Announcing A Live Event In New York: Net Zero And Freedom

When it comes to using government coercion to force a multi-trillion dollar “net zero” energy transition upon the world, many things can go wrong. At this website I have focused on multiple potential calamities likely to flow from this effort: things like whether the proposed “renewable” wind and solar generators can actually work, whether they can produce sufficient electricity and at the right times, how much energy storage would be needed, the risk of blackouts, and how much all of this would inevitably cost.

My list of potential calamities is far from comprehensive. Here is a huge issue that I have barely touched upon: The threat to human freedom posed by the process of forcing this energy transition.

My friends at Net Zero Watch are now setting out to cure that omission. (Full disclosure: I am on the board of Net Zero Watch’s American affiliate, known as American Friends of the GWPF.).

Net Zero Watch has commissioned a series of reports on the subject of Net Zero and Human Freedom. On February 19 NZW will present an in-person event in New York City with the title “Net Zero & Freedom.” Here is a copy of the full flyer for the event:

The event is free and open to the public. (You do need to register in advance due to space limitations.). All MC readers are invited and welcome!

Andrew Montford is the Executive Director of NZW. Messrs. Baker and Constable are authors of two Reports published by NZW in December. Mr. Baker’s Report is titled, “Net Zero and the Threat to Human Liberty.” Here is a brief excerpt to whet your interest:

Lord Vallance’s call for a ‘transformation at every level of society’ epitomises the belief that only sweeping top-down direction can meet ambitious Net Zero targets. This vision of an all-encompassing revolution mirrors past experiments in central planning: it underestimates the knowledge problem, overlooks local variation, and substitutes bureaucratic diktats for organic development. It is founded on the fatal conceit behind every authoritarian revolution: the pretence of knowledge. . . . Proponents of these old, failed ideas often lean on alarmist rhetoric to justify intrusive mandates, forgetting that neither fearful appeals nor state coercion can sustainably overcome the dynamic facts of the world as it is or the reality of the human condition.

Professor Constable’s Report has the title “Powering Freedom: The Thermodynamic Roots of Modernity.” Here is a short excerpt from Professor Constable’s Report:

[E]nergy is far from being just one economic input amongst many. Energy is the key property of all economic inputs, and thus it determines the only thing that really matters in any economic system: namely the potential to change the world in order to satisfy human requirements: to make us free to maintain and protect our bodies and those of our offspring, to kill pathogens, to make us warmer or cooler, to move things or people here and there as we wish. In short, it enables us to broaden the human ecological niche and enhance our prosperity. But what is energy that it should be so indispensable, and what of the fuels from which we obtain it?

This promises to be an entertaining evening. Hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be served. I hope there will be a good turnout of MC readers. Since space is limited, don’t forget to RSVP.