For a real green economy, stop the hysterics

Every silly in the policy world is busy writing memos to Barack Obama. “This idea,” each claims, “will solve the panic, ease the hysteria, create a world afresh.” And a fresh world we need, each says, and so we all think.

None more fervently than Thomas Friedman, the disgustingly rich — his wife is worth somewhere in the area of $2.2 billion — leftish columnist for the New York Times who is touring the talk shows flogging his latest set of ideas, which turns out to be a “green economy.”

The “green economy” canard has been around for years, and indeed, this may be its time. The oil economy is in shambles, car companies are on the verge of collapse, and Armageddon climate change beckons. Let’s all just go for broke and declare this the revolution of the 21st century. Tear it all down, start over. But if we do, if Obama arrives on January 20 and declares a green revolution, it will be a top-down revolution, created by the elites, for the elites and suffered, as per usual, by those less than elite.

Too many of my friends have declared in the last week that they are glad that the big box store and mall life is going to die. Vulgar, awful consumerism, they say, crass products, tacky plastic stuff, leather jackets and jewellery no one can afford; time for it to go away. We need a palate cleansing, rationing, the grit of the Greatest Generation, purifying poverty, better taste among the masses.

Well, I agree. We need all these things. Or rather, we want these things. But this is my question, and it is an anxious question. I worry that what I (and my friends) want is the desire of the spoiled. I am entirely uncertain that we have reached Peak Oil, as any cursory appraisal of the research tells me that there is lots of oil undiscovered. Far too many climate scientists representing far too many countries tell us that catastrophic climate change has been made up by activists and bureaucrats with a desire to remake the world. I think we’re 10 if not 20 years away from a functioning fleet of hybrid or electric vehicles, no matter what “incentives” Obama builds into his rescue. Wind, clean coal, and solar power, while working in small measure, still require massive subsidies from taxes on those who live on little and — after we are done with them — will live on less.

The thing that worries me most about this latest crash is that it has largely been fueled by panic and hysteria. That hysteria has been created by those who have been telling us (in my belief, falsely) that we are destroying the planet, who wanted the end of the Republican era, the death of the neo-con, the end of the industrial age, and who want a cleaner, kinder, better world. Yes, we can be better stewards, but behind media hysteria, in every region and township, we are growing by leaps and bounds. Every county and municipality has leapt on the green bandwagon, as has every shop, service, and corporation. Green gives us the competitive advantage.

And that’s the point: No one can “improve” a homeland like those who live in it. A command and control approach by a vast, distant bureaucracy will destroy local initiative. It’s all happening. What we need are cool reason and dispassion, and all the hysterics among us to stand down. Your work is done. Thanks ever so much.

Elizabeth Nickson is a Canadian freelance journalist.

Photo by Robert V. Courtesy of Creative Commons.