Decarbonization requires depopulation

BlackRock is back in the news now. Last week it had its annual meeting, and it is currently embroiled in major battles with red state government officials such as Aaron Kinsey, chairman of the Texas State School Board, and Todd Russ, treasurer of Oklahoma, who is under major fire for attempting to divest from the asset manager. The presenting issue in each case is BlackRock’s antipathy towards fossil fuels. Christians might be tempted to sit this one out. They should not, because the anti-carbon agenda is inextricably linked with the anti-life agenda.

Recently, CEO Larry Fink, told an audience at the World Economic Forum (The Great Reset people) that he thought that it’s a good thing when nations go into demographic decline. This is not a conspiracy theory, for they held press conferences about it.

Mr. Fink’s remarks were jaw-dropping for anyone who doesn’t visit Davos every January. He argues that “the big winners” are “countries that have shrinking populations … shrinking demographics—these countries will rapidly develop robotics and AI and technology.” Why? “The social problems that one will have in substituting humans for machines is going to be far easier in those countries that have declining populations.” 

So, there you have it—shrinking demographics makes it easier to substitute machines for humans. One can almost imagine some German-accented villain explaining his plan to James Bond just before switching on the giant laser beam. Africa, alas, does not have this “shrinking demographic” advantage. According to Paul Fitzpatrick of the think tank 1792Exchange, the constellation of businesses associated with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) admits that in order to get to their Net Zero carbon emissions goals, beef consumption must fall by 50 percent and the church in Africa needs to be reeducated on reproductive issues for the purpose of “reducing Africa’s projected population by nearly half a billion people by 2050.”

A cluster of business groups is affiliated with UNEP, including a Net Zero Alliance for banking, one for insurance, and another one for asset managers, with which BlackRock is associated. So, Mr. Fink was not having an episode of globalism Tourette’s, he was simply expressing the shared philosophical assumption of the circles in which he moves. The only difference is that he said it out loud on YouTube instead of keeping it buried in a footnote of some obscure UN agency whitepaper.

They’re right about one thing, you know. There is no feasible alternative to oil, gas, and coal on the horizon, which means that if the human race is going to stop using those fuels, it really will need to go hungry, at least until we manage to shed half a billion Africans. The major premise is correct: decarbonization requires depopulation. Our difference is in the conclusion. The sane person would add, “depopulation should not be pursued,” and therefore “decarbonization cannot reasonably be pursued.” But there is a grim (if deadly) logical consistency to the conclusion that we need demographic decline.

It is no coincidence then, that the ESG movement is not just promoting anti-fossil fuel proposals but also pro-abortion measures. Proposals from ESG activists designed to pressure corporations to divest from pro-life states have been trending. Another tactic has been to pressure companies to divest from pro-life politicians. Then there are attempts to pressure search engine providers such as Google to suppress crisis pregnancy centers in its search results. An analysis by my firm, Bowyer Research, finds dozens of times that BlackRock has used its proxy voting power to promote proposals such as some of these. Christians should not get too self-righteous about this, though, many ministry and denominational pension plans are voting the same way, though in their case it’s more by neglect than by design.

As of now, the brushfire is burning most fiercely in Oklahoma, as the treasurer finds himself sued by the former head of the public sector union, who is represented by an attorney whose wife, a Unitarian minister, is deeply intertwined with LGBTQ and pro-abortion politics. But be of good cheer, Christian “Davids” are taking on these Goliaths and scoring unexpected victories. For example, recent freedom of information requests have led to revelations helpful to opponents of BlackRock and its ESG philosophy. Just last week, I attended the annual meeting of BlackRock. Fully half of the questions (including mine) were critical of the company’s politicization. The chairman angrily disagreed, but shareholders offered a meager 58 percent support for his pay package, a de facto no confidence vote.

Right now, the culture war is in corporate boardrooms, and the defenders of liberty are unexpected, formerly obscure financial officials who are simply doing their jobs.