For two decades and more, the political position of the climate alarm cult in the U.S. and Europe has only seemed to strengthen with time. In the U.S., the Obama and Biden Administrations have both pushed huge regulatory initiatives to restrict use of fossil fuels (with only some modest roll-backs during Trump’s four years); some of the most sweeping restrictions got pushed through just a week ago. Meanwhile, blue states like California and New York have enacted ever-more-extreme restrictions by statute. In Europe, there has been a near all-party political consensus in favor of the “net zero” agenda, notably including even the mainstream conservative parties in the largest countries like the UK and Germany.
I have long said that sooner or later a combination of physical reality and cost would stop the “net zero” juggernaut in its tracks. Indeed, that has begun to happen, particularly in Europe. Elections for the European Parliament are coming up in about a month, with climate skeptic candidates and parties looking to score substantial gains.
So how is the left reacting? So far, the official talking point seems to be to belittle the resistance to fossil fuel restrictions as some kind of scheme of the “far right.” The “far right,” we are told, are those nefarious people who dare to stand up for maintaining the living standards of the working stiffs against those who would impoverish us all in the quixotic drive to reduce carbon emissions. Somehow, seemingly independent news organization put out articles using the exact same words and phrases. Here are a couple of recent examples.
In the Washington Post on May 1, the headline is “How car bans and heat pump rules drive voters to the far right.” Subheadline: “Studies show that as energy prices rise, so do right-wing movements against green policies.” Excerpt:
A . . . backlash is happening all over Europe, as far-right parties position themselves in opposition to green policies. In Germany, a law that would have required homeowners to install heat pumps galvanized the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, giving it a boost. Farmers have rolled tractors into Paris to protest E.U. agricultural rules, and drivers in Italy and Britain have protested attempts to ban gas-guzzling cars from city centers. . . .
Th[e] resurgence of the right could slow down the green transition in Europe, . . . as climate policies increasingly touch citizens’ lives. . . . “This has really expanded the coalition of the far right,” said Erik Voeten, a professor of geopolitics at Georgetown University and the author of the new study on the Netherlands.
The Post’s writer, Shannon Osaka, seems genuinely surprised that the common people of Europe would place any value on maintaining their standard of living:
[C]hanges to driving, home heating and farming are beginning to affect individual Europeans — sparking criticism and anger. “What’s happening as we accelerate the pace of the transition is we’re now starting to get into sectors that inevitably touch on people’s lives,” said Luke Shore, strategy director for Project Tempo, a nonprofit research organization that is assessing how climate policies affect voting patterns in Europe. “We’ve reached the point at which it’s becoming personal — and for that reason, it’s also becoming more political.” The problem, researchers say, occurs when individual consumers feel that the cost of the energy transition is being borne on their shoulders — rather than on governments and corporations.
Who could ever have guessed that this might happen? As an example of crazy “far right” lunacy, the Post cites this line from the manifesto of the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands:
“Energy is a basic need, but climate madness has turned it into a very expensive luxury item.”
I mean, how could you get any more extreme “far right” than that?
In a very similar vein, we have a piece from the Guardian on April 30, with the headline, “How climate policies are becoming focus for far-right attacks in Germany.” Again, the gist is that this is just coming from extremists that you don’t need to pay any attention to. Excerpt:
At the marches held in Görlitz, a stronghold of the far right on the Polish border, and other towns across Germany every Monday night, supporters of [the Alternative for Germany and Free Saxony] parties vent their fury at immigration, coronavirus restrictions and military aid to Ukraine. But one group bears the brunt of the blame. “The Greens are our main enemy,” said Jankus, describing the AfD as a party of freedom and the Greens as a party of bans. “We don’t want to tell people how to heat their homes. We don’t want to tell people what kind of engine should be in their car.”
Freedom — there’s a really lunatic “far right” idea. Rather than trying to explain to the readers why there is something wrong with support of “freedom,” the Guardian instead veers off into characterizing these “far right” demonstrators as really, really bad people:
[Green] party speaker Carolin Renner said she and her colleagues had had death threats screamed in their faces, white-pride stickers stuck to their door and a daily barrage of hateful comments posted on their social media channels. Shortly before Christmas, protesters dumped horse manure in front of the Greens’ office in nearby Zittau.
Despite the characterizations, the article contains no actual example of anything described as a “death threat” or a “hateful comment.” We’ll just have to take the word of the Green Party spokesperson.
Well, the European elections are just about a month away at this point. The climate skeptic parties are expected to make some noticeable gains. However, the actual mandatory requirements for most people to ditch the gas-powered car for an electric one, or to buy a heat pump to heat their home, have not yet kicked in. When that happens, perhaps we will see a real political tornado.
