying they can get some scraps to live another day. To “Les Misérables” all over the world, they extoll the virtue of reducing CO2 to save the planet when they are struggling to stay alive one more day. At the same time, these Hollywood whores continue to waste hundreds of billions of dollars each year trying to control the narrative that CO2 may someday cause some kind of harm to somebody. All the while, they guzzle fossil fuels in their hundred-foot yachts, 20,000 square-foot villas, and private planes. A simple, humanitarian solution: Why don’t we take some of that same CO2-reducing wasted money and grant it to the poor and starving people in these troubled countries? Let them use that money to install the cheapest energy sources, like coal-fired plants. Then they can reduce their misery, hunger, and live longer! Hell, here is a simple fact, and as John Adams told us, “Facts are a stubborn thing:” ● There is zero evidence that CO2 is harming us or will do so for centuries to come, if ever. Quite the contrary. The increased CO2 we experienced in the last several/warming decades are: ▪ Greening the planet, ▪ Increasing agricultural yields per acre, ▪ Increasing the amount of arable land and food supply. ● There is increasing scientific evidence that in the next thirty to fifty years, the planet might experience a significant cooling period. As discussed in the publication Investor Business Daily,iv we are told that we may already be at the doorstep of this global cooling. ● The cooling could last for decades, which would reduce the global food supply 20 percent or more. ● Consequently, who would be the first to suffer and die? Certainly not Mr. Country Club or Mr. Hollywood! ● Look at the wealth/income distribution by counties in 7.3.2.v Too many people are not aware of the many hundreds of millions of people who are kept alive each day because of the overabundance of food production we have today in our developed countries.
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Lastly, I find it astounding how naïve we are in our own pampered, advanced, industrial nations, especially the intelligent and well educated among us. Here we have many Fig 7.3.2* educated and moral people profiting from this global warming scare at the expense of the least fortunate among us.vi I don’t claim they do this out of hubris or arrogance. I dare say most of them are not remotely aware of the harm and exploitation they are perpetrating. Let’s give them the full benefit of the doubt. Let’s say they are doing it out of a well-intentioned effort to save the planet with factual, technical, and financial ignorance. No doubt, many of these people are championing this cause out of pure altruism. OK, that’s good. And some are doing it out of a higher sense of moral principle to elevate their selfesteem and moral authority and raise their social status. And that’s fine too if it causes no harm to humanity. A straightforward example of what we might do in the USA: first, the wealthy have the resources to install solar panels on their roof, thinking this will reduce their carbon footprint. It also allows them to display their moral superiority to their friends and neighbors. But then they are eager to get their money back by a tax rebate and a discount on their electrical consumption from their utilities. What they are probably not aware of is that these rebates and discounts are being paid by the people who can’t afford to pay the costs of the solar panels and their installation. Then they have to fund the tax rebates to the wealthy who can afford them and pay the higher electric rates to subsidize the wealthy who can. I call this “social-economic theft.” Why am I writing this book? You now have a clear answer. It’s a personal appeal to those of you who are intellectually curious, honest, and caring enough to challenge yourselves. I ask you to dig deeper into the real science of climate change. Understand more fully the 6
economic, social, and moral consequences of what we have been doing, and make a rapid and decisive pivot. You can make a difference.
Thank you!
i World Food Day, A Journey To Hunger, 2015 http://venturesafrica.com/worldfood-day-2015-africas-journey-to-hunger-eradication/ ii Why are Japanese people living so long? Can we learn any lessons from them? https://www.agewatch.net/secrets-of-longevity/japanese-longevity/ iii https://cchistory322exhibitspring2012.wordpress.com/marie-antoinette/marietoday/ iv https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/climate-change-global-warmingearth-cooling-media-bia v https://emergenteconomics.com/2014/02/24/21-things-they-never-tell-you-aboutpoor-countries/ vi https://emergenteconomics.com/2014/02/24/21-things-they-never-tell-you-aboutpoor-countries/
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