Commentary

Yesterday, I purposely chose to combine the recognition of my November Fool’s Day honorees with the preview of COP26, the UN climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland, where foolishness will abound for two weeks.

Some 30,000 people are expected to participate in the event, from presidents and prime ministers to community activists, all of whom believe that human activities influence climate change, and their use of fossil fuels has to be stopped.  Unfortunately, they have no concept of the world’s energy needs.

“It’s the last best hope for the world to get its act together.” – John Kerry, U.S. Climate Envoy  

Kerry’s private jet alone emits as much carbon in one hour as the average American generates in six weeks. The overwhelming number of officials in attendance flew to Scotland.

How many times of you heard this apocalyptic prediction?  Too many.  Every time these do-gooders gather, they pledge to slow the growth of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, but with questionable results.

“My view is that it’s a good thing we have them. I can think of no other comparable activities that put on such dramatic and widely-viewed display the immeasurable foolishness and hubris of our political overlords.” – Francis Menton

Using data from the Mauna Loa Observatory, the Global Warming Policy Foundation and NOAA produced the accompanying chart that shows there were increases in CO2 emissions despite 30 years of summits deigned to cut emissions.

I wrote yesterday that President Biden would be looking to be the big man on campus at the summit.  Without his green bill in hand, the president touted the potential emission reductions in his bill.

Incidentally, General Electric – one of those corporations that pays no taxes – is singing the praise of the bill’s tax credits for electric car purchases and the plan to build a network of 500,000 electric car charging stations.  Corporate welfare once opposed by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

With plans to release a long-term plan to bring the U.S. to net-zero emissions by 2050, Biden told attendees, “Climate change is already ravaging the world … an existential threat to human existence as we know it. We are standing at an inflection point in world history.”

Running out of cliches, Biden added, “we only have a brief window” to fight climate change.”

The Real Existential Threat

You’ve probably heard that China is a no-show at the Glasgow summit, despite the cajoling during John Kerry’s in-person visit to Beijing. China is a big emitter of CO2 as it continues to build coal facilities, and couldn’t care less.

The real threat is the advances in China’s military posture, recently having test fired a hypersonic missile, continuing its build-out of its China Sea island network, and threatening the sovereignty of Taiwan. 

Meanwhile, our Defense Department, which appears to be more concerned with the teaching of critical race theory in its academies, and conducting a search for extremists in its ranks, has found time to issue a report of its own on climate change being an existential threat to national security.  Specifically, our military bases being at risk of increasingly dangerous storms. Really?

And, not wanting to upset the “ole man” for not sending a department representative to Glasgow, Colin Kohl, the defense undersecretary for policy, hinted of the appointment of a senior position to deal with climate change issues.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America