I have heard it suggested that those who would have us stop using fossil fuels have, as part of their agenda, the destruction of “our way of life”. By “our way of life” they meant Western, free market, Capitalist economies. It is currently common practice for those of us in the echosphere to cherry pick the lunatic fringe to find references to back up the implication that the world is full of extremists. I can’t be bothered. I can make my point and ignore them.
It does not follow that winding down the use of fossil fuels as fast as we can means that we want to destroy the current system. Bear in mind that they are not an infinite resource in any case. We are going to have to tackle this eventually. If the evidence suggests that they are doing harm, and I consider that self-evident (be careful of your car exhaust), why not tackle the problem before we are at the crisis point?
A more positive, optimistic outlook is to recognise the inevitable and realise that the people who get a jump on solving the problem will have something to sell to those who are slower to move. That’s right; the free market will solve this eventually but there are things that can be done to encourage this to be sooner rather than later.
There is a lot on the net written by experts addressing this so I should leave it to them.
My point though is that it is not disloyal, treacherous, traitorous, Luddite, anti-freedom, Communist, Socialist, protectionist or stupid to suggest that we start changing the energy sources of our economy as soon as possible. It does not mean that there is a “hidden agenda” or that an “intended consequence” is that our current society should be destroyed.
Finally, I firmly believe that it is not naive to believe that we can succeed in changing. History shows many such major changes. It also shows that they are usually accompanied by people who cannot imagine a different future could possibly be better and who rail that the “end is nigh”.
Change is coming. Help or get out of the way.