This plan to stop global warming is so crazy it just might work

Step one: Buy all the coal. Step two: Don't touch it.

Coal
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File))

Let's be honest: No one knows exactly what to do about global warming.

Carbon taxes and other abatement schemes in the West might sound good, but they are of little to no importance in the grand scheme of things, given that the vast majority of new emissions will come from developing countries that aren't going to keep hundreds of millions of people in dire poverty in exchange for a thumbs-up from Al Gore. And what of the various vaunted alternative sources of energy — wind, solar, and so forth? They all have problems, and are too expensive anyway. (What's that you say? Don't worry because one day they won't be this expensive? Well, let me know when that day comes.)

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Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a writer and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His writing has appeared at Forbes, The Atlantic, First Things, Commentary Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, Quartz, and other places. He lives in Paris with his beloved wife and daughter.