It’s like taking candy from a baby — having a go at the pretentious poseurs at Davos.
This year’s lavish shindig in the Swiss Alps is the 50th — it should be the last. It’s infiltrated by billionaires (at least 100 of them, arriving on private jets but with associated carbon offsets), a small number of heads of government (mainly European) and assorted politicians, self-important regulators, overpaid company-sponsored executives and lots of hangers-on from “civil society”.
Does Greta represent “civil society” or is she a group of one?
You have to assume Donald Trump has a keen sense of humour given his insistence on attending the World Economic Forum annual soiree in Davos.
He must know he’s the last person the woke attendees would welcome. But he is the President of the United States and his participation can hardly be refused.
He loaded up the shotgun (figuratively speaking, of course) and gave them both barrels. Forget the climate doomsayers and rejoice in the booming US economy. Who can forget all those miserable predictions that never came to pass — we were going to run out of food, peak oil was a minute away, other resources would be quickly exhausted, a future ice age is coming?
Did anyone prophesy that the extent of extreme poverty in the world would fall from about 40 per cent in 1990 to less than 10 per cent now? The answer is that good news doesn’t sell in the same way as searing doomsaying, even if those promoting ghastly outcomes have ulterior motives: think the renewable energy industry.
The trouble for Davos Man — it’s still overwhelmingly a man gig — is that the precepts on which their understanding of the world is based have shifted.
No longer is globalism the flavour in vogue.
International agencies have overplayed their hands and been discredited.
It’s not enough to pretend to be concerned about people who are left behind in the process of economic transition.
As for climate change, it really makes no difference that Greta tells us all to be ashamed of ourselves and that fossil fuels must be phased out as soon as possible — that is, tomorrow or by the end of the week at the latest.
It’s a global game but with sovereign nations rightly protecting the interests of their citizens. Without any effective compliance mechanisms and unconstrained China producing one-third of world emissions, the only options are major cost-effective technological breakthroughs and adaptation.
That’s what the Davos swaggerers should really be talking about.
Read related topics:Climate Change
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