Saturday, July 11, 2020

‘Climate Emergency’: A Nonsensical, and Dangerous, Misuse of Words


In a 4/15/20 letter published in the New Jersey Star-Ledger, Linda DePay writes, in part:

As the April 8 editorial (“Trump’s blindness on COVID-19 echoes his failure on climate”) made clear, leaders who fail to understand or value scientific evidence endanger us all. 

In confronting the current pandemic, let’s remember that we have an even more serious problem to address. As the 50th anniversary of Earth Day draws near (April 22), young people are telling us that we are in a climate emergency. [My emphasis]

This is an emerging theme. But the very idea of equating the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change is not only wrong. It is senseless gibberish on its face. We need to understand the value of words, let alone science. “Climate emergency” is logically an utterly useless term.  “Climate” and “emergency” are two terms that are about as far apart linguistically as any two words can be. “Climate” is an averaging out over a period of years and decades of weather measurements such as precipitation, temperature, and wind. “Emergency” is a sudden, unforeseen, and short term event or set of circumstances requiring immediate action. Since climate is an abstract average spanning years, it fits no part of the definition of an emergency.

But “climate emergency” is useful as a package deal for people with a cause who want to put something over an unsuspecting public. It suits the Environmentalist movement  because Environmentalists are at war with human impact on the planet, and want to minimize human improvement of nature as quickly as possible regardless of the impact on human well-being. And it suits democratic socialists because it aids in advancing their criminal socialist agenda.
“We need immediate action, so we need emergency powers to fight climate change and economic inequality and social injustice, et al, your freedom notwithstanding!” The COVID-19 pandemic is a real emergency. Some temporary restrictions on our freedom is understandable, although the nature of the restrictions that are warranted is certainly debatable. But “climate emergence” implies indefinite--read permanent--individual rights restrictions, because assessing climate change is a decades long process.

Yes, some young people are telling us there is a climate emergency. Young people were also told there is a Santa Claus, an Easter Bunny, and a Tooth Fairy. And who is infecting them with the term “climate emergency?” Adults who want to exploit young people in order to push a political or Environmentalist agenda--certainly not people with reverence for the value of scientific evidence.

When you hear the term “climate emergency,” you've entered useful idiot territory. A “useful idiot” is defined by Mirriam-Webster as “a naive or credulous person who can be manipulated or exploited to advance a cause or political agenda.” The useful idiots among us need to wake up and think. They are victims of the intellectuals who concocted the “climate emergency” (or “climate crisis”). These intellectuals are endangering us all, both in terms of our individual liberty and in our ability to make the natural world safer and more conducive to human flourishing.

Related Reading:




The Crisis of Socialism--Stephen R. Hicks



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