The Climate Change Contradiction
Do the messengers believe their own message?
Aren’t we in a global climate crisis? Didn’t President Biden refer on July 20 to global warming as “a clear and present danger?” Didn’t he, in that same speech, draw a connection between oil refineries and cancer?
If that’s all true, then why is he telling the Saudis (and other countries) to increase their oil production?
Biden’s contradiction
On the one hand, Biden seems to be all-in on the idea that global warming is the single greatest threat to the planet. In 1987, before Al Gore popularized the concept, Biden introduced the Global Climate Protection Act. As vice president, he helped champion the Paris Climate Accords. And on day one as president, he canceled construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline — precisely for the reasons he outlined in his July 20 speech?
But just days before that speech, he’s in the Middle East asking the Saudis to boost oil production. Why? Does he want to ruin the environment in Saudi Arabia while saving ours?
Of course not.
Joe Biden is a politician. You might say he’s the consummate one, with 50 years’ practice at the game. He knows how to pledge undying fealty to his base and then balance out the fealty with political reality. (Some of us call that stuff like “lying” and “breaking promises,” but I digress.) He knows he cannot pursue the idea of eliminating fossil fuels to its logical extreme. He knows that would be tantamount to economic (and to a certain extent civilizational) collapse.
Maybe that’s why he can’t possibly be a “purist” regarding climate change theory.
Come to think of it, didn’t he fly to the Middle East using a carbon dioxide-guzzling plane? Didn’t his speech in Massachusetts get preceded by a gas-guzzling 25-mile motorcade?
Could this alone be evidence that, deep down, he doesn’t really believe in the whole global warming message?
If so, he’s in good company with a whole host of other notable “climate warriors.”
Al Gore — climate purist?
Let’s start with the most famous trumpet for climate change — former Vice President Gore. Right after his movie “An Inconvenient Truth” came out, a report was released that showed that his Nashville home consumed 20 times more energy than that of the average American household. OK, so maybe he’s reformed his ways. Guess again. Records obtained from the Nashville Electric Service as recently as 2017 show that:
- his home energy use in 2016 was 19,241 kilowatt hours per month — compared to 901 for the average American home;
- he used as much energy in one month (September 2016) as the average family uses in 34 months;
- he used 66,159 kilowatt hours in the previous 12 months to — get this — heat his pool;
- solar energy made up for only 5.7% of his total energy consumption.
Now maybe Al could be forgiven. Maybe he’s so focused on eliminating “evil oil” that he doesn’t realize that, according to the EPA, electricity is the 2nd-biggest culprit in the climate wars.
Surely Obama got it right — right?
Al Gore was never president. (Don’t talk to me about hanging chads, please!) Barack Obama was. In fact, he himself proclaimed that his 2008 nomination was “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” He then proceeded to implement sweeping climate policy — including the Climate Change Plan as well as signing onto the Paris Climate Accords.
But alas, there is evidence he — like Gore — may not really believe the climate is warming. This past May 31, he sought approval for the installation on his Martha’s Vineyard estate of 3 tanks containing 2500 gallons of propane.
And dare I mention that this is waterfront property — which flies in the face of claims that coastal areas will all be underwater by 2031?
What about the World Economic Forum climate experts?
Then there’s the World Economic Forum. This is the group of global elites who have published an entire platform dedicated to fighting climate change around the world. Among the topics they address is that of “fueling sustainable aviation over the long haul.”
Whatever advice they’re doling out on this topic, they’re not setting a very good example. I mean, how else do you explain the participants flying into the annual 2019 meeting on 1500 private jets? And who knows how many were used this year?
How about Kerry, DiCaprio, and the rest?
Dare I mention “climate czar” John Kerry’s 48 trips on his private jet, using 325 metric tons of carbon, in the last 18 months? Or outspoken “climate activist” Leonardo DiCaprio’s usage of a $150 million super-yacht that includes a $339,712 fuel tank?
I haven’t even mentioned John Travolta, Arianna Huffington, Woody Harrelson, Michael Moore, Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, and others. These “activists” have all elevated hypocrisy into an art form.
By their own actions
So there you have it. Joe Biden crusades for clean energy in the U.S., then turns around and demands the Saudis harm the environment to bring down gas prices (and hopefully save his presidency). You have Al Gore, the “climate change godfather” himself, showing us how to burn energy like nobody’s business. You have Obama, “climate czar” Kerry, and the movie star activists with their hypocrisy fully on display.
By their actions, they are all signaling that they don’t really believe their own climate rhetoric.
And so the rest of us can be excused if we don’t believe it, either.
