Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Guardian has declared 2019 the year they defeated “climate denial”. But nobody in the green movement has any idea what comes next.
Climate change denial was defeated in 2019. But what comes next won’t be easier
Defeating the climate crisis is just the beginning of the struggle – and tough political choices will have to be made
Will 2019 be remembered as the year in which climate change denial was defeated? The global climate strike, Greta Thunberg’s meteoric rise to international prominence, as well as several high-profile international conferences and reports – all contributed in putting climate skeptics on the back foot.
Even Donald Trump, who previously claimed that the climate crisis was a “hoax” invented by China to hold back American industry, has recently begun to brag about all his administration has done to address it. Following suit, the rest of his party is scrambling to develop a coherent environmental platform, more in line with their electoral base’s shifting views.
But the next steps in the global fight against the climate crisis remain far from clear. In the speech she delivered to US Congress in September, Thunberg maintained: “No matter how political the background to this crisis may be, we must not allow it to become a partisan political question. The climate and ecological crisis is beyond party politics. And our main enemy right now is not our political opponents. Our main enemy is physics.”
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We already see this new politics taking shape in emergent debates over competing proposals for addressing the climate crisis. Bernie Sanders’ and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s respective versions of the Green New Deal are very different from the proposal for a European Green Deal recently put forward by the new president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The first approach wants to connect the issue of the climate crisis with social justice, and advocates for a massive expansion in the role of the state to manage the transition to renewable energy. The second approach treats the issue of the climate crisis in isolation from other social and political issues, and proposes market rather than state mechanisms to address it.
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These decisions cannot be taken by purely technical or scientific means. On the contrary, the fact that the environmental movement has so far remained the preserve of a small technocratic elite has done more to invite populist backlashes than to further its own goals.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/29/the-climate-movement-is-about-to-get-more-political-and-thats-a-good-thing
The climate movement didn’t win in 2019, they won a long time ago. With a handful of exceptions like President Trump, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and President Bolsonaro of Brazil, for the last decade at least there has been an almost seamless genuine global political consensus on the need to address the climate crisis.
Why hasn’t this political consensus translated into real climate action?
When Greta Thunberg said “Our main enemy is physics.”, for once she was spot on. The renewable solutions the climate movement advocates are impossible. Other greens are aware of this problem; Bill Gates tried and failed to solve the problems. David Attenborough advocates a renewable “Apollo Programme”, to attempt to solve problems which he knows are currently insurmountable. Trump hater Michael Moore tried to investigate what was stopping the green revolution; Moore found a dark swamp of lies and corporate greed, in the last place he expected.
Eventually voters will tire of believing in a climate crisis which never manifests. But until then, I see the main role of climate skeptics as trying to contain the economic damage caused by ruinously expensive political climate follies.
When trillions of dollars are at stake, doubt, even a small doubt, kills the sale.
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Spot on, well said, that really sums it up.
Eric should have included some election disasters for the climate alarmists – such as “the climate change election” in Australia, which )shockingly) yielded a simple majority for the conservatives and the subsequent opening of the second largest coal mine on earth in Queensland.
Fact is, it’s been a bit of a breakout year for the skeptics.
Correct Frederick. No matter how heavy the propaganda and psy-war, the Green fanatics STILL can’t convince the adult population anywhere to embrace economic suicide, crushing austerity and back-breaking taxes at advance a Green Climate Agenda.
No one one the side of fanatics knows how to break the impasse aside from dictatorial coercion. Trouble is, as long as there are elections the Greenies will be defeated. And the fanatics know it. Which drives them bonkers. The tide may change in five-ten years as Boomers die off… until then the public can’t be convinced to let the crazies fleece them.
Have they reached the stage where they declare victory and go home?
Do you remember when the debate was over? Do you remember when they had the debate?
MarkW
Who denies that the climate changes?
They do. They refuse to admit that temperatures during the Holocene have been much higher, sea level much higher, glaciers much smaller etc. Most of them don’t even realize Earth is right now in an Ice Age situation.
Propaganda solves everything in their virtual reality.
“Climate Denial was Defeated in 2019” …..
I agree ! The socialist left wing Eco-Terrorists that deny the “Climate Change” of the past have lost their last supporter in the White House ! Ivanka calls it quits…FINALLY !
I deny that humans are the primary drivers of climate change, or even responsible for the majority of CO2 in the atmosphere. Someone please inform the green movement about me.
Well sir, you are quite wrong: I notice you don’t have any evidence to support your quaint politically inspired ideas…
He is correct since humans emit so little of the yearly total, that it doesn’t even push the yearly emission rate upward.
`Please enlighten me. When Did St. Greta address the U.S. Congress. Answer. Never! The Guardian can’t even get recent past events correct. Man the Europeans are the most gullible people on the planet.
Watch “Greta Thunberg testifies to Congress over climate crisis – watch live” on YouTube
https://youtu.be/icKlNgLuqzU
It was a committee hearing. It wasn’t “U.S. Congress.”
A House Committee hearing run by Democrats.
Robert, you are correct. They can’t get the past or present correct or, they wouldn’t have said this.
“Even Donald Trump, who previously claimed that the climate crisis was a “hoax” invented by China to hold back American industry, has recently begun to brag about all his administration has done to address it. Following suit, the rest of his party is scrambling to develop a coherent environmental platform, more in line with their electoral base’s shifting views.”
The Guardian is woefully inaccurate about Trump. Trump is big on clean air, water and fighting pollution and the US is already the world’s leader in doing all of this. I have not heard him say one word that indicates he thinks CO2 is a problem and, certainly not one which he is willing to bankrupt the US and the US economy over.
Electric Utility Emissions Continue to Decline Through 2018
http://bit.ly/2Pe0rWP
“…Due to policies and economic technology, emissions from electric utilities continue to decline. According to an EPA report, sulfur dioxide emissions declined by 92 percent between 1990 and 2018, nitrogen oxides emissions declined by 84 percent between those years, ozone season nitrogen oxides declined 83 percent between 1997 and 2018, and carbon dioxide emissions declined by 24 percent between 2005 and 2018. The large reductions in emissions occurred despite increasing output from U.S. electric generators. Electric output increased by 19 percent between 1990 and 2018.
…Americans now enjoy the cleanest air many of them have ever experienced, and all signs point to increasingly healthy air, even as the United States has become the largest oil and gas producer in the world. The future of energy in America is bright; our air is clean and getting cleaner every day.”
The US is one of the few if not only countries on track to meet the (useless and expensive) Paris Accord CO2 targets despite Trump pulling us out of it.
U.S. Cuts ‘Global Warming’ Gases Faster Than Anyone Else, But Media Ignore It
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/u-s-cuts-global-warming-gases-faster-than-anyone-else-but-media-ignore-it/
In addition, Trump recently did this.
New DOE and NRC Agreement Will Lead to Faster Deployment and Licensing of U.S. Nuclear Technologies
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/10/17/new-doe-and-nrc-agreement-will-lead-to-faster-deployment-and-licensing-of-u-s-nuclear-technologies/
No AGW/CCer who opposes nuclear is serious about CO2 being an existential threat to this planet.
Had They Bet On Nuclear, Not Renewables, Germany & California Would Already Have 100% Clean Power
http://bit.ly/2OLNbfg
Well, yeah. They voted in Communists, Nazis and Fascists in the last 100 years and today they are being overrun by Muslims and they do nothing. They are Eloi. They are pathetic and they will disappear.
The Brits are doing something, Thatcher saw the rot in the 1990’s and tried to object, she lost her job for that. BoJo had better deliver given the Brits have voted THREE times to leave the EU, the third time with a clear majority that Remoaners have been calling for, but backfired on them.
The EU central bank’s quantitative easing (QE) policy is an indication the Euro currency and the whole zone is crashing. Last year, IIRC, the EU central bank QE injected over 2 trillion euros in to the EU economy, printing money the EU does not have to try to prop up the EU zone economies.
And if he doesn’t they can darn well have another election.
Brits won’t have long to wait, 32 days. Cameron the bottler and May the ditherer both failed with a sufficient mandate form voters. Under BoJo, the Brexit deal is to be done by Jan 31st with a massive majority in Govn’t.
Sorry to spoil the party, Patrick. It’s all a continuing con, as has been the case for 45years. The only thing that happens on 31st January 2020, is that the UK ceases to have any representation or say in the EU, on anything. No veto; nothing. But the rules go on; nothing changes. We are still paying in; still subject to the European Court of Justice; still having our fishing waters plundered. We have another year of wrangling and brinkmanship over a possible trade deal. Boris’s Treaty is 95% May’s surrender deal/vassalage treaty.
When trillions are at stake … lots of palms can get greased. We’re doomed.
Kenji
However, the Palm (Palmolein) from Malaysia is a No No from UE under the pretext of Climate change !
Don’t you just love the Germans-
“Motorists in Germany are banding together to oppose climate activists’ calls to limit the use of cars. Politicians are taking them seriously because, unlike the Fridays for Future movement and its leader Greta Thunberg, most members of the Fridays for Horsepower group can vote.
The response has been overwhelming. The closed Facebook group already boasts more than 540,000 members”
https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/fridays-for-horsepower-german-motorists-oppose-fridays-for-future-a-1290466.html
And there are what – 80 million plus Germans?
No doubt had the same nimber of Germans signed up to some idiotic CAGW initiative you would be delirious with joy.
There is only 61Million registered voters of which generally only 70% turn up to vote. In the 2017 election that was 46,976,341 and recap it took months to cobble together a coalition to rule
Here is the timeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_German_federal_election
Election => 24 September 2017
Government formed => 7 February 2018 Grand coalition forms government
Any major shift of voters is a problem in Germany and we will only really know what effect this has in 24 October 2021.
Germans love of both cars and driving has long been known to be the third rail for those who would challenge it 🙂
Let the resistance (As was expected) COMMENCE! This comes off the recent BoerenProtest in the Netherlands……people are fed up! Resistance is here! Join the fight!
“When Greta Thunberg said ‘Our main enemy is physics.’”
Yes, physics is the weapon that will destroy the alarmist movement.
Good one.
Yes, those damn pesky facts getting in the way of Gretins’ fweelz…..
Find out why CO2, in spite of being a ghg, has no effect on climate: https://watervaporandwarming.blogspot.com
Discover what does affect climate (96.7% match with measured 1895-2018) at http://globalclimatedrivers2.blogspot.com
Trump’s right. It’s a hoax. Just because folks tired of arguing with idiots about it, doesn’t mean they won the argument. It just means people have better things to do. Much better things.
even the “war” is BS…..stop trying to argue the science….they won the science the second they blamed everything….
Show them what a $c@m the implementation is…..how it’s the very countries that get paid….are the ones increasing emissions
If they truly believe in global warming they should be blaming China….and the rest of the developing world
Let them try to get China to reduce emissions…instead of blaming us…that will be fun to watch
Yep they’ve built a climate juggernaut. It’s sailing head first into the shoals of failed renewable energy promises.
Even James Hansen, thinks renewables are useless and, so does Michael Moore, of all people.
“Suggesting that renewables will let us phase rapidly off fossil fuels in the United States, China, India, or the world as a whole is almost the equivalent of believing in the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.” – James Hansen (The Godfather of global warming alarmism and former NASA climate chief)
Hansen, a True Believer in AGW is ever there was one, is on-board with Nuclear and, thus, is no longer a darling of the AGW/CC crowd.
James Hansen ON NULCEAR VIA YOUTUBE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXq79YeqZAg
Michael Moore-backed Doc, ‘Planet of the Humans,’ Tackles ‘False Promises’ of Green Energy
August 9, 2019
http://bit.ly/2tbCTuB
Gibbs, who produced Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, didn’t set out to take on the environmental movement. He said he wanted to know why things weren’t getting better. But when he started pulling on the thread, he and Moore said they were shocked to find how inextricably entangled alternative energy is with coal and natural gas, since they say everything from wind turbines to electric car charging stations are tethered to the grid, and even how two of the Koch brothers — Charles and David — are tied to solar panel production through their glass production business.
“It turned out the wakeup call was about our own side,” Gibbs said in a phone interview. “It was kind of crushing to discover that the things I believed in weren’t real, first of all, and then to discover not only are the solar panels and wind turbines not going to save us … but (also) that there is this whole dark side of the corporate money … It dawned on me that these technologies were just another profit center…”
Hansen and Moore are like broken clocks.
Here’s a link to a good review of “Planet of the Humans”.
On the one hand, the movie does point out that renewable energy is a fraud. On the other hand, it posits that we’re extracting the planet to death. It says the resulting collapse of civilization will make WW2 look like a kids’ party.
Abolishing capitalism is not the answer. Any proposed alternative is even worse, much like renewable energy as a solution to anything.
Buckminster Fuller pointed out that we use technology to do more and more with less and less. He called it ephemeralization. The process is happening. Per capita, our resource use is going down. By some measures, our resource use is decreasing in absolute terms. That’s not going to stop unless the greenies are allowed to wreck the economy.
Some time this century we’re going to pass peak people. Our footprint on the planet will inexorably decrease. All we’ve got to do is to not mess up in the mean time.
“On the one hand, the movie does point out that renewable energy is a fraud. On the other hand, it posits that we’re extracting the planet to death. It says the resulting collapse of civilization will make WW2 look like a kids’ party.”
Bob,
My point was that renewables are so bad and useless, even Moore and Hansen hate them. I was not trying to say that either of them had seen the light and are now skeptics. I think most of us here know that if there were not trillions to be made off the renewables scam via tax credits, subsidies and buying off politicians to deliver, same and if there were not so much power to be gained by those who hate capitalism and democracy, the entire AGW/CC CO2 is evil meme would quickly fade away into the dust bin of history and scientists would get back to doing science as science instead of turning science into a money making, career enhancing endeavor to “prove” CO2 and only CO2 controls Earth’s temperature.
With the True Believers such as Moore and Hansen, I’ll take what I can get and those two, at least, even if they don’t know it, have hit at one of the main engines driving CC.
Anything that can bury renewables which are impoverishing people and keeping poor people in places like Africa poor, devastating the environment, ecology, habitats and killing Earth’s threatened and endangered species, is good by me even if it does come from losers like Moore and Hansen.
Thanks for the movie review link. That’s very interesting.
One thing that I like to give as an example is the longevity and fuel economy of cars. In the 1950s a popular car was the Ford Prefect. It was a tiny car with a 3 speed gearbox and a side valve engine, by modern standards it was painfully slow. At the time the fuel consumption at 30 mpg was thought to be commendable. These cars usually died an early death due to crankshaft failure. Modern cars have better fuel economy, performance and, if cared for, will do hundreds of thousands of miles before having to be scrapped.
That is a really excellent article summing up of the totally futile Green Position The voters will eventually relegate the belief in a climate crisis to the Too Hard Basket. They will move on. Meanwhile containing the Green Economic Damage is the main game in town now until the Green political climate follies fade away.
Until then “The people imagine a vain thing”.
You missed out one of the stupidest parts of the Guardian article.
Just after saying that physics is the enemy, it says that Greta Thunberg’s approach is “a new form of denial”!
It’s not new. It’s the same denial of physics that’s been a tool used by alarmists and projected against skeptics ever since the controversy arose.
“Our main enemy is physics”, Greta Thunberg to the US Congress, September 2019.
Quote of the year from Time magazine’s Person of the Year. Beautiful. Just beautiful.
lotsa folks dont realise that being Time magazines person of the year is not necessarily a plaudit. That Hitler guy got the title sometime back in the 30’s 🙂
The Gaurdian is in.denial
The Guardian is the Baghdad Bob of English speaking world and climate change is their leader.
“They are not near Bagdad. They are trapped everywhere.”
“They hold no part of Iraq.”
Our forces are pushing them back. Into the swamps.”
“There are no infidel Americans in Bagdad. Never”
https://youtu.be/vC5UTUAxgpE
Someone should put a video together of their
Climate denial defeated aka peak hysteria aka time for everyone to be proven wrong.
“Trump hater Michael Moore tried to investigate what was stopping the green revolution; Moore found a dark swamp of lies and corporate greed, in the last place he expected.”
So I click on the WUWT story linked to in the comment above. “Michael Moore-backed Doc, ‘Planet of the Humans,’ Tackles ‘False Promises’ of Green Energy”. I see that this paradigm-shifting expose on the “green energy” scam debuted in August 2019 at the Traverse City Film Festival, and was touted at the time by leftist bullhorn Michael Moore as “…perhaps the most urgent film we’ve shown in the 15 year history of our film festival.”
I go to the webpage for the movie (planetofthehumansDOTcom), where I see that, after debuting at the Traverse City Film Festival in August, it has apparently been shown … NOWHERE ELSE.
“I like so many people in the film and I’m one of those people who wanted to believe all of these years that that was the right path,” Moore said. ”(But) I refuse to let us die out. I refuse to let this planet die.”
Well, it looks like this movie has been memory-holed, ignored, and swept under the rug with all the other “inconvenient facts” that the “green movement” deems counter productive to whatever their end goal is. Pretty urgent indeed, Mr. Moore. St. Greta cries a tear with your name on it.
…
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” ― Winston S. Churchill
I checked for availability of it on DVD, Blu-ray, etc. I got one hit on Blu-ray but when I went to the site it said “It’s not yet available, check back”. I wonder if Moore himself is keeping it off market because he fears backlash from erstwhile friends.
Let’s hope that the Guarniad will be just as disappointed about their climate dreams in 2020 as they were about their Brexit dreams in 2019.
Climate denial was defeated only in the sense that it never actually existed. They created a make-believe foe and proclaimed a make-believe victory over that foe.
The real enemy to the fear mongers is reality. They just can’t seem to get around that, no matter how much make-believe they do!
The UN IPCC SR 15 states that the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 “would require unprecedented changes in our lifestyle, energy and transport systems”, effectively a global economic and social revolution.
Does anyone think that we are presently in a global revolution of this nature?
No private vehicles, restricted air travel, worldwide veganism by 2030, massive culling of agricultural herds, exploding bureaucratic regulation of lifestyle choices etc.
To say nothing of the $122 trillion required to be raised from private and public sources to “combat climate change” this century( UN Special Report on 1.5 degree Warming).
You only have to list these facts for the public to realise the green project is politically and economically unachievable.
I think Climate denial has been defeated.
And its chief protagonists – Thunberg and Ocasio Cortez, are now complete laughing stocks.
Whats the expression?
They jumped the shark?
If climate were a problem, then full blown nuclear would be the only working solution.
The green don’t like this inconvenient truth.
Bingo!
We defeated climate den!al! WOO-HOO! We won! Skeptics have no voice now. Next is for the world to give all power money and control to us so we can begin the next steps.
Thunberg was a tremendous PR move. Good for them. Nothing much will change. We still have the economy to worry about, along with China, immigration, debt, crime, you know, actual concerns.