I’m old enough to remember the early shots of the Climate War. When I was in high school the media assured us an imminent new ice age would doom us all. So would out-of-control population “bombs.” None of that came to pass, which only made the doomsayers ever more panicky and desperate.

As time passed, we were assured that “Global Warning” would kill us all unless America poured trillions into the coffers of the UN, “climate scientists,’ the Democrat Party (thorough appropriate cutouts, of course), leftist NGOs and Third World dictatorships. 

Eventually, 10-year prediction cycles became all the rage. If we didn’t do whatever “climate scientists,” many of whom had no training or experience in anything resembling “climate science” demanded, our doom was assured. Every decade of doom, without exception, passed and every prediction baldly, badly failed, which caused some doomsayers to extend their cycles to twelve years with the same abysmal—for them—results.

Most Americans remained blissfully unaware of the certain doom pursuing them, even as media outlets like The New York Times produced hysterical prediction after prediction of the certain obliteration of humanity.

Gradually, actual scientists began to counter Climate Change hysteria. Gently, almost timidly at first, they began to tell the truth, producing facts instead of hyperbole, and Americans began to take notice. They particularly took notice when climate hysterics were forced, kicking and screaming, to admit the globe wasn’t, um, warming, and hadn’t been for more than a decade.

That eventually forced a wholesale narrative change and Global Warming, overnight, became “Climate Change,” the all-purpose harbinger of doom that could not be falsified. That meant it couldn’t be science, but that didn’t matter because CLIMATE CHANGE!!! It would surely kill us all in ten years…OK, ten more years, and we mean it this time, because we’re scientists! We’re experts and you’re not qualified!

It was the all-purpose, infallible secular religion. There wasn’t anything it couldn’t do or that couldn’t be blamed on it. Hurricanes? Climate change. No hurricanes? Climate change. No Polar Bears? Climate change. Plenty of Polar Bears? Climate change. Drought? Climate change. Monsoon rains? Climate change. Shrinking ice caps? Climate change. Expanding ice caps? Climate change. Tuesday? Climate change. Night? Climate change. Day? Climate change. Male Pattern Baldness? Climate change. Racism? Climate change. Bad hair day? Climate change.

Anyone who dared question Climate Change was labeled a “Climate Denier,” which for a time, more-or-less replaced the worn out “racist.” All those years, all those words, the New York Times was among the most powerful and angry purveyors of Climate Doom.

Americans finally began to notice those prediction cycles were not only wrong, they smelled suspiciously like hoaxes. They began to understand they were being played for suckers and untold billions of their tax dollars were being wasted. And then was the second term of Trump and the Climate Change industry and Church crumbled, and even The New York Times was forced to chronicle the horror of it all:

Graphic: X Post

A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump declared victory over the climate hoax industry.

Trump’s statement came shortly after Big Tech billionaire Bill Gates decided global warming was less of a threat to humanity than limited and expensive energy.  But this was only one factor in the presidential assessment.

The Times, grudgingly and with blame-casting, has begun, at long last, to tell the truth:

Graphic: X Post

Who to blame, then, for the failure? Big Oil, of course.

As delegates wrapped the annual United Nations climate talks last Saturday, those who have campaigned to reduce the use of fossil fuels expressed growing alarm that forces arrayed against them are gaining ground in the information war.

The oil, gas and coal industries continue to downplay the scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels is dangerously heating the planet. It’s a strategy that has been echoed by oil-rich countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and — under the Trump administration — the United States.

President Trump mocks global warming as a hoax, cheered on by a chorus of influencers online who regularly promote disinformation on social media platforms that once tried to curtail it. While such views have long been dismissed as conspiracy theories, their influence on the global policy debates has clearly grown.

As one might expect, The NYT has it wrong. The “information war” over Climate Change has been won because Normal Americans, backed by honest scientists, produced real, reproducible, falsifiable science rather than leftist narratives. The truth has finally begun to prevail and will stand for far longer than ten years.

Become a subscriber and get our weekly, Friday newsletter with unique content from our editors. These essays alone are worth the cost of the subscription. 

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.