This article is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis on the science of climate change/global warming. See materials published by Judith Curry and websites such as CEI.or or Climateaudit.org.
Fear sells. It is a primal emotion ingrained in our subconscious and compels action. Fear gets our attention over all other emotions and overrides rational thought. Ignoring fear results in elevated stress on the human mind and body and will cause actual physical harm in the long run if it continues. It is the strongest of emotions, so much so that the old marketing adage of “Sex sells” should be amended to “Sex sells, Fear Compels”. Nothing gets your attention and creates fear than a prediction of doom of some form or another. Fear has a negative connotation to whatever it is attached to but politicians and snake-oil salesmen have no problems using it to push political agendas or to you sell something.
In the old days of hell fire and brimstone Christianity, the typical sermon went something like this “…every one of you are damned to spend your eternal afterlife burning in the pits of hell for your sins (however loosely interpreted or defined), an eternity of pain, suffering, gnashing of teeth and damnation awaits you…”. This was certainly enough to put one in fear for ones immortal soul (for those who believe they have one). The action required to avoid eternal damnation is to surrender yourself to the Lord and his earthly representatives (i.e. the preachers/clergy). The Lord’s representatives for their part demanded regular weekly payments (a 10% tithe is highly recommended) along with your absolute obedience and a willingness to suspend of all doubts in exchange for a ticket to heaven. Not to pick on the Catholics specifically (I am a non-practicing one), there was a time in history when the church sold “indulgences”, a virtual “get out of hell free” card in exchange for money. In more modern times, there was Jim and Tammy Baker and a whole host of television evangelists of various denominations who offered hope of escaping hell in exchange for sums of money and obedience from their flock.
Photo: It was common to see people with placards proclaiming the end of the world back in the 1950s throughout the 1970s.
Modern Day Doomsayers
The modern day equivalence to the fire and brimstone fear mongering are the Global Warming/Climate Change believers. If you don’t believe in their “consensus”, you are a heretic and you will be responsible for the earth becoming irreparably damaged and it will be unfit for human life within 10 years (according the IPCC, the primary climate change organization). Billions of dollars in funding have been thrown at scientists in the UN-sponsored IPCC and the CRU (part of University of East Anglia) to come up with worst-case scenarios of climate change. When so much money is thrown at research to come up with a reason that man-made carbon emissions is responsible for climate change, you can be sure that a scary scenario will be produced regardless of other potential causes using questionable methodologies posing as science. Anyone not signing onto this belief in whole will be labeled as heretics, science-deniers, ignorant dummies, or at worst, evil agents of industry out to destroy the world for profit.
Snake-oil salesmen such as Al Gore pushed the global warming agenda while making huge investments in alternative or green energy initiatives that would benefit from government programs and subsidies. Al Gore as a result made billions and continues to do so as he flies around the world in his private jet telling people to feel bad about their carbon emissions. The same Al Gore who voted against fossil fuel, high carbon emission forms of energy as well as non-carbon nuclear power while in Congress.
Picture: Despite an overall strong safety record and green, non-carbon emissions, the nuclear energy industry is being phased out due to perceived dangers of radioactive waste especially since the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan.
Climate Change Fraud
By using the word fraud, I am not to arguing that the global climate never changes, climate will always change. Nor do I mean that there is not such a thing as man-caused climate change (it is not proven yet). The fraud comes into play when paid-for selective science meets with political agendas and becomes gospel in the collective minds. Any questioning of the selective data and modeling methodologies however valid, is attacked as ignorance and any dissenter labeled a “climate denier”. This is a hardly accurate or truthful label as the questions continue to exist around the way the data is manipulated/modeled and what the actual root causes are, no one denies the fact that the climate changes. There is tropical rain forest fossil evidence in Antarctica to show that the global climate has been changing before man as a species existed.
The entire global warming/man-made climate change argument is predicated on the theory that man-made carbon emissions is the primary cause of climate change. It’s curious then that the polar caps on the planet Mars have shrunken over the past 10 years due to climate change along with a detected increase in carbon in the Martian atmosphere without a single human living there or any SUVs roving around on Mars. Never mind that the relation between man-made CO2 and rising global temperatures has not actually been scientifically proven in terms of direct impact. Methane is also a green-house gas and agriculture, specifically rice planting and cows are primarily responsible. However, this green-house gas is not interesting enough as a bad guy and has ramifications on the poor countries of the world so the focus has been on first-world carbon emissions.
The more conscientious and morally superior developed countries have jumped on the global warming bandwagon to save the planet and their citizens by…starting a carbon tax and trading scheme. Carbon emissions have not been reduced, but it certainly helps the participating countries feel good about themselves. It also gives them a platform to virtue-signal and attempt to shame non-participating countries. China does not participate and is probably the largest emitter of carbon in the world and has no intention of reducing carbon emission though it does seek to reduce pollution which is harming the health of Chinese citizens. The US refuses to participate in this scheme but ironically has reduced overall carbon emissions much more so than the countries that take part in the carbon trading.
Let’s not talk about the fact that the earth was many times hotter during the age of the dinosaurs or that it has undergone significant climate change before man discovered fire. One volcano can spew more carbon into the atmosphere than decades of human industrial activity. Never mind these “inconvenient truths” and just listen to the weather change prophets and surrender yourself and your sinful carbon ways by giving them more money. You will be absolved of your sins if you pay and keep any doubts about the whole scheme to yourself.
Man-made pollution and the impact on health is a completely different and real matter.
Michael Crichton in 2004 wrote a book called “State Of Fear” about the Global Warming “Industry”
Al Gore, being a “Capo De Capo” of the GW “Industry” is very well off