OPINION:
Young people are largely concerned about the economy and have conservative views on racial quotas and gender. We have room for growth with them. At the same time, they have been radicalized on climate issues. We have work to do.
The No. 1 issue for young people is the economy, according to a poll commissioned in late July by Young America’s Foundation. High school and college students from across the country were surveyed by Echelon Insights, a professional polling firm. They ranked the economy higher than climate change, race relations or LGBTQ issues.
In addition, those surveyed overwhelmingly said that racial quotas for employment or enrollment are unfair. They also overwhelmingly thought it was not fair for those born as boys to play varsity sports against girls.
Results from the poll show that more than 80% of the students surveyed believe climate change is real, and over 60% believe it is an existential threat to their generation. This poll is taken from a nationwide sample of students. This undoubtedly comes from years of indoctrination.
So many young people have been sold a bill of goods on climate since they were young. We have to find ways to let them know that they’ve been told a lie.
If we are going to make inroads with young people who buy into climate change hysteria and fear for their lives, we have to begin by acknowledging their concerns — and then addressing them. Just calling climate change a hoax isn’t enough. We have to prove it to them.
We should begin with examples and data they can relate to from the past few years. How many young people remember the “experts” who told us that no one could get COVID-19 if they got the shot?
Obviously, no matter what you thought about the vaccine, that was not true. Yet liberals used this idea to shut down schools and colleges for years — depriving so many students of the high-quality education they deserve, and in many cases paid for.
These are the same kind of people who are telling young people that the world is coming to an end. Never mind that they keep moving the end date every time another doomsday passes.
In 2018, Greta Thunberg posted this tweet: “A top climate scientist is warning that climate change will wipe out humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years.” She recently deleted that tweet.
Former Vice President Al Gore declared at a climate change conference on Dec. 14, 2009: “Some of the models suggest to [climatologist Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75% chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months could be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years.”
In his 2006 documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” Mr. Gore predicted that the global sea level would rise as much as 20 feet in the near future.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the global sea level has risen 8 to 9 inches since 1880, and 3.8 inches between 1993 and 2021. At that rate, it would take more than 1,000 years for the sea level in the world to rise 20 feet.
Contrary to what Mr. Gore, Ms. Thunberg or countless other extremists say, Americans are breathing the cleanest air since 1970. Emissions dropped 7% during former President Donald Trump’s first two years in office. Overall, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, between 1970 and 2019, the combined emissions of criteria and precursor pollutants dropped by 77%, while the U.S. economy grew 285%.
Following the demands of environmental extremists would cripple the U.S. economy while doing little or nothing to control legitimate problems in China. It is hard to imagine now, but restaurants once had smoking and nonsmoking areas that were often divided by little more than a piece of glass that rose barely 6 inches above the booth. Not surprisingly, the smoke would eventually drift to the nonsmoking area and stink up our clothes.
Agreeing to handcuff our economy would be like sitting in the nonsmoking section while China continues to puff away and blow bad air into our country. Instead, we should push an aggressive all-of-the-above strategy that includes reasonable efforts on conservation.
It worked during the Trump administration, and it can work again.
Why do so many environmental extremists dismiss natural gas and nuclear energy when they provide so many clean benefits? Exposing this flawed logic is one more step to helping young people see that the left has been lying to them from the beginning.
Just telling them it’s a hoax isn’t enough. We have to prove it. Thankfully, the truth is on our side.
• Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin.
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