It’s kind of like gaslighting—without the fossil fuel.
Panic attacks, irritability, and loss of appetite-these are common symptoms experienced by those coping with “climate anxiety,” we’re told. An influx of media regarding climate-aware therapy, addressing climate change on the first date, and even how to cope with the overwhelming sense of hopelessness for the future due to climate anxiety are the new front pagers.
Typical titles that circulate in headlines incorporate fear tactics such as “Doomsday Glacier” or “The end of the world is coming.” The principles of marketing are skillfully used here to generate attention and improve retention.
But the premise that our future is guaranteed is not only inaccurate, but unethical to market to individuals who aren’t climate experts.
A recent study sought to test how environmental knowledge and climate specific knowledge are associated with climate change anxiety. The statistical analysis of over 2,000 individuals shows that there is in fact a correlation.
Results show that people who possess more overall environmental knowledge experience less climate change anxiety; the same results applied to climate specific knowledge.
Coincidently, we seem to know less about the climate the more it dominates headlines. The British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell stated, “The degree of one’s emotions varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts, the less you know the hotter you get.” With increasing amounts of misinformation about the climate conditions, the rate of individuals with climate anxiety is also climbing. In a survey of 1,000 U.S adult citizens, more than 50% reported that it was very likely or somewhat likely that the cause for human race ending would be due to climate change.
A major contributor to the panic is claims of overwhelming consensus among scientists. This assertion—that 97% of scientist agree global warming is dangerous and caused by humans—traveled around the world before the fact-check got its boots on. Despite the subsequent debunking, this falsity is still used by the climate cultists as if it were fact.
These sorts of misrepresentations and fake evidence are causing real panic in people, and inaccurate representations of the future directly impacts the urgency of solutions in our present. Dyson Freeman was a renowned theoretical physicist who was commended for his expertise in nuclear physics, engineering, and various other fields. Regardless of having multifaceted expertise, the revered scientist Freeman states “I don’t think of myself predicting things, I’m expressing possibilities. Things that could happen. To a large extent it’s a question of how badly people want them to. The purpose of thinking about the future is not to predict it but to raise people’s hopes.”
This “consensus” on a perilous future has resulted in impractical and impoverishing policies today.
The reality is that the climate has never been static. The hyperbole used by the climate-obsessed media is creating an unnecessary and uncivil atmosphere of panic and fear. The measures proposed by those who have fallen victim to the climate catastrophe narrative would halt the flourishing humans have experienced parallel to the incremental rise in CO2 levels. The energy technology they hope to ban is the same that would allow humans to adapt to a changing climate. Ridding the world of affordable, reliable energy is not only unproductive, but will lead to poverty and the deaths alarmist wish to avoid.
Knowledge is power. We find this increasingly prevalent today, and like many other aspects of our lives, we as individuals must take our knowledge into our own hands to be responsible for our overall state of being.