![Firmin DeBrabander. Smog hangs over a construction site in Weifang city, Shandong province, Oct 16. 2015. Air quality went down in many parts of China since Oct 15 and most cities are shrounded by haze. [Photo/IC]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/deberbander_china.jpg)
Professor of Philosophy Firmin DeBrabander, Maryland Institute College of Art, has joined the growing list of greens who think “autocratic” governments like China are better climate custodians than Democracies.
Why is climate change such a hard sell in the US?
June 8, 2017 12.36pm AEST
President Donald Trump on June 1 took the dramatic step of removingthe U.S. from the Paris climate agreement – the product of many years of diligent and difficult negotiation among 175 nations around the world. Recent polls reveal that six in 10 Americans oppose Trump’s move. However, a significant portion of climate skeptics remain – especially among Trump’s base and the Republican politicians who cheered this move.
The unfortunate truth is that environmentalists and their allies have failed to ignite widespread passion around climate change. And now they are faced with an administration stridently opposed to environmental regulation, slashing the EPA’s budget drastically and reversing President Obama’s climate change initiatives.
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Learning from the past
I suspect that because of all these hurdles, climate change is not liable to be solved by democracies. Autocracies might do better – like China, for example. Given the severity of its current air pollution – a veritable “airpocalypse” – China’s government does not need to be prodded or persuaded to act; the necessity is obvious, and urgent. And China has the ability to take dramatic measures on climate change and act quickly – just what scientists are calling for – dragging the people with them. This is, after all, the nation that lifted half a billion people into the middle class in a single generation.
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Read More: http://theconversation.com/why-is-climate-change-such-a-hard-sell-in-the-us-78794
China in particular has a long and shameful track record of pollution and disregard for the environment; cities choked with smoke, toxic waste dumped into the nearest convenient lake. Communist China has a long history of utter disregard for the needs of ordinary people.
DeBrabander’s claim that Dictatorships like China “might do better” at handling climate issues than countries whose governments are accountable to the people is absurd.
The only reason this happened “…lifted half a billion people into the middle class in a single generation….”, is that the Western world aided them by opening up trade relations with China. China did not manage that on their own.
To be honest here, he is right. Democracies work great until you have to get everybody to pull in the same direction for generations on end on something that is controversial. To be successful in getting a huge majority for generations they have to get the kids onboard and let them carry the religion forward.
However, there is an obvious problem. Dictatorships are in place to keep the leaders in place, that is their objective. They will never prioritise a goal that does not promote that objective and climate change does not do that.
The goal of climate change alarmism is to get an ever more powerful leftist government in place in the US and other western nation, and saying that governments absolutely must have full control of the energy grid, transportation, and agriculture does exactly that.
Reasonable skeptic, I disagree. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbour the mobilization of the war effort was virtually instantaneous. If CAGW were a real existential problem, same thing. Difference, there is no evidence of CAGW. Quoting selective physics, upon which models that run 3x too hot, is not evidence. Observations, even hyped and continually jacked up show nothing outside of recent experience. Indeed, the unexpected rapid greening of the planet, which is sequestering carbon at an exponential rate (ditto plankton in the sea) , is an endothermic (cooling!) process, is rapidly expanding habitat, and for good measure is doubling crop yields. We better drop the atmospheric carbon cost benefit exercises or we could end up having to pay fossil fuel companies for its generation. Currently, fossil fuel companies are subsidizing this bounty. Oh, the plants need less water, deserts are cooling (endothermic result) and the temperate and boreal areas are warming moderately and greening too! Boy oh boy, the Climate Blues caused by the dreaded Pause could become epidemic among warming proponents and worsen into something more dire than mere neurosis.
And he stole the idea from journalist/pundit Tom Friedman.
gosh I wonder if anyone has told his dictatorship Un in north Korea? Wonder why he hasn’t made the weather more Camelot like so that his people will have plenty to eat and they could have endless “solar” electricity, the people of the world would flock to his wondrous country.
the stupid has become almost beyond parody!
Cheers!
Joe
China refutes your article.
Three simple statements of fact:
1. This has been made by many commentators here: There are a wealth of examples in China specifically and in all other modern authoritarian states; of rampant disregard for the environment and a favoring of expedience of “disposal” of toxic wastes etc. with a total lack of regard for any life.
2. This person has no historical context. Simply look at the air quality, water quality and general treatment of the environment in the USA 50-70 years ago versus now. The trend is amazingly positive. Rich nations and populations DEMAND IT. I live in Houston, Texas. I have literally seen the changes and I am under 40 years old. It was even more profound in the 60s.
3. China only lifted its population out of abject poverty (whatever that is) into “less poverty” by being the manufacturing and labor force for the 1st world, period. Funny, is it not, that western democracies and republics were required for that. China also adopted Westernized reforms and free-market attributes to affect this change.
This man is ignorant of economics, history, environmental records and basic human nature, to name just a few. I am quite sure his retort to me would be something about how “stupid, racist and privileged” I am. Blah, blah, blah . . .
I guess it says something “nice” that so many people assume this is an honest argument (a thief believes that everyone steals, after all).
But it isn’t. The goal is totalitarianism (particularly with his “team” in charge). The environment, like “income inequality”, is almost certainly a pretext.
I’ve said it a hundred times – you gotta be a control freak first.
These last few years we’ve had a number of large protests against recent democratic results: Scotland devolution, brexit, Trump, and I’m sure others I can’t recall.
These are protests against democracy itself. I was always amazed that do few people could see that. At least someone is actually coming out and admitting that democracy is the actual concept that they hate, not the results of said democracy.
They think their rule would be better than democracy. But non-democracy can be a trumpland or a hillaristan. The difference in more at the press side. Non-democracies don’t have a free press.
They also always seem to put themselves in the position of the dictator rather than the dictated.
Yet another justification for Communism.
Why don’t they grow up….?
There’s a sucker born every minute.
Firmin DeBrabander? It’s a joke, there is no such person.
‘Debrabander’ is an anagram of ‘drab near bed’ or ‘bad bear nerd’ or something similar.
The Conversation, as you can tell from its name, is just another leftist sounding-box. Its comment blogs are replete with idiot trolls, and it is moderated to steer comments in their direction. Subjects are remorselessly set up to promote the Meme, using University people. It really is sickening….
Bring back Tony Abbot! (I write from across the ditch, concerning NZ’s West Island).
‘DeBrabander’s claim that Dictatorships like China “might do better” at handling climate issues than countries whose governments are accountable to the people is absurd.’
Unless the interest is in implementing dictatorships, and ‘climate issues’ is just a tool for achieving it.
A prime example is Canada’s Liberal Party leader, now Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
When asked which nation’s “administration he most admired”, Trudeau came up with this:
“There is a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say we need to go green, we need to start, you know, investing in solar. …”
https://youtu.be/l8wQrM5jTWc?t=19
And don’t forget all that Castro did for his people.
I keep waiting for the econuts to realize the final solution to human carbon pollution. They’ve been dancing around it with their Malthusian projections for decades. I guess they just need a dictator to realize it.
toxic waste dumped into the nearest convenient lake.
Plastic rice, any one?
Speaking of lakes, there is a youtube video documentary about some of the Russian lakes that were, shall we say, manmade. The Soviets decided that nuclear weapons could be key to mining ores on a tighter schedule than usually required using men or tractors. These lakes today are in a barren region and there are some fishies, but no swimmers. Just men with masks and very noisy Geiger counters on their belts and in a hurry to leave.
When praising China’s leadership, environmentalists appear unaware that in November, 2015, China disclosed that it had been underreporting coal burning by 17%, an amount greater than the annual energy consumption of Germany. It’s all in this New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/asia/china-burns-much-more-coal-than-reported-complicating-climate-talks.html
Its the same claim that the part time drama teacher that was elected by low information voters in Canada made.
11 January 2013 , Christiana Figuerres, IPCC chief stated in an interview with the Guardian- Democracy is a poor political system to fight global warming. Chinese Communism is the best model.
Why didn’t the UN admonish her for condoning the iron fist of totalitarianism to “combat” a non-existent “problem?” Suspicious indeed.
Trump cracked down on the Arts and stopped the subsidy so what is he complaining about. As for the Climate? The Climate doesn’t care if a country is a democracy or a dictatorship. Just like the weather there is no way to influence our climate. Only idiots think they can.
Most of the comments here have addressed the question of whether authoritarian governments like China are more susceptible to the political appeals by climate alarmists and more willing to take radical action to reduce GHG emissions now. I agree that it is more difficult to persuade people in a democracy and that China’s plans to reduce GHG emissions in future have been overblown by a naive western media. There, however, is another aspect of this question. The alarmists are not calling for modest, or even large and expensive changes; they are demanding the complete transformation of the world’s energy system to eliminate the use of oil, natural gas and coal within the next thirty years! That would involve fantastically expensive changes (if, indeed, they are possible at all) and disruption to the consumption patterns of all advanced economies, It would take our economies back to the energy use patterns of the 1850’s. That is so revolutionary and harmful to humans that there is no way it would be accepted by democratic societies. It would have to be imposed by authoritarian regimes collaborating on a global basis.
LOL ….. he says “China” lifted half a billion people into the middle class. So just how did they do that? ….. answer …. a free trade agreement with the US and adopting a lot of capitalistic principles. That’s how.
Autocratic …. Democratic ….. doesn’t matter …… Leftism will fail. Leftism relies on conservative principles for its very existence, all the while bashing them as if they are obsolete.
Smoke and mirrors and chinese whispers…they have been doing it for a good few 1000 yrs…
Apparently this guy did not get the memo that you are not supposed to state the ultimate goal of the AGW cabal so plainly.
Ph.D. in Art, guess he has studied lots of science and history, an expert,we need more dictatorships,maybe then after CO2 hoax, government can move on to directing what is appropriate/best art for new world order and burning rest like NAZIs (a.k.a.National SOCIALISTS), or ISIS. In the meantime, lets educate some leftists with worthless four year art degrees at a quarter million $ a pop so they can save planet after graduating well edumbacated and after their bartending and minimum wage jobs in their spare time, dictatorship and art will save planet.
Most people today appear to be philosophically bankrupt and in my experience an alarming amount of scientists are philosophically bankrupt as well. It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before professors of philosophy wound up bankrupt too.
“Most people today appear to be philosophically bankrupt…”
These aren’t people, they are academics.