“Pulitzer-winning author Jared Diamond says Dutch society will succeed in the years ahead, but America may fail. Diamond sees America's will to succeed being sapped by such eco-problems as overpopulation and pollution.
However, the Netherlands is also the most technology-dependent country in the world. Without their hydraulic floodgates and giant electric pumps, the Netherlands would quickly disappear under the waters of the North Sea. The Netherlands depends on engineers, not Green Council meetings.
Both the Netherlands and the U.S. will need even better technology, not less, as we cope with the ongoing Modern Warming—and the Modern Little Ice Age that will follow it about 1000 years from now.
The same folks touch on another internal contradiction of eco-chic that can’t be consolidated:Europe's politicians loved Kyoto when it was negotiated in 1997. It scored big points with their Green parties, and the really harsh energy cutbacks-to be demanded after 2012-seemed a long way off. Now the start date of emissions cutbacks is next year, and the draconian post-2012 energy limits are seven years closer. The costs of Kyoto compliance run are likely to total trillions of dollars per year, and may push millions of EU jobs to other countries.
For countries that have pledged to give up their nuclear power plants, such as Germany and the Netherlands, a future without fossil fuels, nuclear power-or even windmills-looks stark indeed. Especially when seabed sediments in both the North and South Atlantic testify the world has had nine natural, moderate global warmings and coolings in the last 12,000 years.
Earth to E.U.: keep up the good work!
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