Quote:
Originally Posted by sendler
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First impression: Great, another long-haired, Liberal intellectual berating everyone from his pulpit.
Second impression: Er, wait... he's making some damn good, well thought out points and is quite reasonable in his presentation without preaching.
Surprises:
- He correctly links energy consumption to GDP. I see this in some more conservative based blogs I read and is a significant reason for pushing continued use of fossil fuels. Switching from fossil fuels to wind/solar is likely to cause a significant reduction in GDP. This is commonly known as a "recession". Mr Hagens even specifically points out that making this switch to renewables will reduce GDP.
- He recognizes the fact that banks issue debt without adding real wealth because there wasn't anything new produced. Debt would not be bad as long as GDP increases more than debt. But it isn't. And for that reason, we are less wealthy in real terms (other than the top 5%) than we were a decade ago even though we show continued GDP growth. Leveraging debt allowed us to get out of the energy crisis of the 70's. Now, cheap fossil fuels are running low and debt overhang is unsustainable.
- The models that "climate scientists use that show how much climate impact there will be from human forcings are delusionally exaggerated."
- He recognizes technology will not solve our energy problem. We primarily use technology to replace human labor, which will cause higher percentage of impoverished people. We also use new technologies that consume energy.
- He recognizes that a carbon tax will reduce GDP.
I don't agree with everything he says, but there is a lot of good stuff in there. I think his vision of the future is missing out on one key detail. A cheap, abundant energy source can be found in nuclear power. When push comes to shove, I think we will tap into this to drive our economy.