The Carbon Curtain

For an excellent overall view of the carbon controversy, read "The Carbon Curtain" in Forbes.com, by Peter Huber. He brings a welcome dose of common sense to the discussion, commencing with this introductory paragraph:

What we really need from the climate modelers is an accurate 50-year projection of global politics. Will people believe the computer's dire prophecy enough to change their lifestyles? While we wait for 50 million lines of code to reveal the supposed future, consider how things look to one very knowledgeable energy analyst, Vinod K. Dar, who runs Dar & Company, a consultant to the energy industry, in Bethesda, Md. What follows is my own gloss on Dar's analysis. Everything he says, however, squares with all that I've seen and learned in the 30 years I've watched energy markets here and abroad.

Huber maintains that regardless of what the developed nations do, the developing nations – those on the other side of The Carbon Curtain – will do whatever they must in order to lift their populations out of poverty. Practical political considerations will force their leaders to pursue aggressive, energy-intensive pro-growth policies if they wish to remain in power:

No serious student of global politics can accept the notion that the world will soon join ranks behind Brussels, Washington and the gloomy computer and its minders. Dar is surely right when he says, "The U.S. and Japan will not tell Asia and Africa to choose poverty, disease, hunger and illiteracy over electricity." Europe might, but nobody will listen. It won't have moral authority until its own citizens are emitting less carbon than Bangladeshis. That won't happen soon.

In other words, those of us who dismiss the overheated blatherings of Al Gore, James Hansen, et al, are likely to be proven correct. Whatever happens, whether the earth warms, cools, or remains exactly where it is, we'll deal with it. After all, we're humans, and that's what humans do.

We use our innate intelligence to solve problems, Each of our generations builds upon the accomplishments of those who came before. As a result, we have managed to raise our living standard to levels undreamed of by even the wealthiest and most powerful of our ancestors.

To the human intellect, Global Warming, if it exists at all, is just one more in a never-ending series of challenges which we have successfully overcome. Why should anyone doubt that we will somehow be able to cope with whatever the future may bring?

Chill out, Al.

(Hat tip: Instapundit.com)