I & I Editorial BoardI&I Editorial
The face of the global warming scare was once that of Al Gore. Now that face belongs to a 16-year-old girl who’s being treated as a prophetess. It’s hard to conceive of a world gone more mad.
Greta Thunberg has been thrust into the spotlight, tagged as the child who will lead us away from our inevitable climate disaster — if only we let her. Adults hang on her words, regard her as an omniscient oracle, insist that we are in the presence of our savior.
Thunberg’s “voice lets us know we’re in disavowal, and that we’d better wake up. Then it tells us, clear as anything, how to do this,” says Ali Smith, a Scottish author who writes for The Guardian.
But then if that voice had instead been telling us capitalism has lifted more than a billion out of poverty, Thunberg would have no forum. Though true, it doesn’t fit the narrative.
Because her message does fit, this child mystic of Sweden has been allowed to speak at the Davos economic conference, in Britain’s Parliament, and at a United Nations convention. She’s inspired a global school walkout and protested in front of Sweden’s legislature when she should have been in school. The kids at Vox have declared that when watching Thunberg speak, “it’s hard not to think of Cassandra, the brash young warrior of Greek myth who beseeched Apollo for the gift of prophecy.”
The more reasonable among us see a young lady who’s being exploited by an intractable, alarmist movement and a set of parents craving, what, relevance maybe.
The Voxers are correct though in observing that “Thunberg’s fearless rhetoric has proven to be enormously influential.” And therein is the problem.
The story says Thunberg arrived at her activism on her own, first hearing about global warming at 8, then becoming depressed at 11, ostensibly because the world wasn’t responding to global warming adequately enough to suit her. But she’s no priestess ordained by the Almighty, just a vessel used to repeat global warming propaganda. She’s a human shield held up to protect the disseminators of junk science, radicals determined to take over the global economy, and an assortment of angry agitators.
When Thunberg says “we need to rapidly remove all fossil fuels from our everyday life and leave them in the ground,” that “we must remember that this is above all an emergency — not primarily an opportunity to create new green economic growth. We need a whole new way of thinking,” she is doing nothing more than following the alarmist handbook. There’s no revelation there, no new words from Heaven. Just the tired, unoriginal rhetoric we’ve endured for years.
We’re not saying Thunberg is an actor who’s been handed a script. She is clearly a willing participant. But to demand that her warnings are to be heeded because she is some sort of young savant who cannot be challenged is truly asinine.
Of course Thunberg, her handlers, and fanatic followers will count our commentary as an attack on her. It’s a cheap way to deflect and invalidate legitimate criticism. In fact, they’ve even dared doubters to speak. In The Guardian’s recent fawning coverage, Thunberg said “I think that as long as they go after me personally with insults and conspiracy theories then that is good. It proves that they don’t have any arguments.”
Actually, skeptics and lukewarmers, even the “deniers,” have arguments. And they are compelling.
- To start with, the temperature record is unreliable. This blogger has it exactly right when he says: “The thermometer network is made up of a patchwork of non-research quality instruments that were never made to monitor long-term temperature changes to tenths or hundredths of a degree, and the huge data voids around the world are either ignored or in-filled with fictitious data.”
- The data used to reach the “consensus” that man’s fossil fuel habits are causing the planet to overheat have been doctored.
- The models on which the entire edifice is built have been consistently wrong.
- Predictions that storms would become more common and more destructive have also been wrong.
- Those pushing the hardest for extreme measures to “fight” global warming have been hiding their true agenda, which is to dismantle and replace capitalism. Some are even suggesting that the “fight” is an opening to establish authoritarian control.
- Earth’s climate has always changed and nothing is occurring today outside of the historical variability.
- Carbon dioxide, a weak greenhouse gas, is one of many variables that affect climate.
- Science does not work on “consensus,” nor is it ever “settled.”
- Claims that 97% of scientists agree that man is causing climate change have been debunked.
- Man’s use of fossil fuels has yielded unprecedented human progress.
We could carry on for a while longer, but we don’t want to test readers’ patience. Those who want to dig further can continue at University of Alabama-Huntsville climate scientist Roy Spencer’s global warming skepticism for dummies page and the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s policymaker’s guide to climate change.
It’s unlikely to happen, but every adult who has placed Thunberg on a pedestal should be embarrassed for taking seriously what is so plainly a stunt, for so obviously trying to signal their moral superiority over the unbelieving rubes, for flattering themselves as sages who recognize greatness. They should be ashamed for hitching themselves to the operators who are cashing in on the girl. They should be held to account for failing, or refusing, to recognize they are giving life to a cult, one that a mentally healthy society would have already turned back.
Issues & Insights is a new site formed by the seasoned journalists behind the legendary IBD Editorials page. We’re just getting started, and we’ll be adding new features as time permits. We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we believe the nation needs the kind of cogent, rational, data-driven, fact-based commentary that we can provide.
Be sure to tell all your friends! And if you’d like to make a contribution to support our effort, feel free to click the Tip Jar over on the right sidebar.
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
It’s not far from the “girls” used as evidence at the Salem Witch Trials. That had bothering to do with their claims either.
“Climate” is a dog whistle for communism.
I am not sure how you got on my news feed. But, judging by your blog roll you are funded by the oil companies, and conservative movements. So this article is a bunch of rehashed garbage that the conservatives and the oil companies have been pushing since the 1980’s. Please remove me.
When you find out which oil companies are funding me please let me know. Or better, let THEM know because I’ve been waiting a long, long time to get a check from them for supposedly being their puppet.
My gosh, “CWon”, some of us have earned advanced degrees in this field and got to our opinion from studying the science, not from political sources.
I want to debate the issues in science with you. Are you ready?
Insanity rules!
Ignorant fools with an agenda and hidden motives
she is white so of course she must be a racist liar
Weather you believe it or not climate change is real and people all over the world are exposed almost every day to the reality of how it is affecting their lives. I live in Canada where in the northern part of our country temperatures are reaching unprecedented levels. Permafrost is melting and buildings and infrastructure is in peril. Ask people in south Florida about rising sea levels that will swallow their homes and businesses. All this may or may not be manmade but either way action MUST be taken to avoid serious consequences.
Good article. It is a shame that the child is being used to push political agenda based on envy, greed and hatred.
Climate Change is a real scientific and historical phenomenon, we have evidence in the historical and geological records that the Earth’s climate continually changes – before modern humans had evolved.
Global Warming as put forward by ALGore is politically motivated scientific fraud. The data have been proven to have been manipulated to support political claims. Global Warming is the antithesis of science.
The only threat involved is from those who need to lie and frighten to get their way.
Thank you for pointing out the absurdity of following a teenage Pied Piper towards total climate insanity. She knows nothing of the science and is a political propaganda weapon. Pity her in later life when the lies of global warming alarmists have been seen by the masses and she holds a place of ridicule in history.
Try to keep up from news from 2 years ago. https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/08/15/florida-sea-level-rising-faster-average-not-climate-change/#74acfa6f8957
Vikings grew grain in Greenland in the years 800 to 1200 . No grain , no farm animals , no Vikings . However , you can’t grow grain in Greenland today because it’s colder now than in the year 800 . Nothing out of the ordinary is happening in Northern Canada . By the way , iqualuit is directly east of the Viking settlements on Greenland . You can’t grow grain there either .
Ummmm… just what “actions” do you suppose might avoid these consequences? Where is your data on their efficacy?
Ignoring the climate crisis and the real threat it poses is what got us into this mess in the first place. This is a ridiculous article.
About that South Florida sea level rise:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/08/15/florida-sea-level-rising-faster-average-not-climate-change/#14818d158957
‘Debunking’ climate change on a Florida article that says something different is ludicrous. I’ve been to the country of Maldives which is one of the lowest lying countries on the ocean in the world. The government is freaking out that their country may be gone is a decade. Low lying Alaska towns are already abandoning them due to encroaching water. At this late hour that anyone denies global warming is likely part of the weapon of mass disinformation for the power structure. Denial is a very real phenomenon but we are now at a point of stupidity or criminal disinformation given the massive amount of information that is screaming the eco-system is dying on all fronts.
All the peoples that will ever exist on planet earth at any given time will NOT overcome external source effects of the sun’s color spectrum and other galactic occurrences, including if you believe there is an ultimate external power – to you. Then again, so everyone feels real good about themselves – a participation trophy and cash prizes for everyone.
This girl and her comments are right on. I am a scuba diver and am aware that over 50% of the oceans reefs are already dead. Over 50% of plankton is gone which creates 70% of our oxygen. We are listed as in the sixth Extinction phase of the planet right now. Between 200 to 300 species of plants, animals and fish species are dying every day. Methane has started releasing in large quantities in the northern regions of the planet potentially causing a Venus syndrome. I could go on but won’t. Anyone that is that blind to what is happening before our very eyes is either ignorant or simply deceiving the population for agendas that go beyond this comment section.
Don’t believe it . Nothing out of the ordinary is happening . Vikings grew grain in Greenland in the years 800 to 1200 . No grain , no farm animals , no Vikings . By the year 1200 Vikings had to leave because it got too cold to grow grain to feed the stock . It’s still way too cold to grow grain in Greenland .
Don’t believe scientific facts? I suspect you are part of the power structure designed to create confusion with the masses. Everything I shared can be backed up with indisputable evidence. Denial ain’t no river in Egypt my friend. Within two years we will all know the consequences of this level of blatant denial.
These supposed “facts” have been disproven over and over again in the referreed literature, by cold, hard facts. The global warming movement is fully political now and disconnected from science.
Actually that is a complete lie. I can visually see the damage to the oceans since I scuba dive them. The reefs that used to be healthy are now dead. The insects that have been abundant are now 80-90% gone. The over 700 whales that have recently starved to death in the pacific ocean back up the claim that 50% of plankton are gone. That is on top of confirmed reduction of oxygen on the planet by 40%.
The extinction rate is 40,000 times faster than the five prior extinction rates. That your arguing the side of the house your on has no evidence of fire while the other side is fully engulfed in flames reveals the mentality that you communicate distraction to the empirical facts that we can confirm with our own senses. Look on the news and you will see many of these ‘facts’ including the arctic circle largely on fire. Maybe your not aware of the amount of methane in the permafrost that is melting at a rate that has been confirmed as ‘out of control’. Try as you might to shelve these concerns as ‘false facts’, hiding the truth as to what is going on globally isn’t possible anymore.
I guess then that the thousands of articles showing that dangerous man made global warming is not happening are all false and the scientists who have published their findings over decades in the fields of physics, chemistry, geology, mathematics, climatology, atmospherics and astrophysics among other disciplines should all be mailed for heresy – their entire careers are a facade and the textbooks referring to their work must all be burned by those who know better.
You could have millions of studies on how there is no house fire in the house. That one can see it is burning in the basement makes all these so called ‘studies’ null and void. I now suspect your persistence of maintaining a lie has you part of the power structures payroll. Your check and/or pension is coming at a very big price. If you have children I would be amazed that you could look them in the eye at what you are contributing to. I would encourage you to dig deep into some moral backbone.
Ooooo … scary ….
So, connect these observations (assuming they are true) to me driving my Suburban? I don;t think you can.
Your suburban has little to do with it. If interested in answers, check out Geoengineeringwatch.org.
I live in central Alberta Canada. This year (2019) we had snowfall in January, February, March, April, May, and June. My furnace has come on in July 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13. Burning each day 10 cubic feet of natural gas. Snow covered the ground on the first day of summer , June 21st, to a depth of 10 inches. Our Federal government announced that Canada is warming up 3 times faster than normal. If this warming trend continues, I am going to trade my lawn mower in for a snow blower. Because Canadian grass does not do well in a blanket of snow. Anyone willing to trade?
What to say here. A person of her age has no life experience. She has likely a junior high level education based on all her missed school. She has never had a job, paid taxes, supported a family. She has never managed people, met a payroll, engineered or created anything. Her worldview is likely that which was told to her by her parents, reading one sided documents, and listening to people in her echo chamber. She could be a genius, although there is no indication of that, yet even if he could memorize vast quantities of data, does not make her someone that can think and problem solve with real-world experience.
She is a kid. The tragedy, is her dumb-fool parents never let her be a kid, she’s just a prop. And she’ll end up on the trashpile of props once she is no longer of use.
Given that we haven’t been listening to adults that include scientists and front line people to evidence that is screaming for attention, a young innocent girl apparently is what is needed to get a basic message out. The sarcasm and judgement about her is not her. It is a reflection of the person projecting their stuff on her. Einstein says this. “Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance.” Based on the current information we have, ignorance is pretty thick.
The investigation so far points to no global warming in 20 years … if anything we heading for a cooling period because of the Maunder Minimum. Do you know what that is?
The reason for using a young girl as the spokesperson for AGW alarmism is so they can claim victimization as the basis of any criticism of the message.
Actually the young girl is speaking on behalf of her own future since what she will be inheriting is a planet that largely won’t be able to sustain life. Kudos for her! It’s unfortunate that no matter who they get to talk honestly as to what is going on with the ecosystem is dead by character assassination. We are a couple years away from everyone knowing the extent of the damage we have done with the planet and the very poor stewarts we’ve been.
Every dark cloud has a silver lining, they say. Hers is, since we’re all going to die PDQ,, she won’t have to struggle with the gigantic national debt we’ve left for her generation to pay off..
Tell it to the Chinese. They are the biggest polluters and producers of undesirable gas emissions. Not that they, nor the Russians, nor the East Indians, nor the South Pacific nations give a hoot about the global warming political scam in the western world.
We, who do the least damage are wasting our efforts if the rest of the world isn’t doing anything about pollution. Not that any global warming solutions matter because …. Planetary warming and cooling is fueled mostly by our star, the Sun. Sol …. giver of life. There are other factors such as wind and ocean currents, but it ain’t my Subaru Outback.
The levels of ignorance & arrogance you have expressed is astounding.
Refuting a warmist with facts and logic I’ve concluded is pointless. The climate changes, and has changed, and will continue to change. A warmist will blame human activity. Period. I will continue to weigh ALL the evidence, and continue to take a pass on joining their religion.
Give that little busy body a good spanking and send her back to school. Maybe get her enrolled in some science classes so she can have some understanding of what a farce this climate change AKA global warming scam is.
Do you doubt it? Oh, good!
Now we an discuss the issues such as ocean acidification. Ready?
How many here have decent educations in this field? Let’s discuss it.
The acidification of the oceans has resulted in several species near the bottom of the Marine Food Chain to have trouble forming shells. Does it bother you?