The Register is reporting on the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) biennial, “Living Planet Report.” With Climate Change finding itself out of the news and it’s adherents under increasing scrutiny for their alarmism and weak science, the true believers have recently taken a darker approach, seeking to have deniers diagnosed as insane. The Living Planet Report attacks from the economic side, suggesting that the high standard of living and the modern comforts we all enjoy are excessive and are literally choking the life out of the planet.
the green hardliners demand that the enormous numbers of wind farms, tidal barriers and solar powerplants required under their plans should somehow be built while at the same time severely rationing supplies of concrete, steel, copper and glass.
The solution is more expensive green energy while limiting the materials to build with. See how easy that is?
The report is also unusual in that it seeks to set policy on economics and energy, but doesn’t anywhere give any figures expressed in units of energy (watt-hours, joules etc) or currency (dollars, euros or what have you). Instead the WWF activists prefer to base their argument on various indices invented either by themselves or by other international non- or quasi-governmental organisations.
When data and facts don’t support The Narrative, ignore them and develop methodologies that create new data and facts that do support The Narrative. When “reputable” organizations like the European Space Agency support you, well what more need be said?
So let’s get to the bottom line:
The WWF eco-nomists also argue that human beings actually don’t – or anyway, shouldn’t – want to get richer, as people getting rich means economic growth and that (regardless of what all world governments and almost all economists think, especially right now) is a Bad Thing as it leads to consumer demand which leads to resources and energy being used.
And more:
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.
As we marinade our youth in guilt and self-loathing, we already see the fruit in Occupy Wall Street and the progressive’s class war. These are people who believe that success is evil and destructive, and the standard of living we enjoy is a crime against nature. In the end, the goal is to send humanity back to the 14th century.