ABC News published an article this week titled, “The earth is warming. Here are the top warning signs, according to experts.” The article would be better titled, “The earth is warming. Here is how alarmists misrepresent a modest, beneficial warming to appear like a crisis.”
At the top of the ABC list of “warning signs” are “Extraction of fossil fuels,” “Transportation,” “Electricity production,” and “Industry.” As opposed to warning signs, these are all aspects of modern society that raise human living standards. Being able to get to places, have electricity in our homes, and have a society built upon something other than subsistence farming are good things, not bad things. To the climate alarmism crowd, however, these beneficial aspects of modern society must be opposed and suppressed.
The article then claims modest warming is itself a warning sign. As if the centuries-long Little Ice Age that mercifully ended a century ago brought ideal conditions for human health and welfare. Tell that to the people subjected to the rampant famines, droughts, crop failures, and the Black Plague of the Little Ice Age.
ABC News then lists a warning sign as “Rainforests are burning at unprecedented levels.” Yet the article fails to mention that NASA satellites have documented a substantial increase in Amazon foliage thanks to more atmospheric carbon dioxide and beneficial climate conditions. To the extent there have been recent Amazon fires, most of the fires are being deliberately set by farmers and ranchers to clear land for cultivation, rather than occurring as a result of climate change. And even those recent fires are not occurring at unusual levels. The only “unprecedented” aspect of the fires is the attendant alarmist hype and misleading media coverage.
Next, ABC News claims “1 million species are at risk of extinction.” That is a laughable claim, given that alarmists would find it difficult to identify more than a handful of species that have gone extinct in recent decades, and the main culprit for those few would be land-use changes in Third World countries, rather than climate change.
ABC News claims “Food supply could dwindle.” Yet ABC News fails to mention that as our climate has warmed and there has been a modest increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, crop yields globally and in most nations are dramatically increasing and setting new records virtually every year.
Finally, ABC News claims a warning sign of “Oceans are rising.” ABC News fails to mention that oceans have been rising for at least the past 170 years and humans dealt quite well with rising seas utilizing 19th century technologies and 20th century technologies. It is hard to imagine that 21st century technologies will fare worse than older, obsolete technologies.
Rather than warning signs of a climate crisis, ABC News merely documented warning signs of climate alarmism.