March 28, 2023
Dear Friends and Family,
This segment on Climate Change and Sustainability has two parts, each with five sections. The first part is Klaus Schwab’s perspective on the section topic followed by viewpoints of different critics. The five section topics include: The Science of Climate Change, Pollution, Considerations, Leveraging the COVID Crisis, The Climate Narrative. Climate Change is at the heart of the World Economic Forum’s ideology as the attached excerpts convey. To make the distinction between the Schwab excerpts and the critics excerpts I have marked the beginning of the Schwab excerpts in each section with a plus sign (+).
With complete disclosure, I am a Climate Change skeptic. The reasoning behind my skepticism can be found at www.learningwithharley.com/syllabus-climate-change.html. Putting my skepticism and bias aside, let’s assume that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels will lead to a planetary crisis and analyze how the world is attempting to address it. [Note: While I am a skeptic of global warming and CO2 emissions, I am not a skeptic of pollution. It is very real and scientifically based].
Wind and solar power today supply about 10% of U.S. energy needs per the Government Energy Information Administration. Scaling these power sources up to meet total U.S. energy needs requires devoting 25-50% of our total land mass to such farms plus battery storage. Their life is between 20 to 30 years and disposal requires them to be buried consuming additional significant land. The primary manufacturers to produce the wind turbines, solar panels, and battery storage are in China. Further, the mining of the rare earths requires consuming copious amounts of energy and are located in areas controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Nuclear energy is cleaner (from an environmental standpoint) and in the long run less expensive but is not being actively pursued today even though it currently represents 18.2% of U.S. energy production. Additionally, no new technologies such as CO2 removal from the atmosphere or geoengineering are being pursued by our government.
While we are fiddling with solar panels and chasing windmills, we are losing sight of the need for fossil fuels. The Biden administration negated our energy independence (a goal for over 50 years of my adult lifetime that we reached about 4 years ago) by stopping oil drilling on federal lands, instituting regulations making oil drilling and fracking, refining, and exploration more difficult and expensive plus influencing banks to not fund such activities. Forcing us to be dependent on foreign oil was a major reason for our recent inflation rise and the increased funding for Russian oil assisted in them financing the Russian-Ukrainian War.
China, on the other hand has recently brokered an alliance between Iran and Saudi Arabia (negating the Abraham Accords) and are openly allying with Russia. There is talk that an Axis alliance is forming between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Today there are four primary sources of oil in the world – Russia, the Middle East, Venezuela, and the U.S. With the alliance between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it is very conceivable that the Axis could control much of not most of the Middle Eastern crude and could very easily bring Venezuela into the Axis. This would give the Axis control over worldwide oil that could be used against the U.S. in two ways. The first is to begin trading oil in Chinese currency versus the U.S. dollar. Such an action would seriously impact the dollar being the reserve currency for the world. The consequences of that are devastating for the U.S. as will be discussed in next week’s segment. The second would be control of oil in the event of World War III. It is hard to fly planes or engage tanks in battle powered by electricity, so we would be at a significant disadvantage. Additionally, China will also be controlling the supply chain for both materials and production of wind and solar power plus battery storage.
From a skeptical, nefarious perspective, one could conclude that climate change has already been very successful for those wishing to do harm to the U.S. – a conspiracy theory or frightening reality?
Next: As mentioned above, segment 7 will focus on Schwab’s economic reset with emphasis on Modern Monetary Theory and the U.S. dollar being the reserve currency for the world. [Note: This is a change from the syllabus that was previously published as I swapped segments 7 & 8].
Happy Learning,
Harley
Dear Friends and Family,
This segment on Climate Change and Sustainability has two parts, each with five sections. The first part is Klaus Schwab’s perspective on the section topic followed by viewpoints of different critics. The five section topics include: The Science of Climate Change, Pollution, Considerations, Leveraging the COVID Crisis, The Climate Narrative. Climate Change is at the heart of the World Economic Forum’s ideology as the attached excerpts convey. To make the distinction between the Schwab excerpts and the critics excerpts I have marked the beginning of the Schwab excerpts in each section with a plus sign (+).
With complete disclosure, I am a Climate Change skeptic. The reasoning behind my skepticism can be found at www.learningwithharley.com/syllabus-climate-change.html. Putting my skepticism and bias aside, let’s assume that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels will lead to a planetary crisis and analyze how the world is attempting to address it. [Note: While I am a skeptic of global warming and CO2 emissions, I am not a skeptic of pollution. It is very real and scientifically based].
Wind and solar power today supply about 10% of U.S. energy needs per the Government Energy Information Administration. Scaling these power sources up to meet total U.S. energy needs requires devoting 25-50% of our total land mass to such farms plus battery storage. Their life is between 20 to 30 years and disposal requires them to be buried consuming additional significant land. The primary manufacturers to produce the wind turbines, solar panels, and battery storage are in China. Further, the mining of the rare earths requires consuming copious amounts of energy and are located in areas controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Nuclear energy is cleaner (from an environmental standpoint) and in the long run less expensive but is not being actively pursued today even though it currently represents 18.2% of U.S. energy production. Additionally, no new technologies such as CO2 removal from the atmosphere or geoengineering are being pursued by our government.
While we are fiddling with solar panels and chasing windmills, we are losing sight of the need for fossil fuels. The Biden administration negated our energy independence (a goal for over 50 years of my adult lifetime that we reached about 4 years ago) by stopping oil drilling on federal lands, instituting regulations making oil drilling and fracking, refining, and exploration more difficult and expensive plus influencing banks to not fund such activities. Forcing us to be dependent on foreign oil was a major reason for our recent inflation rise and the increased funding for Russian oil assisted in them financing the Russian-Ukrainian War.
China, on the other hand has recently brokered an alliance between Iran and Saudi Arabia (negating the Abraham Accords) and are openly allying with Russia. There is talk that an Axis alliance is forming between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Today there are four primary sources of oil in the world – Russia, the Middle East, Venezuela, and the U.S. With the alliance between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it is very conceivable that the Axis could control much of not most of the Middle Eastern crude and could very easily bring Venezuela into the Axis. This would give the Axis control over worldwide oil that could be used against the U.S. in two ways. The first is to begin trading oil in Chinese currency versus the U.S. dollar. Such an action would seriously impact the dollar being the reserve currency for the world. The consequences of that are devastating for the U.S. as will be discussed in next week’s segment. The second would be control of oil in the event of World War III. It is hard to fly planes or engage tanks in battle powered by electricity, so we would be at a significant disadvantage. Additionally, China will also be controlling the supply chain for both materials and production of wind and solar power plus battery storage.
From a skeptical, nefarious perspective, one could conclude that climate change has already been very successful for those wishing to do harm to the U.S. – a conspiracy theory or frightening reality?
Next: As mentioned above, segment 7 will focus on Schwab’s economic reset with emphasis on Modern Monetary Theory and the U.S. dollar being the reserve currency for the world. [Note: This is a change from the syllabus that was previously published as I swapped segments 7 & 8].
Happy Learning,
Harley
THE GREAT RESET: IS DEMOCRACY (worldwide) IN DANGER?
CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABILITY – EXCERPTS: SEGMENT 6
SCHWAB: THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
+The Effects of Climate Change: The UN agency, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a warning late 2018 that the current path of CO2 emissions would lead to an unstoppable cycle of global warming – with major disruptions for life on earth – if major reductions weren’t achieved by 2030. It said, “Pathways limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C with no or limited overshoot would require rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy, land, urban and infrastructure and industrial systems.” But hopes for even that narrow path to a limited global warming of 1.5 degree C had all but evaporated two years later.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), another UN-affiliated institution, in July 2020 said that a 1 degree C warming would already be a reality in the next five years (2020-2024) and believed there was a one in five chance that warming would reach 1.5 degrees C in that period.
Source: Stakeholder Capitalism by Klaus Schwab (2021)
+Addressing the Crisis: In 1990, more than 130 nations signed the UN Convention on Climate Change at the Rio Earth Summit. In 1997, in Kyoto, 36 rich countries set reductions targets. In 2015, the signatories to the Paris Agreement agreed to limit the increase in global warming to below 2 degrees C. All this for naught. As an authoritative UN report put it in October 2021: “Climate action so far has been characterized by weak promises, not yet delivered.” Current national pledges only take 7.5% off of predicted 2030 emissions. This is totally inadequate. To reach the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit warming to 1.5 – 2 degrees C, far more ambitious pledges are necessary.
The fundamental reasons that explain the paltry climate change progress so far are threefold: (1) a lack of price for carbon emissions; (2) a relative ineffectiveness in promoting low-carbon technologies; and (3) the malfunctioning architecture of international climate accords. A comprehensive international climate policy must address these three mutually interdependent failures by putting into place a universal carbon pricing mechanism, a robust system for public support of low-carbon technologies, and a new architecture for international climate agreements. Most experts and market participants agree that no real progress will happen without systemic and even “aggressive” reforms that only governments have the ability, capacity and legitimacy to pursue. As an example, investing responsibly according to ESG criteria “will remain a fiction” until an effective global carbon tax is imposed, consistent ESG standards are implemented, and a set of broad-based regulations penalize bad behavior.
Source: The Great Narrative for a Better Future by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret (2022).
+Environmental Reset: In global risk terms, it is with climate change and ecosystem collapse (the two key environmental risks) that the pandemic most easily equates. The three represent, by nature and to varying degrees, existential threats to humankind, and we could argue that COVID – 19 has already given us glimpse or foretaste, of what a full-fledged climate crisis and ecosystem collapse could entail from an economic perspective: combined demand and supply shocks, and disruptions to trade and supply chains with ripple and knock-on effects that amplify risks. If climate change, ecosystem collapse and pandemics look so similar as global risks, how do they really compare?
+Coronavirus and the environment: Zoonotic diseases are those that spread from animals to humans. An increasing number of scientists have shown that it is in fact the destruction of biodiversity caused by humans that is the source of new viruses like COVID – 19. These researchers have coalesced around the new discipline of “planetary health” that studies the subtle and complex connections that exist between the well-being of humans, other living species and entire ecosystems, and their findings have made it clear that the destruction of biodiversity will increase the number of pandemics. [Note: Rules out that the coronavirus could have been manufactured in the Wuhan Virology Lab – now or in the future].
Source: COVID – 19: The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret (2020)
CRITICS: THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE:
Questioning Science: In the world of the Great Reset, climate change, and COVID – 19, no dissent can be allowed. Everyone must support lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, the Green New Deal, UN Climate pacts, COVID curfews, mask mandates, church closures, and mandatory vaccines. There must be no questioning the claims about “The Science.” If you dare question, you will be promptly silenced, defunded, marginalized, and de-platformed.
“All models only say what they are told to say, because all models are lists of premises put there by scientists,” explained William H. Briggs of scientific models used to predict climate change. “It’s silly because (a) no probability proves a model is true, and (b) model statements get probabilities from the premises scientists choose. They can pick what they like and make the model’s statements appear as sure or unsure as they like because of their choices,” Briggs wrote.
“You have this army of university scientists, and they have to pretend like they are doing important research without ever criticizing the powerful interests in a real way. So, what do they look for, elusive sanitized things like acid rain, global warming,” Rancourt said. This system “helps to neutralize dissent,” Rancourt pointed out. “When you do find something bad, you quickly learn and are told you better toe the line on this – your career depends on it.” When you believe you are saving the world, the only science that matters is “The Science” that supports your preconceived political views.
Source: The Great Reset by Marc Morano (2022)
Globalist and Climate Change: During COVID-19, we have seen how scientific “models” used to predict the course of the pandemic and the number of deaths utterly failed. When vast political forces are invested in issues like predicting or managing pandemic and global warming, trusting the models and the politicized scientists – those who are not promoting predatory globalism – are given no voice.
Source: COVID-19 and the Global Predators by Peter & Ginger Breggin.
Scientifically, COVID-19 and climate change share similarities. “Both global warming and the Wuhan flu rely on models. Many climate models predicted rising sea levels and flooded cities, along with catastrophic storms, none of which has materialized. Virus models predicted 2.2 million U.S. deaths, only to be scaled down as reality was nowhere close to the predictions. Both relied on flawed models and failed to adjust their prognostications accordingly.”
Source: The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown by Marc Morano (2022).
SCHWAB: POLLUTION
+UN Water, the agency coordinating the United Nations work on water and sanitation, estimated that globally 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress. But even when water is available, it is often heavily polluted. There is the issue of plastics whose impact will be felt most dramatically in the coming decades, as the plastic that is currently accumulating in the world’s oceans may affect life on land in a myriad of ways. Microplastics have become ubiquitous in the world’s water, in part because they take decades to decompose by current measures, it is estimated we could end up with more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050. Additionally, almost two-thirds of the world’s cities also exceed WHO guidelines on air pollution, according to Greenpeace. Many of the large metropoles of Asia are so polluted it is unhealthy even to walk outside, as many who live or have been there will be able to attest.
This rapid exploitation and pollution also started to wreak havoc on the world’s natural ecosystems and threatened to make global warming spin out of control, with major consequences for people in regions hit hard by climatic change and for future generations.
Source: Stakeholder Capitalism by Klaus Schwab (2021).
+A consensus has formed in the medical and public community that there is a synergistic effect between air pollution exposure and the possible occurrence of COVID-19 and a worse outcome when the virus does strike.
Source: COVID-19: The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The burning of wood and charcoal still remains the main domestic energy source for a great proportion of populations, especially in rural areas. With demographic growth accessible, wood becomes increasingly scarce, and in some cases a task that used to take a couple of hours a day now demands six. Shortage of wood encourages rural populations to burn animal dung, which results in air pollution and in loss of nitrogen to sustain crops and deterioration of the soil.
Source: The First Global Revolution by the Club of Rome.
SCHWAB: CONSIDERATIONS
+To Solve the Problem: In the 170 countries who committed to the Paris Climate governments don’t have the power to act alone. The ball is thus in the camp of other stakeholders as well: companies, first of all, investors, and individuals as well as civil society at large. Of course, there are many obstacles in doing so. Companies and citizens will have to go beyond and sometimes against the policies favored by their governments.
+Why Progress is so Slow: There is no magic formula for poor countries to industrialize and keep their carbon footprint in check. Development, and increased standard of living, and a greater carbon footprint still walk in lockstep. This is the central conundrum in the global fight against climate change, and it is almost certain to get worse before it gets better. It makes weighing climate considerations against a better lifestyle a non-choice for many people with precarious incomes, even if the latter hurts the environment more. If you don’t have electricity, a stable income, or even food on the table, worries about climate change however threatening in the long run, simply don’t make the shortlist.
Source: Stakeholder Capitalism by Klaus Schwab (2021).
+Short Term Thinking and Denial: The time disconnect between short-term pain and long-term gains explains the prevalence of the “not in my term of office” syndrome among certain decision makers. Preferring to pass the baton and the buck to their successor. It’s a common human trait and a sign of our human frailty. “By the time the climate catastrophe bites us hard, I’ll be gone so I’d better leave it to those who follow me.” It may be “easier” for a political leader elected for five years or a business executive (whose time at the top rarely exceeds five years) to wait for the next leader to do the hard job.
The US is at the epicenter of climate science denial: 30% of Americans doubt that human-caused climate change exists at all, a view held by those on the political right who are more susceptible to disbelieve science and embrace conspiracy theories.
Source: The Great Narrative by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret
CRITICS: CONSIDERATIONS
Wind and Solar: Nuclear facilities emit four times less CO2 into the atmosphere than do solar farms, and wind farms require 400 times more land than do nuclear power plants (2,120,000 turbines on 500,582 square miles of farmland, the equivalent size as the combined total for Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and much of West Virginia. Additionally, 57,048 square miles is required for solar, the equivalent size of New York and Vermont).
Further, no one has developed a clean, cost-effective way to deal with the waste (much of it toxic) and disposal of the panels and turbines when they have to be torn down, which is every 20 to 30 years. So, it seems clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that wind and solar are not nearly as environmentally beneficial as so many seem to think they are. They are environmentally toxic. The average age of nuclear reactors approaches 40 years, and experts say there are no technical limits to these units churning our clear and reliable energy for an additional 40 years or longer.
In 2018, 71.7% of the electricity produced in France, 55% in Slovakia, 53% in Ukraine, 50.6% in Hungary, and 40% in Sweden came from nuclear plants. Nuclear facilities generated more than 25% of the electricity in Armenia, Finland, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Belgium. [Note: 28% of Arizona’s electricity is produced by nuclear – 9% solar, 1% wind, 6% hydro and 56% fossil fuels].
Also, wind and solar are so much more expensive. If America were to get just 80% of its electricity from wind, solar, and battery storage, the United States’ electricity bill would skyrocket by more than $1 trillion per year.
Source: The Great Reset by Glenn Beck (2022).
Then there are the hydrocarbons and electricity needed to undertake all the mining activities to fabricate the batteries themselves to store the energy. In rough terms, it requires the energy equivalent of about 100 barrels of oil to fabricate a quantity of batteries that can store a single barrel of oil-equivalent energy. This is alarming for many reasons. First, it shows how far away we actually are from reliably powering the world on “green energy.” Second it hits on a key point that nobody discusses. It is dangerously expensive to “transition” our energy sources in the full force manner that global elites are attempting.
Source: The Great Reset by Alex Jones.
Freedom of Movement: “In the UK they’ve proposed CO2 ration cards that the government or employers would monitor your CO2 levels – your energy use – A CO2 budget for every man, woman and child on the planet has been proposed by a German climate advisor. We have an International Energy Agency report that came out, calling for essentially the same type of lockdowns as COVID – everything from restrictions on your thermostat to restrictions of moving. You can only fly in a climate emergency when it’s ‘morally justifiable.’ They’re going after private car ownership; they’re going after everything it means to be a free person and turning it over to the administration.
Source: The Great Reset by Marc Morano (2022)
SCHWAB: LEVERAGING THE COVID CRISIS
+Enlightened Leadership: Some leaders and decision-makers who were already at the forefront of the fight against climate change may want to take advantage of the shock inflicted by the pandemic to implement long-lasting and wider environmental changes. They will, in effect, make “good use” of the pandemic by not letting the crisis go to waste.
Source: COVID-19: The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret (2020)
CRITICS: LEVERAGING THE COVID CRISIS
The Parallels: “Both the climate and COVID movements share these features – hypocrisy and hysteria, models and money, fear and false prophets, and inevitability. This is also how dictatorships begin,” noted Brian C. Joondeph in American Thinker. “One can see numerous parallels between COVID and climate policy. Both create fear, to a frenzy level, of the world ending, massive death and destruction, all due to a warming planet or an aggressive flu virus. If we don’t wear a mask, we are murderers and should be imprisoned. If we don’t believe in man-made global warming, we should also be locked in jail,” Joondeph wrote.
Former Obama administration U.S. Treasury official Mark Mazur said out loud in the 2020 lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “We don’t want lower prices for fossil-fuel buyers, we prefer higher prices” to achieve “climate change goals.” High energy prices are not the unintended consequences of Great Reset and Green New Deal-style policies; they are the intended consequences.
Source: The Great Reset by Marc Morano (2022)
SCHWAB: THE CLIMATE NARRATIVE
+Our current apparent inability to end the critical environmental and climate crisis (they are one and the same as nature and climate are inextricably linked) or to at least keep it under control, is the greatest collective action problem we’ve ever been confronted with. Humanity has never faced an endeavor more complex, ambitious and far-reaching than arresting the collapse of our ecosystem and stabilizing the climate.
Source: The Great Narrative by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret (2022).
CRITICS: THE CLIMATE NARRATIVE
The Negative Impact of Climate Change Activism: The constant false drumbeat that because of global warming, human life could soon be wiped out – the meaning of “existential threat” – has deeply impacted an entire generation of young people worldwide, including the U.S. This has opened the door to the radical changes to society and the global economy that supporters of the Great Reset are now calling for. Without the wide-spread fear of climate change and its impacts, shifting economic and social power into the hands of elites would be considerably more difficult under the Great Reset’s framework.
An extensive 2019 survey of attitudes around the world about climate change found that 40% of Americans believe it is “likely” or “very likely” climate change will cause “a new world war.” Further, 61% of Americans believe it is “likely” of “very likely” that cities will be “lost to rising sea levels,” and 38% said it is “likely” or “very likely” climate change “will cause … the extinction of the human race.”
Source: The Great Reset by Glenn Beck (2022)
Climate Emergencies: Shortly after Joe Biden was inaugurated as president, Democrat senate majority leader Chuck Schumer beseeched Biden “to call a climate emergency.” “I think it might be a good idea for President Biden to call a climate emergency,” Schumer said. “Then he can do many, many things under the emergency powers … that he could do without legislation.” In 2022 House Democrats urged President Biden to transition from the COVID emergency to a “climate emergency.” The environmentalists even claimed Biden could help solve racism with these “climate emergency” powers. Steve Milloy of Junk Science warned of one crucial way that climate lockdowns would be even worse than COVID lockdowns: The coronavirus police state is only temporary. The climate police state would be permanent.
Source: The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown by Marc Morano (2022).
A Universal Human Motivation for Climate Change: It is impossible to take control over the world, or even a few countries without using fear and terror as the central method. When so many nations, religions, and cultures are involved, it becomes impossible to appeal in a positive way to their unique and conflicting values and ideals.
Faced with multiple cultures, it becomes necessary to force them to react out of fear to some overwhelming threat. A universal human motivation must be created, something more powerful than a desire for unity, fellowship, or a belief in a loving God. The universal motivation must be terrifying and awesome, like a great plague. If the plague turns out to be not so awesome, they will have to exaggerate and lie to make the whole sufficiently terrorized and submissive.
Source: COVID-19 and the Global Predators by Peter Breggin MD and Ginger Ross Breggin (2021)
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABILITY – EXCERPTS: SEGMENT 6
SCHWAB: THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
+The Effects of Climate Change: The UN agency, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a warning late 2018 that the current path of CO2 emissions would lead to an unstoppable cycle of global warming – with major disruptions for life on earth – if major reductions weren’t achieved by 2030. It said, “Pathways limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C with no or limited overshoot would require rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy, land, urban and infrastructure and industrial systems.” But hopes for even that narrow path to a limited global warming of 1.5 degree C had all but evaporated two years later.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), another UN-affiliated institution, in July 2020 said that a 1 degree C warming would already be a reality in the next five years (2020-2024) and believed there was a one in five chance that warming would reach 1.5 degrees C in that period.
Source: Stakeholder Capitalism by Klaus Schwab (2021)
+Addressing the Crisis: In 1990, more than 130 nations signed the UN Convention on Climate Change at the Rio Earth Summit. In 1997, in Kyoto, 36 rich countries set reductions targets. In 2015, the signatories to the Paris Agreement agreed to limit the increase in global warming to below 2 degrees C. All this for naught. As an authoritative UN report put it in October 2021: “Climate action so far has been characterized by weak promises, not yet delivered.” Current national pledges only take 7.5% off of predicted 2030 emissions. This is totally inadequate. To reach the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit warming to 1.5 – 2 degrees C, far more ambitious pledges are necessary.
The fundamental reasons that explain the paltry climate change progress so far are threefold: (1) a lack of price for carbon emissions; (2) a relative ineffectiveness in promoting low-carbon technologies; and (3) the malfunctioning architecture of international climate accords. A comprehensive international climate policy must address these three mutually interdependent failures by putting into place a universal carbon pricing mechanism, a robust system for public support of low-carbon technologies, and a new architecture for international climate agreements. Most experts and market participants agree that no real progress will happen without systemic and even “aggressive” reforms that only governments have the ability, capacity and legitimacy to pursue. As an example, investing responsibly according to ESG criteria “will remain a fiction” until an effective global carbon tax is imposed, consistent ESG standards are implemented, and a set of broad-based regulations penalize bad behavior.
Source: The Great Narrative for a Better Future by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret (2022).
+Environmental Reset: In global risk terms, it is with climate change and ecosystem collapse (the two key environmental risks) that the pandemic most easily equates. The three represent, by nature and to varying degrees, existential threats to humankind, and we could argue that COVID – 19 has already given us glimpse or foretaste, of what a full-fledged climate crisis and ecosystem collapse could entail from an economic perspective: combined demand and supply shocks, and disruptions to trade and supply chains with ripple and knock-on effects that amplify risks. If climate change, ecosystem collapse and pandemics look so similar as global risks, how do they really compare?
+Coronavirus and the environment: Zoonotic diseases are those that spread from animals to humans. An increasing number of scientists have shown that it is in fact the destruction of biodiversity caused by humans that is the source of new viruses like COVID – 19. These researchers have coalesced around the new discipline of “planetary health” that studies the subtle and complex connections that exist between the well-being of humans, other living species and entire ecosystems, and their findings have made it clear that the destruction of biodiversity will increase the number of pandemics. [Note: Rules out that the coronavirus could have been manufactured in the Wuhan Virology Lab – now or in the future].
Source: COVID – 19: The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret (2020)
CRITICS: THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE:
Questioning Science: In the world of the Great Reset, climate change, and COVID – 19, no dissent can be allowed. Everyone must support lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, the Green New Deal, UN Climate pacts, COVID curfews, mask mandates, church closures, and mandatory vaccines. There must be no questioning the claims about “The Science.” If you dare question, you will be promptly silenced, defunded, marginalized, and de-platformed.
“All models only say what they are told to say, because all models are lists of premises put there by scientists,” explained William H. Briggs of scientific models used to predict climate change. “It’s silly because (a) no probability proves a model is true, and (b) model statements get probabilities from the premises scientists choose. They can pick what they like and make the model’s statements appear as sure or unsure as they like because of their choices,” Briggs wrote.
“You have this army of university scientists, and they have to pretend like they are doing important research without ever criticizing the powerful interests in a real way. So, what do they look for, elusive sanitized things like acid rain, global warming,” Rancourt said. This system “helps to neutralize dissent,” Rancourt pointed out. “When you do find something bad, you quickly learn and are told you better toe the line on this – your career depends on it.” When you believe you are saving the world, the only science that matters is “The Science” that supports your preconceived political views.
Source: The Great Reset by Marc Morano (2022)
Globalist and Climate Change: During COVID-19, we have seen how scientific “models” used to predict the course of the pandemic and the number of deaths utterly failed. When vast political forces are invested in issues like predicting or managing pandemic and global warming, trusting the models and the politicized scientists – those who are not promoting predatory globalism – are given no voice.
Source: COVID-19 and the Global Predators by Peter & Ginger Breggin.
Scientifically, COVID-19 and climate change share similarities. “Both global warming and the Wuhan flu rely on models. Many climate models predicted rising sea levels and flooded cities, along with catastrophic storms, none of which has materialized. Virus models predicted 2.2 million U.S. deaths, only to be scaled down as reality was nowhere close to the predictions. Both relied on flawed models and failed to adjust their prognostications accordingly.”
Source: The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown by Marc Morano (2022).
SCHWAB: POLLUTION
+UN Water, the agency coordinating the United Nations work on water and sanitation, estimated that globally 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress. But even when water is available, it is often heavily polluted. There is the issue of plastics whose impact will be felt most dramatically in the coming decades, as the plastic that is currently accumulating in the world’s oceans may affect life on land in a myriad of ways. Microplastics have become ubiquitous in the world’s water, in part because they take decades to decompose by current measures, it is estimated we could end up with more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050. Additionally, almost two-thirds of the world’s cities also exceed WHO guidelines on air pollution, according to Greenpeace. Many of the large metropoles of Asia are so polluted it is unhealthy even to walk outside, as many who live or have been there will be able to attest.
This rapid exploitation and pollution also started to wreak havoc on the world’s natural ecosystems and threatened to make global warming spin out of control, with major consequences for people in regions hit hard by climatic change and for future generations.
Source: Stakeholder Capitalism by Klaus Schwab (2021).
+A consensus has formed in the medical and public community that there is a synergistic effect between air pollution exposure and the possible occurrence of COVID-19 and a worse outcome when the virus does strike.
Source: COVID-19: The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The burning of wood and charcoal still remains the main domestic energy source for a great proportion of populations, especially in rural areas. With demographic growth accessible, wood becomes increasingly scarce, and in some cases a task that used to take a couple of hours a day now demands six. Shortage of wood encourages rural populations to burn animal dung, which results in air pollution and in loss of nitrogen to sustain crops and deterioration of the soil.
Source: The First Global Revolution by the Club of Rome.
SCHWAB: CONSIDERATIONS
+To Solve the Problem: In the 170 countries who committed to the Paris Climate governments don’t have the power to act alone. The ball is thus in the camp of other stakeholders as well: companies, first of all, investors, and individuals as well as civil society at large. Of course, there are many obstacles in doing so. Companies and citizens will have to go beyond and sometimes against the policies favored by their governments.
+Why Progress is so Slow: There is no magic formula for poor countries to industrialize and keep their carbon footprint in check. Development, and increased standard of living, and a greater carbon footprint still walk in lockstep. This is the central conundrum in the global fight against climate change, and it is almost certain to get worse before it gets better. It makes weighing climate considerations against a better lifestyle a non-choice for many people with precarious incomes, even if the latter hurts the environment more. If you don’t have electricity, a stable income, or even food on the table, worries about climate change however threatening in the long run, simply don’t make the shortlist.
Source: Stakeholder Capitalism by Klaus Schwab (2021).
+Short Term Thinking and Denial: The time disconnect between short-term pain and long-term gains explains the prevalence of the “not in my term of office” syndrome among certain decision makers. Preferring to pass the baton and the buck to their successor. It’s a common human trait and a sign of our human frailty. “By the time the climate catastrophe bites us hard, I’ll be gone so I’d better leave it to those who follow me.” It may be “easier” for a political leader elected for five years or a business executive (whose time at the top rarely exceeds five years) to wait for the next leader to do the hard job.
The US is at the epicenter of climate science denial: 30% of Americans doubt that human-caused climate change exists at all, a view held by those on the political right who are more susceptible to disbelieve science and embrace conspiracy theories.
Source: The Great Narrative by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret
CRITICS: CONSIDERATIONS
Wind and Solar: Nuclear facilities emit four times less CO2 into the atmosphere than do solar farms, and wind farms require 400 times more land than do nuclear power plants (2,120,000 turbines on 500,582 square miles of farmland, the equivalent size as the combined total for Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and much of West Virginia. Additionally, 57,048 square miles is required for solar, the equivalent size of New York and Vermont).
Further, no one has developed a clean, cost-effective way to deal with the waste (much of it toxic) and disposal of the panels and turbines when they have to be torn down, which is every 20 to 30 years. So, it seems clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that wind and solar are not nearly as environmentally beneficial as so many seem to think they are. They are environmentally toxic. The average age of nuclear reactors approaches 40 years, and experts say there are no technical limits to these units churning our clear and reliable energy for an additional 40 years or longer.
In 2018, 71.7% of the electricity produced in France, 55% in Slovakia, 53% in Ukraine, 50.6% in Hungary, and 40% in Sweden came from nuclear plants. Nuclear facilities generated more than 25% of the electricity in Armenia, Finland, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Belgium. [Note: 28% of Arizona’s electricity is produced by nuclear – 9% solar, 1% wind, 6% hydro and 56% fossil fuels].
Also, wind and solar are so much more expensive. If America were to get just 80% of its electricity from wind, solar, and battery storage, the United States’ electricity bill would skyrocket by more than $1 trillion per year.
Source: The Great Reset by Glenn Beck (2022).
Then there are the hydrocarbons and electricity needed to undertake all the mining activities to fabricate the batteries themselves to store the energy. In rough terms, it requires the energy equivalent of about 100 barrels of oil to fabricate a quantity of batteries that can store a single barrel of oil-equivalent energy. This is alarming for many reasons. First, it shows how far away we actually are from reliably powering the world on “green energy.” Second it hits on a key point that nobody discusses. It is dangerously expensive to “transition” our energy sources in the full force manner that global elites are attempting.
Source: The Great Reset by Alex Jones.
Freedom of Movement: “In the UK they’ve proposed CO2 ration cards that the government or employers would monitor your CO2 levels – your energy use – A CO2 budget for every man, woman and child on the planet has been proposed by a German climate advisor. We have an International Energy Agency report that came out, calling for essentially the same type of lockdowns as COVID – everything from restrictions on your thermostat to restrictions of moving. You can only fly in a climate emergency when it’s ‘morally justifiable.’ They’re going after private car ownership; they’re going after everything it means to be a free person and turning it over to the administration.
Source: The Great Reset by Marc Morano (2022)
SCHWAB: LEVERAGING THE COVID CRISIS
+Enlightened Leadership: Some leaders and decision-makers who were already at the forefront of the fight against climate change may want to take advantage of the shock inflicted by the pandemic to implement long-lasting and wider environmental changes. They will, in effect, make “good use” of the pandemic by not letting the crisis go to waste.
Source: COVID-19: The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret (2020)
CRITICS: LEVERAGING THE COVID CRISIS
The Parallels: “Both the climate and COVID movements share these features – hypocrisy and hysteria, models and money, fear and false prophets, and inevitability. This is also how dictatorships begin,” noted Brian C. Joondeph in American Thinker. “One can see numerous parallels between COVID and climate policy. Both create fear, to a frenzy level, of the world ending, massive death and destruction, all due to a warming planet or an aggressive flu virus. If we don’t wear a mask, we are murderers and should be imprisoned. If we don’t believe in man-made global warming, we should also be locked in jail,” Joondeph wrote.
Former Obama administration U.S. Treasury official Mark Mazur said out loud in the 2020 lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “We don’t want lower prices for fossil-fuel buyers, we prefer higher prices” to achieve “climate change goals.” High energy prices are not the unintended consequences of Great Reset and Green New Deal-style policies; they are the intended consequences.
Source: The Great Reset by Marc Morano (2022)
SCHWAB: THE CLIMATE NARRATIVE
+Our current apparent inability to end the critical environmental and climate crisis (they are one and the same as nature and climate are inextricably linked) or to at least keep it under control, is the greatest collective action problem we’ve ever been confronted with. Humanity has never faced an endeavor more complex, ambitious and far-reaching than arresting the collapse of our ecosystem and stabilizing the climate.
Source: The Great Narrative by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret (2022).
CRITICS: THE CLIMATE NARRATIVE
The Negative Impact of Climate Change Activism: The constant false drumbeat that because of global warming, human life could soon be wiped out – the meaning of “existential threat” – has deeply impacted an entire generation of young people worldwide, including the U.S. This has opened the door to the radical changes to society and the global economy that supporters of the Great Reset are now calling for. Without the wide-spread fear of climate change and its impacts, shifting economic and social power into the hands of elites would be considerably more difficult under the Great Reset’s framework.
An extensive 2019 survey of attitudes around the world about climate change found that 40% of Americans believe it is “likely” or “very likely” climate change will cause “a new world war.” Further, 61% of Americans believe it is “likely” of “very likely” that cities will be “lost to rising sea levels,” and 38% said it is “likely” or “very likely” climate change “will cause … the extinction of the human race.”
Source: The Great Reset by Glenn Beck (2022)
Climate Emergencies: Shortly after Joe Biden was inaugurated as president, Democrat senate majority leader Chuck Schumer beseeched Biden “to call a climate emergency.” “I think it might be a good idea for President Biden to call a climate emergency,” Schumer said. “Then he can do many, many things under the emergency powers … that he could do without legislation.” In 2022 House Democrats urged President Biden to transition from the COVID emergency to a “climate emergency.” The environmentalists even claimed Biden could help solve racism with these “climate emergency” powers. Steve Milloy of Junk Science warned of one crucial way that climate lockdowns would be even worse than COVID lockdowns: The coronavirus police state is only temporary. The climate police state would be permanent.
Source: The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown by Marc Morano (2022).
A Universal Human Motivation for Climate Change: It is impossible to take control over the world, or even a few countries without using fear and terror as the central method. When so many nations, religions, and cultures are involved, it becomes impossible to appeal in a positive way to their unique and conflicting values and ideals.
Faced with multiple cultures, it becomes necessary to force them to react out of fear to some overwhelming threat. A universal human motivation must be created, something more powerful than a desire for unity, fellowship, or a belief in a loving God. The universal motivation must be terrifying and awesome, like a great plague. If the plague turns out to be not so awesome, they will have to exaggerate and lie to make the whole sufficiently terrorized and submissive.
Source: COVID-19 and the Global Predators by Peter Breggin MD and Ginger Ross Breggin (2021)
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
| democracy_6l_climate_--_segment_6.pdf |