Five years ago, we were told that the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit was the last chance to save civilization. As the 2015 Paris summit approaches, the same sort of fear mongering is ramping up.

Earlier this week, a climate declaration published as a full-page ad in the international edition of New York Times tried to frighten us. It told us that:

the UN Climate Summit in Paris in December 2015 may be the last chance to agree a treaty capable of saving civilization; [bold added]

The declaration insisted that global warming may “cause the very fabric of civilization to crash.” It said charitable foundations should therefore divert resources away from other projects – presumably building hospitals and schools, preventing blindness and malaria, ensuring basic sanitation – in order to “save civilization” from the climate scourge.

Problem is, we’ve heard this before. Not so very long ago, the British Prime Minister, a prominent economist, EU officials, professional activists and green politicians were all insisting that our last chance to save civilization was the 2009 climate summit held in Copenhagen. Remember these headlines?

.

.

.

.

.

more on the recent climate declaration:

Part 1: About Those Eco Laureates

Part 2: More Dubious Eco Laureates

Part 3: Saving Civilization: 2009 vs 2015

Part 4: Who Signed the Climate Declaration?

.

.