The Patriot Post® · National Climate (Alarmism) Assessment
The sky is falling, but there’s still time to hand over more control of the U.S. economy to a bunch of federal bureaucrats to slow its falling. That in a nutshell summarizes the recently released National Climate Assessment1.
The report, compiled by 14 federal agencies with the input of some 700 scientists, is little other than a climate alarmist’s gospel. Yet the compilers of the twice-a-decade report appear keenly aware that Americans have become less impacted or alarmed by the apocalyptic predictions that never quite materialize.
In an effort to scare Americans into buying the Left’s climate alarmism2, which dubiously and tellingly can only be addressed through ever more government control of the economy, the report warns of the astronomical cost of climate change without massively expensive government intervention.
According to the report, climate change is costing the U.S. economy $150 billion annually. How, exactly? Well, climate change supposedly makes for more severe weather events (except when it doesn’t because they tell us climate change has little to do with the weather), therefore costing Americans even more of their hard-earned cash.
Then again, $150 billion annually is a bargain compared to the Democrats’ desired Green New Deal. That had an original price tag of $93 trillion3 over 10 years.
The climate report also claims4 that “while some economic impacts of climate change are already being felt across the country, the impacts of future changes are projected to be more significant and apparent across the U.S. economy.” Be afraid, folks, because it’s only going to get worse! Droughts, hurricanes, floods, and fires will be rising in frequency — that’s the dire prediction of the climate alarmists.
Never mind the historical data that simply doesn’t back up those alarmist claims. The fact of the matter is that coping with events has always been a reality for humanity. Furthermore, as the climate warms, it actually has benefited humanity in key ways, such as food production.
Another is reducing death. A related study claims that heat-related deaths could quadruple5 without certain “action” on climate change. What they don’t tell you is that cold kills nine times more people6 than heat.
Demonstrating just how woke the National Climate Assessment is, there are entire sections focused on promoting the Left’s favorite issues of diversity and equity. It even has a section ridiculously asserting that indigenous people had developed a holistic earth-friendly culture that can be harnessed to better react to climate change. It’s that old trope that everything was perfect, peaceful, and harmonious in North America before those foolish and reckless white Europeans arrived.
This is not science; it’s a cult.
The report focuses on the inequitable impact of climate change on lower-income people and minorities. When in the history of the world has the climate not had an inequitable impact on people with lower incomes? This is not due to climate change but is purely the economic reality of the haves and the have-nots.
Solomon Hsiang, a lead assessment author and climate economist at the University of California, Berkeley, states the obvious: “The research indicates that people who are lower income have more trouble adapting [to climate change], because adaptation comes at a cost.” He then adds, “If people can’t pay for it, then [they] can’t protect themselves.”
The great irony is that Joe Biden’s administration is making everything cost more via product regulations on everything from stoves to air-conditioners to lightbulbs to vehicles. If it wasn’t for the regulatory commissars making the cost of goods rise, then it would be easier for lower-income Americans to afford to adapt to a changing climate.
The report attempts to connect all of Americans’ lives to climate change, claiming that everything from their emotional well-being to their physical health to their bank accounts are under dire threat thanks to climate change. One of the report’s authors insists that climate affects “every sector of human and natural society.” If that isn’t cultish thinking, then what is?
In the end, the biggest bogeyman is the fossil fuel industry7, which is essentially blamed for everything to the point that the language of social justice is applied as if it’s a battle of good verses evil.
The truth is, without fossil fuels, life on planet earth would be much more difficult. Lives would be shorter and death would be much more common, and all the wonderful technologies that we take for granted, like readily available clean water, would not be possible. Indeed, the actual injustice is the concerted effort by climate cultists to demonize fossil fuels, which still provide the only cost-efficient means for humanity to adapt to a changing climate.
As the climate changes — which it has throughout earth’s history — humans are far better suited to adapt through the free market than under the tyranny of government.
