It’s both surprising and refreshing to see a nation actually stand up for the economic well-being of their own Citizens.
In our own lives, we face a hierarchy of needs, and the better off we are the more our problems tend to not really be problems at all.
Thus, many celebrities and politicians – who already have a high degree of financial security – tend to focus on becoming ‘heroes’ by ‘saving the world.’
That their ‘solutions’ tend to end up hurting many of the people from their own countries either doesn’t occur to them, or isn’t a big enough deal to supersede their desire to achieve heroic status.
A result of this is that our politics becomes more and more removed from reality, based more and more on abstract fantasies and obsessions of the elites, and the actual day-to-day situation facing most people forgotten.
That’s how a country like Canada ends up crushing our own energy sector, serving only to make our own country poorer while increasing the wealth of authoritarian energy producing nations with worse environmental and labour standards than us.
That’s how Europe ends up ‘transitioning’ away from stable forms of energy, only to find out they are short of energy and thus have to desperately procure more energy from Russia and seek to import the kind of resources they deemed ‘unfit.’
That’s how countries like Canada, the US, and others – where emissions are already decreasing – keep trying to extract more and more sacrifices from their own population.
Success makes virtue-signaling possible
One of the biggest ironies we face is that virtue-signaling celebrities and politicians are only possible in countries where capitalism and resource extraction has succeeded to such a large extent.
Those who fly around the world to climate conferences and pledge to punish their own population can only do so on the backs of a system that made wealth generation and technological advancement possible.
The flourishing of human freedom coincided with the expansion of free enterprise and technological innovation, yet the elites who have dramatically benefitted from all of that are the ones most willing to restrict and crush it.
Because they are so removed from day-to-day reality, and because they so desperate for meaning in life, the climate crusade has taken on an almost spiritual-style aspect.
For example, people like Justin Trudeau seem to feel that oil is ‘dirty,’ and Canada must produce less and less of it. That feeling seems completely immune to facts, considering that due to Canada’s high environmental and labour standards the world environment would benefit from Canada producing more oil & gas.
But that feeling of oil & gas somehow being ‘impure’ leads hypocritical politicians to crush our own energy sector, while importing tons of oil from authoritarian states.
This is why celebrities and politicians are among those we should ignore whenever they push utopian ideas, since they are far too insulated from the economic consequences of the solutions they propose.
India brings a dose of reality
With all of this in mind, it’s no surprise that India – a country where hundreds of millions still live in poverty – has brought a clear dose of reality to the conclusion of the COP26 Conference.
The final wording of the agreement originally included talk about of ‘phasing out’ coal.
India opposed that language, and the wording was thus changed to ‘phasing down’ coal.
The change was blasted by far-left activists and many delegates, but that is to be expected.
Now, while I believe the entire COP26 Conference to be completely unnecessary and counterproductive, within the confines of the conference you have to give India credit for standing up for their own economic interests.
Coal is still a highly efficient source of energy, and efficient energy is what a country needs to lift people up out of poverty.
Why should India hold their own people back because of some virtue-signaling elites in other parts of the world?
Rather than get upset with India, we really should be asking why all leaders aren’t standing up for the economic interests of their population like India is.
Why didn’t Justin Trudeau stand up for Canada’s oil & gas sector instead of selling it out?
Why didn’t the Liberal government make the case for countries to purchase more and more oil & gas from Western Canada, in order to help strengthen an industry that has high environmental and labour standards compared to our competitors?
Why didn’t Canada’s delegation pledge to reduce the use of foreign oil in this country?
I guess all of that would have made too much sense.
True leaders seek to empower their Citizens, not impoverish them
The great dream of every generation is to pass on a wealthier and more advanced world to the next generation.
India has made it clear they won’t give up on that dream, and neither should Canada nor any other nation.
That dream is always alive and always possible, because of the incredible ability human beings have to learn, adapt, grow, and invent.
We accumulate knowledge, pass on wisdom, and use timeless principles to address new problems.
And this happens without needing centralized authority, as history shows the freest nations also become the wealthiest and most advanced nations.
It’s only in recent years that our ‘leaders’ have begun their attempts to convince us to accept less and less, to lower our expectations for the future, and to fall into a depressing doom-and-gloom narrative.
No wonder so many young people are feeling hopeless and helpless, as they’ve been told by their teachers and leaders that their future is going to be one long ‘climate crisis.’
This doom-and-gloom narrative may feel scary to some, but it isn’t actually real.
Humanity has always faced challenges and we always have the ability to overcome them.
But we can only do so if we remember that decentralization, individual freedom, and free enterprise are the true engines of growth and advancement. We must stand up against fear-mongering politicians who attempt to impoverish us in fulfilment of their own unhinged lust for power.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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