The useless United Nations Climate Change Conference recently concluded in Scotland.
Here’s a hilarious twist: with gas prices rising all over the U.S., President Biden had to do something. So while present at the climate change summit, he asked the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase oil production. Russia and Saudi Arabia basically laughed at him, because of course, they love taking our money. Now Biden’s own party is unhappy with him since during his campaign and while at this very summit; he made promises to move away from reliance on fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, I hear crickets from the media about small start-ups that are actually making positive impacts on the environment.
At the end of October, Boyan Slat, a Dutch teenager, successfully launched his first ocean trash cleanup operation, using a barge and net system he designed himself. While scientists cry that the ocean couldn’t be restored in a million years, this teenager projects he can do so in five years and even make a $500 million profit through recycling!
This isn’t a rare story. I constantly see reports at the corners of the internet about individuals inventing solutions. How would you like some cheap paint that binds to pollutants in the air, doubling as an air filter and mural for smoggy city buildings? Or how about farming underwater seagrass grain off our coasts? This newly discovered grain is packed with more nutrients than wheat, and the grass prevents coastal erosion.
Our own North Alabama Land Trust and the Tennessee River basin conservation efforts have been active for decades, keeping our parks, trails, and wildlife beautiful. We just don’t feel the need to get up and holler about it. My sister recently joined the Monte Sano trail care volunteer group. This is a group of older folks who live on Monte Sano and saw that something needed to be done, so they got up and did it - raising some money and sweating on the trails with a shovel.
Thankfully, the larger public has also started expressing their dissatisfaction with the climate change approach. A student opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal offered an intriguing solution: turn environmentalism into a space race-style competition where the honor of the country is at stake. Then perhaps Russia and China would be interested - an interesting idea, and possibly a middle ground between the massive government spending and small-scale business endeavors we’re seeing now.
But we’re a far way off; environmentalists are laughable. What does the “infrastructure” bill propose? Tree equity? A climate corps? I’m picturing a mob of angry children in neon green shirts. Why is Greta Thunberg the poster child for environmental protections, instead of Boyan Slat, the teen CEO of The Ocean Cleanup?
We know it’s not really about the environment; it’s about control. Of course the news doesn’t share positive stories; it wants us scared so we have to rely on big government. They want your mind filled with empty platitudes so you don’t look at alternative research and solutions.
Yet there’s a strange middle ground they dance along: too much doomsday narrative and you’d just destabilize your voters.
The solution? Turn the apocalypse into a dance party! After Greta Thunberg’s infamous “How Dare You” speech, a DJ remixed her words into a dubstep piece and it became the hit of the nightclub scene. They did this with COVID too - Fauci, our new talk host celebrity. If propaganda entertains, we’ll keep tuning in for more. But at some point, the fanaticism stops feeling like a rave or a reality show and enters the realm of religious fanaticism.
Why is the left so hysterical about the climate and now vaccine mandates? It’s not just about controlling you. They want to control nature itself. Science is their religion, but they twist it to fit their agenda, just as every human culture has done when their religion no longer suits their desires. In other words, the left seeks the oldest desire of mankind, to be god. They want to dictate the rules of science itself. Yet science defies them. They can’t hide new data, and they can’t even imagine - let alone prevent - the ingenious alternatives to big government programs. After all, the very nature of scientific advancement is tied up with individual ingenuity and capitalism.
One tenet of their humanism clashes with another. They can’t have both socialistic government control and an educated, continually developing technological society. Most of all, they cannot be god. They know their rules are unraveling around them. They couldn’t keep up with a single virus. Their “science” changed repeatedly, and we called them on it. Now they can’t keep up with rising oil prices in a shifting economy and play god with the environment and our minds.
Worst of all, the rising generation dares to think and invent solutions to the problem. How dare we destabilize their godhood and rules? Ironically, they love Greta Thunberg for crying, “how dare you,” because she perfectly affirms their superiority. It is the youth’s job to be fervent acolytes, and her empty, angry words make for a hit altar call.
As worried as I am about mandates and trillion-dollar tree equity bills, I know a fix is already built into the system. We just have to wait for the facts to come out and destroy their constructed version of reality. God rules this universe, and his laws do not change. The truth will always shine through in the end.
We might not even have to wait that long. When chasing after worship or money, the latter often wins out in America. When we start seeing the signs pass three dollars at the gas station, we’re too distracted by our bank statements to tune in for your climate summit worship service.
When the haze lifts, will the next generations take a different path or try to enforce the nonsensical “scientific religion” their predecessors constructed? Well, for a good start, stop crying about the end of the world on TikTok, go pick up a shovel, and hack muck off one of the trails in our beautiful country.
Caylah Coffeen is a Millennial in Huntsville, AL who knows how to think and speaks up for the sake of truth and a future as bright as the stars. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
