Phil Williams Commentary: Oracles of ecological doom have been wrong every time

Do the climate doomsayers ever get it right?

It seems there is yet another apocalypse ever on the horizon. I was reminded recently that the perpetual oracle of doom, Greta Thunberg, had made the bold and ill-informed statement five years ago that “A top climate scientist is warning that climate change will wipe out all of humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years.”

Congratulations, we have all survived the Gretapocalypse.

Who exactly was the “top climate scientist” who let Greta in on the secret date of the end of the world? I would hope he is no longer working in the field of apocalypse predictions, because he is just not getting it.

But this is nothing new. Every few years we have the next great round of end-of-times handwringing.

Earlier this year noted sensationalist and former Vice President Al Gore made headlines with some superb climate-based hyperbole. Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Gore claimed that mankind is “…boiling the oceans, creating these atmospheric rivers and the rain bombs, and sucking the moisture out of the land, and creating the droughts, and melting the ice and raising the sea level, and causing these waves of climate refugees."

He crammed about as much panic and madness into one breath as he possibly could. But that’s Al Gore for you: one climate disaster after another.

In 2006, Gore said the global sea levels would rise 20 feet in the near future. In 2009, he said the polar ice caps would melt off shortly. Why do they keep giving him a microphone?

We survived the global cooling despair of the ‘70s and ‘80s, and the acid rain cataclysms of the ‘90s. We pushed through global warming of the 2000s. Let’s face it. We are survivors. But the bell keeps tolling as it has for decades with one failed prediction after another.

In 1970, the Green movement created Earth Day as a part of a global push for awareness. But mere awareness wasn’t enough. They needed some good old-fashioned panic. 1970 had a bumper crop of failed disaster predictions. If you think Gore and Greta are tiresome, you should go back and review some of the tripe from the early '70s..

In January 1970, Life Magazine reported, “In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution … by 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half ... .”

Wow, got that one wrong.

Then there was Paul Ehrlich, who wrote an essay titled “Eco Catastrophe” in which he said, “Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in the history of man have already been born, By ... (1975), some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions.”

I remember the late ‘70s pretty well and yeah, that didn’t happen.

Ecologist Kenneth Watt warned about a pending Ice Age in a 1970 speech: “The world has been chilling sharply for about 20 years If present trends continue, the world will be … 11 degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an Ice Age.”

Nope. Wrong again.

Then there was Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., the founder of Earth Day, who wrote in Look Magazine, that “… in 25 years, somewhere between 75% and 80% of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” And yes, he was a U.S. senator.

I will pause here and note that I am a firm believer in being a good steward of what God has given us. I love the outdoors. For years I backpacked in the Smokies, the Appalachians and out in the Rockies, often saying I was always happiest outdoors.

I love mountain vistas. I’m awed by an unobstructed view of waves crashing on a white sandy beach. We should be good stewards and care for the land and do what we can to preserve it. If there is a cleaner way to mine coal, then show me. If we can save a species from extinction, I’m all for it.

But being a steward denotes possession. You cannot steward something if it possesses you. But yet, the cult of green demands that the earth is in charge.

Alarmism in the environmental movements is always coupled with demands. In 1970, we were told to stop driving V8s and we went from the Boss Mustang to the Pinto in a few short years. Fast forward to today and it’s no different.

You will give up your silly fossil fuel burning vehicle, get over your range anxiety and drive an EV and you will like it!

You will not have a gas stove in your house, nor a clothes washer or dishwasher that gets things clean the first time through the cycle.

You will not have a refrigerator that cools to your liking.

You will not have gas heat, or gas hot water, and you certainly can’t have a gas grill.

These are all demands. They are not offered as a stewarding opportunity for you to choose to adopt into your personal plan for good clean living. They are requirements. You are told to kneel and if you refuse to kneel, horrors will beset us and we will all surely die.

They’ve been saying it for generations, and they are wrong every single time.

Congratulations once again. Apocalypse averted.

Phil Williams is a former state senator from District 10 (which includes Etowah County), retired Army colonel and combat veteran, and a practicing attorney. He previously served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute in Birmingham. He currently hosts the conservative news/talk show Rightside Radio on multiple channels throughout north Alabama. The views reflected are his own.       

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Phil Williams looks at dire climate predictions