Ayn Rand and Global Climate Management
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 1:35 am
Ayn Rand and Global Climate Management
Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged tells a story of how innovative profitable technology is greeted with hostility. Hank Rearden, owner of Rearden Steel, invents a new alloy that is lighter and stronger than existing metals. His competitors collude with government to stop Rearden Metal from gaining market share. They make business very tough for Rearden, introducing regulations to steal his intellectual property, and justify their actions through vacuous moralizing in the press. They seek to turn the general public against Rearden, suggesting that sharing ideas and resources is fairer than allowing one firm to prosper, and that weak firms need to be protected against market forces. The predictable result is economic stagnation, the stifling of innovation, reduced production and ever more intrusive government control of industry.
How might this scenario relate to climate change? Ayn Rand was no environmentalist. She exulted in the transformation of nature to meet human goals, especially through mining and manufacturing. However, the present situation for the global climate has some similarities to the story of Atlas Shrugged, making Rand’s vision of how political scheming can prevent capitalist innovation rather prophetic.
Climate change is the biggest single threat to planetary security. The Arctic Ocean, previously impassable due to sea ice, is melting faster than the worst scientific predictions. In September 2012, when science had said there should be seven million square kilometres of sea ice, the measured ice area was only 3.3 million square kilometres, less than half the expected amount. Unknown feedback loops are kicking into action, bringing dangerous global risks. Ice reflects sunlight back to space, whereas open water holds the solar heat. Without a polar ice cap, the historic stability of planetary climate is imperilled by the greenhouse effect. Emergency technological response is urgently needed.
Atlas Shrugged is based on the myth of the titan Atlas holding the earth on his shoulders. Rand argues that capitalism creates the wealth which politics then distributes. Society rests on the shoulders of business. If the business Atlas shrugs, society is plunged into turmoil, lacking the tax base for welfare payments. But what if the natural environment that provides the resources for business shrugs? It would wreak economic havoc and bring social upheaval. The Greek myth of Atlas is only part of the metaphor we need. As the old lady asked the scientist, what is Atlas standing on?
Another older myth, from India, is helpful as a metaphor for the climate situation. In this myth, the earth rests on the back of several elephants, which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle. If we consider the elephants as like Atlas, as a metaphor for business creating the wealth that supports social distribution, then the elephants are themselves supported by the natural planet, as their sustainable resource base. In this metaphor, the current business-as-usual approach to the world climate has the elephants asphyxiating the turtle with carbon dioxide. If the turtle turns belly-up as a result, the elephants will lose their footing. That is worse than a shrug.
So what are we doing about climate? This is where Atlas Shrugged reads as a prophetic parable. An American firm, Planktos Incorporated, recently supported a bold scientific experiment in the Pacific Ocean by indigenous communities in collaboration with Canadian authorities. Recognising we need to think big and try innovative experiments to stabilise the climate, the experiment generated an artificial algae bloom at sea by adding a large amount of iron to the water. Algae is by far the fastest growing plant species. This iron method is initially aimed at supporting the salmon fishery, but it also aims to find the quickest and cheapest possible way to suck CO2 out of the air. Initially, the removed carbon may be eligible for carbon credits, making the experiment potentially profitable for Planktos, while also doing good for the salmon, their fishers, the ocean and the climate.
Down the track, if large scale algae production at sea can be controlled industrially, the produced algae will deliver oil, protein and carbohydrate. These commodities are feedstock for fuel, food, fertilizer and fabric. 71% of our planet surface is ocean. 0.1% of this area could be enough to stabilise the global climate through controlled algae production.
Fish stocks are under unprecedented pressure. Algae production can mimic the natural algae blooms which support the most abundant fisheries, helping to address global food security. Algae oil can provide energy, with potential to replace coal and petroleum in existing electricity and transport infrastructure, helping to address global energy security. Algae production is among the most innovative areas of commercial research today. Numerous firms are studying algae as a likely main future fuel source, with real potential to mine carbon from the air once cost-effective methods are developed. The potential is somewhat like Rand’s imagined energy technology invented by her hero John Galt.
So what was the reaction to the Planktos experiment? Here is where the apocalyptic conflict of Atlas Shrugged starts to look like social realism. The British Guardian newspaper led the charge. It seems Planktos are to be demonised as evil criminals. Not only are they motivated by, wait for it, “profit”, but their method, in the warped Guardian worldview, means we might not have to make lifestyle sacrifices to save the planet through emission reduction. Shock, horror, the Planktos test points towards a potential for capitalist innovation to stabilise the world climate. They must be stopped at all costs, or they might show that economic growth is sustainable! So The Guardian joined some likely suspects, the United Nations crowd who have given us that blinding climate success story, the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto may be a dithering farce that has watched over the exponential emission increases of the last decades. but no matter, its methods are like a religious icon, and they most certainly do not include anything that smells like geoengineering.
In came the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Without evidence of harm, or consideration of how this iron seeding method might be good for fish, fishing and the climate, they have furiously sought to criminalise this small-scale experiment under international law. We can’t have private firms profiting from fixing the climate or it would put bureaucrats out of jobs! Capitalism can’t be allowed to succeed where international command and control systems of the UN have failed! Consider the uproar if Planktos proves superior to the feeble UN models that have proven incapable of slowing global warming. Surely IUCN and the CBD could never support a climate initiative that might conserve nature and protect biological diversity? Quelle horreur!! Getting back to Ayn Rand, these UN bodies are behaving like the idiotic cartels described in Atlas Shrugged, using political power to stifle innovation.
Republican former Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is one prominent politician who has expressed support for experiments to use technology to manage the global climate. Gingrich is demonised by the left at a similar intensity as Ayn Rand, because he exposes how reliance on government is incapable of delivering results. It would be interesting to ask Newt, and Mitt Romney, what they think of the Planktos-supported experiment. If it points to a way to make business-as-usual ecologically sustainable, they should be all for it. The business David is up against the UN Goliath. With Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan making Atlas Shrugged compulsory reading for his staff, this application of Rand’s ideas in the contemporary scene ought to be of some interest.
Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged tells a story of how innovative profitable technology is greeted with hostility. Hank Rearden, owner of Rearden Steel, invents a new alloy that is lighter and stronger than existing metals. His competitors collude with government to stop Rearden Metal from gaining market share. They make business very tough for Rearden, introducing regulations to steal his intellectual property, and justify their actions through vacuous moralizing in the press. They seek to turn the general public against Rearden, suggesting that sharing ideas and resources is fairer than allowing one firm to prosper, and that weak firms need to be protected against market forces. The predictable result is economic stagnation, the stifling of innovation, reduced production and ever more intrusive government control of industry.
How might this scenario relate to climate change? Ayn Rand was no environmentalist. She exulted in the transformation of nature to meet human goals, especially through mining and manufacturing. However, the present situation for the global climate has some similarities to the story of Atlas Shrugged, making Rand’s vision of how political scheming can prevent capitalist innovation rather prophetic.
Climate change is the biggest single threat to planetary security. The Arctic Ocean, previously impassable due to sea ice, is melting faster than the worst scientific predictions. In September 2012, when science had said there should be seven million square kilometres of sea ice, the measured ice area was only 3.3 million square kilometres, less than half the expected amount. Unknown feedback loops are kicking into action, bringing dangerous global risks. Ice reflects sunlight back to space, whereas open water holds the solar heat. Without a polar ice cap, the historic stability of planetary climate is imperilled by the greenhouse effect. Emergency technological response is urgently needed.
Atlas Shrugged is based on the myth of the titan Atlas holding the earth on his shoulders. Rand argues that capitalism creates the wealth which politics then distributes. Society rests on the shoulders of business. If the business Atlas shrugs, society is plunged into turmoil, lacking the tax base for welfare payments. But what if the natural environment that provides the resources for business shrugs? It would wreak economic havoc and bring social upheaval. The Greek myth of Atlas is only part of the metaphor we need. As the old lady asked the scientist, what is Atlas standing on?
Another older myth, from India, is helpful as a metaphor for the climate situation. In this myth, the earth rests on the back of several elephants, which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle. If we consider the elephants as like Atlas, as a metaphor for business creating the wealth that supports social distribution, then the elephants are themselves supported by the natural planet, as their sustainable resource base. In this metaphor, the current business-as-usual approach to the world climate has the elephants asphyxiating the turtle with carbon dioxide. If the turtle turns belly-up as a result, the elephants will lose their footing. That is worse than a shrug.
So what are we doing about climate? This is where Atlas Shrugged reads as a prophetic parable. An American firm, Planktos Incorporated, recently supported a bold scientific experiment in the Pacific Ocean by indigenous communities in collaboration with Canadian authorities. Recognising we need to think big and try innovative experiments to stabilise the climate, the experiment generated an artificial algae bloom at sea by adding a large amount of iron to the water. Algae is by far the fastest growing plant species. This iron method is initially aimed at supporting the salmon fishery, but it also aims to find the quickest and cheapest possible way to suck CO2 out of the air. Initially, the removed carbon may be eligible for carbon credits, making the experiment potentially profitable for Planktos, while also doing good for the salmon, their fishers, the ocean and the climate.
Down the track, if large scale algae production at sea can be controlled industrially, the produced algae will deliver oil, protein and carbohydrate. These commodities are feedstock for fuel, food, fertilizer and fabric. 71% of our planet surface is ocean. 0.1% of this area could be enough to stabilise the global climate through controlled algae production.
Fish stocks are under unprecedented pressure. Algae production can mimic the natural algae blooms which support the most abundant fisheries, helping to address global food security. Algae oil can provide energy, with potential to replace coal and petroleum in existing electricity and transport infrastructure, helping to address global energy security. Algae production is among the most innovative areas of commercial research today. Numerous firms are studying algae as a likely main future fuel source, with real potential to mine carbon from the air once cost-effective methods are developed. The potential is somewhat like Rand’s imagined energy technology invented by her hero John Galt.
So what was the reaction to the Planktos experiment? Here is where the apocalyptic conflict of Atlas Shrugged starts to look like social realism. The British Guardian newspaper led the charge. It seems Planktos are to be demonised as evil criminals. Not only are they motivated by, wait for it, “profit”, but their method, in the warped Guardian worldview, means we might not have to make lifestyle sacrifices to save the planet through emission reduction. Shock, horror, the Planktos test points towards a potential for capitalist innovation to stabilise the world climate. They must be stopped at all costs, or they might show that economic growth is sustainable! So The Guardian joined some likely suspects, the United Nations crowd who have given us that blinding climate success story, the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto may be a dithering farce that has watched over the exponential emission increases of the last decades. but no matter, its methods are like a religious icon, and they most certainly do not include anything that smells like geoengineering.
In came the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Without evidence of harm, or consideration of how this iron seeding method might be good for fish, fishing and the climate, they have furiously sought to criminalise this small-scale experiment under international law. We can’t have private firms profiting from fixing the climate or it would put bureaucrats out of jobs! Capitalism can’t be allowed to succeed where international command and control systems of the UN have failed! Consider the uproar if Planktos proves superior to the feeble UN models that have proven incapable of slowing global warming. Surely IUCN and the CBD could never support a climate initiative that might conserve nature and protect biological diversity? Quelle horreur!! Getting back to Ayn Rand, these UN bodies are behaving like the idiotic cartels described in Atlas Shrugged, using political power to stifle innovation.
Republican former Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is one prominent politician who has expressed support for experiments to use technology to manage the global climate. Gingrich is demonised by the left at a similar intensity as Ayn Rand, because he exposes how reliance on government is incapable of delivering results. It would be interesting to ask Newt, and Mitt Romney, what they think of the Planktos-supported experiment. If it points to a way to make business-as-usual ecologically sustainable, they should be all for it. The business David is up against the UN Goliath. With Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan making Atlas Shrugged compulsory reading for his staff, this application of Rand’s ideas in the contemporary scene ought to be of some interest.