It’s not been easy being green since the revelations of Climategate and mounting evidence that the science behind man’s influence on climate change is far from accurate, let alone settled. No wonder then that many greens chose to vent their frustration at skeptics and blame their ideological opponents for their troubles.
In the past decade, leaders of the global warming movement have won international fame and acclaim, including Nobel prizes and Oscars. They have been feted by celebrities and world leaders alike as a supportive press looked on and wrote glowing tomes about their wisdom and importance. Politicians and businesses were cowed into submission by the mighty green machine and eagerly adorned themselves with a green mantle to appeal to voters and consumers.
Despite this support and for no want of funding, time and again the green agenda stumbled and failed to achieve action. Despite regular and desperate cries of alarm that the conference du jour represented mankind’s ‘last hope’, nothing meaningful happens. The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997, but few industrialized western nations have come close to meeting their emission reduction targets. Since Kyoto there have been significant failures in Bali, Copenhagen, Bonn and next up is Cancun. There is no reason to suspect that the outcome will be different there.
The green movement is a conglomerate of many disparate causes, but one thing most agree on is that skeptics are to blame for any failure. According to greens, these ‘fringe’ people who oppose the theory that man influences climate are powerful enough to stop the entire world from taking action. In fact, this is just a lazy excuse to absolve themselves of blame for their own incompetence and ineffectiveness.
In the United States, Democrats have controlled the White House and both houses of Congress since 2008 with outright majorities, yet the ‘vital’ climate bill failed to pass. Democrats blame Republicans, but had the Democrats had the courage of their political convictions they could have passed any legislation they pleased, just as they did with health care reform. The climate bill failed because Democrats needed the political cover of a bipartisan vote and when they failed to get it, they simply walked away and in the process demonstrated that alarmist talk about global doom if the bill failed was so much hot air.
Al Gore this week blogged about the Koch brothers who have funded right-leaning causes to the tune of $100 million. The inference is that the Koch’s blocked climate change legislation by funding skeptics. Yet Al Gore and his Alliance for Climate Protection have outspent the Koch’s by a factor of 3 to 1. If it was just a question of money, Gore and his followers would have won a long time ago, so why haven’t they?
In large part, Gore must blame his own conspicuous consumption. Ordinary people looked at his mansions, his boat and the globe-trotting in private planes and limos and wondered how he could be so extravagant if there truly were a ‘climate crisis.' Greens may blame skeptics for pointing out Gore’s hypocrisy, but it was his own decision to not lead by example and leave himself open to criticism.
A common argument against skeptics is that they are ‘flat-earthers’, the people who denied the Earth was round. This is a flawed view; the fact is it is the other way around. Those who believe in mans affect on global temperatures today are the ones who would think the Earth flat, for they are the followers of the popular consensus. It was skeptics that stood against the perceived wisdom of the day to teach the world that the ground they stood on was a sphere, a reminder that skeptics are vital to progress.
The inconvenient truth is that greens have failed to convince the world that man’s activity affects climate. They have tried bullying and emotional blackmail without success. It’s easy to blame those who disagree with them, but the failure to make progress on an issue they claim vital to man’s survival is entirely theirs.
Greens outspent skeptics, they had the ear of the political class, effectively demonized and even silenced opponents and still it was not enough to convince the world that anything was wrong with the weather. It’s hard to think of any movement in history that enjoyed the funding, support and momentum that the greens once had and yet achieved so little.
Now the momentum is gone, shattered by the revelations that climate science is little more than guesswork and bad statistical analysis. Celebrities are moving on to other, more fashionable causes and soon the only people left to rail against skeptics will be the ones with reputations or fortunes so heavily vested in their global warming theory that they can never retreat.
It’s not much of an end for 'the greatest scam in history', but it is the end.
Comments
You are one bitter dude
message from al gore - suck it!
Wonderful and precise comment sir - I congratulate your candour and forthrightness.
Anonymous, should I assume that that message from Al Gore was directed towards a masseuse?
Remember when Tipper Gore went apocalyptic against profanity in music to protect the "children"? Meanwhile Al gets caught repeatedly making lewd propositions to massage therapists 1/3rd his age.
Remember when Al said that energy providers should be held liable for crimes against humanity? Then we found out his properties, with their 4 and 5 figure utility usage were almost singularly keeping these energy providers in business.
Remember how in response to that he said he bought carbon credits to offset his gluttonous energy usage? Then we found out that he was buying them from his own business, effectively taking a tax write of on one hand and turning it into profits for his company on the other (a scam he has yet to be brought up on charges for like any of us would be).
Remember when, even as an ineffectual Vice President turned failed Presidential Candidate and sore loser, Tipper stood by him? Now as Grand Supreme Chancellor of the Global Warming Hoax she is leaving him.
Just based on this (the embarrassingly shoddy and manipulated science notwithstanding) who DIDN'T know the Global Warming Hoax would flop horribly? Al Gore is a born loser. With all the power, resources, and respect in the world (none of it earned) he has failed to rise above mediocrity in EVERYTHING HE HAS EVER TRIED. He went to a premiere University and got Ds. He held a real job briefly and was completely inept. As VP the one single cause he got behind was a giant fraud. And as a husband and father he has shamed himself and his family name in countless ways. He even failed to be funny hosting SNL.
This article hits the nail right on the head. The green movement failed so miserably in selecting a figurehead, perhaps their most important decision, who could have expected that any other aspect of their movement would have proven to be anything but an abject failure? Greens are nothing more than professional victims looking to blame people with success and intellect for their own failures at the game of life, rather than owning them. People like this live in denial of facts. THAT is why the movement failed. Logic, reason, and facts took a backseat to the desperate need to villify the successful and accomplished. I think its obvious to the impartial observer that if the Greens did anything, it was blame first and produce the (very shoddy) evidence later. I applaud the Examiner for not pulling any punches in calling out this pathetic behavior for what it is and the perpetual failure it has assured the Greens...
@Deuce -- That's what I call a Smackdown. And congratulations to The Examiner for having the courage to post this assessment. If there is a silver lining in this experiment in alarmism, its that nuclear power plants have regained a level of importance and respect for their unmatched ability to supply base-load electricity, heat for industry and desalination - all on a land-use footprint a fraction of the size of anything else - that was generally ignored for nearly 30 years. That's why China, Japan, Korea, Russia, India, the USA, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Argentina, Iran, France, Slovakia, Brazil, Finland, Sweden, the UK, Egypt, the UAE, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Malaysia and others are either building or preparing to build nuclear power plants for electricity production.
The other silver lining is the exposure of the elitist Greens and their duplicity: on one hand advocating "clean" energy from wind and solar, yet being friendly to natural gas which is the favored supplier of power when the wind and sun don't cooperate (often); on one hand posing as concerned for the poor yet their policy agenda would cause energy prices to "necessarily skyrocket" - as BHO stated in 2008. The list could go on with example after example but you get the idea.
It is the smug self-assurance of the superiority of their position, bereft of supporting facts underpinned by the laws of physics, thermodynamics and a respect for the "unknown unknowns" that was their downfall. Question: If a Greenie goes silently into the night, do they make a sound?
The last sentence is premature. There are people who really do believe in this and they won't give up. Keep your eyes open. Global warming (probably under some other name) will rise again.
Al Gore's new villa is on the beach front.
It has 6 fireplaces.
So much for rising sea levels and reducing 'toxic', man-made co2 output levels.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!