This article is from WeChat public account:Glacier Thoughts (ID: icereview) , author: Chen Ji ice cover: Oriental IC

01 Girl Grieta, is a saint or a patient?

Climate change seems to be a scientific professional problem, but now it has become a major political issue, and the scientific factor has retreated to a secondary position. After the Trump-led US government announced its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the seemingly controversial dispute once again — and more than ever — was heated up.

The 16-year-old Swedish girl Greta Sandberg (Greta Thunberg) at the end of last month at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, The sad episode of this increasingly paranoid political struggle. Progressives who emphasize environmental protection see her as a young leader of a great mass movement, a “historical hope of the future”, and even a “saint” who have successfully pushed her into multiple international Among the shortlists for the awards are the Nobel Peace Prize.

The conservatives who advocate free markets are ridiculing that her behavior is “rebellious during adolescence” and “having mental illness”, and even labeled her as “green terrorism”…

Gretta·Sangberg (Graphic/Visual China)

With my life experience for half a lifetime, I certainly wouldn’t think that a 16-year-old girl has the ability to have a lot of insight into the grand affairs of the fate of all mankind.

I suspect that Western left-wing progressives may feel that having such a “pure” girl who is not “contaminated” by money, power, and vested interests will add a greater moral appeal to the cause they support. If they really think so, it is offensive, because what is needed to solve this kind of problem is precisely the clear rationality, not the emotional use.

However, those right-wing conservatives are also disgusting with Greta’s demonization. Her opinion may be (possibly probable) indeed naive and wrong, but because he disagrees with one’s point of view, he does nothing. According to the personal attack, it is really a bad thing for the gentleman.

To be honest, I have never even seen these so-called “conservatives” behaving as vicious as Greta, not to mention that she is still a minor child. Ironically, the conservatives of the past have always taken the responsibility of being gentle, peaceful, and restrained.

02

Climate warming, is it science or public policy?

In my opinion, the issue of climate change is not a single issue, but a series of issues that contain at least five interrelated but distinctly different issues:

1, is the Earth’s climate really warming?

2, if it is indeed warming, what impact will it have on humans?

3. If the climate is indeed changing, is human activity the main cause?

4, if the climate is indeed changing, should humans take a positive response?

5, if we really need to take action, what should we do?

……

Among them, questions 1, 2, and 3 are purely scientific issues; half of questions 4 are scientific issues, half are public policy issues; and question 5 is pure public policy issues.

04 Climate Warming under Conspiracy Theory

However, from my personal understanding of this matter, question 5 is the most worthy of an open public debate. My point is simple: We may need to take a positive response to climate warming, but “how to do it” may be more critical than “doing it or not”.

There are countless lessons in history telling us that even public welfare undertakings such as disaster relief, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection can only achieve real results if they adopt market-based means that conform to the laws of the market economy. Anti-market planning methods and arbitrary administrative orders can only be counterproductive. What is more serious is that they can not only solve problems but also create new and more complicated problems.

December 2, 2018, Katowice, Poland, UN Climate Summit unveiled (Photo / Visual China)

For the simplest example, in order to achieve energy substitution as soon as possible, many countries have implemented various financial subsidies for the development, production and use of various types of “new energy”. Without government subsidies, most of these new energy companies are difficult to survive autonomously in market competition.

However, if we go deeper, we will find that, in fact, many countries have always had explicit and implicit huge subsidies for traditional fossil fuels. If there is no national protection, the winds of many fossil energy giants in the worldThe light day is probably long over.

On the one hand, administrative forces are used to promote emission reduction, and on the other hand, administrative power is used to protect traditional ore energy… The sharp irony is ridiculous. This contradictory government subsidy not only offsets the effects of emission reductions, but also seriously weakens and distorts the market spontaneous mechanism in the energy sector, causing lasting damage to industry and the economy.

Unfortunately, most of the current quarrels about climate issues are not focused on such constructive places, but on various words, and are full of all kinds of anti-science and anti-rational absurd arguments. .

On April 22, 2016, multinational leaders gathered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to sign the Paris Agreement (Photo / Visual China)

What I am most disgusted with is that both the pros and the cons are increasingly picking up the conspiracy theories and thinking about the malicious deficiencies and moral slurs of different opinions, and even direct personal attacks. The left-wingers insisted that the conservatives who oppose the Paris Agreement or advocate prudent action on emissions reductions are all spokespersons for the “vested interests of fossil fuels”.

The right-wingers are naturally not to be outdone. Many of them publicly claim that climate warming is a “century scam” carefully planned by governments and elites. There is an ulterior “evil motive” behind it. , for example, to expand government power to better control the population…

We should understand that once the discussion of a problem falls into this conspiracy theory that speculates on the inner motives of others, then the opposing parties cannot have any room for communication and understanding. Because the discussion has changed from “things” to “people” – since the other party has been judged to be “bad guys”, what is the truth with him?

Moreover, speculating on the “evil motives” of others can be endless and unconstrained. However, all conspiracy theories against others can be perfectly immortalized.

05 The biggest lesson in climate debate

Standing on the position of a journalist, I think that such doubts are certainly possible, even necessary. But what it needs is an in-depth investigation, with conclusive facts revealing the exchange of interests behind the incident, and even greater shady. This is an indispensable public opinion supervision in a healthy society and a sacred mission for journalists.

But on the issue of climate change, today’s media world is filled with a bad atmosphere of malicious, unprovoked accusations and violent attacks.

The war of words around climate change reveals the growing rift between the elite and the public in our time. This issue was driven by the elites of the intellectual community, and most of the world’s governments have begun to act positively before the people have yet to reach a broad consensus. This aroused the incomprehension and fierce rebound of some people, but this rebound took the wrong way of populism.

The government tried to replace political issues with scientific issues, and the opposing people tried to cancel scientific issues with political issues. The result is: The two very different issues are intertwined and entangled, which not only damages the authority of science, but also ruins the virtue of politics. This is the biggest lesson I have learned from the climate change dispute.

This article is from WeChat public account:Glacier Thoughts (ID: icereview) , author: Chen Ji ice cover: Oriental IC