Fear is a potent emotion. Once fear gains ascendency it overwhelms rational thought.

Climate anxiety

The cerebral cortex, the brains centre for reasoning and judgement, becomes impaired when the amygdala in the centre of the brain senses fear. It then sends signals to the autonomic nervous system and the brain, as well as the body, prepares for action - either fight or flight.

At one time fear was an advantage when faced with the possibility of real physical threat. Today it is a tool in manipulating public reaction. If you can make people afraid of an outcome it is possible to get them to take a desired course of action which they might reject if they were thinking clearly. Not for nothing does ‘do not be afraid’ appears in the Scriptures (New International Version) as many as seventy times.

When the media no longer speaks of climate change but the ‘climate crisis’, then people begin to get even more worried. National Geographic reports ‘climate anxiety’ is growing, especially amongst the young. More than half of 10,000 young people surveyed in a global study in The Lancet agreed with the statement, ‘humanity is doomed’. Almost half the respondents said concerns about the state of the planet were interfering with their sleep, their ability to study, to play, and to have fun.

Just Stop Oil

We see a fear-driven climate catastrophe reaction side-lining reason in groups like Just Stop Oil. Just Stop Oil have been making a big name for themselves in recent weeks – and it’s not all been in their favour. They could, if they chose to, make positive demonstrations such as mass tree planting exercises.

Instead, they have overstretched their reach – their form of extreme actions having served to alienate them from increasingly large sections of the public. Their grossly disruptive actions are at the very least extremely selfish. Imagine if everyone who had strong views about an issue felt they had the right to make their case heard by bringing society to a standstill or otherwise disrupting people’s busy lives. They would be arrested and charged. Rarely so with JSO.

The mainstream media, happily give Just Stop Oil protestors prime airtime, and give the impression that although they may be a bit extreme at times, they are absolutely on the right track.

The police routinely stand by and allow JSO activists to block roadways, often causing motorists to take matters into their own hands, and drag them to the pavement, sometimes violently. The mainstream media, happily give Just Stop Oil protestors prime airtime, and give the impression that although they may be a bit extreme at times, they are absolutely on the right track. (To the delight of many, JSO received a touch of just dessert when their vegan banquet was spoiled by pranksters earlier this week).

Stopping people from getting to work, even blocking parents taking their baby to hospital, along with disrupting sporting events and even weddings – all of this is no way to garner a sympathetic hearing. Yet these activists are utterly convinced that we are facing a climate Armageddon - thoroughly convinced that humanity is on the edge of extinction, they feel they have to do something, anything, to avert the ultimate disaster. 

But do they? Is the ultimate disaster waiting in the wings and getting ever closer?

Weaponising the weather

Weather forecasts colour in deep red, purple or even black areas which are undergoing temperatures which a few years ago were just shown as orange. Is this meant to scare us, or what? This summer’s annual heatwave was even given a name, ‘Cerberus’, the multi-headed dog that guards the gates of Hades, before being replaced by Charon, the man who ferries the dead there.

It seems clear to me that sunshine is being weaponised in a bid to get the British people to adjust their ways to hit an unattainable and largely self-harming net zero target. So blatant is the manipulation that people are mocking it. ‘In Cyprus, we’re just about holding out,’ reports one holidaymaker; ‘Locals simply call it ‘summer’, but what would they know?’

The BBC rejects what it terms ‘false balance’ on reporting climate change. Only one view is allowed. The late David Bellamy was ‘frozen out’ after years of popular wildlife programmes because he described global warming as ‘poppycock.’

Climate hysteria

We are solemnly assured by broadcasters and politicians that ‘the science’ tells us that unless immediate action is taken to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2030 we will enter irreversible climate change and extinguish life on earth. Sir David Attenborough warns that ‘the collapse of civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon’. Climate hysteria has gripped the West.

The BBC rejects what it terms ‘false balance’ on reporting climate change. Only one view is allowed.

A 2005 London conference of ‘concerned climate scientists and politicians’ warned that we had only 10 years before the Earth reached ‘the point of no return on global warming.’ Humans would soon be grappling with ‘widespread agricultural failure,’ ‘major droughts,’ ‘increased disease,’ ‘the death of forests,’ and the ‘switching-off of the North Atlantic Gulf Stream,’ among many other calamities.

Unsettled science

In reality, deaths from extreme weather have dropped drastically since the 1920s. Extreme weather events still kill, but thanks to technological advances such as increasingly affordable fossil-fueled heating and air-conditioning systems, safer buildings, and better warning systems, the vast majority never have to fear weather in any genuine way.

The UN’s Climate Panel tells us that, ‘For most economic sectors, the impact of climate change will be small relative to the impacts of other drivers... Changes in population, age, income, technology, relative prices, lifestyle, regulation, governance, and many other aspects of socio-economic development will have an impact on the supply and demand of economic goods and services that is large relative to the impact of climate change’.

Dr. John Clauser, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Physics prize, has launched an excoriating attack on the ‘climate emergency’ narrative, calling it a ‘dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people’.

Quite simply, the science is far from ‘settled’. Dr. John Clauser, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Physics prize, has launched an excoriating attack on the ‘climate emergency’ narrative, calling it a ‘dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people’. He claims that misguided climate science has ‘metastasised into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience’.

No climate emergency

The World Climate Declaration (WCD) was signed by over 1,200 signatories from around the world, all experts in various fields related to climate change and environment studies, around 300 of whom are climate professors. The WCD declares, simply but emphatically: ‘There is no climate emergency’.

The lead WCD signatory is Nobel laureate Professor Ivar Giaever, who claims that climate models are ‘not remotely plausible as global policy tools’. The Declaration states that they exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, while ignoring any beneficial effect.

The World Climate Declaration declares, simply but emphatically: ‘There is no climate emergency’.

Some will argue that the failure of previous scare tactics to materialise doesn’t mean this one isn’t real.

The story of humankind is one of adaptation. We use technological advances and efficiencies to deal with change. We will adapt to organic and anthropogenic changes, as we always do, because it’s a lot cheaper than dismantling modernity. That’s the reality, no matter how hysterical activists get on mainstream media.

The Rev. Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister; now a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Check out his many incisive articles on his blog, A Grain of Sand.