The Patriot Post® · Climate 'Solutions' Break the Economy

At the heart of the radical green agenda is Marxism. “Saving the earth” and “fighting climate change” are both merely marketing phrases used to convince populations that the earth is in the midst of an existential crisis, and capitalism is the bogeyman wholly responsible for the fast-approaching calamity.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and yet these Marxists endlessly repeat the warnings of global catastrophe if their prescribed action isn’t taken, and taken sooner rather than later.

Of course, the looming environmental crisis of our day is “climate change” — or, more specifically, anthropogenic climate change: the belief that global warming is primarily caused by human activity tied to the burning of fossil fuels. This view has become the popular scientific dogma of the day thanks almost entirely to computer-based climate modeling, as well as a bullying propaganda campaign that labels anyone skeptical of the approved narrative a “climate denier.”

The trouble is, even if the claims of increasing CO₂ emissions being the primary culprit behind the rising global temperatures are correct, the “solution” of net-zero emissions — ending the use of fossil fuels by transitioning toward an economy run solely on renewables — is a pie-in-the-sky fantasy given the modern world’s energy demands and the American Left’s eschewing of nuclear power.

Yet leftist politicians continue to talk of making this impossible transition with the confidence of a snake-oil salesman. That’s because the reality of truly transitioning to a net-zero economy would result in a dystopian nightmare rather than a utopian dream world.

Well, as more Western economies have embraced the net-zero pipe dream and become confronted by the reality that the green energy revolution won’t be able to meet the demands of modern life, “climate policy researchers” have begun to talk of economic “degrowth” and “agrowth.” Both terms will likely become more familiar in the coming years.

A recent poll of 764 of these climate policy researchers found that just 27% believe in the idea of continued economic growth with renewable energy or “green growth.” The rest of these researchers actually oppose GDP growth. “Within the broader post-growth framework,” the survey report found, “degrowth stands as a pronounced stance, critiquing capitalism and advocating for a deliberate and equitable reduction in material consumption and economic activity in high-income countries to achieve more sustainable and socially just societies.”

As noted above, the crux of the issue is not actually one of climate science, but rather one of economic worldview. Anti-capitalism has long been favored by those enamored by Karl Marx, despite capitalism’s record of raising more people out of poverty and deprivation than any other economic system in world history. Furthermore, Marxism fully expressed in communism has produced the opposite — massively increasing rates of human suffering, the stifling of innovation and development, and a hardened gap between the ruling elites and the rest of society.

With climate change, the Western world’s elite ruling class has leveraged the “crisis” as an excuse to consolidate and centralize power while increasingly limiting individual rights and liberties. While fossil fuel may be highlighted as the “threat,” the real threat they see is individual freedom, the right of individuals to think for themselves and make their own choices. This free thinking thwarts those pining for greater authority.

“Degrowth” will soon be sold to the American public as a necessity to combat the climate change supposedly caused by the “excesses of capitalism.” That narrative will inevitably be pushed as the failure of green energy to replace fossil fuels becomes increasingly evident. Americans will be told to abide rolling blackouts because they are doing their part to combat climate change. As everything costs more, Americans will be told that ending consumerism will lead to greater sustainability for the planet and bring about more economic equity.

Ultimately, the climate cult, like Marxism, is fundamentally anti-human. It views humanity as a plague on the planet. The fewer people and the fewer the resources, the better.