By Long Island Life & Politics
We are the first to admit that climate change is real and that human activity contributes to it. It’s important that we take the issue seriously and ponder measures to deal with it for the long term.
But the solutions should be practical and based on science — not hysteria, disinformation and exaggeration.
It must be understood that there is a large segment of the population that looks at climate change as being their cash cow. They see that there are hundreds of billions of dollars being doled out by the government to companies and nonprofits to supposedly combat global warming. These groups seeking the funding know that, the more frightened the general public is about the world coming to an end over a one-degree temperature drop, the more likely the public will cede awesome amounts of power and huge pots of tax dollars to the governing elite, who in turn will pass it along to the climate change cottage industry.
Thus, they have a huge financial incentive to scare the daylights out of the public on the issue.
If the advocates make you think you are going to die in 12 years, or that your house is going to be underwater, or that storms are going to kill your children, you may be more likely to allow yourself to be taxed to the hilt for the spending of extravagant sums to stem the rising tides.
You might also be far more likely to cede vast powers to the governing elites you otherwise would not, all in the name of saving the planet.
Look at what the public allowed elected officials to spend or how many constitutional rights they allowed the officials to suppress during Covid. And so much of it was after numerous authorities lied to us in so many ways.
Our younger generation is coming out of school thinking that climate change is the most important issue facing the eight billion people on earth. Actually, for the billions of people who live in poverty around the world, making sure their children don’t starve to death or die from disease is far more urgent. That is why nations such as India and China, as well as the vast majority of the third world will continue to use the cheapest energy available, rather than virtue signal to pay for more costly, less reliable energy systems, such as solar or wind (which is why better, more affordable alternative energy technology is the answer.)
To get the kids to rank climate as Issue No. 1, the advocates play to their emotions, with the cute, cuddly polar bears being Exhibit A (never mind that they are powerful carnivores). The kids are told they are dying off because they’re drowning as their floating ice patches melt away due to global warming brought about by cold-hearted capitalists.
The problem is, it’s a lie. The fact is, there are more polar bears today, around 26,000, than 5,000 to 10,000 in the 1960s, according to environmental scientist Bjorn Lomborg.
It’s also a lie that more people are dying today from natural weather disasters than ever. The fact is, Lomborg notes that, due to better architecture, technology, and warning systems, there were about 7,000 climate disaster deaths this past year compared to half a million per annum a century ago.
Look, the sea level is rising and that shouldn’t be ignored, but tell folks the truth; stop with the exaggerations and scare tactics.
For instance, Al Gore’s famous movie An Inconvenient Truth, released in 2006, made numerous predictions of doom facing us by 2020. Practically, none of them materialized. That’s not to say they couldn’t in fifty years. But when you legislate based upon hyperbole, you lose credibility, just as our health establishment did during COVID.
So go ahead and deal with climate change, but stop freaking out our kids.