For decades, we have been bombarded with climate extremism including predictions that the world would end, the planet would burn up and the human race would be annihilated because of climate change. As time went on and the dire predictions of climate zealots did not come to pass, there has been more well-founded scepticism about whether there is indeed an existential climate crisis at all. If this were merely a philosophical debate that would be one thing, but trillions of dollars have been wasted world-wide in attempting to fight “climate change” with little to no results. That massive amount of money could have been used much more effectively to actually help raise poor countries out of poverty, improve economic performance and benefit humanity rather than pursue an increasingly foolish looking ideological crusade.
A recent series of discussion papers by the Fraser Institute entitled Climate Change: A Fact-based Assessment of Costs, Trade-offs and Results, analyses this issue. This series adds to the growing body of evidence that proves the pointlessness of past climate policies. This series of research was overseen by Bjorn Lomborg, renowned Danish political scientist, author and environmentalist. Lomborg has for years been an opponent of extreme policies that attempt to combat climate change. He acknowledges that human-caused climate change is indeed real but is not an apocalyptic crisis and that aggressive net-zero carbon policies are too expensive and hurt the poorest in society. As opposed to attempting to alter climate change, he recommends adapting to it, something that humans have done for centuries.
One of the papers in the series looks at the various concerns facing Canadians and others around the world, and remarks that climate change is just one policy concern among many, and that priorities must be set. The fact we have many more pressing issues such as affordability, sky-high housing costs, failing healthcare and global turbulence, among others, means that limited financial resources must be carefully prioritized. Also, the fact that climate zealots have for decades predicted irreversible doom and worked to scare people into supporting climate policies that have been shown to be failures have led to the public tuning out and being less worried about these issues.
Another paper notes how deaths due to heat are given much more publicity than deaths due to cold. For every single continent, deaths from cold exceed heat deaths. The facts show than nine times more people world-wide die from cold than from heat. Although rising temperatures have contributed somewhat to deaths due to heat, most of these deaths would have happened anyway without the temperature rise due to things like our population including a higher percentage of elderly people who are more vulnerable to heat deaths. While there has been somewhat of an increase in deaths caused by heat, deaths due to cold have plummeted as a result of improvements in technology and reductions in poverty. Overall, the statistics on climate-related deaths have improved greatly, which is rarely publicized in the media and by climate activists.
A third paper looks at how much of the world’s land has burned in recent years. Wildfires have received a great deal of attention recently, and climate change is typically blamed as the culprit. Yet the data show that in the early 2000s, about three per cent of the world’s surface burned annually, and this has fallen to 2.2 per cent in the most recent data. Despite the frightening warnings, the planet is not on fire.
Another story debunked by these papers is that natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes etc. are getting worse because of climate change. The facts indicate otherwise. The reality is that when we hear the cost of natural disasters in a given year, the numbers will be higher than in the past because the value of the real estate in question has increased, not because there are more disasters. The global mortality from natural disasters has declined by over 600 per cent from the 1980s to the period from 2007-2016.
Climate alarmists have also claimed that food production has been reduced because of climate change. Once again, the data show that there is actually more food being grown globally than ever before, and the average number of children dying from malnutrition has fallen substantially from 6.5 million annually to 2.5 million. This positive trend is expected to continue in future.
There will be more papers in future from this Fraser Institute project, undoubtedly further debunking the disinformation arising from the climate cabal. Around the world, most countries are backing off on their costly devotion to various climate policies as the evidence becomes more and more conclusive. Despite the increasing research demonstrating how policies like carbon taxes, emissions controls, attempts to “decarbonize” fossil fuels via carbon capture and storage and others are a huge waste of money that could be much better spent elsewhere, Canada under the Carney Liberal government remains one of the holdouts in pretending these actions still make sense. The other key holdout in retaining the destructive climate policies is the European Union, with which Carney wants Canada to be more allied.
Canadians need to become more aware of the facts on this important issue, and the Fraser Institute papers are an easy read and a good resource in that regard. Then we must let our governments know that we don’t want any more of our scarce tax dollars wasted on these pointless policies which are damaging our economy, our standard of living and hurting the people that can least afford it.
Catherine Swift was President of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers & Businesses Canada from 2022 to 2026. She was previously President of Working Canadians from 2015-2021 & President & CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) from 1995-2014. She was Chief Economist of the CFIB from 1987-1995, Senior Economist with TD Bank from 1983-1987 & held several positions with the federal government from 1976-1983.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
