Posted on 04/25/2014 5:49:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
MSNBC host Chris Hayes is getting an alarming amount of attention for his latest effort in The Nation, a stemwinder arguing that the abolition of fossil fuels is like the abolition of slavery.
The argument may sound forced, but Hayes has a logical premise that goes something like this: Socrates does not wear sandals; a potato kugel does not wear sandals; therefore Socrates is a potato kugel. Its also tricked out with quasi-erudition and broad claims such as this one: Before the widespread use of fossil fuels, slaves were one of the main sources of energy (if not the main source) for societies stretching back millennia. (Busy old fool, unruly Sun!)
Hayes, who serves as an editor-at-large for The Nation, manages to make 4,600 words feel even longer, with overflowing adjectives (obvious, ungodly, brute, bloody); lethal compound modifiers (heart-stopping, full-throated); cascades of adverbs (immensely, basically, unfathomably probably, literally, and even downright). Theres a to-be-sure paragraph guaranteeing the reader that Hayes is not making a moral comparison between the enslavement of Africans and African Americans and the burning of carbon to power our devices followed by another 3,600 words comparing the enslavement of Africans and African Americans with the burning of carbon. (Hayes is coy as to what devices are in fact powered by these exotic carbon energy sources about which more in a moment.)
So how does it make sense to compare the use of hydrocarbons with the enslavement of people? Turns out its the One Percent again, still clinging jealously to their privileges:
To preserve a roughly habitable planet, we somehow need to convince or coerce the worlds most profitable corporations and the nations that partner with them to walk away from $20 trillion of wealth . . .
The last time in American history that some powerful set of interests relinquished its claim on $10 trillion of wealth was in 1865and then only after four years and more than 600,000 lives lost in the bloodiest, most horrific war weve ever fought.
Thats more or less all there is to Hayess case.
The virtuous cadre of fossil-fuel abolitionists will have to compel these fat cats to give up their wealth. And like John Brown and Julia Ward Howe before them, they can take heart despite the immensity of the task, because the toll of human suffering is right before their . . . because the horrors of the vile institution are clear to . . . because the conscience recoils at the sight of . . . Well, its kind of hard to say what the actual societal gain of eliminating fossil fuels would be, because fossil fuels are the main reason modern society exists at all.
As simply as possible: It took 2 million years or so of human history for the population of Planet Earth to reach 1 billion, early in the 19th century. A few years prior to that landmark, the continuous-rotation steam engine was invented. And by the strangest coincidence, that population number went on to increase seven-fold in only 200 years.
A perceptive person might conclude that internal combustion and the use of fossil fuels had something to do with that progress, at least by providing a range of options beyond freezing, starving, dying in infancy, or any of the other indignities that constitute most of human experience in a state of nature. A person in an expansive mood might even say exploitation of fossil fuels is a miracle, enabling transnational markets for food, widespread travel and education, heavier-than-air flight, full-time employment for left-wing commentators, and even the abolition of slavery. (Observe how deftly Hayes avoids putting two and two together in that sentence above about how slaves were energy before fossil fuels.)
Does Hayes think that population growth happened in a technological vacuum? Does he wonder where the chemicals came from to make the frames of his hipster spectacles?
Maybe he believes were poised to leave the age of fossil fuels behind and enter an age of clean alternative fuels. Unfortunately, the International Energy Agency disagrees. Heres the IEAs 2011 global energy mix:
That 1 percent contains all geothermal plants, Solyndras, windmills, and other forms of clean energy. Even if you throw in nuclear power, biofuels, and hydro, youre looking at a total of only 18.4 percent of the energy mix that doesnt come from fossil fuels. To abolish the exploitation of organic chemistry would be to condemn billions of people to their deaths.
Which is why I think Hayess modest proposal is useful as more than just an example of how global-warming alarmism becomes more melodramatic as evidence for anthropogenic global warming becomes less compelling.
There are many more moderate suggestions than Hayess on the carbon-cap continuum. But his goofy idea makes clear that all of these involve some diminution in human life: less health, less longevity, fewer opportunities to pursue happiness. At some level that translates into fewer people a consummation many warmists might devoutly wish, though few would admit that. (As green panics go, overpopulation is long over; global warming is merely on its way out.)
Hayes is right to equate the battle against fossil fuels with one of historys greatest moral struggles. Hes just wrong to think hes on the side of humanity.
Read "Bell Curve" by Richard J. Herrnstein and it will rapidly become clear that Libs are the population on the Left side of the Curve. They believe themselves as intellectually superior, based on their own egotism.
This part is more or less correct.
The only other sources of significant energy were animal traction, wind and water. For instance, if you wanted to propel a boat without using the wind, you used human rowers rather than an outboard motor.
While it is accurate to say that all these sources of energy depended in their ultimate origin on the sun, that isn't really particularly relevant.
Hmmmmm! Nah! Not possible.
I don't even know who this Hayes guy is, but he is obviously a technological idiot. He lives in a bubble and thinks his first class flights and heat and air conditioning in his luxury condo all come from the tooth fairy.
Living the 'Good Life' takes a lot of energy. If he really wants to practice what he preaches, I'd advise him to buy an ax, head into the wilderness, build his own shelter, grow his own food, and say to hell with civilization.
I don't think he would last a month.
In this case and many others depciting these liberal progressive douches a picture is worth a thousand words, ready set go
Ivy League colleges - he is a graduate of Brown. Brown, where communists rule and common sense hasn't been seen for over 100 years.
Unlike so many of the other lefties, who at least lived through some deprivation, Hayes is the ultimate sissified pansy who has never had a difficult day in his life -- except when his local Starbucks was under construction and he couldn't get his morning vanilla chai latte without having to drive 15 minutes out of his way. Never worked a day in the hot sun, never picked up a rifle to defend his country. Hard to take anything he says seriously.
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