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the cheapest source of energy—in order to ensure that those yet to be born, who will
in any case be signally better off than they are, will be better off still by escaping the
disadvantages of any warming that might occur.
However, the greatest immorality of all concerns the masses in the developing world.
It is excellent that, in so many parts of the developing world—the so-called emerging
economies—economic growth is now firmly on the march, as they belatedly put in place
the sort of economic policy framework that brought prosperity to the Western world.
Inevitably, they already account for, and will increasingly account for, the lion's share of
global carbon emissions.
But, despite their success, there are still hundreds of millions of people in these
countries in dire poverty, suffering all the ills that this brings, in terms of malnutrition,
preventable disease, and premature death. Asking these countries to abandon the cheapest
available sources of energy is, at the very least, asking them to delay the conquest of
malnutrition, to perpetuate the incidence of preventable disease, and to increase the
numbers of premature deaths.
Global warming orthodoxy is not merely irrational. It is wicked.
