Climate alarmist rattled by declining support

By James Brodell

Promoters of the catastrophic global warming theory have become more apocalyptic as public support erodes.

Case in point is Al Gore’s rant at the Davos gathering of the self-appointed elite. He told the crowd that daily global carbon dioxide emissions are equal to 600,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs detonating. And he cited what he said were atmospheric rivers, rising sea levels and the prospect of one billion climate immigrants by the end of the century. He also said the oceans were boiling. All of this he attributed to an increase in the world temperature.

He bemoaned the fact that for “Every piece of pro-climate legislation at the national level, the regional level, the local level, the municipal level, the oil and gas industry and the coal industry they come in and fight it tooth and nail and they use their legacy network of political influence and wealth to stop progress.”

Clearly Gore was equating public opinion and democracy with the supposed power of petroleum and gas firms. His frustration was obvious that the world has not signed on to his climate policies, including a worldwide carbon tax.

Beyond the applauding crowd in Davos opinion polls show that climate policy ranks much lower than putting food on the table and staying warm.

The freezing Northern Hemisphere winter certainly has crimped the fervor for solar energy and wind power. Even Germany is reopening a coal mine.

As they say in politics with a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” Some in the public are waking up.

Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” was a masterpiece of propaganda that he let loose in 2006. Despite the grim predictions that followed, polar bears are thriving, the Arctic ice is in the normal range, and the Maldives actually have gained territory instead of sinking beneath the Pacific.

The movie and its sequel did, however, have a major effect on the young. Hardly any youngster in the U.S. survived elementary school without being force-fed the Gore film.

That’s why at Davos, Gore said the future of climate alarmism is in the hands of the young. These are the voters who have been the viewers of Gore’s movie and also those who have been subjected to a continual flood of climate fears. They also do not remember the early 1970s when scientists and the media universally warned that the world was entering another ice age.

Despite all this there is no hard evidence that the dreaded carbon dioxide, much loved by plants, actually has a major effect on the earth’s climate. Despite the daily 600,000 Hiroshima bombs, the average change for 2022 was +0.174 deg. C, making 2022 the seventh warmest year of the 44-plus-year global satellite record, which started in late 1978, according to former NASA meteorologist Roy Spencer, who makes monthly reports on the totals.

Sea levels continue their normal annual increase of a few millimeters as they have more recently after the big jump following the melting of the Ice Age glaciers that pushed levels up 420 feet worldwide.

Such temperature increases are a normal cyclical characteristic of the weather. There have been two warm periods before the currant one, during the Roman Empire and from 950 to about 1250. Civilization seems to prosper during these warm periods.

Clearly the main reason for climate alarmism is financial. As Gore mentioned, the United State Congress just passed a so-called Inflation Reduction Act that includes a $369 billion climate bill. Gore noted that the total price tag of the law will be much larger due to various tax incentives and benefits.

Certainly the money is on the side of alarmism. Massive amounts have been spent and will be spent on windmills, solar arrays and other renewable ideas. Entire national economies have been skewed by the belief that preventing carbon entering the atmosphere somehow will change the weather. In fact, some of these nations, like Costa Rica, happen to be in latitudes that normally have annual temperatures a handful of degrees above the First World average. Plenty of the Davros elite are migrating temporarily to the tropics after their rigorous discussions.

The scientific community will not set the record straight. Any expert who disagrees with the narrative that brings in tons of government money already has been fired or silenced. A new researcher would not be able to win a position without espousing the appropriate opinions.

Clinging to a belief without hard evidence is called faith. And that has no place in real science. Yet so many peer-reviewed research papers contain unsupported gratuitous references to a fast warming climate. In fact, reputable scientists who do not agree with this narrative have been forced to find the handful of obscure journals to publish their articles. Then their word is dismissed because the efforts were not in the best journals.

A couple of cold snaps have had an impact on public opinion. And drivers of electric vehicles must face the realization that a battery replacement can range from $10,000 to $20,000 U.S. In addition, the new management at Twitter seems to be allowing more comments critical of climate alarmism. Such comments had been censored in the past.

Curiously, the anti-carbon dioxide contingents do not seem to be strongly in favor of nuclear power or even massive tree planting because that would not make the correct cash registers sing.

Alarmism also can be useful in politics. Both Brazil and Australia recently elected governments that are more receptive to Gore’s message.

Coupled with the climate alarmism of the elite is a continual call for world government to enforce strict conformity to control the weather. Donald Trump went so far as to say that climate alarmism has been created by China to weaken the western democracies.

Hardly anyone denies the world is warming slightly and that the carbon dioxide also has risen. Correlation does not prove causation, as every researcher should know. The climate, the earth’s orbit, the percolation of the sun all have complex mechanisms that scientists still do not understand fully.

Two facts are certain. When the world temperature begins to show an annual decrease, some scientists will demand vast sums to study the changes and the discussions in Davos will mutate to grand plans to warm the earth.