OPINION:
Earth Day arrives annually on April 22, the height of the Northern Hemisphere’s spring season when nature rejuvenates and the environment looks its best. The occasion is no celebration of life, though. Rather, it comes with an alarming screech that the planet is doomed without extraordinary government rescue. Fortunately, it is not, since officialdom is more adept at spending than saving.
Earth Day 2021 carries a rather innocuous theme of “Restore Our Earth,” but it also features a panicky, pandemic-era call to action: “As the world returns to normal, we can’t go back to business-as-usual.” Two days of environmental advocacy, including a youth-focused “Earth Uprising” and a “We Shall Breathe” hip-hop caucus prefaced the actual occasion. Presentations featured such topics as “climate and environmental literacy,” “climate restoration technologies” and “reforestation efforts” — all attended virtually, of course.
Coinciding with Earth Day is President Biden’s own online climate change summit, designed to signal the nation’s recommitment to global activism. His predecessor had parked the U.S. climate bandwagon owing to its detrimental impact on an economy already leading the world in greenhouse gas reduction. If the Biden policy prescribes an ambitious 50% emissions cut below 2005 levels by 2030, then Americans may be looking at life under a “green” regime. Abundant and affordable fossil fuels would be squeezed out in favor of renewable solar, wind and biofuel power costing trillions of dollars.
Few complaints would emanate from activists who regard the man-made threat to Mother Earth so dire that use of the term “climate change” must be cancelled in favor of “climate emergency.” Prominent publications that include Scientific American, Columbia Journalism Review and The Guardian have vowed to censor their pages accordingly.
Additionally, CNN is doing its part to boost the environmental extremism agenda, according to the channel’s technical director: “Climate change is going to be the next COVID thing for CNN . Fear sells,” admits one Charlie Chester on a recent Project Veritas candid-camera appearance.
His comments may be embarrassingly unguarded, but they are not untrue. Fear is profitable, and a recent CBS News poll is proof that decades of global-warming warnings have achieved their intended effect. The survey found that 56% of respondents believe climate change must be addressed “right now.” Only 21% said climate is not an issue requiring action.
A question about those frozen with fear: What planet are they on? There is no “control knob” on Earth with the power to regulate the climate, write Richard Lindzen and William Happer, professors at MIT and Princeton, respectively, in National Review. Human-generated carbon dioxide, treated as if it were as frightfully deadly as the invisible coronavirus, has rendered the planet a deeper shade of green reminiscent of historical eras when humanity experienced prosperity, not scarcity.
If the Biden blueprint for a “green” nation is adopted, Americans can only hope that Earth Day isn’t renamed Dearth Day.
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