As elaborated more extensively in a recent American Thinker article published by my distinguished friend Dr. Charles Battig, three very well-known environmental figures have publicly sounded common concerns that hyper-green environmental activists have promoted false climate alarm which has unnecessarily cost trillions of dollars and egregiously hurt the poor under the false pretext to "fix the planet."
Politically uber-liberal producer Michael Moore's new movie "Planet of the Humans" has shocked his usual backers and audiences by exposing how traditional energy companies had co-opted the environmental movement by donning a green alter-ego and embracing renewable energy. Doing so enabled "renewable" rent-seeking corporations to gain access to many billions of government subsidies for wind turbine and commercial solar power installations and secure a public relations victory for their vociferous eco-shareholders.
Moore's movie was pulled from YouTube following more than 6 million views in response an outcry from influential green activist groups and claims of copyright infringement by a British environmental photographer who disapproved of the context in which a clip of his images were used.
The filmmakers have denied violating fair usage rules, and have accused their critics of politically motivated censorship.
There's little wonder why opportunistic renewable energy profiteers cloaked in green evangelism have fought naked exposure.
Moore reveals commonly-suppressed facts that fossil fuel plants must remain open as primary sources because wind and solar capacities can never provide reliable or sufficient 24/7 power to come close to supplying American or global requirements. Expansion of so-called "renewables" will drive consumer costs up, not down. His film accurately notes that "Factories claiming to have gone 'beyond coal' again and again turn out to be relying on natural gas."
Wind and solar also require large amounts of rare earths, cement and fossil fuel energy in their production, are both notoriously inefficient in land use and impose destruction of large areas of native habitats. In addition, the best locations for both are typically remote from the most needed consumer bases, thereby requiring the construction of massive electric transmission lines.
Not advertised by environmental lobbies is the fact that "renewable" biomass/wood chip power plants in England now rely on American lumber that is leveling our southern forests, or that the entire process of logging, processing and trans-Atlantic shipping is powered by fossil fuels.
Moore deflates the basic eco-premise that burning wood as bio-fuel is "carbon-neutral" by claiming that the CO2 released becomes fertilizer for new generations of trees. This fallacy fails to recognize that the time scale of new tree growth greatly exceeds day-to-day climate weather cycles.
Michael Shellenberger, another major former eco-activist figure, has recently publicly apologized for having played a role in similarly costly and environmentally destructive fictions.
Shellenberger's green credentials are impressive. In 2008, he received the Green Book Award, and Time Magazine named him "Hero of the Environment." Shellenberger is a co-author along with 18 others of an "Ecomodernist Manifesto," and is the founder and president of the "Environmental Progress" organization. He was invited to serve as an Expert Reviewer for the U.N.'s next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report.
Self-reflectively, Shellenberger now describes his early devotion to environmentalism as a manifestation of an "underlying anxiety and unhappiness in my own life that had little to do with climate change or the state of the natural environment." Instead, it became a quasi-religion, offering "emotional relief" and "spiritual satisfaction" that has become "increasingly apocalyptic, destructive, and self-defeating."
Last January, Shellenberger testified before the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee, warning that the public has been badly misled by climate alarmism promoted by scientists and the media.
In his recent book "Apocalypse Never," subtitled "Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All," Shellenberger expresses special remorse for his efforts on behalf of influencing adoption of climate-premised renewable energy proposals that rewarded "companies that enriched donors to the Obama campaign," but which failed to produce the promised advantages.
Shellenberger points out that contrary to many false claims perpetrated by "the new environmental religion," humans are not causing a "sixth mass extinction." Habitat loss and the direct killing of wild animals are bigger threats to species than climate change.
Nor, as records clearly show, is climate change causing increased frequencies of extreme weather events, or making natural disasters worse.
Also, the global prevalence of forest fires have actually declined about 25% since 2003. Increases in dangerous fire events in Australia and California are attributable to build-ups of wood fuel and construction of more houses located near forests – not to climate change.
Popularly characterized as a "skeptical environmentalist," and "luke warmist," Bjorn Lomborg's recent book, "False Alarm," argues that climate change is "real" (which no one I know disputes), but is not the apocalyptic threat so widely advertised.
Real data shows, for example that U.S. land-falling hurricanes and droughts are actually less frequent and severe than in the past, and that moderate warming is a health benefit since far more people globally die from cold than from heat.
Lomborg argues that "…the projections of Earth's imminent demise are based on bad science and even worse economics. In a politicized panic, world leaders have committed to wildly expensive, but largely ineffective policies, that hamper growth and crowd out other pressing investments in a better world, from immunization to education."
Yes…imagine addressing a true crisis, the coronavirus pandemic for example, as something truly worth worrying about.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) and the graduate program in space architecture. Larry has written more than 600 articles for Newsmax and Forbes and is the author of several books. Included are: "Cyberwarfare: Targeting America, Our Infrastructure and Our Future" (2020), "The Weaponization of AI and the Internet: How Global Networks of Infotech Overlords are Expanding Their Control Over Our Lives" (2019), "Reinventing Ourselves: How Technology is Rapidly and Radically Transforming Humanity" (2019), "Thinking Whole: Rejecting Half-Witted Left & Right Brain Limitations" (2018), "Reflections on Oceans and Puddles: One Hundred Reasons to be Enthusiastic, Grateful and Hopeful" (2017), "Cosmic Musings: Contemplating Life Beyond Self" (2016), "Scared Witless: Prophets and Profits of Climate Doom" (2015) and "Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax" (2011). He is currently working on a new book with Buzz Aldrin, "Beyond Footprints and Flagpoles." Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
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