A group of scientists appointed by the United Nations has concluded that the free-market system known as capitalism is incapable of combating climate change. It must be replaced, say these experts, by “considerable reframing of economic-political thinking.” Is anyone surprised? The scientists chosen by the UN and approved by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres concluded in their new report that capitalism, as it has been known for centuries, “is over” and must be succeeded by a “radically different global economy.”
Not too long ago, “climate change” replaced “global warming” as the world’s dominant bugaboo needing immediate and drastic attention. Along with other dubious scientists, the “experts” working for the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change and other UN-related groups began issuing a stream of reports blaming human beings for producing excess carbon dioxide, the main culprit supposedly causing changes in the climate. According to this UN panel and others, carbon dioxide has long been the dominant cause of warming. Missing in most of these reports is any mention of the enormously beneficial effect of carbon dioxide in plant growth, animal grazing, and more.
Those who pointed out the benefits derived from carbon dioxide — and even to the point of welcoming the considerable amount produced by human activity — were labeled “deniers” and accused of inviting worldwide death and destruction along with extinction of a variety of species. Unwillingness to cut human-produced carbon emissions has regularly generated severe denunciation spiced with unkind adjectives aimed at the deniers. Happily, some scientists rejected the claims of the climate-change scaremongers and even dared issue data showing that warming or cooling has always occurred naturally.
The new UN report suggests that the supposed cataclysmic consequences being brought on by human activity must be challenged by a radically different global economy. It states, “Rapid economic transition requires proactive governance — markets cannot accomplish the task.” Does this report attack the economic system that has raised the standard of living for the human race? Of course! “We face a form of capitalism,” it continues, “that has hardened its focus to short-term profit maximization with little or no apparent interest in social good.” The United Nations will certainly offer itself to fill the supposed need for “proactive governance” noted above.
Who produced this blatant promotion of world government? The paper’s lead author is Finland’s biophysical economist Dr. Paavo Jarvensivu. He and a group of fellow Finns, all biophysicists, are working on a more comprehensive UN Global Sustainable Development Report they expect to release in 2019. The Finns cite the work of Professor Charles Hall of the State University of New York and Professor Kent Klitgaard of New York’s Wells College in their work.
In the new system envisioned by the Finnish planners can be found such globalist thinking as a dire need for “city planning that can promote walking and biking,” as well as “homes and workplaces [that] will become more connected and localized.” On the other hand, “international freight transport and aviation cannot continue to grow at current rates,” and “dairy and meat should make way for largely plant-based diets.” And these champions for reorienting virtually everything suggest replacing concrete and steel buildings with “a return to the use of long-lasting wood buildings.” Really!
Professor Jarvensivu adds that none of this can happen “without considerable reframing of economic-political thinking.” He’s right about that. But, summing up, he obviously wants a authoritarian state run by the UN to replace the free-market and limited government approach that has made the world a far better place for mankind. What he and his colleagues have unknowingly supplied is another reason for our nation and others to withdraw completely from the United Nations.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
