Here’s why we should CELEBRATE fossil fuels
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Summary
Al Gore's Hockey Stick Graph is instantly recognizable. It's become one of the most influential icons in the climate change debate, used by the United Nations and governments all over the world to promote climate policies and restrictions. What does it show?
Transcript
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Al Gore's hockey stick graph is instantly recognizable. It's become one of the most
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influential icons in the climate change debate. It's used by the United Nations and governments
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all over the world to promote climate policies and restrictions. It's shown to impressionable
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students from kindergarten all the way through to university. What does it show? Well the hockey
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stick graph presents the mean temperature record over the past 2,000 years as shown by climate
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reconstructions based on climate proxy records. These reconstructions show a slow long-term cooling
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term changing into a relatively rapid warming in the 19th and 20th centuries. It's important to
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keep in mind that Gore's representation is alarmist. It's designed to shock and scare viewers. The
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massive spike he shows is only an increase of about half of one degree celsius. So before we go ahead
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and tax and regulate ourselves back into the dark ages, we did think about what else happened during
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the 19th and 20th centuries that caused this rise. It was the industrial revolution coinciding with the
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enlightenment era. Enlightenment thinkers brought us science, reason, markets and helped establish
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concepts like the rule of law, order, liberty, democracy and peace first in western Europe and now
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increasingly in places all over the world. This in and of itself is a remarkable feat. These values had
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never been broadly embraced before this period. We also saw the introduction of large-scale iron and steel
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production which brought us the steam engine and railway systems, electricity and power generating stations,
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the printing press and the printing revolution that followed. These advancements made way for our
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modern way of life, air travel, computers, smartphones and the digital revolution that we are still
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experiencing today. People were liberated. They went from being serfs and peasants to industrial workers and
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citizens with rights and freedoms. We experienced massive unprecedented economic growth and over time the rise of
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a huge and powerful middle class, a concept that previously simply didn't exist. So when we're talking about
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hockey stick graphs, there are other factors, more important factors going on during the same time period.
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For instance, this hockey stick graph shows the gross world product, the amount of goods we produce
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all over the world and it shot up exponentially. This type of production would have been unfathomable a few
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centuries earlier. Today it essentially means an end to the type of suffering and mass starvation that were
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once features, terrifying features of every single past civilization since the dawn of time. Here's another
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hockey stick graph, reflecting the same growth but showing life expectancy. Human beings live longer, safer,
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happier, more peaceful lives than ever before. Life expectancy has more than double thanks to the
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advancements made during the industrial revolution. Next, here's GDP per capita or the average global
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income. Individuals all over the world are far richer than ever. This means that they're also freer, freer to
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pursue their own ideals of the good life. Finally, my last hockey stick graph is social government spending in the West.
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Never before in all of human history have we pooled our money together to ensure that all citizens are
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taken care of and given at least a basic standard of living. Those who we consider poor today have access
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to goods and services that would have made them the envy of past emperors and kings. These are the
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important hockey stick graphs showing life during and after the industrial revolution. But these factors were not
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really properly considered in the climate debate. The emissions that Al Gore demonizes and the industries
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that produce them, well they're also responsible for the miracle of modern civilization and human progress.
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Both incredibly worthy aspirations. So yes, climate change is a problem. It's a major problem. But it's
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something that we should always be realistic about and we should always keep one important point in mind.
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Industrialization has been incredibly good for the world. And this progress must be considered and weighed
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against when looking at the downsides and the costs of pollution and carbon emissions. Both of which,
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by the way, are trending downwards in rich countries like Canada and the US. Finally, we should never hold
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developing countries back from reaching the type of human flourishing that we've achieved here in the West.
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And besides, as countries get richer, they begin to care more about the environment. And as populations
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become more educated, they make better choices to benefit both the people and the planet.
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For the TrueNorth Initiative, I'm Candice Malcolm.