How Net-Zero Hysteria Broke Europe and How to Fix It
physics over ideology • engineering over activism • price signals over subsidies
Zero sympathy
Bill Gates now admits we “overdid the climate stuff.” Too late. The moral crusade he helped bankroll turned science into slogans, peer review into peer pressure, and excommunicated any scientist who dared ask questions — as if that weren’t their job.
The damage is done. Europe, once the world’s industrial engine, kneecapped itself by worshipping carbon dashboards. Factories shuttered, nearly a million manufacturing jobs vanished, power prices doubled — or worse. The continent that built the modern world is now scared to build anything at all.
What began as “save the planet” turned into a tax on productivity and a subsidy for compliance. Eurocrats, ESG priests, and carbon-credit peddlers replaced engineers. Emissions became sin; energy abundance became immoral.
Perverse incentives everywhere: bureaucrats chase scores; consultants monetise fear; entrepreneurs optimise for subsidy capture over substance. How did we let this happen?
Debating “did we go too far?” is yesterday’s fight. The only question left: how fast do we unwind the wreckage and restore common sense?
The Pivot: From Virtue Theatre to Hard Engineering
Upgrade the OS: physics over ideology, engineering over activism, price signals over subsidies.
Here’s the baseline for a post-hysteria policy.
Energy is the closest thing we have to a base currency. You can’t print watts. A century ago, Henry Ford proposed an energy-denominated money; Thomas Edison backed him. The point isn’t to revive Ford’s scheme — it’s to remember the hierarchy: mess with energy, you mess with civilisation.
The Way Out: Five Non-Negotiables
Technology over ideology — merit-based, engineer-led.
Emissions ≠ morality — outcomes over virtue signalling.
Kill carbon credits — end the offset casino. If anything survives: metered methane/HFC only, continuous monitoring, independent audits, clawbacks, auto-sunset in 2030.
End the subsidy addiction — kill the fake price signals propping up terrible ideas.
Energy abundance is the foundation of civilisation — cheap, reliable power first. The data are brutal: more watts = more wealth = longer, better lives. Stop apologizing for progress.
For the record: climate change is real, and CO₂e is a problem. The doomsday narrative and manufactured urgency are fake; what’s tragic is Europe’s industrial suicide in its name.
Now is the time.
The climate cult is over. That’s not defeat, that’s growing up. We can protect the planet without turning Europe into a de-industrialised, energy-poor appendage to other people’s supply chains. For too long, boardrooms enabled the theatre and suppressed common sense. Now is the time.
Sources: Eurostat (940k jobs lost 2019–2024); IEA (industrial power +100–170% in UK/PL/HU); Gates’ “Source Code” memo (Oct 2025).