Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Guardian author Ian Dunlop claims times are getting harder for ordinary people because of resource shortages – but completely ignores the negative impacts of green policies.
If business leaders want to regain our trust, they must act on climate risk
Ian Dunlop
Empty rhetoric from corporates is not enough as climate change is accelerating far faster than expected
Business leaders seem astonished that community trust in their activitiesis at an all-time low, trending toward the bottom of the barrel inhabited by politicians. To the corporate leader dedicated to the capitalist, market economy success story of the last 50 years, that attitude is no doubt incomprehensible and downright ungrateful.
But a far more fundamental requirement is ignored, namely that business must lead on really critical issues, particularly the point raised long ago by economist Kenneth Boulding: “Anyone who considers economic growth can continue indefinitely in a finite system is either a madman or an economist”. The constraints Boulding anticipated have now arrived, as burgeoning population and economic growth crash into global biophysical limits which cannot be circumvented.
…
To the community, these constraints are increasingly obvious as the quality of life for the average person deteriorates in myriad ways. The rhetoric of much-vaunted corporate social responsibility no longer holds water when our supposed leaders are not prepared to address the issues that really count for our survival, let alone prosperity.
…
If business genuinely wishes to regain trust, it must proactively face up to the challenge posed by climate change and initiate emergency action. Beyond that, it must open up honest debate on a new economic model to replace conventional growth. It is the only way business will be sustainable in the 21st century with a real social licence to operate.
…
Ian Dunlop was formerly an international oil, gas and coal industry executive, chair of the Australian Coal Association and CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Director
My question – what would be the point of rationing if resources are finite?
If resources really are finite, we might as well party. Rationing delays doomsday but doesn’t stop it from happening. We might as well enjoy ourselves while we can, there is no reason to pointlessly delay the inevitable.
Of course, the reality is resources are not finite in any meaningful sense. Fracking, undersea mining, and in the not too distant future, Asteroid mining, will keep the party rolling indefinitely. Providing we allow capitalists to continue trying to solve our problems, our problems will continue to be solved.
As for Ian Dunlop’s claim that times getting tougher for ordinary people – I agree ordinary people are having a tougher time in many places, but this deterioration in living standards has nothing to do with resource shortages, the deterioration in living standards was the inevitable consequence of policies deliberately imposed by governments.
I’ll let former President Obama explain why he pushed policies which caused hardship for ordinary people.
Ian is undoubtedly a propagandist against capitalism.
First reaction to even the title of the article: Why would anyone care if they have the approval of the greens?
Greens tend to be the most least informed and nascent attempts at adult humans. They tend to abhor learning the actual details of what they demand we do, and they have no interest at all in becoming informed or listening to cogent opposing arguments. They tantrum like two-year-olds. So, again, why would anyone care if they approve or not?
Note to Greens…
If thine store offends thee, don’t shop there. If thine flock is truly so vast, the stores will go under from the loss of your business. That is capitalism!
I suspect through that thou hast few friends and thine absence will only free up minimal aisle space
These people are funded by Putin (via a Bahamas-based company). Putin’s main income stream is oil and gas, and anything he can do to restrict our supplies is to his advantage.
The Greens are habitual liars – nobody should trust THEM!
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/01/16/frigid-cold-is-why-we-need-dependable-energy/comment-page-1/#comment-2720100
[excerpt]
I am not familiar with this group, but there are so many of them. They are typically dishonest – “any lie is OK, if it supports the Cause”.
As a general observation:
Global warming alarmism is the new “front” for economic Marxists, who were discredited after the fall of the Soviet Union circa 1990.
Read Dr. Patrick Moore’s essay, “Hard Choices for the Environmental Movement”, written in 1994, especially “The Rise of Eco-Extremism”
http://ecosense.me/2012/12/30/key-environmental-issues-4/
I have corresponded with Patrick on this essay and I think he “nailed it”. So did he.
Regards, Allan
Remember Greenies, at least in the USA…
UNEP FI, October 2005
‘UNEP Finance Initiative Innovating financing for sustainability’, ~ 153 pages
‘A legal framework for the integration of of environmental,social and governance into institutional investment’
a.k.a the “Freshfield Report”
Includes Canada and the U.S. along with other countries.
Re: private/public pension finds. mutual finds, insurance funds.
At:
http://www.unepfi.org/publications/investment-publications/a-legal-framework-for-the-integration-of-environmental-social-and-governance-issues-into-institutional-investment
UNEP FI, July 2009
Sequel to: 2006 “Freshfields Report”
The report termed “Fiduciary II”, 92 pages
Has three main elements.
Overview and Report at:
http://www.unepfi.org/publications/investment-publications/fiduciary-responsibility-legal-and-practical-aspects-of-integrating-environmental-social-and-governance-issues-into-institutional-investment
UNEP FI, 27 January 2017
‘Fiduciary Duty In The 21ST Century: Launch Of Canada Roadmap’
Re: Green Policy and investment issues.
Overview and Document at:
http://www.unepfi.org/news/industries/investment/fiduciary-duty-in-the-21st-century-launch-of-canada-roadmap
“Roadmaps” include the U.S. and other countries and are available online.
Bryan A: Unless you are a white Male heterosexual Christian.
Don’t you think people are academia are often a lot like The Big Bang Theory characters?
Many of the most arrogant, annoying, boring, inept people that I remember I had the displeasure to talk to, were academic drones.
They act like they are victimized by right wing people who do normal (non research) work, who have no idea what science is (according to sciency people)… they believe they are attacked and cornered by right wing governments. So any request looks like a trap.
They believe the common man is too ignorant to dismiss ignorant, irrelevant, unreasonable criticisms of their work. They claim they can interpret evidence and the common man can’t, or can be manipulated easily by doubt producers (“the doubt is their product”). Also, the same academics seem to accept any evidence free claim that vaccines are useful and safe, and reject the overwhelming evidence that at least some vaccines are very, very dangerous. Any study showing an issue with vaccine (when it can even to published in “reputable”(*) journals) will be teared appart by finding potential issues (there are always potential issues, this is not some hard physics stuff) when studies with much more serious issues are accepted as sound because they go in the proper direction.
(*) i.e. the star system, Hollywood like system
And even the telltale sign of a cult, the fact that studies showing dangers of vaccines almost always have to conclude that vaccination is good and often even that more vaccinations would be better, is taken a signal that vaccines are safe, not that vaccine is a church.
The same kind of people will dismiss the many studies showing reasonable consumption of wine linked to best health outcome as flawed because many abstinent people are abstinent because they have health issues caused by wine. Which is just as plausible as the avoidance of any type of food in any food study.
Doubt is their product, but their product is flawed: who is willing to take seriously the allegation that people (esp. in the medical community) with MS running through the family were more willing to get a vaccine known to cause MS, than people with no such genetic risk? I am not making that up. That was the doubt product produced in France by the establishment!
It’s as if academic drones sucked at seeing obvious patterns (with rapes, polio, MS, homogenization…).
” trust in their activities is at an all-time low,”..first they start out with a strawman…and brainwash all the kids into believing it
“climate change is accelerating far faster …”
That’s a lot of derivatives.
Greens must work harder to show their gratitude for the abundant energy and wealth of benefits that they enjoy as a direct result of the burning of fossil fuels.
That’s what I was thinking recently, that no matter how good things get for humankind, there are always the pessimists who are full of unwarranted anxiety that the favorable conditions we now enjoy (compared to two centuries ago) are somehow insidiously toxic to life, and that the industry by which mankind has found comfortable longevity in ever greater numbers was somehow a wrong turn in Human evolution.
” The constraints Boulding anticipated have now arrived, as burgeoning population … ”
Q: So why aren’t these neo-Marxists advocating population control?
A: It’s not euro-whites who are over populating.
@Pop Piasa
Humans are naturally pessimistic bunch. It’s in our blood. And we have very short memories. These days it has become worse because of 24/7 news, which constantly tells bad news. But then again that is their job. If nothing happened nobody cares.
Things are constantly getting better, but IMO one of the greatest threats for this is that we don’t recognize how good things are. Then we panic and implement policies that just hurt us.
I think westerners are also getting little bit spoiled. Average westerner is better off than historical kings, but we constantly complain about everything. Some asian countries have catched up but I don’t know how much they complain there. Most of us couldn’t last a second in the middle ages. I wouldn’t even travel 100 years back in time even if I got 10000 billion dollars, which means i’m better off now than Rockefeller 100 years ago.
Show me.
Max – that phrase caught my eye too. The UAH figures suggest Feb 2018 was 0.2 centigrade above 1981 – 2010 mean. How fast were they expecting it to accelerate?
John Hardy – “They” (NB. not UAH) were expecting 0.2C/decade. That’s 0.46C if I can do sums before the day’s first coffee (actually, that’s quite a big ask …).
“That’s a lot of derivatives.”
Every one is more uncertain than the previous one.
At some point, you are sure to find a possibly positive one! (It’s noise.)
You missed that just using current modern techniques (and having industrial access to more land) on more than the tiny percentage that has already been on the land’s mass would yield much more resources. We don’t need new techniques. Some day the Middle East will be forced to totally modernise and they will produce lots more oil.
There is mistrust of business because they do silly things like virtue signal and greenwash for the greens. Instead of being honest, and stating the green blob is largely arcadian socialists and rent seekers, they try appeasement.
Ethanol Folly; Billions Wasted on Green Junk Science
https://co2islife.wordpress.com/2018/03/16/ethanol-folly-billions-wasted-on-green-junk-science/
“….these constraints are increasingly obvious as the quality of life for the average person deteriorates in myriad ways…..” And those ‘ways’ would be? Name one.
Energy starvation due to green policies.
+97,000,000
More mandatory vaccines that force concerned parents to lie, cheat, even avoid the doctor… We might see more diseases because of these policies.
Breaking the soul of people is the aim of mandatory vaccines – NOT selling drugs.
Business doesn’t want the trust of Greens, they just want them to go away.
Nice red communist fist banner in the lead photo….
Ian Dunlop denigrates capitalism, businessmen, and the industries that brought real economic justice to more of the planets population than at any other point in human history. He demonstrates by his own sneering contempt of wealth creation and wealth distribution through expanding jobs and paychecks that he is an untrustworthy person. He instead advocates the ‘socialist responsibilities’ that have repeatedly driven whole countries into collapse, leaving only misery and starvation for their citizens.
Meanwhile, in the socialist paradise of Venezuela, forced electrical power rationing has been implemented again because lack of sustaining investment has driven power generating and grid delivery systems into disrepair. A drought is adding to the socialist economic malaise that has seen malnutrition and starvation return to this once thriving, energy rich nation. Lack of investment in back up power systems such as diesel generators means people on life sustaining measures at hospitals are dying when the grid power is shut off, even as you read this.
Of course “these constraints are increasingly obvious as the quality of life for the average person deteriorates in myriad ways”. All they have to do is look it up on their phones, watch the news on their big-screen TVs, or simply ask Alexa.
“ordinary”, wouldn’t be here if we were.
The fundamental premise of finite resources must be challenged. Think about cyber-space. It didn’t exist a generation ago. Now it exists and soaks up more and more of our economic activity.
Resources are matters of social and economic definition, not external constraint. The human mind is infinite in scope and is the ultimate resource.
“Resources are matters of social and economic definition, not external constraint.”
Yes! Nailed it! Post-modern Marxists live in a linear, pessimistic nightmare that has no real connection to our non-linear reality. They live in a form of imaginary hell, and they spend all of their time and energy trying to tell the rest of us to go to hell in such a way that we look forward to the trip.
Almost every line of the article is simply untrue, inaccurate and/or taken out of context. It is like reading an article from an alternate universe where logic, evidence and intellectual understanding do not exist.
Still, they do have skill in manipulation and propaganda, and they are having some success at moving us towards the Orwellian dystopia.
“climate change is accelerating far faster than expected”. This acceleration must have passed me by. Nothing of any significance has changed in my lifetime.
Here, here. Eco-fascists must have hypersensitive skin that can feel a fraction of a Celsius degree ON AVERAGE temperature change, most of which has conveniently occurred where there are few thermometers and they can simply make up any data required to feed the BS story.
And now we know why the Guardian is in free fall . Interesting they don’t ever seem to get around to
talking about the “ordinary ” people dying from fuel poverty caused by policies build on a fraud foundation .
Disproven mathematical models underpin a $trillion dollar hoax yet even when confronted with the reality
climate Armageddon pitchmen and politicians rant on . The point is they never really believed the earth has a fever but it served 3 main purposes .
#1. Excuse for new taxes.
#2 To transfer tax payer money (new debt actually ) to their rent seeking “clean energy ” corporate welfare bums .
#3 To transfer money and individual countries decision making autonomy to a globalist power .
When the facts change and the course stays the same the facts weren’t that important anyways .
But the fraud was revealed .
The Grauniad is totally inconsistent. In the recent Global warming caused ‘beast from the east’ it was slagging off a previous government ruling that closed a natural gas storage plant – in line with green policies to reduce fossil fuel usage – which thus led to – you’ve guessed it – a shortage of gas. Supplies to industry had to be curbed so that the people could actually heat their homes. Letting people get cold might have woken them up to the fact that renewables cannot replace fossil fuel for consistent and reliable power supplies
I surmise Mr Dunlop is virtue signalling. Probably he has his eye on some Liberal lady and wants to impress her with his green virtue hoping to get her in the sack.
Almost certainly.
I know people like this. They live an an alternative universe.
The green strategy is to specifically deny resources(aka: fossil fuels) to ordinary people.
A case of poverty generation under the guise of morality.
Why on earth should anyone wish to have the trust of these greens? It is more a matter of: Do we forgive them for they know not what they do? — Very difficult by the way they behave.
It’s always interesting how green socialists hate businesses, but at the same time worship governments. Governments are about force, businesses are about individual choice, unless they work with governments. Just shows how ignorant he is. But then again he is a journalist. They care about readers, not facts and logic.
I think greens need to work harder to regain the trust of the populace.
Do these green-weirdings realise that they too can start a genuine non-subsidised private business, and also grow-up and discover what being independent is?
To repeat (and amend) a post on another thread:
I would like to know against what metric to they apply that logic – how fast was it expected to accelerate? Against what are they measuring this acceleration? And is it necessarily for the bad? Also, in which direction? And, whichever way it changes, will it always be for the bad? (Certainly, cooling will be, but that is only my opinion – but it is an opinion based upon observable history.)
While there are unlikely to be any answers to those two questions, and, if there are, those answers will not be credible. But it certainly highlights the utter stupidity of this whole farrago and its acolytes, especially this obsession that we must somehow rigidly follow, never mind believe – or even agree with – the Green mantra.
For those, like Entropic man and Mr Clarke, who insists that we “think of the chiiiildren!” (or even the grandchiiiildren), why do they not review what their parents and grandparents did for us: perhaps they should be condemning them for leading us to this situation?
We are now where our ancestors dreamt of, most of us enjoying an unimaginable wealth, well-fed, well-clothed and warm; travelling to wherever we want whenever we want; able to communicate instantly to whoever we want, wherever in the world they may be. Perhaps more importantly, for the first time in human history, we are in a situation where we can eradicate poverty. Sadly, we are not taking up that mantle; we are actually in the process of increasing poverty by the stupidity of the gullible in following the AGW mantra. We are applying the inverse of the teaching of William Boetcker: we are weakening the strong, we are tearing down the big men, we are destroying the rich, we are pulling down the wage-payer, we are spending more than our income, we are inciting class hatreds, living off borrowed money, destroying initiative and independence, and insisting that we are “helping” by doing for others what they could and should do for themselves.
Another site, actually, not a thread on this site… sorreeee…
Precisely, if there is a real need and a profit to be made, someone will figure out a solution and sell it in a free capitalist society. That is why our food supply has grown by a factor of three since 1961 (FAOSTAT), global wheat yield/ha is growing at 2% per year with no sign of slowing down (FAO), world poverty is less than a third of what it was in 1990, and world income per person is 50% higher than in 1990 (World Bank).
If you prefer government to control all means of production and run everything, that is socialism, move to Venezuela.
The same applies to oil and gas. Population growth will turn negative long before supplies run out. The risk now is that countries with oil in the ground may never find buyers.
Yes, and stop trying to turn US INTO Venezuela.
Businesses seeking a new green policy are recommended to use our ild method.
Treat the b*ggers as irrelevant nuisances and take them to Court if they disrupt your business, especially when profitability is threatened by lies that diminish your reputation.
We used to assume that greens have no standing, no right to interfere with your reputable business. It is still that way. Enforce this. You have taken the business and financial risk. They have nothing to contribute but disputes and made up stuff. Geoff
Ah, the sickeningly sweet smell of a self-unaware sanctimonious socialist. (Say that four times fast!)
Every business owner is Luten Plunder from Captain Planet to these people.
Dunlop spews forth a noxious ideology which can only be described as anti-human, combining neo-Marxism, Ehrlichianism, and Climatism into one revolting stew. What a vile, disgusting individual.
I’m embarrassed for modern “protesters” — those in the pitiful photo accompanying this post.
They could only get 30-40 people together to save the world? In my uni days, that was just enough for a student-apartment party. Demonstration attendance, even just on campus, were counted in thousands…..heck, we could round up a few thousand to protest a change in Student Union menus.
Look at those smiling, naive leftists with banners. Hypocrites and an embarrassment.
Yes, I’d like to see them all called on their hypocrisy and forced to recognize it. What are those shoes/pants/shirt/jacket/scarf made of? How was that material grown, harvested, transported, manufactured, distributed? How did you get here today? What did you eat today? How was THAT produced, transported, distributed? And take away anything that has any connection to the fossil fuel use they are laughably campaigning against. Turn off the heat and lights in their dorms. Strip their dorms of bedding and beds – can’t have the products of farming, mining and manufacture being used by these zealots! Stop providing them with food. Time to put your money where your mouth is! Then see how many are willing to sally forth, naked, hungry and cold, to continue the “fight” for the “cause.”
This caught my eye: “…burgeoning population and economic growth crash into global biophysical limits which cannot be circumvented.”
I’d like to take a moment to point out a few REAL WORLD things:
— There is a lot of empty space with no lights glowing on the “Earth at Night” image from NASA.
— ‘global biophysical limits’ implies erroneously that agribusiness can’t keep up with the demand for food. This is completely not true, whether it’s in cities or in rural areas. Improved hybrids yield higher crop volumes per acre than ever.
— Economic growth will continue to happen as long as people like the clanker who wrote the clanker article get out of their way. I’m seeing megastore and chain stores like Toys “R” Us closing, but I think that has more to do with internet marketing business than anything else. Amazon (which some people despise) may be the last bastion of chain store-type marketing, because they offer 3rd party retailers an online service access. Economic growth has, in fact, continued to thrive and is ‘burgeoning’.
— The people who write these dismal dystopic pieces must be watching too many of those “Mad Max’ movies, in which everything goes to pieces, or maybe it’s the ‘Divergent’ series. Don’t know, don’t care, but they clearly need some contact with reality and some long term professional help with their problem regarding their lack of contact with the real world.
Thanks for your time. I have a chopped salad to make for lunch. Zukes, tomatoes, green and red onion, bell peppers (all colors) diced ham, and a nice, peppery lemon juice/olive oil vinaigrette.
+1
Just more Malthusian Myopia.
Funny. My customers for the most part don’t even talk about the green goofiness or politics in general.
Their concern for the most part is how much, how long and when.
In five years I’ve only had one tell me that vaccines are safe.
And, a few have told me we must protect firearms or mainly just tell me how stupid liberals are in general.
Even had one couple tell me how great Alex Jones is.
But never have any of them talked about globull warming.
And, countless tell me how great Trump is.
I usually hear the normal complaints about how hot it is , or can’t wait for winter. Just normal conversation.
So Ian must be from another planet somewhere else in the universe.
noman
Arizona
To Gang Green business is just a medium to grow their rot in.
Contact with such foulness,the eco warrior type,should be avoided.
Additional note,always try to sidle away to the upwind side when confronted by an agent of Gang Green, no deoderant can disguise the smell.
If appeasement by corporations is effective we should use it to our advantage as well. We need a list of products/companies/corporations that allow politics to shape their business so we can avoid them. They should be politically neutral. My guess is as soon as it starts affecting their bottom line they will have second thoughts about publicly supporting anything but their products. All businesses will happily follow to save themselves grief.
Trust is not what they are asking for. What they are demanding is obeisance.
Let them freeze, naked and in the dark. They dare not light a fire….it’s against their credo.
“Resources are finite.” OMG, we’ll run out of zeros and ones, and then our computers won’t work. Maybe we should start a recycling program, with separate bins for zeros and for ones of course.
From the article: “Empty rhetoric from corporates is not enough as climate change is accelerating far faster than expected”
Ridiculous. There is no evidence that Climate Change (CAGW is what he means) is happening anywhere around the world and there is certainly no evidence that it is accelerating. The author doesn’t know what he is talking about and couldn’t prove that statement if his life depended on it.
Yup – but similar to what I said in my definition of “unprecedented,” they don’t let facts get in the way of a good sound bite, and figure the ignorant masses they want to control won’t bother to fact check, and will instead jump on the bandwagon of demanding “action” to provide a non-solution to the non-existent “crisis.”
From the article: ““Anyone who considers economic growth can continue indefinitely in a finite system is either a madman or an economist”. ”
The author is essentially lobbying against econimic growth, like all the Greens and Alarmists do. At least this one comes right out and says it.
“Anyone who considers [that] economic growth can continue indefinitely in a finite system is either a madman or an economist”.
His use of “indefinitely” is a ruse. He’s saying “to infinity”, which is obviously not possible.
We live in a finite world; and as demonstrated by affluent countries, the population levels out.
It also depends on how you measure wealth.
Obviously a computer chip is a lot more valuable than a pile of sand with the same weight.
Knowledge itself takes up no weight or space, but is very valuable.
From the article: “To the community, these constraints are increasingly obvious as the quality of life for the average person deteriorates in myriad ways.”
I don’t know about you but my quality of life is good and getting better now that Trump has been elected. I wonder who this “average person” is. Most of the people I know are better off now than in the past.
Yes, indeed, my “quality of life” is surprisingly good, best it’s been in a while.
From the article: “Beyond that, it must open up honest debate on a new economic model to replace conventional growth.”
The author doesn’t mention what economic model he is talking about. I assume he means socialism. But socialism isn’t new. It’s old enough to have proven itself a flawed economic policy. Venezuela is a good example.
Free enterprise is what sets people and economies free. There isn’t a better economic model.
When will the filthy capitalists who have killed ten of thousands of migratory birds with their useless windmills be brought to justice by the greens?
Those aren’t capitalists; they’re rent-seeking mandate and subsidy miners.
In France, the group “les économistes atterrés” (the “dismayed economists”), pretend to fight the neo-liberal economic agenda and the “politique de rigueur” and budget balancing all over Europe (“rigueur” and budget balancing actually which means ever more increasing spending and deficit all over Europe). They are pretty much a French economic variant of “the concerned scientists”.
“Les économistes atterrés” explicitly say that the role of the government is to find clients for new technologies (“renewables”, electric cars…).
Of course these “economists” are loved by the “news” media!
We can them “les économistes atterrants” (the staggering economists).
Capitalism generally goes with the lowest cost highest profit formula that allows affordability by the majority of their target customers.
It is the over demanding ultra Green Zealots that demand the higher cost more “environmentally friendly” Bird Chopping and Bird & Bug Cooking supposedly Carbon Free “Alternate Energy Sources”.
Maybe the Greenies should just bugger off.
“Green” implies, to me anyway, an alignment with photosynthetic plants. Two key ingredients for the flourishing of same are: 1) Warm temperatures, and 2) An ample supply of CO2 in the atmosphere. To claim that one is “Green,” yet opposes both of those things, would to me say that Greens have a LOT of work, and I mean a WHOLE LOT of f*&*ing work, to convince anyone on the face of the earth that they are sane.
LMFAO truer words could not be spoken.
I think math education failed.
Some of these guys probably were there when integrals were explained, but they don’t “see” these. Some students can compute any usual integral on the instant but do not understand anything they write.
The integral of an increasing exponential cost function (cost is positive), over infinite time, is infinite.
The integral of any increasing cost function, over infinite time, is infinite.
The integral of any real cost (real cost is not null) constant function, over infinite time, is infinite.
And any realistic decreasing cost function would still have infinite integral.
Not so much that Math education failed, but that Stupid education succeeded.
F him and the Yugo he rode in on.