Atmospheric scientist Paul J. Crutzen, who is so alarmed about global warming he has recommended blitzing the stratosphere with sulfur particles to cool the Earth, said October 7 that the current global financial crisis could be good for the planet.

“It’s a cruel thing to say,” Crutzen says, “but if we are looking at a slowdown in the economy, there will be less fossil fuels burning, so for the climate it could be an advantage.”

Crutzen didn’t enlarge on why “It’s a cruel thing to say,” and the Reuters report didn’t pick up on it. But we should.

Those six little words are the tip of an ethical iceberg the existence of which most global warming alarmists aren’t willing to admit. Energy use is crucial to economic production, and economic production is crucial to human health, longevity, and material prosperity. Contract energy use, and people suffer more poverty, more illness, and more premature death.