Climate change welfare will not help.

• Position: BIG GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BUTT OUT

A major theme of the recent climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, is that wealthy, industrialized nations have an obligation to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Delegates agreed to activate an "adaptation fund" to assist undeveloped nations cope with projected threats such as disruptions to agriculture and decreased water availability.

Yet, according to Keith Lockitch, resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute, Irvine, Calif., "If environmentalists were really concerned about people in undeveloped countries, they would be helping them to bring about what they [actually] need: industrial development.

"The world's poorest can barely cope with day-to-day survival, let alone with unproven threats projected to occur over decades. Imagine having no electricity or access to clean drinking water. Imagine having to cook your meals over an open fire, breathing smoke and ash every day. Billions around the world survive at a subsistence level because they lack the elements of industrial capitalism that we in the developed world take for granted: power plants, factories, modern roads and hospitals...