Martenson on Copenhagen and economic growth: you can’t have both
December 29th, 2009 Posted in Politics, Human Impact, Denial, Economy, Education, climate change, adaptation, renewable energySince Chris Martenson published his illuminating and essential Crash Course, his general essays have been few and far between. This new piece is equally important, and examines how the goals of the Copenhagen agreement are at odds with conventional ideas about economic recovery. Heck of a predicament we’re in. To repeat a time-worn phrase: Time to get real.
Economic growth requires energy, and most of our energy comes from hydrocarbons - coal, oil, and natural gas. Burning those fuel sources releases carbon. Therefore, increasing economic activity will release more carbon. It is a very simple concept.
Nobody has yet articulated how it is that we will reconcile both economic growth and reduced use of hydrocarbon energy. And so the proposed actions coming out of Copenhagen are not grounded in reality, and they are set dead against trillions of dollars of spending.
There is only one thing that we know about which has curbed, and even reversed, the flow of carbon into the atmosphere, and that is the recent economic contraction.