Epic Fail

One of the regular contributors to our local newspaper’s guest editorial section is a fellow who bills himself as a “lifetime environmentalist”.  In his most recent essay he referenced the publication, “The Limits To Growth”, written by the Club of Rome in 1972.  The book is famous for predicting the imminent exhaustion of virtually every non-renewable resource important to prosperous, 20^th century living—crude oil, aluminum, copper, molybdenum, natural gas, gold, silver, etc.  And what did they rely on for these predictions, all of which have been proven wrong?  A computer model, of course.  As my sons would say, “epic fail.”

I had assumed that the Club of Rome had quietly disbanded so as to avoid further embarrassment, but our intrepid editorial writer has made me aware that the Club endures, and has published a new manifesto, “2052, A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years”, to coincide with the Rio +20  Earth Summit.  Faced with the failure of their 1972 models, and forced to recognize that human creativity and changing economics have extended the lifetimes of natural resources far beyond the artificial limits they postulated, the 2012 Club has changed its strategy.  In 1972 it was the scarcity of resources that would cause the collapse of civilization, now it is the use of them.  The Club is now predicting climate catastrophe, based on computer models of course.

The solutions proposed for the problem in 1972 and 2012 are the same.  In 1972 “The Limits To Growth” set out to prove, scientifically, that the earth’s limited resources heralded an end, sadly but necessarily, to the age of human freedom.  A more enlightened governance than self-governance would henceforth be required.  Jorgen Randers, the author of the Club’s new book, and co-author of the first, said this in a recent press release:  “We need a system of governance that takes a more long-term view.  It is unlikely that governments will pass necessary regulation to force the markets to allocate more money into climate friendly solutions, and must not assume that markets will work for the benefit of humankind.”  In other words, a more enlightened governance than self-governance will henceforth be required.  You can imagine who constitutes the enlightened.

Thus is revealed the true nature of the Club of Rome, and other groups like them.  They are anti-human.  They view human beings primarily as consumers and polluters, and not as creators, innovators, and stewards.  The “solutions” that these Malthusian groups have proposed and carried out in the past have killed millions upon millions of people.  The “solutions” that they propose today are rife with vague and undefinable terms like sustainability and social justice.  In truth, what they propose is arbitrary rule by “experts”, and wealth redistribution writ large.  Developed nations are expected to abandon the standard of living they have achieved, and developing nations are expected to abandon their aspirations for development.  Cooking over a dung fire and praying that the swarms of mosquitoes that surround you won’t infect you with malaria is good enough, isn’t it?  For all their talk about a better tomorrow, the Club of Rome is appalling in its disregard for human life.