Environmental scholar Bjorn Lomborg recently calculated that across the globe, governments have spent at least $16 trillion feeding the climate change industrial complex.
And for what?
Arguably, not a single life has been or will be saved by this shameful and colossal misallocation of human resources. The war on safe and abundant fossil fuels has cost countless lives in poor countries and made those countries poorer by blocking affordable energy.
Since the global warming crusade started some 30 years ago, the temperature of the planet has not been altered by one-tenth of a degree – as even the alarmists will admit.
In other words, $16 trillion has been spent – a lot of people got very, very rich off the government largesse – but there is not a penny of measurable payoff.
But it’s much worse than that. In economics, there is a concept called opportunity cost: What could we have done with $16 trillion to make the world better off?
What if the $16 trillion had been spent on clean water for poor countries? Preventing avoidable deaths from diseases like malaria? Building schools in African villages to end illiteracy? Bringing reliable and affordable electric power to the more than 1 billion people who still lack access? Curing cancer?
Many millions of lives could have been saved.
We could have lifted millions more out of poverty. The benefits of speeding up the race for a cure for cancer could have added tens of millions of additional years of life, with an economic value in the tens of trillions of dollars.
Instead, we effectively poured $16 trillion down the drain. For this reason, it is important that we identify the green “climate change” derangement syndrome as perhaps the most inhumane political movement in history.
The people at the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund, the United Nations, and politicians like Al Gore, Joe Biden, and John Kerry, who voted for and carried out this Green New Deal scam, should be placed on a wall of shame. Biden’s administration alone wasted $400 billion on green energy and other sham climate change programs.
The one sliver of good news is that it appears the climate change neuroses have finally started to subside. We’ve reached peak global warming craziness in the U.S., for sure, and even Europe seems to have turned its back on its economically masochistic net-zero fossil fuels obsession.
Donald Trump is wisely and rapidly dismantling the climate change industrial complex. Of all his pro-growth economic policies, there may be none with a higher long-term payoff than his recent order to repeal the mother of all costly regulations: the anti-fossil fuels “endangerment rule” taxing carbon dioxide emissions. The cost of that regulation had been estimated to exceed $1 trillion over time.
We can’t recapture the $16 trillion wasted on a false crisis. Sunk costs are, alas, sunk. But we can stop the madness of actually believing that politicians who can’t even pay off the balance on their credit cards can somehow change the world’s temperature.
Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity, which advocates for education freedom for all children.
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First, it was the coming.Ice age, remember, the Time Magazine cover, then it became global warming.And they figured out that wasn’t right either so it’s now climate change.Tell me , when did the climate actually stop changing?
Now if only Real science could prove there are two sexes only, that would be a real discovery.
Wow! Real science has already proven that the “Climate Change” was a HOAX. My real question is “Who pocketed all the money that was spent and contributed for this hoax?” The truth will never come out but make an intelligent guess anyway.
Climate change is a load of BS. Earth’s climate has been changing since long before humans walked on the planet. But leave it to the left to steal as much as they can before they are found out…
What a bunch of idiots to believe this hoax. Climate change is real though, it’s constantly changing. The climate has been changing since the earth was formed. There is no way to pay to stop it. How do they explain the ice age and the melting of it. There were no cars or planes etc. Climate just changes. How stupid. Today is sunny and windy. Tomorrow will be cloudy and rainy. There, climate change. The earths core 1 degree warmer in the next 100 years!
The problem with all that money being poured into stopping a phenomenon like climate change is where did all that money go?
They created a machine that doesn’t have to be right, consumes resources and doesn’t do anything tangible except makes you feel good about a cause that was sold by government marketing. Polution on the other hand is a real concern because as we have witnessed, if there aren’t any controls, we will slowly kill ourselves, it’s folly to believe we do anything that costs money even if was the right thing to do. We aren’t that magnanimous to spend money on pollution controls if we didn’t have to. To undo the climate change industry would be a monumental task, there’s too much greed, follow the money. Once a hoax becomes normal, facts just get in the way.
Yes, it was a financial and political scandal. Unfortunately the hyped, faked agenda driven research called legitimate concerns into question. The fringe environmentalists did more to hurt the planet than save it. The politicians and alternative energy investors made billions on a lie.
Arse Holie cronies of the clintons, obamas, nadlers, gores, and their DAMN cronies hace made $$$$$BILLIONS by this fraud paid out by the government. Each on should have to pay back the money they received…..
“Climate Change” while a hoax was not the largest. Communism is a much larger and expensive hoax and is still being used.
I always wondered who was responsible for the Ice Age? Of course, once the earth started to warm, after the Ice Age, who was responsible for that? Obviously, we have to blame someone, Don’t we? It’s what we did recently when we were fed conflicting tales of the soon to be, end of the world. Chicken Little is real, the only difference is that he was grabbing everyone’s money while the world was looking up at the sky.
We were being scammed by the degenerate politicians who knew a good way to get rich off the backs of ignorant voters. I heard stories from friends who I thought were sensible that made me laugh out loud. But, of course, these friends were Democrat voters whose brains were fried by the likes of grifters and charlatans like Al Gore. Remember, he claimed to have invented the internet!! So, here we are trillions of dollars in debt and taxpayer money made these grifters rich.
Absolutely! It’s not science it is a religion. Al Gore pushed it because he had a plan to sell climate credits and become a billionaire. Michael Mann became a millionaire. It was a great avenue for the Democrats to achieve bigger government higher taxes and more regulation. It was designed to bring down the United States by bankrupting it. They’ve been beating this dead horse for over 50 years, I think it’s time to dismount
THE MAJORITY OF THE MONEY WENT INTO THE LEFTIST CAMPAIGN COFFERS AND THEIR BACK POCKETS!!!
I agree..The climate of the earth is a cyclic event… The entire thing climate movement is nothing more than propaganda misinformation and installing fear in any willing to listen..GMO is another.Look at what they have done with weather casting ..what sounds more scary winter storm or apolar vortex . Both are the same..you have a great day
Yes it is. It enabled the democrats to pocket funding, especially in California, New York, Maryland ( there they have the rain tax). It’s disgusting.
I remember in 1988, I think, reading in an Industry Measurement Journal, comments from scientists concerning the original global warming research paper written by two British meteorologists. The original research was published with comment. The authors got plenty of comment, all negative. After four months, the paper was pulled from publication. Approximately 2 years later the paper was published a second time, this time without comment. There was a significant change in the data from the original published research. It appeared that any data that did not support the conclusion had been removed. This time the paper and the research was presented at political conferences and economic conferences, not scientific conferences. The two authors became famous in political circles but definitely not in scientific circles. It has been a hoax since the global warming days.
Man’s arrogance and lack of acknowledging God has resulted in the climate alarmism which has been so very harmful and wasteful during our lifetime.
The Bible informs us that God created and actively sustains the universe. According to Nehemiah 9:6, “You alone are the Lord; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all.”
The Bible also informs us that it is the fool who denies the existence of God. We have been “fooled” by climate alarmists long enough!
I want that 16 trillion clawed back and given back to the taxpayers. I don’t care if you have to bankrupt every environmental group in the world or the people that got uber wealthy and banks holding the fraudulent funds.
So it’s finally time to make a list of the thieves, arrest them,try them and put them away for the rest of their lives. Let’s go!
Excellent article! One correction they started this crusade 50 years ago not 30 and they started it on Carl Marx’s birthday, conveniently called Earth Day
and if the dems, get control again the waste WILL contnue.
think about that when you vote to prevent further theft of tax dollars
The leaders of the Green New Scam , Al the Gore, Joe the Biden and John the Kerry all should be placed in prison for life for the damage and deaths caused by their lies and evil done scamming the “Climate” scam. There is still much work to be done to undo the damage. California is still wildly chasing the Environmental Scams at all levels. Building “Environmentally Friendly high speed rail to nowhere, chasing Oil Companies and refineries out of the state because of insane rules and regulation all claiming to save the environment and climate. Each county in the Not So Great state of Taxifornia has a Regulatory Agency called AIR QUALITY CONTROL DISTRICT. All regulators are UNELETED and run autonomously issuing regulations that levy fines and choke out businesses and chase them out of the state. Its insanity yet it continues and is destroying the state. Many other “blue” states follow Taxifornias destructive path. People like Mr. Hair Gel Pretty Boy Newsom wants to take this insanity Nationwide and is running for president in 2028 to enable him to do to the country what he has done to Taxifornia.
Climate change, COVID, you name it, They keep making us spend our dollars on their own ridiculous ideas
Global Warming is the biggest scam and theft in my 74 years. It’s not science, it’s strictly more stealing.
YES!!! And nothing will happen to the thousands of radical liberals who created and perpetuated the hoax. I could never believe it after they predicted the end of the planet the first time!! Guess what, we are all still here and kicking about after how many times we were told this same lie??? One thing we have learned is absolutely true…the radical liberals on this Earth are masters of hoaxes, scams and lies that most of us would never dream of. It is time all of us stop believing anything that comes out of their lying, corrupt, stealing mouths. Many of us stopped years ago but there are a lot of people out there still falling for their made-up garbage. Someone in the media needs to make sure this article gets out to these haters who have taken so much of our money!! One more thing….why is the GOP allowing this stuff to happen???? Many of them are a bunch of pussy-foot cowards.
The Climate Alarmists simply don’t know their @$$ from a hole in the ground. If they come onto my farm or any other piece of property I own, they better be in good physical shape where they can outrun a few shotgun pellets. Damn B@$t@rd$.
It is first just ahead of theY2K hoax!
Back when Time magazine was preaching a 2nd Ice Age was coming and coming SOON, I was young enough to get nervous about it all. I mean, this was in all the big magazines, newscasts, newspapers (remember THOSE?!), and I thought if these folks were saying it, there MUST be something to it. Oh, to be 16 again, and young enough to believe the “grown ups” knew what they were talking about….
But time passes. When the freeze never came, these same heretics, no doubt smarting over being raked over the coals over COLD weather, did a one-eighty and starting “global warming”, then “climate change”, hoping something would stick. Too much $$$$ has been wasted on ‘Science’. IMHO.
Yes, it was a way to take our oil away and make Saudi Arabia billionaires! The elitist made billions off of this scam, to include a number of politicians!
This was a way to bring our country down to help the elitist and their allies along with the Democratic Party to make use of part of the one world government!
Several years ago the Today Show was on location in Greenland. Ann Curry was marveling at how the snowmelt had exposed some buildings which had been built by early settlers, buried under the snow, and this proved the theory of global warming. It never occurred to her that it must have been warmer when those buildings were built.
The Dems wanted this day 1 for power & funding & we were all used
None drove EVs for Eco.
I guess that’s why they blow so much on education it is easier to brainwash future slaves or I should say the new slaves we have been given a lot of HOAXES in my time the pandemic vaccines are safe and effective the fed reserve is federal social security was in a lockbox and so many more being in the house or senate makes you a leader ha ha gen Patton was a leader none of these clowns even come close
It has been going on for longer than you know. When I was in the 7th grade back in 1967, they were railing against oil even then. I remember this alarmist going to the small school, trying to drum up support for “green” energy crap. It was only after Gore brought out the falsified charts and graphs of a disgruntled and totally discredited scientist from the 70s and didn’t tell anyone the full story that the fake “climate change” crap got going. The amount of lies and grifting that has taken place is truly on a grand scale. Every one of those involved should be in jail and stripped of everything they own.
Was Climate Change the Greatest Financial Scandal in History? IDK, there are so many to choose from.
This Global Warming alarmism was only about control of the masses by the world’s elitists
I would add one more thing. Just because one questions the climate change mantra doesn’t mean one doesn’t want as Trump says clean air and clean water. Assuming Mr. Moore’s costs are correct what if Biden’s $400 billion on green energy had been spent on sewage repair? Maybe the Potomac wouldn’t be a cesspool.
“Was Climate Change the Greatest Financial Scandal in History?”. Answer NO. If it said “Was Climate Change the Greatest Financial SCAM in History?” the answer would be YES.
It’s the globull hoax.
This has been a scam since the very beginning. As a former Science major, as soon as Algore said “The science is settled!” I knew it was a lie–REAL science is NEVER settled, it is always tested, retested, etc. Besides that, doing some independent investigation showed other planets were warming at the same rate–so I didn’t think Mars was warming due to Martians driving SUV’s, or “fossil fuel” usage. Nevertheless, watching the hysteria over “global warming”/”climate change”, etc., while I don’t like being lied to has at least to some level been entertaining. It’s interesting to see how stupid some people really are.
Climate Change was in itself, merely a HUGE advertising statement, by the political elite, saying: “We don’t care about you … underlings, peons, lower class scum. We only care about ourselves and filling our pockets with your tax dollars. The rest of you can curl up and die!” They don’t care about clean water, disease, ending illiteracy, curing cancer. They create a cause, that they can capitalize on, that will net them monetary returns, and go for it.
We, the people, knew climate change was a giant hoax. What we need to stop is the poisoning of land, air, water, flora, fauna and humans from the chemtrails and geoengineering to block the sun. I have owned solar panels since 2009. My solar production has decreased by 2/3 over the last two years. Positively CRIMINAL
Greta Thunberg might finally have to get her application for McDonald’s!
I don’t understand how this story isn’t the biggest story being talked about everywhere? It was like suddenly Bill Gates admitted that climate change wasn’t real and it got instantly dropped from the news cycle. Move on, nothing to see (or think about) here. My entire life I’ve heard about this scare in one form or another and suddenly it’s gone? It’s been used to control us, divide us, and tax us, but now it’s over?
$16T wasn’t wasted. It was stolen by those perpetuating this scam. I believe they’ve suddenly dropped the issue because they now need massive amounts of energy to run their AI data centers and they know I only fossil fuels can supply it in the short term until more nuclear power plants can be built again.
EARTHS climate is ever changing whether we like it or not.Do we have anything to with it,probably some,but EARTH does take care of itself to an extent.But the big problem is investors in alternative energy,they want a big return on their investment,so anything goes.
Doesn’t hold a candle to evolutionism/uniformitarianism, which spawned communism.
From the very beginning, I knew Al Gore was lying, because it just didn’t make sense, plus he was pushing it way too hard. Politicians have had a good laugh and led very rich lives, at taxpayers expense.
Another scam has cost us trillions. Just think about what we could have achieved with that money. The real issue lies in the lack of checks and balances and accountability. If audits are not conducted or measures to prevent government financial misuse are not in place, how can we ever stop this mishandling?
Climate Change, as Mr. Graham said has been going on for 6,000 years. CLIMATE DOOM = FRAUD in all CAPS.
Earth has been through very dramatic and cycle “season” since it formed: Ice Age to the Tropical heat and humidity. All that’s happening is cyclical. I never believed in the science models for Climate Change — and then one has to look at the honesty (or dishonesty) of those who have been pushing it… amazing.
Agree.
Consider the important role of Carbon Dioxide on earth: