Climate at the next G20

4 June 2017 Climate, Politics Comments (0)

We can look forward to a nice yelling match that could take place at the next G20 Meeting in Hamburg on July 7 and 8. Those countries who involved themselves heavily are not amused; so too the Asiatic fossil eaters, who have nothing to undertake until after 2030, because in the meantime, the USA will not have wrecked enough their competitiveness; and the developing countries are more than disappointed because they were awaiting alimonies in the billions. Only that blond American guy, to whom nobody would buy a second-hand car, will look very satisfied, as he uses to.

Taken for good or bad reasons, the decision of the US president should cause better reactions than moaning and insults which come from all sides today. One can feel that large portions of the opinion has great doubts about the climate policy that was sanctified in Paris. But this is a silent crowd, frightened to take a stand on such a complicated matter, dominated by masters of the moralizing rhetoric which, although worthless, impresses up to experienced politicians. Only lone fools as your servant dare to express themselves, despite being systematically sidelined by righteous climate-gullible, and in spite of the risk of being accused all crimes, which would be a plain libel.

A machinery adjusted for more than thirty years and which had pulled it off at the COP21 of Paris, sees itself now destabilized by the disagreement of the major economic and military power of the World. Would it not be the moment of dismantling it completely, to call it into question? Rather than to get tangled up in dogmas, wouldn’t it be worth unravelling this ball of wool, and sorting out the problems rather than mixing them with all dramas on earth and in the sky?

Quite pretentiously, I thus drafted an open letter to the G20 leaders, in the thin hope that they notice that their certainties resemble more paralysis of their thoughts than a deep reflection.

Here it is. A three language version, fr-de-en, can be downloaded here, and distributed as widely as possible.

Climate: it’s time to come back to reason!

Open Letter to G20 Leaders, and Others

Disagreements arise about the climate and you do not listen, submissive that you are to your own climate propaganda. Saving the planet, freeing ourselves from fossil fuels, subsidizing pervasively: all this would be imperative, urgent, adequate, and good for the economy.

But what do you know about that? What are these promises of such bright future worth?

Your decision-making basis is quite meagre: a group of carefully co-opted experts, mandated by your predecessors to carry out an inculpating only prosecution, tells you that the climate is going badly because of greenhouse gas emissions. Although incapable to demonstrate it, their hypothesis became a whole theory that, validated neither by facts nor by logic, is just a dogma. In Paris, you abided by their order to limit a hypothetical warming below 2 ° C, a value totally fallen from the sky. They made you believe that more than 95% of scientists involved in climate research were of this opinion. You don’t care much about that fat lie, it seems to be useful to you. Repeat often false news, it becomes a truth.

Why do you persist in believing the indemonstrable?

The same models used by the experts show that the energy restrictions that would result from the commitments of your countries would only have a tiny impact on the climate, or would delay its evolution by only a few years. What will the climate be like tomorrow? What would be a “good” climate? Nobody knows.

Why do you persist in uselessness?

In the absence of a sound scientific basis, other arguments are invoked, as was seen at the COP22 in Marrakech, where all the evils attributed to development were amalgamated to the causa climatica: pollution of all kinds, biodiversity, migrations, agricultural and fisheries resources, unemployment, and poverty. However, you know that issues cannot be exposed that way, and will not be resolved by throwing them into the same basket.

Why do you persist in globalized unmanageability?

You are all known for your pragmatism, your ability to find solutions, where dogmas and ideologies only divide. Yet you insist on an adventure that will mobilize many intelligences who would better deal with more important and urgent questions. As the most precious resource on earth is precisely intelligence, it must be used more wisely.

Why do you persist in squandering these resources for such an equivocal purpose?

Citizens who trust you have a right to more open-mindedness on your part, more concern for the general interest than for entrepreneurs who remain non-competitive without state aid, more common sense than ecologist ideology, more science than the depravation of science.

Supporting a monstrously futile cause is worthy of times when dogmas caused so much human damages. Will you come back to reason?

About the author:

Michel de Rougemont, chemical engineer, Dr sc tech, is an independent consultant.
By his activities in fine chemicals and agriculture he is confronted, without fearing them, to many challenges in relation with human safety and environmental protection.
His book ‘Réarmer la raison’ (Rearming Reason, in French) is on sale on Amazon.
He maintains a blog blog.mr-int.ch , and a site on the climate climate.mr.int.ch
E-mail : michel.de.rougemont@mr-int.ch