Whether the election news thrills or depresses you, you’ll not take much comfort from the excerpt Newsweek has published from Robert J. Samuelson’s new book.
Samuelson outlines a number of challenges ahead for the economy. Though we might quibble with his recommendations, he offers an assessment of global warming alarmism that makes sense:
We also need to be sensible about global warming. With today’s
technologies?which can change?little can be done. This is the harsh,
perhaps tragic, reality. Four fifths of the world’s energy comes from
fossil fuels: oil (35 percent), coal (25 percent) and natural gas (20
percent). By 2030, global energy consumption may increase 55 percent
from 2005 levels, says the International Energy Agency. China, India
and other poor countries would represent three quarters of the
increase. These countries understandably won’t sacrifice economic
growth?reducing their poverty?to curb energy use. In India alone, about
400 million people still lack electricity. Expensive policies to reduce
U.S. emissions could be a fool’s errand: costly to our prosperity but
barely affecting global warming.Just producing cleaner, high-cost energy for its own sake makes no sense.
Samuelson’s thoughts echo ideas the John Locke Foundation has mentioned here, here, and here.
