As far as I can tell, this UK Guardian piece on the bold climate-change leadership of North Korea is not meant as satire. And really, there’s nothing funny about this. The Norks really do present the ultimate extension of everything the Church of Global Warming wants for the entire world: massive poverty and hunger, imposed on the masses by an all-powerful elite, in the name of reducing mankind’s accursed “carbon footprint.”
The political agenda of the Church of Global Warming has always made copious allowances for the luxuries of the enlightened ruling class, the same way socialism always does. The bishops of the Church, from Al Gore to filmmaker James Cameron, have carbon footprints thousands of times larger than yours, and this is appropriate, because they are the master class. You peons should learn to live in a simpler, more primitive manner – at the mercy of the sun and wind for energy – while your betters soar overhead in private jets.
And if you want to see that philosophy administered to a captive population, good and hard, you can’t find a better example than North Korea, where the common man’s carbon footprint is indeed tiny, and there’s plenty of political power to impose the sort of global-warming “solutions” that free people have a pesky habit of resisting:
When we think of North Korea, we think of a nation determined to be an outsider in the international community. Whether it’s testing nuclear weapons or threatening London hairdressers, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is not usually associated with compliance.
But there is compelling evidence that the North Korean government is motivated by domestic power games to co-operate globally on climate change.
North Korea has a record of compliance with its obligations as a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The obvious question then is why the North Korean government would show such commitment to the international climate change regime, given its belligerent reputation in the strategic realm.
Holy Solyndra, is anyone really confused about that alleged dichotomy? Saying a few nice words to the Church of Global Warming is the easiest way for a dictator to get some “international credibility” on the cheap. They relish the spectacle of politicized Western scientists saluting them for saying the right words and making recalcitrant free societies look “bad.” And they’re happy to soak up whatever financial support they can get by expressing an interest in “renewable energy.” China does the same thing, which is why the more gullible climate alarmists will occasionally salute a nation whose capital city is often invisible under a cloud of smog.
We’re also supposed to weep for the poor Norks as victims of our callous indifference to global warming, since their poverty makes them more likely to suffer the wrath of the Angry Sky Gods and pay the price for our capitalism:
Climate change impacts – declining availability of food, water and energy, sea level rise, migration, and extreme weather events – pile more stress onto countries already at risk from internal instability and economic weakness.
Like many poor countries, North Korea, where such problems are endemic, is least able to cope with climate change impacts. These weaknesses include food insecurity, energy shortages, economic fragility and a rigid political system. So North Korea is using the UNFCCC as a vehicle for projects designed to increase agricultural output and build the resilience of the agricultural system to disasters.
The country exists in a state of near-perpetual food insecurity (the FAO estimates a food deficit of 207,000 tonnes in 2012-2013), stemming from a structural food deficit along with an inability and unwillingness to buy food from international markets. In these circumstances, any disruption to domestic agricultural production will have a significant impact on the food security of at-risk segments of the population, creating ripple effects across the country’s economy and political system. This illustrates the degree to which food insecurity is an existential problem for the North Korean leadership.
No, “food insecurity” is an existential problem for the people being deliberately starved by porky Dear Leader Kim Jong Un, who hasn’t missed many meals, and doesn’t spend much time worrying about the size of his carbon footprint. “Food insecurity” has been a fact of life for North Korea’s captive population for decades. To one degree or another, it’s a standard feature of the collectivist systems the Church of Global Warming admires.
The kicker is that according to this article, climate change is a threat to “erode government control,” which is why the brutal North Korean regime supposedly has “strong incentives” to fight it, and the “objectives of the international climate change regime coalesce with the survival imperatives of Kim Jong Un’s government.” Extra crazy points for having the chutzpah to claim that climate change could erode government control. In truth, it’s a means to ever greater control, which is the reason the Church of Global Warming still exists, long after its models and theories ran out of steam. It won’t die easily, as long as it’s useful to opportunistic politicians.
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