The Global Warming Mass Movement

By Al Danielsen -- July 18, 2016

“Fear of global warming serves the interests of countless numbers of individuals and organizations. Idealistic dreamers of social justice, population control, and world government were early leaders in the global warming movement. They were joined by delegates to the United Nations and countless other officials who sought more power through government expansion.”

Global warming has been described as a hoax, scam and conspiracy as well as by other pejorative terms. It is true that many elites conspired to promote noble causes by instilling fear of global warming and hatred of fossil fuels. For example, the organizer of the UN Earth Summit in 1992 was a long-time advocate of world government while Mikhail Gorbachev and Al Gore sought political power. UN Assistant Secretary General Robert Muller went a step further in wanting our hearts and minds. His radical (supporters say inspirational) vision for the UN led some to refer to him as “the philosopher of the UN”. These and many others were in the forefront of the global warming mass movement.

Delegates to the UN General Assembly led what many consider a grand conspiracy to dominate the world: the UN’s Agenda 21, a very radical document. These delegates were sincere, dedicated, persistent, and patient, as well as dishonest and disingenuous when means justified the ends. Large but unknown numbers of hoaxers contributed outlandish stories about the cataclysmic effects of rising temperatures.

And the same is true of scammers who seize upon weather-related catastrophes to proclaim global warming is real, harmful, and caused by man. They also proclaim that deniers are to be ridiculed, vilified, ostracized, shunned, denied civil rights, imprisoned, and worse.

Apparent Conspirators

The largest and most important group of alleged conspirators is undeniably the UN General Assembly. They formed the UN Environmental Program in 1974 and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988. These UN bodies spearheaded fear of global warming and have provided ammunition for others to join and promote the mass movement. Global cooling was the big concern in the early 1970s but temperature changes have never been a top priority of the Assembly.

Most UN delegates hold liberation philosophies which is a rationale (or reason) for advocating social justice. By social justice they mean governments of exploitive Western countries are obligated to transfer their wealth to governments of oppressed underdeveloped countries. The Assembly tried to promote social jusice into a mass movement in the 1970s and 1980s but failed. People in Western countries felt no guilt and refused to pay up, except for Norway, Sweden and a few others of course.

Many actions taken by the Assembly were open and well publicized but strategies and tactics were discussed behind closed doors. Luminaries like Alexander King, co-founder of the Club of Rome, in 1991 proclaimed:

In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. . . . All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. (Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider, The First Global Revolution, p. 75)

The Club of Rome has long advocated a world government and the General Assembly seeks control over our minds, bodies and all aspects of our life and property. If you are familiar with Robert Muller, the “philosopher of the UN” and the UN’s Agenda 21 you know what I mean. If not, and you value individual freedom, you may want to study their philosophy and plan.

Confirmed Hoaxers

Dishonest and deceptive tactics designed to spread fear of global warming are commonplace. In fact, the spark that ignited global warming into a mass movement can be viewed as a hoax.

A tropical storm off the coast of India in April 1987 turned sea-level rise from an arcane scientific possibility into a near-universal concern. The path of this unusual monsoon inundated the small island nation, Maldives, whose highest elevation is about six feet and whose population is less than Durham NC. Maldives President Abdul Gayoom was the person most responsible for turning this local catastrophe into a global issue. He proclaimed a projected three-foot sea-level rise, owing to global warming, would be disastrous and a six-foot rise would completely destroy his nation.

The three-to-six-foot rise Mr. Gayoom assumed was not incredible at the time. In 1979, Stephen Schneider reported the possibility of a sea level rise of 15 to 25 feet by the end of the century, owing to high concentrations of CO₂. Schneider had legitimate credentials as a young scientist employed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder Colorado. His report, delivered to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, added to the idea’s credibility, and his projection was reported in the news media.

More reliable estimates by the IPCC a decade later concluded sea level is expected to rise one and a half feet by year 2100. So Schneider’s supposition was off by a factor of 10 and by 100 years. Somehow, though, the notion that the sea level may rise by 15 feet or more crops up from time to time. This is but one of many inflammatory statements and reports that promoted fear of global warming into a mass movement.

In October 1987, Mr. Gayoom outlined his concerns before delegates to a conference held by the UN Environmental Program. He emphasized that the excessive use of hydrocarbons by industrial nations was the root cause of sea-level rise and environmental damage. He called on world leaders to take remedial action and especially to provide greater assistance for the Republic of Maldives and other island nations to prepare for impending catastrophes.

This was music to the ears of Assembly delegates who had for so long blamed the developed world for their lack of economic development. From that point forward, the main focus of the UN Environmental Program turned to global warming and its dire consequences. In 1989, they formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and in 1992 the Rio Earth Summit emphasized problems of global warming.

James E. Hansen is the father of the climate alarm and grandmaster of climate-change exaggeration. His credentials include a Ph.D. in Astrophysics and dozens of papers in scientific journals. His research and personality led to his being named head of the U. S. Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where he and others developed models to predict future temperatures. But his main claim to notoriety is his very public predictions of imminent, catastrophic, harmful effects of CO₂ emissions and global warming.

In 1988 he proclaimed that within 20 years parts of New York would be inundated by water due to sea-level rise, and store windows would have to be boarded up because of storm severity. New Yorkers would suffer water shortages due to drought; birds would die or leave due to dried up habitat; and crime would be rampant because of the heat. Of course, these things have not happened, but it seems hoaxers are rarely called into account.

Scammer

Following the Little Ice Age that began around 1500 and that ended in 1850, global mean temperature has increased about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Scammers would have us believe this slight increase is the cause of extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and heat waves.

For example, the Guardian reported “New study links global warming to Hurricane Sandy and other extreme weather events.” Flooding in West Virginia prompted a reporter to note: “Michael Mann, Ph.D., a professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University, believes that the warming climate has made the area more susceptible to heavy rainfall and intense floods.”

Attributing localized extreme weather events to global warming is a scam because arguably there has as yet been no global warming other than what might be expected coming out of the Little Ice Age. Generalizing from a local area to the world is ludicrous.

One of the more important scams is the inordinate focus on CO_2, when it is well known that water vapor has a much greater impact on temperatures. There is no doubt that atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ have grown from 315 parts per million (ppm) in 1958 to 400 ppm in 2016 and that these increases are correlated with burning hydrocarbons.

But contrary to well publicized reports, their effects on temperature are controversial. Skeptical scientists like MIT Professor Richard Lindzen contend that even “… a doubling of CO₂ would only upset the original balance between incoming and outgoing radiation by about 2%. This is essentially what is called ‘climate forcing’.”

Scammers vilify anyone who questions the validity of global warming doctrine or who believes global warming poses no immediate threat. Skeptics are considered enemies and labeled deniers, flat earthers and smeared with other pejorative terms.

The Sun Lover proclaims “Global warming deniers are a public enemy, when are we going to start locking them up to protect civilization?” The Weather Channel host of a weekly global warming program “The Climate Code,” Heidi Cullen, proclaimed the American Meteorological Society (AMS) should revoke the “Seal of Approval” for any television weatherman denying global warming would have catastrophic effects.

The Mass Movement – A Complex Story

My study explains the origin and progression of the global warming mass movement. Fear of global warming serves the interests of countless numbers of individuals and organizations. Idealistic dreamers of social justice, population control, and world government were early leaders in the global warming movement. They were joined by delegates to the United Nations and countless other officials who sought more power through government expansion.

Leadership also came from untold numbers of environmental activists who were fearful of change. They preferred the status quo or improvement in whatever cause they represented. Except for a few visionaries, the leaders of industry came very late to the global warming movement. But like their idealistic and environmentally aware colleagues, they rely on government to further their ends.

Once a mass movement is underway, coercive measures flourish undisguised in the form of prohibitions, mandates, and incentives–limited only by the imagination of politicians and regulators. Reticent non-believers can be made to comply by rewards, intimidation, threats, and force when necessary.

Coercion when relentless, ruthless, and persistent is persuasive since it squelches dissent. Nonconformists pay a heavy price in terms of lost career and business opportunities and other perquisites, and even lost friends. U.S. Government documents and administration proposals provide ample evidence of programs designed to both persuade and coerce. Fear of global warming has entered the mainstream and the mass movement is in its final stage.

It will take a mighty effort to reverse course, a job that a lot of us have chosen to undertake.

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Albert L. Danielsen is Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Georgia. His book The Global Warming Mass Movement is available in paperback from Createspace and available in paperback and Kindle format from Amazon.com.