“How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood!” insisted teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg at the United Nations. “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction!”
Many people say that we’re destroying the Earth.
It all sounds so scary.
But I’ve been a consumer reporter for years, and I’ve covered so many scares: plague, famine, overpopulation, SARS, West Nile virus, bird flu, radiation from cellphones, flesh-eating bacteria, killer bees, etc. The list of terrible things that were going to get us is very long.
Yet we live longer than ever.
Now I’m told global warming is different.
The Earth’s average temperature is rising. It’s risen 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. The U.N. predicts it will rise another 2 to 5 degrees this century. If that happens, that will create problems.
But does that justify what’s being said?
“We have 12 years to act!” says Joe Biden.
“The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change!” adds Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Twelve years? That’s the new slogan.
The Heartland Institute invited some climate alarmists to explain the “12 years” and other frightening statements they keep making.
The alarmists didn’t even show up. They never do. They make speeches and preach to gullible reporters, but they won’t debate anyone who is skeptical.
Over the years, I repeatedly invited Al Gore to come on my TV shows. His staff always said he was “too busy.”
At a Heartland Institute event I moderated, climatologist Pat Michaels put the 12-year claim in perspective by saying, “It’s warmed up around 1 degree Celsius since 1900, and life expectancy doubled in the industrialized democracies! Yet that temperature ticks up another half a degree and the entire system crashes? That’s the most absurd belief!”
Astrophysicist Willie Soon added, “It’s all about hand-waving, emotion, sending out kids in protest. It has nothing to do with the science.”
Is that true? I wish the alarmists would show up and debate.
Alarmists say, “Miami will soon be underwater!”
Few serious people deny that the Earth has warmed and that sea levels are rising. But Michaels points out that even if the warming increases, humans can adjust.
For example, much of Holland is below sea level. “They said,” Michaels recounts, “we’re going to adapt to the fact that we’re a low-lying country; we’re going to build these dikes. Are you telling me that people in Miami are so dumb that they’re just going to sit there and drown?”
Climatology professor David Legates added a point the climate alarmists never make: “The water has been rising for approximately 20,000 years and probably will continue.”
But aren’t sudden climate changes happening now? Aren’t hurricanes suddenly far more violent?
“No they aren’t!” responded Michaels. “You can take a look at all the hurricanes around the planet. We can see them since 1970, because we’ve got global satellite coverage. We can measure their power… There is no significant increase whatsoever — no relationship between hurricane activity and the surface temperature of the planet!”
He’s right. That’s what government data shows.
Nevertheless, activists and politicians demand the United States move toward zero carbon emissions. That would “put you back in the Stone Age,” says Michaels.
Another myth is that carbon dioxide, the prime creator of greenhouse gases, threatens the food supply.
But carbon dioxide helps plants grow. “There are places on Earth where it is greening up like crazy,” says Michaels.
But if the crisis isn’t real, why do governments race to respond to it with regulations and big spending projects? Why is the U.N.’s Panel on Climate (IPCC) so alarmed?
Well, IPCC does stand for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Legates says, “Governments want to keep control… Carbon dioxide becomes that molecule by which (they) can take control of your lives.”
Government is the real crisis.
The Earth is warming, as you acknowledge. Temperatures have been warming, and sea levels rising, since the last glaciers started retreating 10,000 years ago.
The hysteria is unwarranted. But humans seem to thrive on hysteria; as you mention, we’ve seen hysteria over all manner of things. Maybe our lives are just too comfortable and boring.
I love the way you present the issues and delve into them. More common sense please. Thank you
Love the piece. It has a lot of common sense in it and has the data links to back it up.
Government is control, by any means necessary and they’re using “climate change” to enact control over us.
Wake up ppl before it’s too late!!
The ocean floor is not impermeable & the earths crust is elastic, heaves & hoes, so sea ice melting will first lead to slight sea level rise before volcanism levels the land again. Been happening for millions of years but is not noticeable to humans with only 10,000 years of recorded history. What you can notice is the barbaric history of superstition that has caused human self suffering.
Just listened to a marine biologist a few days ago who studies ocean fish development. His studies track ph changes and their effect on aquatic populations. He says excess CO2 is creating carbonic acid, acidifying our salt water and thereby creating unfavorable conditions for propagation of many species. And that this will not likely affect first-world people unfavorably. But that poor people who are much closer to their food supply are at immediate disadvantage. And while Miami might go full Netherlands in response to a rise in sea level,they have the millions to address the issue. Most low lying people don’t have those resources. I like having multiple perspectives speak to a situation.
The ocean is currently alkaline, not acidic. The pH of ocean water is around the 8.1 region. Neutral (distilled water) is 7.0 and acids are < 7. Maybe the ocean is getting less alkaline, but it is nowhere near acidic. It will be a LONG time before a less alkaline ocean creates any significant problems.
Learn about the PH scale. The ocean is caustic not acidic. It has become slightly less caustic or more neutral. IT IS NOT BECOMING ACIDIC.
There’s no marine biology study that I know of that tracks any genuinely deleterious effects in the natural environment. All the captive studies done are flawed and the extrapolations speculative. pH varies much more from place to place, year to year, and even in the diurnal cycle at one place, than is ever likely to be produced by higher pCO2. Ocean acidification is a total red herring. Total.
And, for sea level rise questions, check out the real data. Most islands in Vanuatu and other ‘poster children’ for sea level rise are stable or growing (see Charles Darwin, ca. 1840, to find out why. He nailed it, basis of only one voyage). The Maldives make a big fuss, have underwater cabinet meetings etc, but they aren’t going to disappear anytime soon. They are building a series of superb new airports right on sea level. Please always check out the data, listen to both sides, before you swallow any ‘science is settled’ nonsense. It ain’t! It spectacularly ain’t!!
Your concern for poorer nations is absolutely correct, but warming will not be a problem for them and may well be beneficial. The real threat to undeveloped peoples is the large and concerted effort by the west, and especially the UN, World Bank, IMF, EU etc, to deny them the possibility of cheap and plentiful fossil fuel power, in favour of expensive and unreliable ‘renewables’. Cheap, plentiful power is the one key thing that will bring them out of poverty. So don’t keep it from them.
They’ve recently backtracked on this “Supposedly” alarming issue as well if you look into it.
Well said, even I know the earth has been getting warmer since the last ice age.
Haw many time has this happened since the earth was formed !
Please keep these articles circulating! Too many people drink the Koolaid!
Government is a real crisis, but so is global warming. I love skepticism, but the science is clear. We may live on, but the comfort of the human race is In real trouble. How dare you! Greta is a hero.
me also a libertarian- why do so many trust Government-dont they read history
Greta a puppet in this big picture an actor reading from a bad written script!!! And the liberals are falling for it!!
I am not sure if Vince Schimel is kidding in his comment.
Never mind, I just reread it……….he is kidding………………..well played!!
Science is never settled. Look for “experts” supporting CAGW that do not get a check from a government agency.
even tho I agree about the global crisis…. Greta isn`t a hero, shes just a drama kid puppet to spread the fear
As usual John Stossel is correct. I am a Libertarian because most government is corrupt.
Once again , great video John!!! Keep pushing for that debate and I’ll be the first too share it!
Love your objective ness John!
An understanding of thermodynamics explains why greenhouse effect and a couple degrees in world air temperatures can not have the effects of devastating climate change. Heat transfer from a low density/mass (air) to a high mass (water) either requires very high temperature differences or very long exposure duration. What it would take to rise ocean temperature by 1 degrees? 4,000°C over the water temperature.
Thermodynamics a simple explanation and how it relates to CO2 and world ocean temperatures.
Phil, I’m a sceptic just as you are, but what you say isn’t right. The radiative dynamics of the CO2 molecule are well understood and not disputed by any reasonable authors. The theoretical warming potential of non-condensing greenhouse gases can’t really be challenged. But whether that effect trumps the natural thermostat of the hydrological cycle in the non-linear chaotic system that is the real world, and by how much, is an entirely different matter. Real world evidence so far says, ‘not much’ or just possibly ‘not at all’, but we may not get confirmation of that for very many years.
Phil – I should have added that the reason your argument doesn’t wash is that the ‘greenhouse effect’ doesn’t work by heat transfer to the ocean (or the land, for that matter) but by slowing the longwave radiation (heat) escape to space. We all can recognise this when we note that a cloudy night stays warmer than a clear night, and nights in a hot, dry desert are very cold.
This is, and always has been, about money and control. Not necessarily in that order.
The same can be said for the “worst drought” in California’s history. The last drought was not the worst, nor will it be the last, and it wasn’t caused by climate change. It appeared worse because of new federal regulations that barred farmers from using local river water. Something they had access to in previous years. So while the drought was devastating, it was in a somewhat artificial way. I was born and raised in California and have watched droughts come and go. There is a distinct pattern to them. Roughly every 10-15 years there is a 5 (approximately) year drought. So you can be on the lookout for another one in a few more years. Just make sure that when they start the hysterics about doom and gloom, you keep your eye on the money and who is making the most from this hoax.
Throughout history (at least as recorded by European settlers) California has experienced many droughts, such as 1841, 1864, 1924, 1928–1935, 1947–1950, 1959–1960, 1976–1977, 2006–2010, and 2011–2017
But ancient clues in the landscape show these recent events are not the first time the American West has been severely parched. It’s unlikely to be the last. It turns out that the recent spate of dry years is nothing compared to the ancient “megadroughts” that have occurred multiple times in human history. “What research shows us is a roughly 50- to 90-year cycle of wet and dry periods over the last few thousand years, with some droughts lasting over a decade. But between 900 and 1400 A.D. there were a couple of droughts that were over a century long.
The next time that a climate alarmist tells you that they won’t debate climate change because “the science is settled,” remind them that, just a few short years ago, the science was settled that there are only two genders…..
Nailed it.
Climate alarmist’s imaginations are possessed by a timeless apocalyptic religious narrative known as a “flood myth.” This is a latent part of our religious imagination which is why flood myths exist in every religion in human history. They all have the same plot, humans are in transgression and divine agency will create a flood and wrathful weather to wipe humans out unless a few heroes save the animals by building an ark or an electric car. Non-believers are labeled heretics (or deniers) and the myth is believed as truth and the holy scripture cited as infallible authority (climate science now days). It’s a cult. The climate always changes, it’s not a crisis other than a mental crisis of group psychology.
Think to push is to a carbon based tax..
A windfall for the obscenely rich..
Enjoy this amazing word..that’s still free…
Because they get rich off of it, Al Gore is a prime example!!!
I am very impressed with Stoessel’s reporting.
I have read and listened to a lot of limited gov’t/individual rights advocates.
No one does videos on those issues like Stoessel.
He is able to present his ideas very succinctly and, like Penn and Teller, keep it fun and entertaining.
I love the Columbo like thing that he does when he asks those ‘really’ questions to expose the hypocrisy of big gov’t/democratic socialist advocates.
Please keep doin’ it!!!
Blaming man made Carbon Dioxide, CO2, for The Global Warming Crisis is junk science.
CO2 is a tiny trace gas. Envision this: If you are in a room with a 9 ft ceiling and all the gasses were stacked, the CO2 layer would be as thin as a credit card. The raised letters on the credit card are as tall as all the extra CO2 added during the industrial age. This is what Greta Thunberg and Al Gore and all the Global Warming alarmists are fighting about. A layer of gas as thin as the the raised letters on your credit card.
The Global Warming – CO2 gas math is quite simple. And physically impossible. The Earth’s atmosphere has warmed +0.8C degrees during the industrial era. The added CO2 is one part in 8,000 of the atmosphere. To heat the atmosphere +0.8C degrees, the added CO2 molecules must contribute +0.8C x 8000 or +6,400C degrees of heat. The surface of the Sun, 93 million miles away, is 5,700C degrees. It defies common sense, and physics, that the Sun’s surface heat at 5,700C degrees, can travel 93 million miles through space, and heat Earth’s CO2 molecules to 6,400C degrees.
Global Warming Alarmists claim there is a CO2 greenhouse heat feedback effect which amplifies the Sun’s warming. That is impossible. CO2 can’t add more heat than it absorbs. CO2 is an inert gas. There is no exothermic chemical reaction.
The planet Venus has been held by climate scientists as an example of CO2 caused Global Warming. Venus is very hot, 460C degrees. But conditions are extreme. The dense atmosphere has 225,000 times as much CO2 as the Earth. Surface air pressure is 1,300 Pounds per square inch, equal to 93 Earth atmospheres. Plus, at 67 million miles from the Sun, Venus receives twice the sunlight energy per square meter as the Earth. These extreme density, pressure, and sunlight conditions combine to make the Venus CO2 warming effect 4.2 million times greater than the Earth’s CO2.
Man made CO2 is not the control knob for the Earth’s temperature.
Junk science!
Hurricanes are heat engines, meaning that they derive energy from the temperature difference between the ocean and the atmosphere. If the cold part (Arctic) is warming, and warming faster than the tropics as all Alarmists claim, then the temperature differential drops and hurricanes should drop in intensity, not increase.
I’m sure that this is overly simplistic, but it shows that hurricanes aren’t just a product of ocean temperature. They need cold “sink” to bleed energy to to form. warm the sink, even slightly and the hurrican intensity drops. Which is what we’re seeing now.
Our godless society has created a vacuum that is now being fulfilled by “Environmentalism. ” This new religion has all the trappings of the old religions. Community, piety, hope, condescension, intolerance, a common goal, promise of nirvana, crusades, just to name a few.
People have been proving that God doesn’t exist forever, yet we still have believers. Now that this religion has been established, your proof does not mean anything to them and the lack of actual evidence means that their efforts have been rewarded.
Is it going to hurt anyone to not drive the big gas guzzling vehicle? Use solar or wind energy instead of fossil fuels? Plant trees? Stop cutting down trees? Fly on airplanes less?
You are right, it is about the money! Money that corporations are gaining by flaunting the restrictions put on them and money that is going in our pockets as the stock market goes higher and higher.
Do you wonder why the super rich are investing in outer space? Maybe when the whole world goes down they will get on their spaceship.
Why would anyone not want more equality with financial matters? The super wealthy can only spend so much money. Why not spread it around?
It’s about greed, it’s about hate, it’s about power!
Any of the changes being touted are a benefit to our world. Allergies would be less, pollution would be less. People would drive more efficient cars. Maybe growing a garden would be good.
Vicki, I drive a big gas guzzling vehicle. It’s a pickup and I use it for my work. It would hurt if I didn’t drive it. I am the first to wish for a more fuel efficient pick-up. Every time I go to the pump I am reminded that my last pick-up got better mileage. My new pickup has more pollution control and that comes at the expense of mileage. This may be worth it. I am just saying it comes at a cost. I have some solar and would like to have more but solar and wind energy are not free, and there are significant mining and environmental costs to get those resources built for the batteries and for the generators. Plant more trees is a great idea and I have but I have to spend money to pay to pump the water for them. If we stop cutting down trees then we can build as much shelter. Some one has to go without if we stop using wood. I only fly when I figure there is a really good reason to. It’s expensive to me and most of the time I would rather be home with my family. Its it going to hurt if I don’t drive, use more solar and wind, plant trees, stop using wood and fly less? Yes I think it would hurt me at least it would change my life. Having said this I do want to be as wise as I can with my resources. Perhaps I can be more efficient, perhaps I can use less, perhaps we can find new and better ways to for energy. I am trying especially as my budget gets tighter and tighter. I am grateful to live in this country and to have the resources I do. I like my life. I am glad that in this country where we have a higher standard of living that at any time in the worlds history. My kids are not going hungry, all of their needs are taken of. They even get lots of their wants. For much of the worlds existence you were super wealthy if you could just take one day a week off from getting food or shelter. By this standard I am super wealthy. I couldn’t enjoy what I do now if it were not for the efforts of many who are even more super wealthy than I am. My phone is old by today’s standards but I like it and it is very useful to me. I could not have it and it wouldn’t work if a bunch of super wealthy people didn’t work to provide it for me. I am aware of many of the super wealthy that give more than 50% of their income to help others. I am amazed when I look at the statistics how much is given to charity in this country by the wealthy and super wealthy. Not all the wealthy are good people but I believe most try to be. In our economic system, for the most part, those who serve the best, or serve the most people, or who have had an ancestor who did serve well, become the most wealthy. That doesn’t happen that way in any other governmental system that I am aware of. In the United States we have an abundance of resources and wealth like at no other time in the history of the world. Many of the poor have running water, time off from work, a car and more. If we restrict who can get those resources or make them more expensive who do you think will suffer the most? (hint: it will not be Al Gore or Donald Trump)
The US government’s concern about fossil fuels is all about Saudi Arabia running out of oil in 40 years. Why? Because the US-Saudi alliance controls the world market in oil, and thus controls the world. Unhappy with Russia and Iran? Drop the price of oil to cut their revenues.
Once Saudi Arabia runs out of oil, the nations that will control the world market in oil will be…Russia and Iran. Can you say payback?
The truth is hard to determine when all the research by our colleges (who depend on Government Grants) are not truthful and then the media needs to sell shocking stories rather than the normal truth. No honesty anymore
Thanks for your article which is reasonable to even the unscientific mind. Thanks and I will share with others
Did you hear about those people who stopped the Yale-Harvard football game the other day? That is just so disrespectful to interrupt that game like that and waste people’s time and money! I’d be pissed if I had been at that game! What do you think about it?
If Greta wants to see who is stealing her childhood she doesn’t need to look further than her parents .
Increasing our freshwater supply and Cooling our planet by 1° in the next 20 years is as easy as introducing salt water into our large global desert depressions. currently there are a 10 Locations that would create over $1 billion a year each in Hydro power sales each year . It would create rapid evaporation Over our largest deserts and create a new rain in side Our driest zones, this will turn half of our deserts ,into Green Zones
So you´re telling me that if I continue cutting thousands of trees, taking out mangroves to built new touristics villages, fishing at actual rythm, dropping petrolium to oceans…. the consecuences are not critical at all….phew! bring me more parrotfish for dinner
A good new source of info pertaining to climate change is contained the book by Dr Jake Hebert of ICR entitled “The Ice Age and Climate Change: A Creation Perspective” which provides reasons to reject climate change alarmism. Check it out!