With last week being earth week, what once was a week to reflect on the ecological problems we face has been turned into a sort of climate Halloween in which environmentalists go door to door and try to scare the American public.
Instead of wearing masks, they make outlandish claims citing the Huffington Post’s article titled, “14 U.S. Cities that Could Disappear over the Next Century,” that the ocean will swallow Miami, New York and Boston if America continues down its path of ever increasing carbon pollution. Instead of candy, these fear mongers ask for cash, which they will funnel into PACs and organizations that will elect far-left candidates.
Once elected, these politicians funnel billions of taxpayers’ dollars back toward the fear mongers in the form of failed green energy projects. These green businesses receive hundreds of millions of dollars despite the fact that for every $250 billion invested in green energies, the result on the climate will be about .01 degrees a hundred years from now, according to Bjorn Lomborg’s book “Cool It.”
What’s dangerous about this system is not only that our money is being wasted on projects such as the $525 million spent on the now defunct Fisker Automotive or the $400 million on Abound Solar, but the cause of our careless spending in the first place. Claiming that global warming is so dire that Miami, New York and Boston will be underwater if we do not act to curb carbon emissions is as much counterfactual as claiming climate change is not happening at all.
The scientific community estimated a one-foot sea level rise by the year 2100. There are only a handful of scientist estimates that varied from this.
One side, mostly funded by large oil and coal corporations, claims the sea level is not expected to rise, to which the media rightly criticizes and chastises their view. On the other extreme, there are a few scientists that claim the sea levels will rise over seven feet in the same time frame. According to this prediction, New York would become a modern-day Atlantis. This group’s prediction is even further from mainstream science than the climate deniers. The media, however, does not criticize them but often reports their findings without any disclaimer. News stations want viewers, and as a result the most sensationalized climate studies are the ones reported, despite their scientific inaccuracies.
Benjamin Strauss, a researcher at Climate Central think tank, often pedals this climate alarmism. In an interview with the Guardian, Strauss, referring to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said, “Pretty much everywhere it seems you are going to be under water unless you build a massive system of dykes and levees.”
This statement was meant to scare Americans, but in fact, it is actually good news. A massive system of dykes and levees would only cost a fraction of the $120 billion the Obama administration has spent trying to slow global warming to no avail. There is no doubt that the American people are being lied to because it is just not exciting to forecast a sea level rise of one foot.
We can no longer let fear cloud our judgment. We need to be honest with ourselves. It may feel good to install solar panels, but green tech is not yet cost efficient. The money can be better spent elsewhere. Our best option right now is to continue the switch from coal to natural gas while investing our tax dollars in research and development of renewable energies. The green lobby will be disappointed to no longer receive million dollar subsidies, but our planet needs real action for a real problem.