JULY 2, 2019
The primal scream of climate change fanatics
By
Bob Weir
In 1968, Stanford University professor Paul Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb, which became a bestseller. The premise of the book was that worldwide famine was going to destroy humanity. According to the professor, this frightening scenario was scheduled to happen in the 1970s and 1980s, due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals. Hmmm…sounds as though he was giving mankind about 12 years before Armageddon would occur. Whom does that remind you of? Anyway, his solution was immediate action to limit population growth! We know how well that worked out!
During the 1970s, we entered a period of academic conjecture on a subject that came to be known as global cooling. This theory was based on studies that suggested that a buildup of glaciers was occurring and could cause imminent cooling of the Earth's surface, leading to another Ice Age. Glaciers are made up of fallen snow that, over many years, compresses into large, thickened ice masses. Presently, glaciers occupy about 10 percent of the world's total land area, with most located in polar regions like Antarctica, Greenland, and the Canadian Arctic. Glaciers are remnants from the last Ice Age, when ice covered nearly 32 percent of the land and 30 percent of the oceans. At 10 percent, we're doing well.
As we moved into the 1980s, another climate scare was taking root. Acid rain gave new meaning to the term "the sky is falling." According to the alarmists of that era, there was a form of precipitation that contained an acidic quality with elevated levels of hydrogen ions. They claimed that the acid rain was having harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and our infrastructure. Nothing much was said about walking in the rain or drinking rainwater. After a series of studies and the emergence of a new term called the "ozone hole," life went on pretty much the same as always.
...that is, until around the late 1990s, when a new phrase was adopted by the usual suspects who seem to live for the chance to predict disaster in every human encounter with nature. This time, it was global warming that pushed their body temperature up. No, they admitted, the Earth is not cooling; it's warming. The term refers to the emission of greenhouse gases being released by those huge, greedy, and irresponsible companies prospering in the modern industrial economy. This "warming" would, according to the teenage scientific experts carrying signs on college campuses, melt the polar ice caps and flood major cities around the world. Keep in mind that this was only about 20 years after they were convinced that glaciers were growing sufficiently to turn all human and plant life on the planet into icicles.
When every other catastrophic prediction failed, the chronic complainers needed to find a descriptive term that would cover everything bad in the universe. Voilà! Around 2010, "climate change" burst onto the scene with an evangelical fervor that would capture the imagination of even the most committed infidels. After all, the use of such a comprehensive term for any environmental occurrence would give them cover no matter what happened. Devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean? Climate change! Lower than normal temperatures in Southern states? Climate change is the culprit! Sweltering temperatures in northern states? You wanna guess what caused it? Tsunami in the Philippines? You know it has to be climate change!
The fact that these calamities have occurred since countries began to record weather hundreds of years ago has no effect on those who have been systematically convinced that it all started, coincidentally, just as they approached puberty. Armed with a new and formidable weapon, which appears to demonstrate their inflexible moral authority over "climate change deniers," these fanatics feel compelled to destroy anyone who doesn't kneel before their truculent orthodoxy. You may have gotten a taste of it on social media if you took an opposing position when someone declares that the world will end in about a dozen years. Ruthless attacks will be your reward for daring to have a contrary thought.
This is how the left wing wins its battles in our country today. Rational thought is a loser for leftists. They can score victories only by threats and intimidation. It's a type of primal scream emanating from the angry mob mentality being relentlessly nurtured by a corrupt political system, aided and abetted by a dishonest media determined to hold onto power, even if the country is lost in the effort.
