I've lived long enough to hear decades of apocalyptic predictions
caused at first by pending "Global Cooling". The theory being air pollution
was going to block the sun's rays cooling the planet to catastrophic levels.
I recall seeing a graphic of the world down as far the 45th parallel covered in ice.
As just one consequence, imagine being unable to grow food in all of Canada
and down to the Dakotas in the U.S., all of Switzerland and most of France
in Europe, and northern China and half of Mongolia in the east. Worldwide famine
was certainly in our near future.
According to the Time magazine cover, unless you're a Neanderthal, Flat-Earther,
Global Cooling Denier, you'd better stock up on thermal underwear and goose down jackets.
Although a bit skeptical concerning their forecasts, I kept an open mind and
maintained a wait-and-see attitude. Over four decades later, I'm still waiting
for glaciers to invade our northern border.
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Then in the 80s, some other scientists came along and declared the earth had actually
warmed up a degree or two over the last hundred years. (So much for "consensus"
among climate change scientists.) Sun-blocking pollution and Global Cooling were
shrugged off quicker than an ice cube dropped down your back and "Global Warming"
became the new mantra. (When cracks in that theory started to surface, the concern
became "Climate Change" -- clever.) I won't list the catastrophe that was to occur
because of warming during the 80s and then by Y2K, but it was substantial. What
I will affirm is that none of it, caused by catastrophic cooling nor warming,
came to pass. I also observed that as these predictions along the way failed
to materialize, the same warnings were simply recycled and doomsday rescheduled.
Fool me once, shame on you ...
My questioning climate alarmism started in the late 70's and continued into the 80s
which was before influences like Rush Limbaugh (syndicated in 1988) and FOX News
(not launched until 1996) were even around. Yes, people are capable of independent
thought. My skepticism came from simple observation and comparing prophecy versus reality.
- First, it was the flip-flop from earth's cooling to warming. It's one thing
to modify one's position -- but to pull a complete 180? Make up my mind, already.
- Second, I noticed their predictions always came with cataclysmic consequences.
They sounded like Chicken Little screaming: "The sky is falling!" -- but the
sky didn't and hasn't.
- Third, there is not only the demand to reduce carbon emissions, but the insistence
for "really full economic ... [and] wartime mobilization around climate change"
(AOC
). Translation? The demand is for more and more of your money to implement green energy
policies -- or we're all going to die. Sounds more like a political shakedown to me.
So, why the disparity between climate models and reality? The models are just that,
models filled with: if this, then thus will occur. In other words, put in the data
you want and voila, get the desired predictions.
Don't get me wrong. Just because I don't buy into climate alarmism does not mean
we should not be environmentally conscious. We should. However, people can only
Cry Wolf for so long before people start asking:
Where's the beef?
The soothsayers, who make exaggerated claims of pending global disasater that repeatedly
fail to materialize, wind up undermining the cause of responsible enviromentalism.
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Our former president often spoke of the pending disastrous effects of global warming,
including rising seas. However, in December 2019, almost three years after
his time as president was over, he purchased an $11.7 million-dollar, waterfront
estate in Martha's Vineyard. By waterfront, I mean right out there in the Atlantic
Ocean.
I'll give Obama credit -- he's sure got a lot of nerve warning us about man-made global warming
and rising oceans while living in
this seaside palace.
I thought, to save the planet, we were supposed to be reducing our carbon footprints,
not thumbing our nose as a Global Warming Denier in such an opulent manner. Can you imagine
the energy it takes just to heat this place in the winter? Keep in mind, Martha's Vineyard
is in Massachusetts -- and it do get cold up yonder.
This does not seem like a very wise purchase for someone who is convinced
that his home will soon be overtaken by King Neptune. I wouldn't purchase
a multi-million-dollar estate knowing I was going to have to evacuate and watch
the value of my home go to zero as the Atlantic crept closer and eventually
swamped my foyer. Would you? Of course, not. It's obvious he doesn't believe
what he preaches. That, or he's the worst real estate investor of our time.
Obama is certainly not lacking in intelligence. So, I'd bet on the former.
Climate alarmists regularly fly in private jets to attend summits like the annual
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where the world is lectured about wealth
inequities and the coming doom of global warming caused by mankind's carbon footprint.
Whether we are on the eve of destruction or not, the optics of hundreds of private
jets coming and going during these summits are not very persuasive to their cause.
Although they occasionally get
called out,
I don't understand why they usually get a pass for their excessive carbon emissions.
It must be because they are "creating awareness." That's the Get Out of Jail
Free card to which the rest of us are not entitled. Perhaps they plan on planting
a few trees on World Environment Day or, more likely,
pay indulgences
by purchasing
carbon credits*
to atone for their environmental sins -- which will make it all better.
* Even after reading about carbon credits, it's unclear to me exactly what
is being purchased, nor am I convinced of their environmental value.
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One of my biggest complaints with the leadership of the enviro-crowd is they preach
to us about conservation and then exempt themselves. It's called having it both ways.
I find it puzzling and amusing that their followers nod in complete agreement
that we are destroying the planet and then look the other way when their leaders'
hypocritical lifestyles are exposed. I'll match
my list of enviro-credits
against Obama's, Al Gore's or any of these doomsaying politicians, Hollywood celebs,
and other jet setting enviro-elites who don't walk the talk.
There's what people preach -- and there's how they live. Which defines what they really
believe about pending environmental disaster? You decide.
