That is, of course, a stupid notion. But the left will go to great lengths to excuse the inexcusable. And when it comes to energy policy and climate scoldery, their attempts to not only defend the indefensible but to ignore the obvious reach new heights.

Case in point: One Michael Mezzatesta, a self-described economics and climate educator (self-described, we may guess, as nobody else is willing to describe him thus) is now lecturing us on the benefits of blackouts. Master Resource blog writer Robert Bradley Jr. has the details:

Now that solar itself got the blame for the recent European blackout, what is the argument from the Deep Ecology, anti-modernism cult? 

LA-based climate campaigner Michael Mezzatesta, self-described economics and climate educator, has a new one for the climate debate: blackouts are good, bringing us together! He states:

The mainstream economic narrative in the USA would have us believe that power blackouts are always a bad thing – just think of all that lost productivity! Think of the effect on the GDP!

So I was curious to see this video about the recent blackouts in Spain rack up millions of views on Instagram 👇

I think it resonated with people because it points towards a *new* narrative for society and the economy – one where joy & connection are prioritized over economic productivity.

This is one of the dumbest claims from the climate-scold left I've ever heard; it's the very essence of stuff one might find behind the south end of a northbound mule. "Joy and connection" in a blackout? Sure, let's find joy in freezing in the dark because the green energy advocates succeeded in making us all dependent on "renewable" energy sources that are low energy density, that are unreliable, that take up millions of acres of what might otherwise be wildlife habitat, arable land or available for development - and add some dead eagles into the bargain.

Anything for joy and connection, eh?

Turns out Michael Mezzatesta isn't the only nitwit advocating for blackouts.

Back to Nature, the Garden of Eden? Off the grid for happiness and solidarity? Small is beautiful? Less is more? Negawatts? Degrowth? “I campaign for the extinction of the human race“? Sammy Roth of the Los Angeles Times digs the pain too. “Would it be easier and less expensive to limit climate change — and its deadly combination of worsening heat, fire and drought and flood,” he asks, “if we were willing to live with the occasional blackout?”

Here's the thing: Some of us do live with the occasional blackout.

See Also: Lessons From Spain and Portugal About Solar Power

Spain, Portugal Plunged Into Darkness Amid Widespread Blackouts—What's the Cause?

Here in rural Alaska, all of our power lines are on poles. When we get severe windstorms, and we do, generally in spring and fall, the power can go down due to trees and tree branches hitting the lines. The power can go down due to wind damage, or in winter, at times, due to ice. Our local electricity co-op provides servicein an area that is typically Alaskan in its vastness, and in such outages, with a lot of breaches to repair, that work can take a day, a week, or more. This happens between two to five times a year, with more short-term blips thrown in for good measure. Our latest episode had damage to lines from Eagle River to Palmer to Talkeetna, and our power was out for 12 hours.

That's one of the things about living in Alaska that we all put up with, and most of us are willing to do so because, well, we live in Alaska. But we don't like it. It doesn't help us bond with our neighbors. There's no joy in a 12-hour blackout. No, we just hunker down, fire up our generators, light some candles, and stoke up our wood stoves to stay warm.

In other parts of the country, though, most people don't have generators or battery backups. These folks are just blacked out, and I can guarantee you that they see no "joy" in it.

Virtually every prescription from the climate-scold left involves us giving up something. They want us to give up our rural homes, they want us to give up our pickups and SUVs, they want us to give up our reliable natural gas and nuclear power plants for unreliable and low-density solar and wind power. They want us, in short, to surrender our prosperity, our modern technological lifestyle, all to prevent some fraction of one percent of a degree of warming over the next century. And now they admonish us to find joy in this? That's going to sell about as well as Kamala Harris's "campaign of joy."

My grandfather was fond of warning people not to "(urinate) down my back and tell me it's raining." That's precisely what people like Michael Mezzatesta and Sammy Roth are doing. And they should be cautious; people don't generally like being peed on, even in the cause of the climate.