By Robert Bradley Jr. — May 2, 2022
“When people driving Teslas tell Africa to turn away from hydrocarbons — it’s immoral, it’s wrong,” [Erik] Prince said. “We have real energy poverty across the continent.” (quoted in Bloomberg Green, 11/11/2021)
Oil, gas, and coal are energies for the masses; wind, (on-grid) solar, and batteries/EVs are for the elite. This theme, while old, is more pertinent than ever with the failures of “green” energy policy in a fossil fuel world. Paul Driessen emphasized it in his neglected book, Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death (Merril Press, 2010). Vijay Jayaraj emphasizes it today in “Climate Colonialists Disrupt African Pipeline, Perpetuate Poverty.”
Such is completely lost at Hot Take, where Mary Heglar titled a recent piece, “It’s Not Climate Denial, It’s White Supremacy.” But maybe Africa does not count to her.
Recently, NJ Ayuk, executive chair of the African Energy Chamber, offered a rebuttal to the United Nations’ climate lobby by revisiting a debate at Africa Energy Week 2021, covered (fairly) by a Bloomberg Green editorial, “Asking Africa to Leave Oil in Ground Sparks Debate on Fairness” (November 11, 2021). His 335-word response is reprinted in its entirety.
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Blame the clever intelligentsia, foreign aid, handout and African elites/politicians for energy poverty. NOT Oil and Gas companies. Business pays it taxes and royalties. They don’t control governments.
Africans don’t hate Oil and Gas companies. We love oil and today we love gas even more because we know gas will give us a chance to industrialize. No country has ever been developed by fancy wind and green hydrogen. Africans see Oil and Gas as a path to success and a solution to their problems. The demonization of oil and gas companies will not work.
The clever intelligentsia from wealthy countries who protest the work we do and show up in every event I get invited to are wrong. I will never agree that Oil and Gas is bad for #Africa. Foreign Aid and Handouts and Charity are bad. We are fools to sign on to radical climate policies that will impoverish the next generation because a spare change from aid Organization. Blame me if you want, we need to demand more of ourselves as Africans. Personal responsibility.
The idea that we will develop Africa with handouts from the wealthy countries is preposterous and sickening. You cannot take people of any color, and exempt them from the requirements of civilization — including work, free markets, behavioral standards, personal responsibility, fossil fuels, financial literacy and all the other basic things that the clever intelligentsia disdain — without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large.
The legacy of colonization argument by the African Elites and western elites is not just an excuse for inexcusable behavior of the African Elites/Politicos and the political class that are more willing to sell out the poor for more foreign aid and their membership in the fancy clubs in London.
In a larger sense, it is an evasion of responsibility for the disastrous consequences of the prevailing social vision of our times that has created a fixation on and the political policies based on that vision, over the past half century.
Final Comment
The international climate crusade is losing. But alarmist emotions are high, and too many people are making a living in a false cause. But the hypocrisy of asking the poorest to not use the most affordable, reliable, plentiful energies cannot be downplayed.
NJ Ayuk and the African Energy Chamber hold the energy high ground. And they are playing a part to dissuade the UN/COP to end the futile crusade against carbon dioxide (CO2), a greening agent for a more productive earth.
I regard the attitude of Greens towards Africa as condescending. They know better than Africans about everything. African countries have seen what Asian countries have achieved in the last few decades and they want the same prosperity for their countries. To do that, they need affordable reliable energy. Anybody who stands against that goal should be ashamed of themselves.
No, it’s criminally racist
The Elitist Greens’ condescension is the same attitude of aristocratic Europe 300 yrs ago-
since royalty were both morally & mentally superior to the Hoi Polloi, they DESERVED to have
the wealth & the power they had & all means to keep/grow their wealth & power were justifiable.
Today, they are justified in keeping Africans in their “rightful place” & in the West, they’re
using all means possible to remove affordable reliable energy so the Hoi Polloi can join the
Africans in their justifiable “rightful place”. Let them eat cake!
The players may have changed in the power struggle for the control of the world and all its bounty, but the attitude prevails amongst the self-defined “elite”. They exhibit an attitude of entitlement to be in charge of the rest of us, the “Hoi Polloi”, the unwashed common folk, et al.
That will be their downfall this time around. Thanks to the internet and all the “smart” gadgets alerting the rest of us of what they are up to in their quest for absolute power, not very much is hidden any longer.
Their attitude will be their undoing, they just are the last to realize that once the attempts to control all are made known, there is no taking back those actions. The internet records and stores everything for future perusal and actions. In the end, the “elite” are going to be the ones “eating cake”. And they know it, and fear it.
The “climate” crap is just a lot of horse puckey and it is being exposed, daily. Thus, the recent surge in defense of lessening CO2 via removal of fossil fuels as a primary energy source for the world.
Sorry for the rant.
Rant all you want. It’s still legal! I think you’re right in that they didn’t make
enough progress for all the” totalitarian capital” they spent.
not cake, turnips
In a reframe of Rudyard Kipling, it’s the Woke Man’s Burden.
I had never heard of this before. It was a time of US imperialism, with the Spanish-
American War being similar to the Russia-Ukraine situation- two conflicts that had no
legitimate basis for happening.
One can learn more @ WUWT by accident than @ most places by design!
Africa apart from Algeria, has 2 LNG liquification ports but no LNG regasification ports and very little NG infrastructure. The US energy corporations should be seeking to develop the African LNG/NG market as it is inevitable that Africa will be like Central Asia; the next emerging market for industrialization and consumerization with increasing demand for Hydrocarbon fuels.. As Putin seeks to lock-up the Black Sea ports to foreign LNG importation by military force thereby excluding central Asia from non-Gazprom/Iranian importation, the US should seek to develop Africa as the next great emerging market. Meanwhile, Putin has handed the European LNG/NG market to the US NG industry and could do so as both Russian and China seek to develop Russia and the rest of Asia thereby ensuring a more than adequate NG market for Putin.
Jeff
Africa is a huge continent with considerable untapped resources. When tapped like in Nigeria and Angola it seems to benefit certain politicians and their cronies. The daughter of the former Angola president was declared in 2013 with $3.5 billion to be the richest woman in Africa but now facing corruption charges. This is probably the biggest problem that the climate change lobby have never addresses and that is corruption, fraud and mismanagement that is endemic across the world. Even when a hydro electricity scheme that should massively benefit the inhabitants is being set up like in Liberia, corruption raises its ugly head.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2021/01/22/the-unmaking-of-a-billionaire-how-africas-richest-woman-went-broke/?sh=6e433ca96240
It seems to me that the west is just trying a new form of colonialism in Africa and the third world. It can only aggravate existing tensions. Not a good idea…
On top of that it will create even more room for Chinese investments/influence on the continent: Also no good idea!
Unless they have their own oil and gas, African nations are unlikely to be able to import it…
Even when they do, they export it for the profit of few rather than power their own citizens.
And then there’s the issue of providing a grid for such a vast area.
Grid connected fossil fuel electricity has not made much progress in Africa in the last 75 years: why is it going to now?
Griff, you are a wonderful example of the condescending Greens that I was talking about.
“And then there’s the issue of providing a grid for such a vast area”
-Isn’t that the point of oil/gasoline?..A high energy density fuel that can be transported to where it is needed ? Much of rural Britain worked this way before WWII, so I understand.
It’s clear from this post that you are only regurgitating bullet points from some ideological manifesto; if you had bothered to do your own research you would have realised that your post is complete rubbish and an utter waste of space. Hydrocarbon fuelled power has made a great deal of progress in the last 75 years – if you look at where Nigeria is currently, as opposed to even 10 or 20 years ago, the difference is quite remarkable and set to get even better in the next few years (if the new green colonialists keep out of the way).
Rubbish and wasted space? griffie in a nutshell.
You nailed it! (Dang, you’re good!) Its just more of the same boring condescending
Elitist Greens using the Asch Conformity Experiment- telling people a lie often enough
until they believe it- to get even more power! This total nonsense gets repeatedly told
concerning all areas of life & has to be repeatedly debunked. It isn’t that they believe
it but it’s what they want True Believers™ & others to believe! I don’t think most of us
“Hoi Polloi” are listening anymore as they had to establish the Orwellian “Ministry of
Truth” to promote their lies & to suppress the truth. Here’s potentially a real future
headline from the psychic Babylon Bee:
https://babylonbee.com/news/government-disinformation-board-determines-all-criticism-of-government-disinformation-board-to-be-disinformation
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/this_scary_experiment_explains_two_years_of_covid_hell.html
They do. Almost half the countries in Africa have natural gas and oil. Nigeria has the largest natural gas reserves on the continent and is the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world.
Because they can.
With oil and gas the African nations will be able to improve education amongst it’s peoples, especially girls, which will raise their aspirations and reduce population growth.
Isn’t that what greens want, a reduction in population growth to save Gaia?
Stop being an eco-colonialist and stop telling the African Nations what to do.
“Lake Kivu has about 300 billion m3 of carbon dioxide and 60 billion m3 of methane gas, giving it the capacity to produce between 120 million and 250 million m3 of methane gas annually.”
There are other places like this that can produce natural gas.
Nigeria has the largest explored and proven of African hydrocarbon reserves – there is a lot more exploration that needs to be done and it may turn out that Nigeria is about average when all the data is in (a bit of a reach, but still).
And right on cue the lie spewing liar toddles in and spews lies, and racism. Good job, buddy!
Wow Griff. Condescending much?
At least I think you are being condescending – your first line is gibberish. Then you accuse them of corruption in a broad sweep of the hand.
You follow by forgetting that Africa is a continent, not a country. Are you such a globalist that you believe that Africa needs to be regarded as a single entity and that basically all Africans look and act the same to you?
Then you close with the Yoda excuse – Do or Do Not, and if you haven’t yet then simply give up cause you are clearly never going to change that in the future. Lazy Griff and you know it. It is like Mother Griff back in the day looking at Baby Griff and saying ‘Well he can’t walk now, so no point in ever buying him shoes’.
Or, if we want to word it differently – Wind and Solar power have not managed to provide baseload power ever, so clearly it is will never and should be scrapped.
Seriously, Griff, normally I just disagree with you, but here you are displaying a condescending elite attitude that can be argued is an interpretation away from you saying ‘Africans are too stupid to control their own destiny’.
Disappointing.
Africa just hasn’t had a great deal of oil and gas exploration (although that is getting better) done across the whole continent. It’s fairly clear to see that the recent estimates in proven reserves show that even the current estimates of Africa’s potential are somewhat on the low side. There are problems to be sorted out – vested interests in keeping African refineries uneconomical/inefficient and retaining more oil and gas for domestic use are just two – some countries in Africa are in the ludicrous position of exporting all of their oil and gas at a low price, then having to buy refined fuels at a vastly higher cost.
All moot until you wipe out the endemic corruption that has been a feature of African oil and gas from the get go. I saw first hand the abject poverty, along side the incredible elitist wealth and environmental degradation, in Yemen and Nigeria. When the African continent is finally bled out, all that will be left is the inherited wealth of a very few, sheltered by international financiers from being put to work cleaning up the overflowing, festering, continental trash can.
‘All moot until you wipe out the endemic corruption that has been a feature of African oil and gas from the get go.’
Not just oil and gas. Africa has vast undeveloped resources, including its people. Unfortunately, in addition to the machinations of the Green Peril, corruption and cronyism are indeed rife, both of which are symptomatic of cultures that have not moved politically beyond tribalism to embrace the right of individuals to life, liberty and property.
I attribute the endemic corruption more to the gangsters running their turf, using & abusing the
people & resources for their own gain. This is the fabric of world history- Egyptologists found
starvation despite royal records showing normal crop yields & realized the starvation was the result
of a power struggle between the pharaoh & the priests.
Whatever issues oil and gas exploitation create, they are still producing a fungible good that is in demand and crucial to civilization, far better than foreign aid hand outs that just encourage dependency.
Africa has a governance issue they have to fix, keeping them energy poor and in poverty will do nothing to change that.
That “governance issue” is what keeps oil and gas exploitation (not a pejorative, that’s the term we use in the biz), from benefitting the vast majority of Africans. Most of them just get the oozing holes in the ground, abandoned reserve pits, and NORM contamination. But it does provide an attractive extraction environment for those who want to avoid all of those burdensome ES&H rules. It’s also why coal is so “popular” with strong man regimes.
I’m not proposing “foreign hand outs”. Just better, ethical business practices. Look to Norway…
And while the ‘concerned’ westerners struggle to hold back Africa, China builds its influence by paying the woke to be concerned and at the same time helping African countries build their infrastructure.
Amazing how leftists get away with being so openly racist.
Yes. I hate to use the term ‘Orwellian’, but Orwellian it is.
10’s of millions of African children have died a miserable death from malaria secondary the DDT ban, a ban based on a faulty book. No way the warmistas will care about African suffering if they are ‘saving the planet’.
At present the Greens are manipulating leaders like those in South Africa when it comes to mining coal and drilling for oil and gas. They are supported by Western leaders that have made wonderful but vague promises of large sums of money.
Some African politicians see though their subterfuge but not being in the seat of power are deeply frustrated. They know from past experience how the West has supplied huge quantities of unnecessary weapons and left them with an increased debt burden. Any good investigative journalist can go and trace what has happened to these weapons and find them in storehouses or rusting away or stolen.
Progressives: Keep the third world poor and dependent, like it’s supposed to be.
“Ultimately, if you think about all the youth that everybody has mentioned here in Africa, if everybody is raising living standards to the point where everybody has got a car and everybody has got air conditioning, and everybody has got a big house, well, the planet will boil over — unless we find new ways of producing energy.”
Get it poor Africans? No cars, air conditioning or nice homes for you. We intend to keep your poor and dependent. It’s for the planet, after all.
This came straight from the mouth of a President who hopped about the globe almost daily in his own personal taxpayer-paid-for 747 for golf games, vacations and fundraisers with total abandon, like a soccer mom driving her minivan to the supermarket.
But hey, he promised to give them $7-billion in borrowed dollars so they can build some windmills!
That’s why this man must be either evil or a complete idiot. Nobody who wasn’t one or the other could say something silly like that and sleep at night.
If Africans dare to reach for modernity, hard-Left Westerners will destroy Africa to “save” it.
I see a pattern developing, the nattering nabobs of negativity have changed their arguments from saving mankind from catastrophic climate change to corruption. Implying that energy development and economic growth is not a good fit for Africa because of corruption. If corruption is an impediment to developing natural resources, how in gods name did the Middle East do it? If only one nation in Africa, with some level of resources, chose to do what was necessary to develop them, the argument would be over. The others with resources would shortly follow. I would not look to other nations for help I would go to energy corporations, you know the people who actually know something about energy production.
Our Elite Experts: – We must dismantle the evils of colonial oppression and accept that ‘colonialism’ has oppressed the non European.
Also Our Elite Experts: – Medical studies from other countries don’t count cause they don’t have proper medicine
Also also Our Elite Experts: – Only WE know what is best for your energy needs, quaint little African Nation.