None of this should be read to categorically oppose alternative energy innovations, electric vehicles or other measures that reduce carbon output in a free market and on an even playing field. Currently, however, we’re witnessing the tragic consequences of climate extremism in the form of global instability, higher prices and energy shortages.

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Stop us if you’ve heard this before.  

The United Nations just released yet another climate report, which it naturally advertises as a “code red for humanity.”  

Claiming a “very high degree of confidence,” the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns of imminent Ice cap disappearance, sea levels rising, oceanic surges overwhelming cities, food shortages and even mental health problems.  

The report even feels such self-certainty that it offers projections literally thousands of years into the future:  “Over the next 2,000 years, global mean sea level will rise by about 2 to 3 m if warming is limited to 1.5°C, 2 to 6  m if limited to 2°C and 19 to 22 m with 5°C of warming, and it will continue to rise over subsequent millennia (low confidence).”  

You can almost hear the smash 1969 hit “In the Year 2525” by Zager and Evans playing as you read that projection.  

Pouring on additional hyperbole, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proclaimed that fossil fuels are “choking the planet” and “putting billions of people at immediate risk.”  Well, either that or powering their transportation and heating their homes.  He added that, “Countries should also end all new fossil fuel exploration and production,” and, “I have seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this.”  

Actually, Mr. Secretary-General, yes you have.  

Back in June of 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, officials at your own U.N. sounded an oddly similar alarm:  

A senior environmental official at the United Nations, Noel Brown, says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth by rising sea levels if global warming is not reversed by the year 2000.  Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of “eco-refugees,” threatening political chaos, said Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environmental Program.  He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect.  

Well, we’re unaware of entire nations that have disappeared, apart from East Germany for very different reasons.  

Ten years prior to that, The Wall Street Journal reported on a similarly apocalyptic warning from another self-assured climate alarmist on February 2, 1978:  

A climatic disaster, triggered by the continued burning of oil and coal, could result in the submergence of much of Florida, Holland and other low-lying areas in the next 50 years, an Ohio State University scientist predicted…  “I contend that a major disaster – a rapid five-meter rise in sea level caused by deglaciation of West Antarctica – may be imminent or in progress after atmospheric carbon dioxide has only doubled,” John H. Mercer, a glacier geologist, asserted.  

The endless litany of preposterously inaccurate predictions makes for humorous reading, except for the fact that it continues to prompt disastrous public policies at the national and worldwide governmental levels.  

Among other issues, the climate alarm theology has empowered and emboldened murderous dictatorships in Venezuela, Iran and Russia.  While the United States and other advanced nations self-destructively limited oil, gas, coal and nuclear power in favor of unreliable and cost-inefficient wind, solar and other “green” energy, the grim dictatorships were happy to facilitate greater worldwide reliance upon them.  On its first day in office, the Biden Administration began targeting U.S. energy production, reversing the domestic energy dominance achieved during the Trump Administration.  

We’re now witnessing the tragic consequences.  

Emboldened in large part by European dependence upon him for energy supplies, Vladimir Putin launched his bloody invasion of Ukraine.  And this week, gasoline prices in the U.S. hit a new record high of $4.17 per gallon.  For purposes of comparison, the price on January 20, 2021, was $2.38 per gallon.  

Inexplicably, the Biden Administration’s answer is to prostrate itself before Venezuela and Iran with hopes of encouraging more energy production from them.  This week, Biden Administration officials commenced rare meetings with Venezuela’s dictatorship, seeking to ease oil sanctions in order to allow more Venezuelan crude oil into global markets.  Meanwhile, Biden also seeks to ease sanctions on Iran in order to revive the foolish Obama-era nuclear agreement and welcome more oil production from that rogue regime.  

So while Joe Biden regularly trots out the “Buy American” slogan in speeches when it suits his political aims, he simultaneously welcomes Venezuelan and Iranian energy production at the expense of American energy producers.  Square that circle.  

Even Biden’s fellow Democrats are lambasting that tactic, with Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney (D – New York) admonishing, “I don’t support strengthening one dictator to hurt another.”  

None of this should be read to categorically oppose alternative energy innovations, electric vehicles or other measures that reduce carbon output in a free market and on an even playing field.  Currently, however, we’re witnessing the tragic consequences of climate extremism in the form of global instability, higher prices and energy shortages.  

Climate alarmism has led to policy decisions here and across the world that aren’t just costly, they’re deadly.   

What is needed in the U.S. and abroad is reasonability and rationality, not the type of alarmism detailed above that not only has no basis in fact, but also entails significant costs to society and consumers.  A 70% supermajority of Americans supports increased oil and gas production to restore American energy independence, and our elected leaders would be wise to follow their everyday wisdom rather than environmental extremists whose agenda continues to harm American consumers and fuel world chaos.