Tristan Justice of the Federalist explains how climate activists are using members of the youngest generation to do political dirty work.
Decades of catastrophic claims about climate change have terrorized generations into believing the planet will be uninhabitable by the time they have their own children. Today’s young people are no different.
In 1970, North Texas State University Professor Peter Gunter predicted that “by the year 2000 … the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.” But 50 years later, that’s just not the case.
Also in 1970, Harvard Biologist George Wald prophesied that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” Obviously, it hasn’t. In fact, here are 29 charts showing the world has been better than ever.
In 2008, former Vice President Al Gore warned there was a “75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap” would be completely erased during the summer months “within the next five to seven years.” Except ice is covering more of the Arctic this year than it did in 2012, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
The endless “catastrophizing,” as it has been described by Alex Epstein, who outlines the years of hysteria in his book “Fossil Future,” has left today’s young people crippled with “climate anxiety.”
In December, The Lancet published a study from a team of nine researchers including psychologists, environmental scientists, and psychiatrists who surveyed 10,000 people aged 16 to 25 about their anxiety related to climate change and their governments’ response. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed across 10 different countries reported feeling the “future is frightening.” Researchers reported nearly half of all participants said their “feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning.”
