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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 25, Issue 1
New Documentary’s ‘Cold Truth’ About Climate
By Andrew Weiss April 2024
when it comes to delivering basic needs, such as health care, sanitation, safe drink- ing water, and protection from heat waves and cold snaps. Thanks to economic growth powered by fossil fuels, deaths from natural disasters have plummeted as societies gained the means to protect themselves.
Even if America stopped emitting carbon overnight, global temperatures would de- cline by less than 0.2 of a degree Celsius by the year 2100, according to government models.
We all want a future where humans can thrive in a clean environment. But as the eye-opening documentary “Climate the Movie: The Cold Truth” reveals, while we hear dire warnings that we must rapidly eliminate fossil fuels to avoid a climate ca- tastrophe, we are manufacturing a humani- tarian crisis of our own.
As Clauser states in the film, “CO2 is quite unimportant in controlling the Earth’s cli-
The real crisis we risk is
one of our own making.
The movie focuses on Grace Nyakenanda, a resi- dent of Kisii, Kenya. She lives without access to electricity or gas, relying instead on burning wood and dried dung for cooking and heat- ing. Unfortunately, reliance on these methods exposes her and millions of others around the world to harmful fumes, leading to serious health issues, such as lung disease, blindness, and pre- mature death.
Aggressive climate policies make us dangerously de- pendent on supply chains for solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and minerals con- trolled by China.
Germany’s renewable-en- ergy mandates have driven consumer prices to more than triple the levels seen in the United States. This en- tirely avoidable situation places a heavy burden on German businesses, unnec- essarily increasing their operating costs. This has trade unions sounding the alarm about the imminent threat of deindustrial- ization as companies struggle to remain competitive. By all means, let’s use renewable technolo- gies as they become reliable and cost-effec- tive, including nuclear energy. Attempting to legislate an accelerated transition is a recipe for disaster when reality collides with wish- ful thinking. Protecting human life and well-being has to be our top priority. That’s the firm foun- dation on which all environmental progress depends. Only by embracing energy abundance and resilience can we continue to raise domestic and international standards of living and preserve hard-won economic gains
mate.”
Wealthy countries built their economic re- silience on coal, oil, and gas. Denying the same benefit to poor countries for the sake of hypothetical climate risk is immoral. The documentary shows that the goal of energy policy should be to provide clean, re- liable, and resilient power to raise standards of living, both in America and overseas. That means maintaining an energy mix that can handle nature’s curveballs. It means maximizing our options, not banning entire categories of energy the world still needs. But as environmentalists seek to ban fossil fuels, they are raising the price of elec- tricity for some and depriving others in emerging economies of that valuable re- source. The movie aired on YouTube the same week that the Environmental Protection Agency issued final regulations requiring 70% of new cars sold to be hybrid or battery- powered electric by 2032. But that raises costs and inconveniences households for no gain, because banning fossil fuels in Amer- ica would not affect global temperatures.
Despite headlines about worsening hurri- canes, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows no long- term increase in the frequency or intensity of U.S. hurricanes since records began being kept in the mid-1800s. “Climate the Movie: The Cold Truth” shows that climate models have consistently over- estimated warming, running 43% hotter than actual observations over the past 50 years. Policymakers are nonetheless rushing to implement aggressive emissions cuts and re- newable energy mandates that prioritize green energy, but raise costs and result in more blackouts. The more an electric grid relies on inter- mittent sources of energy, such as wind and solar generation, the more vulnerable it be- comes to blackouts. For the world’s poorest nations, giving up fossil fuels is catastrophic. Affordable, de- pendable power is a life-or-death matter
In our fervor to save the planet, let’s not forget the lives that hang in the balance.
“Climate the Movie: The Cold Truth” is free and available for viewing on YouTube.
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