When I was pursuing my Master of Arts in Teaching degree at a well-known university in Chicago, I was forced to watch Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, during a general education course primarily intended to train incoming teachers on classroom management and basic instructional methods.
At the time, climate alarmism was nearing its American apex. With President Obama in the White House, the war on fossil fuels was in full swing. The unnecessary and flat-out dumb transition to so-called green energy was turbocharged. The mainstream media, Hollywood, social media, big business, big government, academia, and more were all on the climate change propaganda bandwagon.
Almost everyone in my orbit of friends and family and acquaintances believed in the general narrative that humans were causing potentially catastrophic climate change that could, if left unabated, endanger the future of the planet.
That was then. This is now.
More than a decade later, climate alarmism is no longer the status quo.
In 2023, Pew Research noted that a growing number of Americans “do not see urgency on climate change.” Did you know that only 46 percent of Americans believe that human activity is the primary reason why the Earth is warming whereas 40 percent believe otherwise? Barely more than a third of Americans think addressing climate change should be a top policy priority.
As climate alarmism wanes, climate realism waxes.
This week, The Heartland Institute released the second edition of its quintessential guide to climate realism: Climate at a Glance (Second Edition): Facts on 40 Prominent Climate Topics.
Climate at a Glance is designed for a wide audience. The previous version, released in 2022, achieved Amazon best-seller status in categories like “Science for Kids,” “Climatology,” and “Environmental Science.”
Unlike many other books on this topic, Climate at a Glance carries zero bias, seeks no agenda or ulterior motives, and is strictly based upon sound science, stubborn facts, and hard data.
Are deaths due to extreme weather up over the past century? Is Arctic ice melting at an alarming rate? Are the seas rapidly rising, putting millions of people in jeopardy? The answer to all the above is no, based on nothing but indisputable facts.
Indeed, it is frustrating to flip on my local news and still see endless rhetoric about climate change making everything worse. However, I think, as the Pew Research report mentioned above clearly demonstrates, more Americans are not drinking the climate change Kool-Aid.
This is anecdotal but telling. The past two years, I’ve played a golf tournament in northern Illinois the first week of October. Twice, it has been very warm, unseasonably warm. For golfers, this is generally a welcome occurrence.
Last year, as the tournament director was giving the field the pre-round rules and announcements, he went out of his way to mock and ridicule the climate change narrative. To my surprise, this was widely appreciated by the overwhelming majority of players, who laughed and clapped.
This year, as I was taking the shuttle to the practice range, it was a balmy mid-70s in the late morning. The guy sitting next to me said, “You gotta love climate change,” as he laughed. There was little sense of concern in his voice or fear on his face; he said it with a big smile, as if to let me know that he doesn’t buy the climate change nonsense. I nodded in agreement.
As for the rest of my family, friends, and acquaintances, I’ve also detected a shift when it comes to climate change, the efficacy of green energy, and the necessary continued use of fossil fuels to power the grid. Although these are not topics that frequently come into conversation, there are little comments here and there that can shed light on what someone thinks about these things.
Ironically, as the American people are becoming less susceptible to climate alarmism based on preposterous claims of doom and gloom that never came close to materializing, the purveyors of climate alarmism are doubling down on their failed tactics and bogus data.
They want us to believe that we should shutter all coal power plants and build windmills and solar panels across the country based upon the fundamental lie that humans are causing catastrophic climate change. They are desperate and resorting to desperate measures like EV mandates. Thankfully, the American people are rejecting the green garbage.
All that I have done over the years is cite facts and data when it comes to these touchy topics. While this may have caused a few arguments with true believers, it also caused many who were ambivalent or hadn’t put much thought into it to dive deeper and reconsider.
I am not alone in this. All over the country, this is slowly but surely happening.
Best of all, the climate realism movement is a bottom-up revolution that rejects group think and globalism. It cherishes American principles and is the essence of grassroots. It is widely supported by hard-working Americans who want to know the truth, protect the environment, and desire affordable, reliable, and abundant energy. Climate realism is winning.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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