Has the American left finally woken up from its decades-long climate stupor? For years, climate change alarm has reigned supreme as political catechism. The planet is on fire, and only drastic action, such as deindustrialization and strict regulation, will avert some kind of apocalypse. There are now at least some signs that both the broader public and key liberal voices may be retreating from doom and gloom.
First, recent polls show that fear of climate change is waning in intensity. According to a July report, a majority of Americans (69%) say global warming is still occurring, but only 60% say it is “primarily anthropogenic.” 28% said it was mainly due to changes in the natural environment. A similar October survey found that since 2017 there has been an “overall decline in belief in anthropogenic climate change.” Interestingly, this decline was primarily caused by Democrats and political independents, not Republicans.
Moreover, the public’s willingness to accept personal sacrifice in the name of saving the planet appears to be rapidly decreasing. Only 45% said human activities are having a “significant” impact on climate change. A further 29% said human influence contributed “somewhat” and a quarter said human influence was minimal or non-existent.
Moral panic is gradually disappearing. Millions of Americans may still believe that global warming exists, but far fewer see it as an imminent existential threat, much less embrace the upheaval in energy policy and personal lifestyles.
The fading consensus among ordinary Americans is matched by more dramatic signals from the ruling elite. On October 28, Bill Gates, a former avid climate change evangelist, delivered a speech to climate change leaders at the then-scheduled COP30 summit. Gates has railed against what he calls the “climate change apocalypse,” which he said is simply “wrong.” Gates acknowledged the grave risks to the poorest countries, but insisted that humans “will continue to live and thrive in most places on Earth for some time to come.” He added: “Increasing energy use is a good thing because it is closely correlated with economic growth.” It might be forgiven.
A recent paper published in the journal Nature has added another jolt to the understanding of the phenomenon of climate catastrophe. The study predicted a dire 62% decline in global economic output by 2100 if carbon emissions were not reduced sufficiently, and was widely cited by multinational organizations and progressive political activists alike as a rationale for pursuing aggressive decarbonization. However, the authors retracted the paper after reviewers found that flawed data skewed the results. Without that data, the projected production decline would drop to about 23%. Oops.
The climate alarm machine is chugging along, driven by the twin engines of moral panic and groupthink homogeneity. When the public becomes skeptical, billionaire techno-philanthropists question the prevailing consensus, and mainstream scientific predictions change direction, it signals that the era of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” propaganda documentary and John Kerry’s “Special Presidential Envoy for Climate” is officially over.
After all, no one stands to benefit more from the nascent trend towards climate health than the American people. In times when optimism is hard to find, professing an impending environmental apocalypse is the most unhelpful thing imaginable. If you’re trying to sow seeds of hope, if you’re brave enough to get your family on a plane and have a fun vacation, there’s nothing worse than preaching to the masses that you’re a climate change “denier” misanthrope. — I’m thinking of having more children. More importantly, given the overwhelming evidence that Americans are now primarily concerned, hydrocarbon extraction is needed now more than ever.
There are new signs that liberals and elites may be slowly, perhaps reluctantly, giving up on the climate-doomsday hoax they have so stubbornly clung to for so long. In America’s gladiator-like two-party system, that could very well deprive the Republican Party of a winning political issue to attack the climate-change-obsessed Democratic Party. But given good governance, sound public policy, and prosperity for Central Americans, it would be the best thing to happen in a decade.
Josh Hammer’s latest book is Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish People and the Fate of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. ×:
