Guest essay by Eric Worrall
A team of scientists appointed by the United Nations has reported that a free market system cannot provide the economic transition required to defeat climate change.
Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent Demise
By Nafeez Ahmed
Aug 28 2018, 1:40amA climate change-fueled switch away from fossil fuels means the worldwide economy will fundamentally need to change.
Capitalism as we know it is over. So suggests a new report commissioned by a group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The main reason? We’re transitioning rapidly to a radically different global economy, due to our increasingly unsustainable exploitation of the planet’s environmental resources.
Climate change and species extinctions are accelerating even as societies are experiencing rising inequality, unemployment, slow economic growth, rising debt levels, and impotent governments. Contrary to the way policymakers usually think about these problems, the new report says that these are not really separate crises at all.
…
For the “first time in human history,” the paper says, capitalist economies are “shifting to energy sources that are less energy efficient.” This applies to all forms of energy. Producing usable energy (“exergy”) to keep powering “both basic and non-basic human activities” in industrial civilisation “will require more, not less, effort.”
…
The shift to renewables might help solve the climate challenge, but for the foreseeable future will not generate the same levels of energy as cheap, conventional oil.
…
The new report is available here
From the report;
… Rapid economic transition requires proactive governance – markets cannot accomplish the task
It is clear from these examples that strong political governance is required to accomplish the key transitions. Market-based action will not suffice – even with a high carbon price. There must be a comprehensive vision and closely coordinated plans. Otherwise, a rapid system-level transformation toward global sustainability goals is inconceivable. Mazzucato (2013, 2018) has examined this topic from the perspective of innovation policy and argues that historically, major system-level innovations such as the US Apollo program have required the state to set the mission and coordinate and finance much of the related research and development. According to her research, achieving system-level transition has required and will require proactive mission-oriented innovation – it will not be enough for the state to fix “market failures” reactively. Of course, innovation alone is not enough, and we will return to the question of limiting resource use and organizing jobs below. …
Read moreL https://bios.fi/bios-governance_of_economic_transition.pdf
No doubt the United Nations will step in to provide the necessary strong governance if we ask them to.
This is a 2019 report drafted by the Group of independent scientists. Note that they are ahead of time. Also note that every single independent scientist is Finnish. So much for a global diversity.
They seem to advocate a Fourth Reich.
I’ve been calling the entire movement the ‘Fourth Reich’ for a while now.
That’s awesome! Just let the socialist countries do something for a change! 👄
Now this is just a theory, but a workable theory.
I say we bomb the current Russian government out of existence and see how long it takes international institutions to become competent at thought.
My guess is 9 months.
open declaration of war on human beings.
best believe they mean it.
you won’t fix them with a hug.
there is only one relationship one can have with a cannibal, in the end.
Their call to end capitalism is as telling as their open admiration for the Chinese model. This is both frightening and hilarious.
China is among the worst polluters on the planet, especially in terms of growth, one of the least accountable, to the UN or anybody else and has a human rights record that ranks right up there with Idi Amin.
Their version of capitalism is ‘do whatever makes us look good, then when we decide you didn’t do it right, we put you in prison or execute you’.
The Chinese government staffs certain factories with state owned slaves. HOW IS THAT NOT AN INTERNATIONAL SCANDAL??? How is it that they are even allowed into the world market place with that going on? It’s not a secret.
They bring a new coal plant online every single week, they do not bother to include advanced scrubers and they do not care about the sulfur content of the coal they burn. And no one can tell them otherwise. In fact they were exempted from the Paris accords. Sickening.
And yet these yahoos (biophysical economist?) tell us we should start thinking seriously (must) about renouncing capitalism. They are apparently unaware of the track record of communism and socialism in the real world.
Perhaps we ought to send them to Venezuela for further research.
Capitalism and freedom simply have to go and no further correspondence will be entered into-
https://dailycaller.com/2018/08/27/climate-alarmists-global-warming/
(via Jonova)
You can’t argue. I mean just look at the low carbon footprint of North Korea.
I am waiting to hear the term “Population Fold-Back”.
In other words. Capitalism isn’t doing what we want, therefore government must take over and re-order the world in a manner preferable to us.
When not scheming to drive Israel into the sea, they have other pet scheming projects to attend to.
Because socialist nations were so pollution free….. 😛
Ahaha, so the sceptics were right after all.
Eric, this is just a variation of one of the stages of socialism. First, there is the revolution. Or vote. Somebody is put in charge of it. Whatever it is they try, doesn’t work. “Unexpectedly.” So they ask for more power so they can take care of the problems. They get it. That too doesn’t work. But now it is too late for the people to do much about it other than export themselves to neighboring countries or starve. In this case, we’re at the point where the U.N. wants more power, and they’re trying to use climate as the reason.
This article doesn’t specify what comes after capitalism. I’m guessing socialism. Socialism doesn’t work, of course. People starve? Feature, not bug. The greens want the world population billions of people smaller. Socialism is a great way to do that.
The claim that capitalism is dead is premature wishful thinking. Since it is not dead, no transition is needed. The premise they are using is false.
A kleptocrat’s dream; scientific socialism for the environment. All managed of course by the ever so disinterested 3rd rate social scientists, and 4th rate climate scientists to guide humanity into the future of abject poverty directed by the haven of dictators and despots- the UN.
The UN Always has been eager to be a World Government. And now we know it would be a tyrannical socialist world government.
“A central claim of these scholars is that states can never run out of their own
currency.
Unlike natural, social, and technological res
ources,
sovereign currenc
ies
are
not a limiting
factor in collective action such as
the transition to
sustainability. This has been the case since the gold
standard
was abandoned
and fiat money
adopted
in the 1970s. The state can always spend and invest in
its own currency. ”
I went to the original report and found this howler. There are many other howlers in the report but this one negates the report by itself. I guess these scientists don’t have an economist on their staff. Venezuela and Zimbabwe are the latest examples of the falsity of the above. There have been many other examples in economic history almost too many to name. If you want I can give you a list. It isnt pretty. I am presently advocating withdrawal from the United Nations. It has outlived its usefullness and now is a danger to the world.
Yes, UN should probably ask for a refund…
Alternate facts anyone? My take is that in general, socialist economies (top down governance) can’t provide for there populations as easily as capitalist economies can. It’s analogs to a human body which has a degree of paralysis below the neck and can’t compete on the athletic field with a healthy person. The degree of paralysis varies from government to government. The paralysis comes in the form population thought control, land control, not considering feedback from the population, etc. Couldn’t this be the reason countries such as China needs to “borrow” ideas from free-thinking capitalist societies? Their people certainly are not sub-par. Even with the “borrowed” ideas, their standards of living and environmental conditions are in general sub-par to more capitalistic societies. It stands to reason that socialist societies want to bring down capitalism because they can’t compete. (opinion)
Genuinely the most alarming thing I’ve ever read. Unquestionably a manifesto for totalitarianism
Geebus. Yet another reason to DE-FUND and DIS-BAND the stupid UN.
The reality is that the climate change that we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control. There is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of rationale to support the idea that the climate sensitivity of CO2 is zero. Even if we could somehow stop the climate from changing, extreme weather events and sea level rise would continue because they are part of the current climate. This is all a matter of science. Apparently the climate science team is really a political team. Before they make any political statements, they need to determine exactly what is the climate sensitivity of CO2. After more than two decades of effort the IPCC has failed to narrow the range of their guesses one iota. According to Moncton and his group of scientists, assuming that all of the warming since 1850 has been caused by man’s burning of fossil fuels, the climate sensitivity of CO2 is less than 1.2 degrees C which Moncton considers to be trivial.
Did these idiots even look at the US economy and how it is doing under these terrible “capitalist” policies?
CO2 down, GDP up, employment and wages of minorities up?
Venezuela and Cuba are better models?
Hate capitalism, love its money.
As they have been losing the the CAGW meme viability, first through sceptic arguments which they can ignore, but latterly through a noncompliant Nature, which they have tried vainly to adjust out of sight, but cant ignore. The fake news fallback strategy can only be a stopgap.
This has set the scene for the outing of the real agenda of the climateer enterprise. Maurice Strong let it all hang out, but then he died and people still don’t know who or what he was. Christiana Figueres the UNFCC head was clear it was to bring down capitalism, the Pope, etc, but now the UN and once again biologists are out making no bones about it. They are making a final stand with no props or costumes.
They see the signs as unemployment, slow economic growth, weak governments. Ya know when you throw away 10s of trillions on fantasy, its gotta have exactly this effect.
Yes, Energy Density and the profitability of extracting fossil fuels are two keys to our near term economic future and prosperity. Tell us something we don’t know. Hence the strategic and economic importance of the US Petroleum industry efforts to visualize, initiate, develop, and continuously improve directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing of known petroleum geologic sources during the past couple of decades. Just an amazing story of Industrial ingenuity and innovation, and the falsification of the Peak Oil Theory of King Hubbert. Julian Simon is probably smiling right now laughing at all the doomsayers. To George Mitchell, Harold Hamm, Aubrey McClendon, and the Engineers and Geologists at Mitchell Energy, Contintental, and Chesapeake, and many other oil field workers in the Permian, Bakken, etc, my sincerest thanks. Here’s to greater fracking operational efficiency, lower breakeven points, higher oil prices, longer well life, positive cash flows, and worker safety.
I have a better idea……rather than end capitalism, let’s end the U.N. It really is nothing more than a Marxist organization in reality. World domination is, after all, the Marxist end game.
The U.N. is no longer fit for purpose.
It’s questionable that it ever was.