The Breakthrough Institute

A few days ago I came across an article in the New York Times entitled "Trashing the Fridge", a mildly amusing piece about some environmentalists who have decided to give up their home refrigerators, ostensibly in order to become more environmentally responsible.

The anti-refrigerator movement may represent nothing more than a harmless fashion statement - an attempt to achieve a "holier than thou" status in fringe environmentalist circles, but the broad thinking behind it is something that is quite widespread in the environmental movement today: the notion that technology is the problem, that human prosperity is the problem, and that we will have to make major sacrifices of technology and prosperity (such as refrigerators) if we want to save the planet.

For me, one particular quote by an environmentalist in the New York Times article stood out: "Refrigerator lust is one of the things driving huge energy-use increases in the developing world".

I wonder whether this person, who so flippantly makes a sweeping statement dismissing technologies like refrigerators for people in the developing world is aware of any of the following.

·         Many life saving medicines, including most vaccines, certain antiretroviral AIDS drugs, insulin, etc, need refrigeration. In the Third World, thousands of people actually die every year from lack of refrigeration facilities.

·         Fully one-third of all fruits and vegetables in India ends up destroyed or spoiled on the way to market, mostly because of poor infrastructure, such as lack of refrigeration and cold-storage facilities.

·         Considering how quickly food spoils in warm tropical climates, it is difficult to even begin to count the cost to farmers in the Third World who are forced to make distress sales of produce due to lack of refrigeration facilities, or the cost to families who have no way to store fresh food at home for any length of time.

Maybe what is needed to make the world a better place is more, not less, "refrigerator lust" in the developing world.

For someone (who probably enjoys all the benefits of a modern industrial society such as an assured food supply, modern medical care, etc.) to blame "refrigerator-lust" in the developing world for global warming represents a combination of arrogance and ignorance that I find shocking.

Energy Usage Does not Cause Global Warming

The attitude that environmentalists display is based on the fundamental assumption that without curbing energy consumption, global warming cannot be addressed.

This assumption, on which many environmentalist positions (such as the anti-refrigerator movement) are based, is fundamentally flawed. The fact of the matter is that energy consumption does not cause global warming, greenhouse gas emissions cause global warming.

In fact, for many parts of the developing world, increase in energy consumption would be a good thing, not a bad thing. Increased energy consumption is necessary if we are to spread education, fight AIDS, reduce infant mortality, and a whole host of similarly noble progressive endeavors.

Delinking Energy Consumption and Emissions

It cannot be denied that greenhouse gas emissions today are at an unacceptably high level, and that global warming is a very serious matter. At the same time it also cannot be denied that energy consumption is essential to ensure a high standard of living for human beings.

Some say that environmental sustainability and a high standard of living for human beings are mutually irreconcilable goals. There is, however, a third way. One that does not sacrifice the progressive ideal of better lives and better opportunities for all people everywhere for the environmentalist ideal of a sustainable Earth. The secret lies in breaking the link between greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. The key to dealing with global warming lies not in reducing energy consumption per se, but in finding technologically advanced solutions that will sever the link between energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Any approach towards solving global warming that dismisses the aspirations of people in the developing world for longer and better lives for themselves and their children using pejorative phrases like "refrigerator lust" is doomed to failure.