Climate alarmism

Confronting the climate Jeremiahs

The problem with being a well-known climate skeptic is that whenever there’s a heatwave, you get buttonholed by eco-zealots who think it "proves" they’re right and you’re wrong. The first person to confront me during the current sunny spell was a Guardian journalist at a right-wing conference, which the newspaper had clearly identified as a hotbed of "denialism." It didn’t help that the air conditioning wasn’t working and it was approaching 40°C (104°F) in the main auditorium. "I see you’re sweating profusely," he began, shoving a microphone in my face. "Still think climate change is a hoax?" I had to patiently explain that few people on my side of this debate deny that climate change is real.

climate

Climate doom is not science

The costs of not dealing with climate change are, of course, much higher than the costs of dealing with it. We know this because, as climate campaigners keep telling us, climate change is going to set the world alight and unleash mad tempests which are going to wreak destruction on the global economy. Not a few of them have been trying to prove this by parroting a paper by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research published in the journal Nature in 2024 which concluded that a rise of 8.5 Celsius in global temperatures by 2100 will shrink the economy by 62 percent.

Climate change

How justified is climate-change alarmism?

For decades, the picture of Earth’s future – as laid out by journalists and climate scientists alike – has been bleak. By 2070 we will see famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us, melted icecaps, flooding, extreme hurricanes and ever-present tropical storms. "Vast swathes" of the planet will be inhospitable for human life. And Greta Thunberg, in her late sixties, will wear a gas mask as she sits on the steps of Swedish Parliament with a cardboard sign declaring, "I told you so." Advocates have poured gasoline on the climate-alarmism fire earnestly, backed by reports declaring, "There really is no serious scientific debate remaining about climate change.

Global Climate Strike on September 20, 2019 in Edinburgh, Scotland (Getty)