The Great Global Warming Swindle Page #9

Global warming campaigners say

it does not harm to be on the safe side;

even if the theory of man-made

climate change is wrong,

we should impose draconian measures

to cut carbon emissions, just in case.

They call this the

precautionary principle.

The precautionary principles

are very interesting beast.

It's basically used to promote

a particular agenda in ideology,

it's always used in one direction only.

It talks about the risks of

using a particular technology

fossil fuels for example,

but never about the

risks of not using it.

It never talks about the benefits

of having that technology.

Anne Mougela is about to cook...

...a meal for her children.

She is one of the 2 billion people,

a third of the world's population,

who have no access to electricity.

Instead, they must burn wood

or dried animal dung in their homes.

The indoor smoke this creates

is the deadliest form of

pollution in the world.

According to the World

Health Organization,

four million children

under the age of five...

die each year from

respiratory diseases...

caused by indoor smoke,

and many millions of

women die early...

from cancer and lung disease

for the same reason.

If you ask a rural person

to define development,

they'll tell you:

"yes I'll know I move

to the next level

when I have electricity".

Actually not having electricity

creates such a long

chain of problems...

cause the first thing

you miss is the light.

So you have to go to sleep earlier

because there's no light,

there's no reason to

stay awake, I mean,

you can't talk to each

other in darkness.

No refrigeration or

modern packaging...

means food cannot

be kept.

Fire in the hut is too smoky

and consumes too much

wood to be used as heating.

There is no hot water.

We in the West cannot

begin to imagine

how hard life is

without electricity.

The life expectancy of people...

who live like this in

terrifyingly short.

Their existance impoverished

in every way.

A few miles away the UN

is hosting its conference

on global warming

in its plush gated headquarters.

Gift shop is selling souvenirs

of peasant travel life

while delegates discuss...

how to promote what

are described as:

"sustainable forms of

electrical generation".

Africa has coal,

and Africa has oil,

but environmental groups

are campaigning...

against the use of these

sources of energy.

Instead, they say Africa...

and the rest of the

developing world...

...should use solar

and wind power.

A short drive out of Nairobi

we find our first solar panel.

A Kenian public health official

has brought us to a clinic

which serves several villages.

The only electrical

implements...

in the clinic are

the electric lights...

and a refrigerator in which

to keep vaccines,

medicine and blood samples.

Electricity is provided

by two solar panels.

- So what can you to do successfully?

- Lighting.

What happens when you put

lighting plus the refrigerator?

Tell us, what happens?

- It sounds an alarm?

- Yes.

- Can we maybe see that?

The solar panels allow Dr. Samuel Morangui

to use either the lights

or the refrigerator,

but not both at

the same time.

If he does, the

electricity shuts down.

Wind and solar power

are notoriously unreliable

as a source of electricity,

and are at least three

times more expensive

than conventional forms

of electrical generation.

The question would be

how many people in Europe,

how many people in the United States

are already using

that kind of energy,

and how cheap is it, you see,

if it's expensive for the Europeans,

if it's expensive for the Americans,

and we are talking

about poor Africans,

you know, it doesn't make sense.

The rich countries

can afford...

to engage in some

luxurious

experimentation with

other forms of energy,

but for us we are still

at the state of survival.

To former environmentalist

Paul Driessen,

the idea that the world's

poorest people

should be restricted

to using the world's

most expensive and inefficient

forms of electrical generation,

is the most morally

repugnant aspect...

of the global warming campaign.

Let me make one

thing perfectly clear:

if we are telling the Third World

that they can only have

wind and solar power,

what we are really telling them is:

"You cannot have electricity".

The challenge we have,

when we meet western

environmentalists

who say we must engage

in the use of solar panels

and wind energy

is how we can have

Africa industrialized,

because I don't see how a solar panel

is going to power a steel industry,

how a solar panel, you know,

is going to power maybe

some railway train network.

It might work maybe to

power a transistor radio.

I think one of the most pernicious aspects

of the modern environmental movement

is the romantization of peasant life,

and the idea that industrial societies

are the destroyers of the world.

One clear thing that emerges

from the old environmental debate

is the point that there's somebody

keen to kill the African dream,

and the African dream is to develop.

The environmental movement

has evolved into the

strongest force there is

for preventing development

in the developing countries.

We have been told

don't touch your resources,

don't touch your oil,

don't touch your coal,

that is suicide.

I think it's legitimate for me

to call them anti-human,

like OK, you don't have to think

humans are better than whales,

or better than owls,

or whatever if you don't

want to, right?

But surely it is not a good idea

to think of humans as sort of being scum,

you know, that is OK to have

hundreds of millions them

going blind or dead or whatever,

I just can't relate to that.

The theory of man-made

global warming

is now so firmly entrenched,

the voices of opposition

so effectively silenced,

it seems invincible,

untroubled by any

contrary evidence,

no matter how strong.

The global warming alarm

is now beyond reason.

There will be still people

who believe that this is

the end of the world

particularly when you

have, for example,

the chief scientist

of the UK,

telling people that by

the end of the century

the only habitable

place on the earth

will be the Antarctic.

And it may, humanity

may survive

thanks to some

breeding couples

who moved to

the Antarctic.

I mean this is hilarious.

It would be hilarious

actually if it weren't so sad.

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