At any rate I would like to see a real town cut off from non local supply chains and powered by the wind & sun – by the by, any suggestions for renewable energy that would capitalise on our real climatic conditions rather then the warmist fantasy – rain power or crap British summer power?

Either way it would be nice to check out that it is all well and good and you wouldn’t create a massively divisive situation with social disorder, theft, crime & black markets all directed at basic commodities for example

I’ve just done a bit of reading up on the Dutch Wars (or the English Wars, as they say in the Netherlands) – and yes, ultimately these were all about economic power and who got to dominate the trade routes. They certainly liked the direct approach in those days!

Of all the various forms of “green” technology being developed, my money would be on solar power as one of the front-runners, eventually (once it becomes more cost-effective). To a complete layman such as myself, the combination of solar and nanotechnology appears highly promising, e.g. the sort of thing that Nanosolar and some other outfits are working on (http://www.nanosolar.com/index.html). Hopefully the current recession won’t slow them down too much.

Clean air, clean water, uncontaminated land and seas are all environmental concerns. Our health depends upon the health of our environment. Poisoning the air we breathe, degrading the land and the seas can not be defined as “human progress”.

To move away from filthy destructive 19th century practices towards cleaner energy production and efficiency will require great human ingenuity and creativity.To ensure quality of life for humanity without degrading our world is the major challenge of our time. You cannot simply dismiss environmental concerns from the equation.

The editors said there may well be environmental problems. Yes there are, and they need addressing. To pretend otherwise is blind foolishness.

Yes, I am familiar with Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage. What the free-trade ideologues don’t say though is that comparative advantage is only relevant if capital is internationally immobile. If capital is free to move, absolute advantage takes over, and cheap labour provides absolute advantage in all sectors.

Anyway, isn’t China’s huge competitive advantage at least partially due to policies of the Chinese government, which make the renminbi artificially weak?

Robert Wood,

I never said it was a good idea to reduce consumption of energy. I said it was a good idea to reduce consumption of imported oil and gas because of the geopolitical consequences of this dependence.

Because of its addiction to oil, the West is forced to prop up odious regimes such as the House of Saud, which in turn causes terrorist retaliation against Western countries.

Europe’s addiction to Russian gas (exacerbated by anti-nuclear traitors such as former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder) dangerously increases the power of the regime in the Kremlin.

“…would be a trade war by another name. Would we end up with Chinese gunboats sailing up the Thames…”

Wot, you mean like the Dutch in the 17th. Century

Consuming energy makes life more productive.

There is only one absolutely finitie and irreplacable resource: TIME; particularly MY TIME, or your time. Maybe in 10,000 years, if progress were allowed to continue, this part of the equation will become less important. But right now, if I can shave a few minutes off a journey by burning more energy, I do.

What bewilders me, and I am one who is slow to bewilder, is that supposedly literate, erudite and, presumably, numerate people can not do the numbers; the basic math; see reality.

A case in point:

On Wolfe Island in the Thousand Islands, a point where Lake Ontario empties into the Mighty St. Lawrence River, a wind farm of 86 twiddle-sticks has been built at a cost of $C470 million. Annual maintenance costs will be in excess of $C1 million. They have come into operation over the past month.

The wind farm will be profitable, as it is being paid 27 cents per kWh. The retail price on my electricity bill is 5.7 cents per kWh.

Why does no one see the problem here? It is not progress to pay more for something which is already in plentiful supply. It is stupidity.

Sorry, I ranted a bit there.

George Carty:

While Luke’s comment has some merit, both of you could gain by reading some credible Economics literature, and by that I mean more Austrian than Keynsian, if you get my drift.

The thing about comparative advantage is that, while it does depend to some extent on actual cost of labour, and there is no doubt that China is favourably placed, 2 important issues need illustrating:

Firstly, a country can never have an absolute advantage in everything, like the lawyer who’s the best in town but is also a better secretary than the best in town. He will employ a secretary who is less good than himself because his absolute advantage in law will make him more money in spite of the fact that he could do his secretarial work better than his employee.

How do we find what we’re good at? By the free market and the fact that investors will take their money to whatever stocks bring in the most profit.

Secondly the argument about labour costs, while being an absolute one in terms of relative profitability between competitors, is really one of Productivity. This means that there is always some innovation waiting in the wings, that through technology or good management, might allow increased productivity through the same, or reduced workforce. The West has been pretty good at that historically, but now finds itself stifled and handcuffed by the forces of evil:

These issues require a sense of optimism and a belief in human ingenuity and passion for human progress; a love for humanity even; all the things for which the Greens (or Reds in another coat) have the greatest hatred and contempt.

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE56L6PD20090722