Entire nations, even civilized ones, have believed irrational things. Just look to the Tower of Babel, King Canute bidding the oceans to stay, or the Axis powers in World War II. The world has been wrong before and it appears it will be again with its response to the supposed scourge of global warming.

The United Nations held a one-day summit on climate change Sept. 23, which the world’s politicians filled with empty rhetoric, boasting and schemes for another international treaty.

This exercise is one in human power and pride. By arrogantly assuming that mankind can alter earth’s climate, governments claim they have the power and duty to intervene into the lives of the common man. In the case of the United States, the Constitution stands in the way of such intrusion. But Obama is once again circumventing the document to leave his mark with climate change policy.

In December 2015, world leaders will gather in Paris to hammer out a treaty many hope will be legally binding. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon told the nations at the summit to present plans to fight climate change. Obama came and announced a binder of executive actions – in addition to the EPA regulations announced earlier this year – because that’s all he could offer politically at the moment. The House and Senate are blocking him, and while he can help forge this treaty on global warming regulation that other nations will sign, the Senate won’t drum up the two-thirds majority to enact it.

On the world stage, Obama said, “America is pursuing ambitious reductions in our carbon emissions, and we’ve increased our investments in clean energy. We will do our part, and help developing nations do theirs. But the Science™ tells us we can only succeed in combating climate change if we are joined in this effort by every other nation, by every major power. That’s how we can protect this planet for our children and our grandchildren.”

While Obama’s remarks took 30 minutes to deliver, his thoughts were echoed from delegation to delegation.

Zhang Gaoli, Vice Premier of the State Council of China, said his country would act on climate change because it is a “responsible major country.” In his address, however, Gaoli dodged what exactly his country would do to fight climate change, despite the disproportionate threat supposedly rising oceans present to his people.

“We will announce post-2020 actions on climate change as soon as we can,” Gaoli said, “which will bring about marked progress in reducing carbon intensity, increasing the share of non-fossil fuels and raising the forest stock, as well as the peaking of total CO2 emissions as early as possible.”

From an ecofascist’s perspective, the problem with an international treaty should be that large countries like China and India would not contribute, and thus render meaningless the work and sacrifice of countries like Switzerland, Germany and the United States. In that sense, Obama is exactly right – unless every nation joins, it’s useless. Better to scrap the whole thing.

Not only did the large countries of the world come, but so did the smallest, including Ebola-plagued Liberia. Its president couldn’t attend, with tens of thousands of her people dying from the virus, but Minister of Foreign Affairs for Liberia Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan said the country would put in its two pence by protecting its coastline from erosion and promising not to use its forests. Ngafuan told the UN that small, developing nations have the most to lose from global warming and said it supported the message of its fellow small nation, Bolivia.

The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, said this is an opportunity not only to fight global warming (that he says is “violating their human rights”) but an opportunity to reorder the world’s economies.

“Progress must be made on real and responsible solutions to the climate crisis by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases,” he said, “but mainly by changing the development models that are orientated toward consumerism, capital and markets.” He let the cat out of the bag – anti-capitalism is at the center of climate activism.

The Vatican was equally optimistic about the opportunity the crisis of global warming offered the nations. The Holy See’s Secretary of State Pietro Cardinal Parolin declared the Catholic Church views the issue of global warming as a question of justice, respect and equality. He said, “Confronting seriously the problem of global warming requires not only strengthening, deepening and consolidating the political process on a global level, but also intensifying our commitment to a profound cultural renewal and a rediscovery of the fundamental values upon which a better future for the entire human family can be built.”

And there you have it. The entire struggle against global warming is man versus nature. In order to conquer nature, we’re told, man must give up his rights, his Liberty.

The advocates of a statist response to global warming have made the debate clear: It’s the free market against a crony market where the Keystone pipeline dies and Solyndra lives – but only for a short, very expensive time. And all for something that hasn’t even been happening for the last 18 years.

No doubt, many of the delegates hopped in their jets to return to their home countries, but this fight for freedom, here and abroad, has just begun. It’s a fight that might be decided in Paris.