Is Trudeau’s net-zero plan destined to fail？
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Summary
In this episode, we take a look at one of the most profound examples of virtue signaling by the state, putting a lofty ideological goal ahead of anything resembling science and facts, and that is the commitment to what is increasingly becoming a very dangerous net zero goal.
Transcript
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But we have to cap things off with a look at one of the most profound examples of virtue
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signaling by the state of putting this lofty ideological goal ahead of anything resembling
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And that is the commitment to what is increasingly becoming a very dangerous net zero goal.
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Now, this is not being a quote unquote climate denier.
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We have had a couple of major international agreements that have dealt with fossil fuel
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Since both of those, we've seen fossil fuel consumption go up.
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The entry into a carbon tax by Canada that has continued to increase has not stopped emissions
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And we're wondering if you've been naive and just expected the government knew what it was
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Well, the reality is that this is just not working.
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And what we have from our friend Kenneth Green, who has written a piece in the Toronto Stunt
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about this, is a call on the government to abandon what is increasingly an unfeasible
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It's requiring a massive phase out of fossil fuels without an alternative.
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And none of it really matters in a way because they're not doing any of it.
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But the policy mechanisms that are supposed to get us there are causing some real harms.
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And another one of the arbitrary targets we have is the 1.5 degrees C limiting warming to
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1.5 degrees C, which actually drives all of the other ones beneath it.
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The regulations on the energy sector are actually causing significant economic harm.
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And in Canada and also in the United States and around the world, because energy is intrinsic
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to producing economic growth and economic productivity.
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And it's economic productivity and growth that lead to prosperous and thriving societies.
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And so these regulations, which are increasing the cost of energy to manufacturers, to producers,
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to consumers, to homeowners, are all basically causing economic suppression.
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And therefore, lowering people's quality of life.
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In some cases, the regulations themselves are also causing economic, leading to environmental harm,
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So with plastics regulations, Canada has a goal of facing out, reaching zero plastic waste by 2030.
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The studies show that the substitutes people are using for plastics are actually causing more harm to the environment.
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They generate more amounts of waste that have to be managed, and they pose health risks to people different than plastics do.
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So the regulatory, the crusade for, or jihad for net zero 2050, is leaving a considerable amount of damage in its wake.
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And the one thing that I find so fascinating about this is that no one is talking about, I shouldn't say no one, you are,
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but no one in the government is talking about energy demands.
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We have a lot of very ambitious goals, even if we go all in on electric vehicles, and this will require energy.
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And I've yet to see anyone even so much as have a discussion about where that's going to come from.
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Even when people talk about renewables, it's all very theoretical.
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They have not actually provided a roadmap of matching energy needs, which will only increase,
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but even at the current level, with alternative energy.
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Well, energy needs are huge, not only in Canada, but in the United States, but around the world,
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and especially in developing countries that are still using wood and dung for cooking fires and things.
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And so the global energy demand is massive, and it will only expand with population, the global population.
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But the question you ask is a really valuable one, which is how are we going to match the demand with supply?
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And this is an area where governments, I believe, especially governments who are in the Western governments
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and those who are in the net zero school of thought and the climate are concerned about,
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basically have climate change as their center of their existence.
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This is where I believe they're actually mostly insincere because they actually don't intend to supply the demand.
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They promise, but they don't intend to deliver.
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And historically, that's what has happened, which is they promise you an alternative
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It's not that we don't want you to have energy.
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We want you to generate it with this way, wind or solar, instead of fossil fuels.
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It's not that we don't want you to have your refrigerator.
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We want you to have this super hyper-efficient refrigerator.
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It's not that we don't want you to have a barbecue, but it has to be an electric barbecue.
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But the thing is, when the time comes for them to give you that alternative,
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the electric car that matches your vehicle, you don't get it.
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And the prices never come down to match the pre-existing competitive sources.
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And I think that's actually a goal, which is they want to actually reduce humans' access to energy
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because they want to control people more rigidly and have them do less things.
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They don't want you flying around in airplanes.
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They don't want you living in sprawling bigger houses or independent houses
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They want to constrain people's behavior and constrict humanity
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because that is their philosophy, is that human activity is detrimental to the world,
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I mean, the other thing you have to look at as well is, I think, the moving goalposts on this.
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And the goalposts have not just moved on the target and on when,
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but even whenever the UN COP summits on this come up,
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you'll always have these radical groups that will say,
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So they're actually against things that industry can do to mitigate emissions.
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They're against carbon, you know, all of these alternatives.
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And when you hear people talk about absolute zero, and again, it's not just fringe people.
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They want us to all just be sitting in dark rooms alone.
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And that's why whenever you hear, you know, occasional proposals from some city council
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I mean, it's actually quite revealing about just the state of contempt they have
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It's the life since humans harnessed fire and learned how to cook their food.
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Humans need energy and use energy to transform things into the substances that keep them alive,
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That's something that, of course, is well-known.
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And, of course, all the subsidiary goals shift as well, which is, no, it's not enough for the West
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to give the developing countries a billion dollars a year.
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Now they have to give them a trillion dollars a year.
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Now they have to give them two trillion dollars a year in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
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It is a never-ending shifting goalpost, and it has been since Kyoto in 1997.
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But, again, of course, we're seeing some of that here at home as well, which is, you know,
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back over the last 20 years, it was, you have to phase out coal.
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We want you to phase out coal, and you can use natural gas.
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And now the new call is no natural gas either, just wind and solar.
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And when wind and solar, if that were to ever happen, it was all wind and solar,
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then they would no doubt find a way to say, well, yeah, but no wind.
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Because it's, you know, wind wheels are causing, killing birds.
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And it is, in fact, a rejection of the idea of human nature as being an empowered species,
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humanity as being an empowered species that can change the world by the use of energy and materials.
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It's a rejection, a fundamental rejection of the acceptability of having human beings on your planet.
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Now, I'm from Ontario, so obviously my experience is different than it is for other people,
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But nuclear is probably the greatest way to expose the utter hypocrisy from a lot of the emissions hawks,
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because these people that want low emission energy sources, you bring up nuclear,
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and all of a sudden, no, no, no, not like that.
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And that's what I say is you can recognize their actual goals by what they do,
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which is the rejection of nuclear power, which was known, of course, as a non,
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very low greenhouse gas emitting activity, and it's been safe, safely used for 60 years,
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The rejection of nuclear power, absolute rejection and continued rejection of it,
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does show their complete and utter insincerity about the reality of what they want to achieve.
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They don't want to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions at the least cost,
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while still maintaining humanity's energy profile.
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And they have rejected that every single time in favor of socialist measures that control and redistribute wealth.
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That's the other thing, which is you don't get to reward too many cronies if you're really relying on nuclear power.
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And you don't get to play the subsidy game very much because nuclear power doesn't require a lot of subsidies.
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I mean, obviously, there's a significant upstart cost.
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But yeah, and the one thing I guess I'll say on this is that when you see electricity shortages in Alberta,
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when you see other things like this, it forces people to realize that some of these discussions are a bit of a luxury item.
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And that when people are giving, are living through some minus 40 degree winter,
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it forces them to realize that, okay, maybe I don't want to just shut things down entirely.
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So I do think that for the non-activists, there is a bit of a realization coming that some of these things are just infeasible.
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I think for the non-activists, for the non-committed believers,
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I think people are looking at the effects of the climate policies on their wallet,
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on their house, on their wallet, on their safety, in their cars and in their houses,
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And they're seeing these climate policies are not desirable and not giving them anything of benefit.
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They're not giving them a benefit, but they're certainly imposing a cost that people are increasingly seeing,
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taking a bite out of their paycheck every month.
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And I think that there's a loss of appetite for these extreme plans,
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where some governments that are shifting right are vowing to move away from net zero.
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No one is ever going to absolute zero carbon emissions because it's impossible.
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But I think there is a waning of enthusiasm for this.
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In polls, climate change doesn't come up very highly compared to other people's other needs
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for what they think is important, such as affordable housing, good education,
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However, I think climate has never polled very well amongst the normal people who are not activists,
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which is, I think, why we have actually seen the activists held down in terms of their ambition,
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the scope of their ambitions for so many years, since 1997,
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to oppose draconian regulations, draconian taxes,
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draconian limitations on energy for energy use,
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because people are not buying the extreme rhetoric.
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Because one of my former colleagues or a former climatologist used to say,
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don't look away from the weather report on your phone and look out the window.
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And so are you seeing the disasters that you're hearing about constantly,
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And people are looking at it going, yeah, you know, I'm just not seeing it.
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The air is cleaner than it's ever been before in Canada and the U.S.
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in terms of normal pollutants, conventional pollution.
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So, you know, I think people are losing enthusiasm for these issues.
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And it's only a matter of time until that's reflected in the vote.
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I always like when the delegate for the Maldives at the UN Climate Summit will say,
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you know, we're going to be underwater any minute now.
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And then you look and realize that the Maldives has opened like 30 beachfront resorts in the last year.
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And you're saying, well, you're not behaving like a country that's drowning.
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That's one of the things that was the funniest things of all about the climate change and the low-lying islands thing.
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And it turns out when sea levels come up, the islands grow because they're actually partly live, live ecosystems.
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And so a lot of these islands that were supposed to be underwater by now have actually expanded in their land area.
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And the coral reefs, of course, which were supposed to be dead 20 years ago, and dead and extinct 20 years ago, are just exploding with vigor.
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So, you know, Australia was just saying, my God, we're going to lose our economy because we're going to lose our coral reefs.
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And they're not behaving as if they think it's going to happen.
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You get the fear-mongering about polar bears in the north and their population's thriving.
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So, well, it's a great piece in the Toronto Sun.
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Dr. Kenneth Green, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.
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Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
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Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.