“The planet is getting warmer in catastrophic ways. And fear may be the only thing that saves us”, New York Times, Feb. 16, 2019. Yes, fear is the motto of our current oppressors and would-be leaders. Fortunately they are mostly brawn (money), quite short on brain. Fear mongering is one of their trusty weapons as they continually claim that the planet is lurching from one existential threat to the next, and we’d better follow their lead in conquering the threats: fantasy at each and every level.
Before entering into the murky world of contemporary fear-mongering, it will be helpful and reassuring to do a quick survey of the theme in the bible. Notwithstanding all the Renaissance pictures of chubby cherubs, angels in the bible were not experienced as harmless other-worldly visitants. Their appearance always induced a severe fright, a sense of being overawed in the presence of a divine-like presence. And that is precisely why their opening greeting is almost invariably “do not be afraid” (Gabriel to both Zechariah [father of John the Baptist] and Mary; the angel to the shepherds; and many more examples). And the risen Jesus has the same greeting for the frightened and guilty disciples: Be not afraid.
Real fear of a genuine present danger, (rather than an imagined bogeyman), while it may prompt the adrenaline to flow and so produce some defence or counter-attack, can also be crippling. People who are seriously afraid, as distinct from simply being nervous, may not be able to think clearly or calmly, but will be prone to panic and thus will clutch at any straw that promises help or assurance. To return to the bible: the Judean king Zedekiah, in the face of the advance of the Babylonians (6th century B.C.), sought to make various foreign alliances. He was, with his fellow Judeans, very afraid. The descriptions of the approaching invaders were hair-raising, truly terror-inducing, be that of the Assyrians (9th cent B.C.) or the Babylonians. But Zedekiah’s alliances didn’t materialise into any convincing help, and his revolt against the Babylonians ended most tragically with his witnessing the slaughter of his sons (thus ending the succession of the royal line) and him being blinded and taken into captivity to Babylon. He was desperately fearful, he panicked, he lost. (2 Kings 25:1-7).
Remember: fear is the key. The fear-mongering, so successful in 2020 & 2021, has shifted to its latest target: climate. Once again, though, even with their massive budgets, the end results are an embarrassment – though as always, the credulous will really believe any nonsense peddled by these purveyors of fear and panic: in this case, that we are on a path to global disaster and ecological devastation. Unless, for example, we can cull (aka murder) huge numbers of healthy, food-producing cattle, and begin eating insects, life on earth remains perilous. Like the covid thing, it would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.
On June 28, 2023, King Charles attended the launch of a Climate Clock, representing a stark warning that there are only six years and twenty-four days left to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. See how they relentlessly stoke the fear. But really and truly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Charles wasn’t acutely embarrassed by such antics, even if he’s well used to them by now. In ‘Creating Fear’, David Altheide showed how the US media ramped up “fear” in a remarkably short period of time. Between 1985 and 1994, to give but two examples, the Los Angeles Times increased its use of the word ‘fear’ 64% (much more in headlines) and ABC news increased it 173%. Here are two statements from SAGE, the official U.K. government advisory group for Covid-19, in April 2020: “A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened.” Recommendation: “Use media to increase sense of personal threat.” I mean, if there really was some devastating plague scouring the planet looking for its next hapless victim to strike down, do you really think we would need government-sponsored campaigns of fear-stoking?
When did culling cattle crop up recently? Ah yes, from the mouth of the hysteria-churning Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London. What has been his record over the years? Not very reliable, to be exact. At the start of the covid fiasco he predicted that, in the UK, half a million could die due to the killer virus. In the USA, his prediction was two million. In 2001, during the foot and mouth disease hysteria, his recommendations resulted in the slaughter of six million healthy cattle, sheep and pigs. In 2005, he predicted that up to 200 million people could die of the bird flu: in the end, less than 300 people died. Finally, in 2009, he predicted that up to 65,000 could die of the swine flu: as it happens, 457 died. Amidst such ridiculous statistics, one stands out for being so patently nonsensical, but one which, as always,caused damage as a result. In 2002, in the face of the Mad Cow Disease (BSE), he predicted that between 50 and 50,000 could die. Now that’s what is called keeping your options open! This has nothing to do with science, it is like consulting tea leaves or reading your palm to predict your future. This kind of superstition is age old; check out the prophet Ezekiel (21:21), “For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the household idols, he looks at the liver”, i.e., he shook arrows in a quiver, he examined animal entrails, all in an effort to make a strategic decision. Such has been the level of “science” during covid and now with climate hysteria.
Yes indeed, Neil Fergusen has been aptly called the “randy little catastrophist” by Paul Weston. As he ordered the U.K. into meek submission, because some allegedly killer virus was on the prowl (he knew of course that there wasn’t), he was happily enjoying romantic trysts with his married lover in London. It’s a bit like the climate fanatics happily jetting around the globe lecturing us plebs on why we should stop driving cars: rank hypocrisy.
Notwithstanding all the panic-stoking, all the end-of-the-world catastrophic predictions have failed to happen: dangerously rising sea-levels, polar bear populations diminishing almost to vanishing point, extreme weather conditions, burning fossil fuels that will seriously poison the atmosphere, and so on. A few choice quotes should suffice to call their bluff. In 2019, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez said (actually with a straight face!),”The world is going to end in twelve years if we don’t address climate change”, (Jan 22) and The Washington Post actually commented “she is absolutely right”. In 2018, Forbes magazine cited a Harvard professor: “The chance that there will be any permanent ice left in the Arctic after 2022 is essentially zero” – just slightly off in his calculations, because now there are 5.6 million square miles of Arctic sea-ice. But because the climate fanatics have so much money, and so can buy the media, academics and other sundry “influencers”, they are able to wield enormous power and propose disastrous policies: the most sublimely ridiculous of all being the goal of “net zero”, i.e., drastically reducing carbon emissions.
Yet, CO2 is a life-giving, life-sustaining gas. Plants thrive on it, it is regularly pumped into glasshouses to increase fruit yield. It is not science but astrology/reading tea leaves to think that CO2 needs to be lessened. And to listen to calm debunkers of this fanaticism is to listen to voices warning of dire consequences. And these debunkers are not unknown country hicks working at second-rate hillbilly colleges; these are from the top universities, but crucially they have seen through the climate-emergency scam. For instance, Richard Lindzen of MIT said, “The measures being proposed about net zero will cause immense pain and suffering and diminution of all the advances that people have made. Once the suffering begins, there will be a better incentive to question this. It will be the pain that turns this around”. He was actually on the IPCC board for some time, authoring a chapter of one of their reports, but eventually saw through the political shenanigans distorting their reports.
William Happer of Princeton likened the cult of the climate alarmists with those shouting for witch burnings & hangings centuries ago. Both agendas have fanatical adherents and to question their opinions is heresy. Another very sane voice is John Christy, Alabama state climatologist, who likewise can see that what the scare-mongerers have is simply hysteria, but few accurate facts. And when he points out, using very secure data, that we are not in fact in some global climate catastrophe, this causes consternation among the climate cultists. At least Chicken Licken didn’t have corporate or NGO backing when she announced that the sky was about to fall; our climate doom-sayers have massive finance to back their cause; a cause which, according to Richard Lindzen (above) will cause immense pain.
The climate cult crowd can be presented with all the data questioning, and indeed largely debunking, their alarmist predictions, but it will change nothing – they are crusaders on a mission, and nothing will deter them, not even hard facts! They will not be fazed in the slightest, but will simply move the goalposts, organise another series of press conferences and interviews, using the media they largely own anyway, and solemnly declare the next round of apocalyptic predictions.
To whom should we listen? The climate-crisis, fear-stoking alarmists, or the Lord who repeatedly said “be not afraid”? I know who I’ll follow.
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