I think most man-made global warming skeptics are not realistic. We have to understand: It doesn’t matter if we are right to the people that are demonizing us. By that I mean this idea that somehow we are winning when the powers that be continue to shut down the very sources that would make our nation strong and self dependent. They could care less about what is right and wrong concerning what is really driving the climate. If you actually cared, why would you make the statements we see coming out of many of the political elite in this nation, given data that at the very least is questioning their ideas, and in many cases, going the opposite direction? You wouldn’t. It’s because they don’t care about all this, except that it’s a smokescreen to continue accomplishing their real mission that, unfortunately, most of the people that really care about what is right and wrong are not involved in.

You have another group that cares that they have become important because of this. Before this issue came to life, can you name one climatologist that had “rock star” status? Yes, plenty of weathermen, from local to national; but for climatologists, it’s like this was their chance to get on the big stage. Heroes and enemies of the people, dispatches from the front lines of “Climate Wars,” tales of storms of grandchildren – its like some study in delusions of grandeur.

Then there is the money behind it. I have no objection to developing energy sources that are based on the sun and wind. Personally I think it should be done at a grassroots level first – businesses and homes – empowering the individual to control his own fate better. But I don’t care where energy comes from because you need a forecast for planning and that is what I do. So for my own “selfish” purposes I should be all for this. What is not to love about an energy company that needs to know not only what the seasonal forecast is, or demands next week, but whether the on-site weather for their operation is optimum every single day? It’s a meteorologist’s dream come true! I do care though when I see that we need to develop the technology that is not there yet for it, and yet we are forcing a solution down people’s throats. It’s very simple to me: Have the economy boom and set aside a bit of the profits for developing these other idealistic, cleaner and more efficient sources – a practical, not panic-driven approach. But it’s a perfect storm of demonization and disinformation. I am still waiting for my huge check from the sources that are supposed to be paying me to spread all these lies. Yet if you follow the money, the path doesn’t lead to me or anyone I know personally in this, and I know plenty. But I am all for any economical source of energy, including the development of these sources that in the rush to demonize people on my side, portray us as anti-science.

I would like, for once, someone to show who is on the payroll of all these big evil empires that supposedly are seeking to stop all this. I suspect the strawmen they create would burn like paper on fire if they had to reveal what they supposedly know.

In my opinion, here is the real issue behind all this: By standing for what you believe in, you are a threat to the social order they cherish – the “let’s all get together/along” mentality (providing they are in charge). The very idea that a single person with a simple answer based in truth can challenge them, yet alone be correct, is a huge threat to the social order they seek to be in charge of (and in many ways are now). So the fight here is not about whether Earth is warming or cooling ; it’s about something I think is far more sinister – the destruction of the will of the individual to stand for what he believes in. If we understand that, then you see the so called fight is about something they will use to achieve their ends, no matter what the means.

Given all the evidence out there, what other conclusion can one come too? The fact is that men of good will are at a disadvantage if the fight is not what they believe it is. So all the polls in the world mean nothing to people who really don’t care about the answer, but only care that they get their way.

I want you to think about this winter, unforecasted by so many and like last winter, that keeps dragging on: Record ice cover on the Great Lakes right now at 70% coverage, and more snow coming this week in much of the northern tier of the nation as yet another warmup is getting beat back (relative to the season). Many of the signs of colder times across the globe always have compensating warmer areas somewhere else. But no matter what happens, everything now becomes a talking point for these people to push their agenda. And so the science here is a red herring.

I am just as skeptical about some mythical idea that we are winning the global warming debate as global warming itself. Why? Because the side that we are “debating” could care less about what the climate is actually doing. That is not their goal, and the so called scientific debate is merely a useful side issue to them.

While Rome is burning, Nero is fiddling (with science).

Joe Bastardi is chief forecaster at WeatherBELL Analytics, a meteorological consulting firm.