(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
He called to talk about coal power plants being opened. About the energy used, the lights on. And he had the solution: The Chinese must change over time. They must start having the same time as Taiwan. They must have an hour less at home after it gets dark, because it will mean an hour less with millions of lamps, television sets and other appliances in turn.
- That is the solution, he said. We must dare to think new and to change. "I have seen you discuss gas power plants on television," he said, concluding that the gas power plants he had seen me discuss on television were insignificant to all these Chinese coal-fired power plants. I tried to say that as a leader in SU I might be able to make a difference in this country, but that I hardly had the opportunity to get the Chinese to set their clock collectively. I have little faith that Norway will be able to regulate millions of Chinese if you can not keep up with your own oil sector. Strictly speaking, it is not the Chinese's fault that the globe is beginning to thank for itself, they have only taken part in a home-trash party to which the West has long been invited.
I never quite got an answer as to why the former right-hand man and now drunk China driver thought it was imperative to seek me out at night when he entered the motherland, but he obviously wanted to share something he thought was important.
"Can't you get someone who can do this to count on it then," he said. Yes, not that I do not think you can do it, but you know. Bellona or something, he thought.
A few hours after our conversation, I received a text message. "Promise to think about it. It is environmental policy, ”it said. The very mantra of the conversation. I understand that millions, not to mention billions of lamps and electrical appliances, coal-fired power plants and new cars in China, may even make former right-wingers think that something needs to be done. The problem is that they have not realized that system criticism can be environmental policy. They simply did not acknowledge that what they advocate above all, namely a free-flow market, is precisely what doubles the amount of electrical appliances, useful as useless, the amount of cars, and the amount of power plants of various kinds that the growth of everything that is growing , will continue to see. What if right-wingers greeted when they met themselves at the door, rather than looking at China?
The core of capitalism is the compulsion to grow. The individual capitalist has the choice between expanding or dying, as Raga Rockers says. Or more precisely, Michael Krohn sings «The dog has crawled under the rug The sun has gone behind a cloud and the politicians' solution to it all makes me vomit. It's time to expand or die ». There is reason to vomit of a solution that is not a solution. A finger in the throat actually accomplishes more than empty words. Simply because it is possible to vomit purposefully, while words without content can neither hit nor miss. Just be said, and thus prevent words with content from getting to. This is roughly how the environmental debate often ends.
Market enthusiasts must realize that the market is part of the problem, and that the problem may be the solution when it comes to vaccination, but not when it comes to the system. A system based on growth cannot hinder the same growth. An economy and a society based on a few investing at the discretion of their own company, where the environment and human considerations are subordinate to the requirement for profit, can only create climate destruction, never solve them. Release and discharge are related.
To overcome climate change, not only political will is needed, but also political control. The conversion from an infrastructure based on fossil fuels does not happen by itself. After all, there is more money than there are people in China involved in the Norwegian oil sector. Money that is not only to be taken out, but reinvested. Some people have an obvious interest in maintaining the sector, and then I do not think first and foremost of all the thousands of workers who can get new jobs in a new industrial adventure based on new renewable energy. Railway lines are not built by themselves either. Wind turbines do not grow out of the sea. It is about political control or non-control, governance or neglect. If the important issues in society are to be left to the market, the important tasks will not be solved.
It is not possible to praise the blind market and at the same time want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Then you quickly end up with a desire to regulate the Chinese rather than reduce the pace of oil recovery. If the Chinese man calls again, I will ask him to stick his finger in his throat. Or the earth. He can choose.
