Ever notice how the places that are in the deepest financial trouble — Europe, California in the U.S., Ontario in Canada — are the ones that fell hardest for the myth of green energy?
While it would be inaccurate to attribute their mad rush into “renewables” as the sole cause of their fiscal woes — many reckless decisions led to that — it was certainly a contributing factor.
For one thing, wind turbines and solar panels, which only produce energy if massively subsidized by the state, drive up electricity prices, which kills off manufacturing jobs.
That’s why NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair’s “solution” to the “Dutch Disease” he says is caused by the development of the oilsands without carbon pricing, which is to impose cap-and-trade, is absurd.
All that will do is raise energy prices even more, costing more jobs, which only helps the environment if you believe deliberately causing a recession, which lowers pollution and greenhouse gas emissions because of economic collapse, is a good idea. It isn’t.
One of the reasons environmentalists are denouncing the failure of the ongoing Rio 20 UN conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro is that Europe, the main driver of all things green for the past 25 years, including the useless Kyoto accord, has bigger things on its mind these days, such as impending financial collapse.
This underscores a basic reality.
Only countries with healthy economies have the capacity to improve their environments. Those going broke, don’t.
