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RUSH: This is somewhat fascinating here, actually. This morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box, the guest was the author Rupert Darwall. During a discussion about his book, The Age of Global Warming, cohost Andrew Ross Sorkin said, “Talk about the economic implications. You make an argument about Putin and what’s happened in Europe.” This guy’s basic premise is that “green” policies, pro-global warming policies — wacko, nut, lunatic global warming beliefs — have pushed Europe into the hands of Vladimir Putin.

DARWALL: It’s unquestionably the case that green policies in Europe, and particularly in Germany, have pushed the German economy into the hands of Putin. Because if you switch from fossil-fuel power generation to wind and solar, you depend on the weather. Because you’re depending on the weather, it means you won’t need other sources of fuel. So they’re pushed into the hands of Gazprom, the Russian gas company. And you’ve seen gas shipments from Russia rise by about 30% in 15 years, which is a big amount.


RUSH: Now, let me dissect this. This is important, folks, with Putin on the March now. We had a caller, first caller of the day. He said, “Am I the only one…?” He’s asking me: “Am I the only one who thinks Putin is off the rails and is walking danger? I mean, this guy could just go lunatic on us in a moment’s notice and just destroy the world.” I said, “I don’t think that’s what Putin’s doing. I think Putin wants to run the world and be happily alive while he’s doing it. I don’t think he’s got any suicidal tendencies.”

What this man is saying, Rupert Darwall, is really quite insightful. He’s saying that by all of the Western nations going full blast into this green technology business, we’re just handing the world to Vladimir Putin while he’s laughing all the way to the bank. He uses the example of Germany. We’ve pushed the German economy into the hands of Putin, because as these companies decide to go into wind and solar, they have decided to turn their energy sector over to the weather.

Which nobody can control, nobody can depend on, and the weather doesn’t produce enough harvestable energy to run anything yet. So while the western democracies get rid of conventional fossil-fuel energy economies, they open themselves up to the need of fossil fuel energy such as natural gas. And if Putin does not joining the push on global warming, he’s been the guy you have to buy your natural gas from.

And, lo and behold, Gazprom, which is the natural gas company Soviet Union. They have the pipelines. That’s why Putin wants Ukraine. Get a map. Get a map and look at all the natural gas and oil pipelines that run through Ukraine, and it’ll impress upon you the importance of Crimea, and controlling Ukraine. Putin wants control of energy. He can charge what he wants for it.

Because Western democracies (in this STUPID, idiotic push into global warming) are getting rid of their own fossil fuel energy use and production like we are here. Although we’re actually not because we’re fracking out the wazoo and we’re overcoming what Obama’s trying to do. But imagine if we were totally dependent on Putin for natural gas? Well, Germany is becoming that way. So is the UK.

So Putin holds a huge card, lots of leverage there. Just like we were dependent for so long on the Middle East for our oil. This is really an insightful comment. It’s these green policies, this idiotic belief that Western democracies and their progress are destroying the planet. So they’re made to feel guilty, and so they get rid of their fossil fuel production and use. But they still need it because the weather doesn’t provide enough energy, and that’s what wind and solar is. This guy’s exactly right.

(laughing) They’re depending on the weather for their energy. Who would be stupid enough to do that but liberals? So then Becky Quick, CNBC’s Squawk Box said, “Rupert, you’re right. Germany and the rest of Europe have been hamstrung by this reliance on someone who is not very friendly. Do you think climate change is not real? Or do you think climate change is not linked to human behavior? Or do you think it just doesn’t rank high enough on the problems we should be addressing?”

DARWALL: If you look at polls today, they put concerns about environment and global warming right at the bottom. So I think there’s been a big shift in public opinion. People are kind of worn out by the hysteria, the predictions of catastrophe. And the other thing is, we’ve had 15 years, according to the IPCC, of basically flat-lining global temperature.

RUSH: Seventeen years now. Seventeen years of flat-lined temperatures, global temperatures. There hadn’t been any warming, is the bottom line. So this guy is again right. Becky Quick says, “So, uh, do you think climate change isn’t real?” No, it isn’t real. Anybody who thinks it is, is an absolute… You’ve been brainwashed. You want to believe a catastrophe-based lie. You want to believe in one.

And he’s pointing out (and it’s true) that in every public opinion poll you’ve got, global warming and climate change are at the bottom of a list of issues people think are important, ’cause you understand this. Since the 1980s people have been told, “We have 10 years to save the planet!” Since the eighties you’ve been told, “We have 10 years to save the oceans, 10 years save the planet!” So 10 years here, 10 years there. “Catastrophe! We’re all gonna die!”

It hasn’t happened.

Now people are worn out, and they don’t believe it. That doesn’t matter to liberal leaders. They have this desire to punish their own countries. So they turn their energy sector over to the weather. You know, that is a great way to put it, rather than say “wind and solar.” Green energy is dependent on the weather, ’cause that’s exactly right. Solar energy, wind? What if the wind doesn’t blow? Your windmills are worthless. And we are not harvesting enough solar even in bright sunlight to make a difference anything.


But it’s a great way to be pervasive and to ridicule these green idiots. Say, “Yeah, okay. So we’re gonna turn our energy needs over to the weather? Yeah.” But now here is the piece de resistance. The cohost, Andrew Ross Sorkin, says, “Is it that a statistic which gives you comfort in suggesting that we should put it on the back burner or not?” He means: You say that global warming/climate change is at the bottom of the list of things people care about. Does that give you comfort? Does that give you comfort?

Do you think “we should put on the back burner or not?”

DARWALL: Unless China and India and Brazil and those economies say, “We are gonna join in and cap our emissions,” there is absolutely no point in the US and Europe going alone. The thing that people kind of forget is it’s global warming. It’s not US warming.

RUSH: And it’s not even that. But his point is, once again, that if the ChiComs are not gonna reduce their carbon emissions, then all the rest of this is academic. If India is not gonna reduce theirs, if Brazil isn’t, then what the hell are we doing penalizing ourselves? I can tell you right now that the ChiComs are not gonna do it. They want to grow their economy. So does India. They have to feed their people.

They’ve got to keep their people employed or they’ve got massive unrest. They cannot engage in energy policy that reduces economic growth. No leader in his right mind would want to do that. So if the ChiComs and the Russkies or the Brazilians and the Indians are not gonna participate, there’s no reason we should ’cause we can’t make a difference. We’re not even the leading polluters.

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