When Americans hear about carbon dioxide (CO2), it’s often shown as a harmful pollutant that threatens the planet. Politicians, activists, and media outlets warn that if we don’t reduce emissions right away, disasters will happen. [emphasis, links added]
Preeminent “climate scientist” Al Gore told Congress in 2007, “The science is settled. Carbon dioxide emissions – from cars, power plants, buildings, and other sources – are heating the Earth’s atmosphere.” He continued warning, “The planet has a fever.”
What if the fever is instead a cold plunge? As CNN reminded us earlier this year, “Record-breaking cold: Temperatures to plunge to as much as 50 degrees below normal.”
The Weather Channel posted on Facebook last week, “Record-breaking cold temperatures for August provide many with their first taste of fall.”
What happened to global warming?
Let’s not focus on the last year or the last fifty years. Instead, let’s look at the past 600 million years. From this perspective, the story looks very different.
Dr. Patrick Moore, cofounder of Greenpeace, authored a policy paper in 2016 titled “The positive impact of CO2 emissions on the survival of life on earth.”
Note the organization he cofounded. This is not some far-right, anti-science, fascist, Nazi, white supremacist organization, as the left would characterize anyone questioning “settled” climate science.
Since its founding in 1971, Greenpeace has promoted environmental activism.
In his paper, Dr. Moore presented the graph below:
The main point from the graph is that current CO2 levels are not dangerously high. In fact, they are quite the opposite, being some of the lowest in history.
For most of Earth’s history, CO2 concentrations were many times higher than today’s 420 ppm. Even during the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs roamed, levels were about four times higher than today.
From a geological view, our current CO2 levels are among the lowest in history. Yet climate advocates focus on a tiny rise in CO2 in recent years, ignoring the previous half-billion years.
Alarmists scream that 420 ppm is unprecedented and endangers the planet’s survival. However, the reality is nearly the opposite: we could be experiencing a CO2 drought.
To my knowledge, dinosaurs didn’t drive gas-guzzling SUVs, run the air conditioner, or cook on gas stoves. Yet, miraculously, the Earth neither burned up nor became uninhabitable, as Al Gore and other climate alarmists currently predict.
Great news. Another year has passed and Arctic Sea Ice stubbornly refuses to comply with Al Gore’s melting request. For 13 years running, we fail to make a new minimum. In fact, Arctic Sea ice has a larger extent compared to 2007 (18 years ago).
Had we listened to Al Gore, we… pic.twitter.com/SRbufAEcK6
— Luke Earthcrawler (@LEarthcrawler) September 16, 2025
Instead, life thrived, diversified, and expanded to the point that I can write this article on my laptop, in the comfort of my air-conditioned home, before I fire up the grill for dinner.
What stands out is not correlation but complexity.
Temperature and CO2 did not move in lockstep. Sometimes, CO2 was high during cooling periods, and other times, CO2 decreased while temperatures rose.
The “lockstep causation” story falls apart when viewed over millions of years. Earth’s climate is influenced by many factors, such as solar cycles, orbital changes, volcanic activity, and ocean currents, not just a single trace gas.
CO2 makes up only 0.04% of the atmosphere, less than one part per thousand. The complexity is summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):
“The climate system is a coupled nonlinear chaotic system, and therefore the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.”
If CO2 has in the past reached ten times current levels without causing a runaway greenhouse effect, how can today’s modest increase be seen as an existential threat?
The Earth system is more resilient than many activists admit. That resilience, demonstrated over hundreds of millions of years of survival, should humble today’s doom prophets.
Fortunately, policymakers are beginning to see that climate alarmism is based on shaky ground. As ZeroHedge reported, Trump’s EPA plans to remove greenhouse gases from the list of regulated pollutants, recognizing that treating CO2 like sulfur dioxide or mercury isn’t scientifically justified.
They summarized the rationale well.
Trump’s reversal of EPA standards and deregulation will help the U.S. economy. More importantly, it starts the much-needed process of removing climate change brainwashing from the federal government’s vernacular. It’s time for Western civilization to abandon the climate hoax and move on.
More recently, the New York Times reported a more significant development: The EPA is now revoking its Endangerment Finding on greenhouse gases.
That 2009 decision served as the legal—though not scientific—foundation for the federal government’s climate policy.
By rescinding it, the agency admits what skeptics have claimed all along. CO2 is not a poison but a natural part of the biosphere, essential for plant life, agriculture, and human survival.
Simply put, CO2 is plant food and vital for life on Earth.
When even the EPA admits that the case against CO2 isn’t as strong as claimed, why should the rest of us accept the narrative of “settled science,” whether it’s about CO2 or COVID-era masks, vaccines, distancing, and lockdowns?
Perhaps the most troubling result of climate panic isn’t faulty science but poor policymaking. Fear opens the door to authoritarian control.
We saw this during COVID lockdowns when extreme restrictions were justified in the name of “public health.” Climate alarmists now use the same tactics, claiming that global warming is an “existential threat.”
As HotAir recently reported, three Canadian provinces have implemented sweeping bans on entering woodland areas, citing wildfire risks and climate change. Violators face heavy fines or jail time.
Critics quickly pointed out the striking similarity to so-called “climate lockdowns,” once dismissed as conspiracy theories. Yet here they are, with citizens barred from a common outdoor activity in the name of climate policy.
This isn’t environmental stewardship; it’s authoritarian social control. A government willing to close forests today will be willing to restrict cars, air travel, or even personal diets tomorrow, all justified as part of a “climate emergency.”
Read rest at American Thinker
