We are not putting our survival in danger. Apocalyptic fear mongering about climate change has no basis in science. Those who fan the flames of climate panic are causing real harm.

So says award-winning, highly respected environmental champion Michael Shellenberger. He was named a Time magazine Hero of the Environment.  He enjoys international respect. He’s had it with people who exploit climate fears to push political agendas.

He would no doubt roll his eyes were he to attend the meetings of the Jefferson County Board of Health. There you can hear all kinds of fantastical, speculative scenarios being used to lay the groundwork for declaring a “climate emergency. (We’ve written about this in two earlier reports, here and here.)

Everything from drowning communities, uncontrollable forest fires, Biblical natural disasters, lethal contagions, to murderous heat waves. When we will not be expiring from unrelenting heat we will be succumbing to killing cold, and we’ll be fighting massive flooding when we’re not dying from dehydration in permanent droughts–because “climate change” explains everything that can possibly go wrong. And if the dire predictions don’t come true, that is also due to “climate change.”

I put “climate change” in quotes not only to indicate sarcasm but because with all the fabulist, ever-changing climate scenarios there’s just no knowing what this term means any more.

Don’t forget we’ll also be starving to death, because “climate change” will destroy agriculture. The mass migration of “climate refugees” will topple nations and engulf the planet in war.

These images are from the January packet of information presented at the Board of Health’s meeting to justify declaring a “climate emergency.”

Back to Shellenberger.

He’s had it with this stuff. These apocalyptic scenarios are built on lies. Crop yields are not falling; we’re producing 25% more food than the world needs. What Africans need is better distribution and the same agricultural tools–tractors, fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation–the developed world enjoys.

We’re terrifying our kids, making them believe their lives are hopeless and doomed, when the planet does not face any existential threat.

We are seeing a huge decline in human deaths due to natural disasters, not an ever-rising body count caused by “climate change” This nonsense about “mass migration” and global population disruptions–well, it is nonsense and made up on the fly by opportunist climate panic exploiters.

Here is his article. Read it for yourself, and better understand why all this talk of a “climate emergency” is really mostly about politicians, their activist allies and bureaucrats grabbing more control over our lives and resources and not about anything based on solid data and science.

Michael Shelleberger: “Why Apocalyptic Claims About Climate Change Are Wrong,” Forbes, 11/25/2019.

Jim Scarantino

Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our “About” page for more information.