“We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children. It has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate.’” (Joe Romm, quoted in Thomas Friedman, Is the Inflection Point Near?, New York Times, March 7, 2009)

“Is there any more single-minded, simple pleasure than viewing with alarm? At times it is even better than sex.” (Kenneth Boulding (1970), p. 160. [1]

Are free-market optimists the dumb ones who jump off tall buildings and report that everything is fine, even breezy, on the way down? Or are those who fear, rant, and make this analogy bungee-jumping with reality?

The optimists have been jumping off buildings ever since Robert Thomas Malthus’s An Essay on Population was published in 1798–and not hitting the ground.…

“Energy was just the first step in so many other ways. But without energy, it all doesn’t happen.”

“… we’re at a very, very good point environmentally right now.”

“Anti-energy zealots are blinded by ideology. Democrats want to ban shale energy, but shale energy has reduced America’s carbon emissions by 527 million metric tons per year. So what are they doing? A much better record than the European Union, which is always telling us how to do it. We should be telling them how to do it, based on our economy.”

“And congratulations to all of you, our great energy people, for what you’ve been able to accomplish, especially in the last three years…. [T]he path to that future starts right here in shale country, with all of you — the proud patriots of Pennsylvania and Ohio and West Virginia.”

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every two-to-three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

After $100+ Billion in subsidies, U.S. wind industry demands more
Full cost of living impact of renewables subsidies revealed
Math is Hard for the Green-Minded
US Electrical Energy Reliability Gone With the Wind
Can This World Survive Without Fossil Fuels?…

“It is not a matter of ‘climate denial’ to be concerned about the opportunity costs or consequences of heavy-handed interventions on liberty and living standards. Or to question the motives of those making such calls, whether for reasons of corporate rent-seeking, or ideological opportunism.” (IEA, below)

“It is not a matter of ‘climate denial’ to highlight that if the worst-case climate science scenarios are correct, adaptation is more likely to preserve life and living standards than mitigation or attempting to shut down all economic activity still dependent on fossil fuels.” (IEA, below)

The climate alarmists are losing, but not for the reason they think. And they are so angry that desperate measures are being undertaken, from civil disobedience to calls for the moral equivalent of book burning.

Climate alarm/forced energy transformation are losing because of consumer preference for affordable, reliable energy, or, in more fundamental terms, the primacy of energy density.…