November 2000 and December 2009 were both supposed to be our last, best chance to save the planet from climate disaster.



Two days ago, a headline at the BBC threatened us with climate disaster. We were advised that this moment – October 2018 – is our final call at the Last Chance Saloon. Either we turn our economies and societies upside down, making “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,” or things get ugly.

Yeah, right. What’s really going on is that a UN entity called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has finished yet another report that’s being used to hype yet another UN climate summit. You know, the summit that takes place at the end of every single calendar year.

Back in November 2000 – nearly two decades ago – we were similarly threatened. On that occasion, we were told that “our children and grandchildren…will look back on November 2000 as the month when Britain, America and the world failed to take the last, best chance to bring global warming under control.”

In between the fake 2000 crisis and today’s hype, there was also the December 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen. Matters were urgent then, too. 56 newspapers in 45 countries published a joint editorial insisting humanity’s chances of sidestepping permanent disaster would be “determined in the next 14 days.” History would judge the current generation, intoned these newspapers, based on what occurred during those two weeks.

The UK Telegraph wasn’t one of these 56 newspapers, but it likewise non-skeptically quoted Lord Stern calling Copenhagen the “most important gathering since the second world war, given what is at stake”.

There’s absolutely nothing new going on here, folks. UN drama queens. Silly reporters. Media outlets insulting our intelligence by recycling the same hyperbole over and over again.

So enjoy a beverage at the saloon this evening. But don’t pay the slightest attention to the doom mongers or the killjoys. I promise you: five years from now the headlines will say exactly the same thing.

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