Guest post by Chris Targo Originally published in City Hall
For most of my adult life, climate alarmists have ruled the day as they methodically and successfully inject relentless intimidation into academia, mainstream media, Hollywood, and virtually every other major, powerful cultural institution and false science. While this has paid huge dividends in recent years, it's also sparked a backlash and we're finally starting to see the bubble come to the surface.
Let’s start with a brief review of how climate alarmists are able to hypnotize so many people into believing that climate change is an existential crisis—but it’s not.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, we began to see increasing calls for international institutions to address what they initially considered the problem of “global warming.” In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was born to combat “dangerous human interference with the climate system.”
Since then, the United Nations and several other influential international organizations have pushed the climate change message hard while weaving a spiderweb of agreements, treaties and protocols to mitigate the so-called climate crisis.
While these powerful global institutions sound the alarm, showing that the future of the planet is in immediate danger from humanity's use of fossil fuels, a network of scammers has emerged, more than willing to capitalize on this alarmist narrative.
From former Vice President Al Gore to dozens of scientists, it’s clear that there is money to be made and government grants made if someone joins the climate alarmist bandwagon early on.
Soon after, we began to witness senior political officials from both parties succumbing to climate alarmist narratives. For example, as early as 2001, then-President George Bush promoted his administration's climate change agenda.
What followed was a cultural torrent of climate alarmism that continued to be peddled by K-12 educators, professors, actors and actresses, TV and radio personalities, social media influencers, and even uneducated child activists from Sweden.
However, what goes up must come down.
After more than two decades of unrepentant climate alarmism, climate realism is slowly starting to take hold.
How do I know this? Because hard-working average Americans no longer believe climate alarmism.
Multiple polls show that climate change is no longer the top concern for most Americans.
Americans are finally beginning to understand the truth about climate change, and are also realizing that climate alarmists have ulterior motives, many of which go directly against the fundamental best interests of average Americans.
Thanks to courageous truth-seekers like my colleagues at the Heartland Institute and many coalition organizations, Americans are better equipped than ever to get accurate information that dispels the common myths and lies promoted by climate alarmists. As anyone can see on ClimateRealism.com, sea levels are not rising, nor are weather events like hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, etc. becoming more frequent or deadlier. In fact, in many cases, the opposite is true.
Another important factor that helps Americans realize the dubious nature of climate alarmist narratives is that their solutions make no sense, do not solve the purported problem, and often end up with less freedom and more government. Apparently, Americans are starting to understand that climate justice, for example, is primarily about the redistribution of wealth and has nothing to do with a cleaner environment.
A few weeks ago, Americans polled and unequivocally rejected the climate alarmist drivel that has been fed to the nation for the past four years. There is no question that the Biden-Harris administration is the most zealous when it comes to climate alarmism. From canceling the Keystone XL pipeline to mandating electric vehicles to deciding what types of appliances Americans can buy, the Biden-Harris administration has been alarmist.
But that's not what the American people want. To be clear, nearly all Americans want to protect the environment and crave clean air and water.
They just don’t want their lives upended and their bank accounts drained under the guise of saving the planet. They want reliable and affordable electricity. They want cheap gas. And, they want the U.S. government to take advantage of the vast energy reserves beneath our feet. This is at least part of the reason why President-elect Trump is in the White House and Republicans control the U.S. Senate.
Now that Trump is back in the Oval Office, we can expect U.S. energy dominance, not climate alarmism, to dominate the day. That’s good news for hard-working Americans, though a complete nightmare for climate alarmists and the cottage industry they’ve spawned.
Chris Targo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is the editorial director of the Heartland Institute.
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