Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Another poor people will suffer because climate tear jerker which misses the obvious solution.
Developing countries face rising payments due to climate change, says report
July 2, 2018 by Laura Singleton, Imperial College London
Developing countries face debt payments of up to $168 billion over the next ten years as a result of their vulnerability to man-made climate change.
…
However, the researchers also found that investments in climate resilience can help improve fiscal health at the national level.
Dr. Charles Donovan, Director of the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment at Imperial College Business School, said: “Our work demonstrates that climate change is not only imposing economic and social costs on developing countries, but it is also amplifying existing risks that are already priced in fixed income markets. These impacts will grow.
“The good news is that investments in climate adaptation can not only reduce social, ecological and economic harm, but can buffer against fiscal impairments. But to be effective, these investments need to be made now.”
…
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-07-countries-payments-due-climate.html
The full report is available here.
The report suggests countries with vulnerable infrastructure should improve their climate resilience, but in my opinion this would be a dreadful misallocation of resources. This would leave countries with already shaky finances struggling to pay off debts for events which might never happen.
A much better solution is to stop being poor. Most poor countries could dramatically improve their financial situation in just a few decades, by copying the 20th century Asian miracle. In the mid 20th century Asia proved to the world what keeps countries poor is their burden of political parasites – greedy kleptocrats stealing so much they suck their economies dry. Remove the worst kleptocrats, curb the greed of the political class just enough that ordinary people start to really believe in a better future, and even the poorest countries surge forward in acquiring wealth.
Rich people can afford all the seawalls and resilience infrastructure they need.
This is the message economists should be spreading – not the gospel of climate fear, keeping poor people in their place, forever indebted up to their eyeballs with no hope for a better future.
The real vulnerability is the rise in U.S. interest rates by the Federal Reserve and value of the dollar with negative impact on dollar denominated debt in those countries. It is low credit quality that forces them to borrow in dollar terms in the first place and sets them up for problems from swings in the dollar.
Bet dollars to doughnuts that these funds would (or mostly be used) for economic development.
Why?
2 reasons:
1) The fertility rate in developed economies is very low compared to un-developed countries.
2) The Rockefeller foundation is concerned with over-population and wants it lower.
For example (of many over the years), from their 1992 annual report, page 5:
“If we assume that the trend toward smaller desired family size associated with development will continue, then quality family planning and related health services made available on a voluntary basis to everyman and woman in the world could help the world’s fertility rate to decline to the replacement rate of about 2.1 in two to three decades.”
Page 5 (if the link still works, haven’t checked it).
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/1123ceb2-744c-4ce3-9e73-df03359865d7-1992.pdf
kramer
I didn’t read the report, so I could be wrong here, but the concept of introducing free family planning facilities results in a lot of drunk men wandering about with inflated prophylactics on their heads for a laugh.
Population expansion has, in my opinion, nothing to do with stopping babies being born, and everything to do with care for the elderly.
We know that large families are desirable in developing countries because there is little health or welfare provision. The solution is, have as big a family as you can to ensure their collective contributions will take care of the elderly.
So eradicate the elderly care problem, and we eradicate the symptom of too many kids.
HotScot,
Population control is in many of the Rockefeller reports. Haven’t read or seen anything in them yet where they talk about the elderly in the context of population control. Their focus seems to be on a sustainable (for lack of better word) fertility rate.
If I find anything in their reports that suggests keeping the elderly alive longer is related to the population problem, I will note these instances.
You are correct about large families in DCs. They are aware of this too. What better way to shrink family size than by bringing a modern economy to their worlds and getting their women working. Indeed, I’ve even read in their reports where they talk about getting women into the workforce to reduce the fertility rate.
Regarding who is going to pay for developing the economic infrastructure of these DCs? Rich countries. Wouldn’t put it past these people to fund ‘studies’ or NGOs to implement a global cap-and-trade scheme that results in our wealth being transferred to these countries to pay for these projects.
I would like to see these DCs get developed *assuming* that the majority of the people in a given DC wants a modern lifestyle. I also get the population problem as well as needing to share the world’s resources. Leveraging climate change as a way of doing this (IMO, this is one of the desired outcomes of climate change ‘solutions’ ) doesn’t sit well with me. I believe (again, my opinion) that this is a major reason why there is so much shoddy and adjusted science in climate change and which also probably had an influence in the climate gate emails.
As to why the Rockefeller family (and some other rich people/families also) is so concerned with global matters, I don’t know if it’s because they have so much wealth and hence time on their hands that they can spend this free time ‘solving’ the world’s problem. Maybe this is a good thing.
Or maybe they are so concerned with enjoying and protecting their wealth for themselves and their offspring that they use their wealth to push for policies that are changing the world in ways that makes it safer.
Eric Worrall :
You are SOUNDING a lot like Jordan Peterson !
“Tidy your room , Stand up straight with your shoulders back and address the World
confidently . Adopt a healthy attitude that allows you to deal with the World properly.
Sure ! Life IS suffering and everyone suffers. We all get old , sick and eventually die !
Too bad ! THAT is the price you pay for LIVING ! Realise you HAVE TO TAKE ON YOUR OWN
RESPONSIBILITIES and BEAR THEM ! If you do that successfully you will REDUCE your
suffering and improve yourself and the lives of everyone around you !
Overcome your OWN BLOODY PROBLEMS before you try to tell the rest of the
World how to run it’s economic and political system ! ”
DON’T YOU JUST LOVE IT !
“The report suggests countries with vulnerable infrastructure should improve their climate resilience, but in my opinion this would be a dreadful misallocation of resources.”
“Rich people can afford all the seawalls and resilience infrastructure they need.”
“A much better solution is to stop being poor. ” “Remove the worst kleptocrats”
THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH THAT IS THAT THEY DON’T KNOW HOW
OR THEY WON’T ADAPT THEIR CULTURE TO ACCOMMODATE THE SOLUTION:
The ONLY countries that have managed to do so have ADOPTED WESTERN VALUES
and DEMOCRACY and that is NOT going to work in a lot of places where the
values and culture FEEL unable to align with WESTERN CIVILISATION.
These people are WILLING TO ACCEPT FINANCIAL CHARITY from this
same culture they denigrate and claim to despise , while at the
same time develop a growing resentment and a profound lack of gratitude !
THESE PEOPLE SHOULD BE TOLD TO ” CLEAN UP YOUR ROOM” !!
Easy solution empty the Swiss bank accounts of their kleptocrat rulers.