My climate book emphasized the critical role that the 2016 Presidential election was likely to play in the ultimate outcome of the climate issue. This turned out to be the case even though climate was not a major issue in the campaign.
Just when it appeared all too likely that the climate hoax/scam was about to go into high gear as a result of the predicted election victory of Hillary Clinton by the mainstream media (MSM) and her likely appointment of a liberal to the Supreme Court, everything changed last week. Clinton had agreed to most of the Climate-industrial Complex’s (CIC’s) desired energy policies and even strongly endorsed Albert Gore’s climate views at a campaign rally, perhaps in a last minute attempt to get the extra votes she so badly needed. But the election outcome suddenly provided a major ray of hope that economic and scientific sanity will finally have a real chance to be heard and implemented after eight long years of Obama’s misguided climate alarmism.
Climate skeptics now have a major opportunity to convince their fellow citizens of the validity of their cause before the other party regains control of the White House and may again be able to implement their disastrous and unjustified energy policies. President-elect Trump appears to actually be a climate skeptic. He appointed a prominent climate skeptic, Myron Ebell, as the head of his transition team for the US Environmental Protection Agency. And hopefully President Trump will not try to disguise his climate skepticism like George W. Bush tried to do during his term in office.
The MSM immediately tried to paint a number of Trump appointees in the darkest possible terms, often on the basis of character assassinations with little or no basis in fact. One of their targets has been Ebell, one of the more prominent leaders of the climate skeptic community. The MSM seems particularly concerned that he might become the new EPA Administrator despite his wide knowledge of environomental issues and policy players gained in a career devoted to bringing sanity to environmental/energy/climate public policy. His knowledge of these issues is clearly better than that of most previous Administrators, some of whom knew very little when they assumed office and had to learn on the job.
The Real Problem: Refusal of MSM and CIC to Recognize Reality
Clearly the real problem from the MSM’s viewpoint is that Ebell disagrees with their support for the climate hoax/scam. I was pleased that a climate skeptic was appointed as the head of the EPA Transition Team and believe he would be a very effective Administrator if he should be offered the job. He would not have to come up the learning curve since he knows most of the people and issues involved and has dealt with them for years. And he knows enough climate science to be able to distinguish valid from invalid science, unlike climate alarmists.
If the climate alarmists were being rational they would have realized that their hoax/scam is unlikely to survive four years of an openly climate skeptic US Administration if the skeptics continue their strong efforts. The rational response would be for alarmists to drop their misguided efforts to damage the energy basis for modern civilization as well as to drastically raise the current prices for energy, which are essential for the welfare of people in all modern economies. Perhaps they might actually learn just how invalid alarmist climate science is and abandon their efforts to reduce economic welfare altogether. But if the first reaction to the new situation is any indication of things to come, the CIC and the MSM intend to step up their outrageous attacks on climate skeptics and their sound evidence-supported science rather than surrendering to reality.
The major risk is that skeptics may shift their efforts away from climate alarmism because of the four or at most eight year reduction in the pressure on them by the alarmists. This reduction is an opportunity for skeptics, not a final victory.