Peta Credlin: Trump-backed report reveals surprising findings on climate change impact

Rather than demonise reports denying a “climate crisis”, the advocates of ever more drastic “climate action” need to explain the full costs of policies and justify them, writes Peta Credlin.

Whatever you think of US President Donald Trump, he at least keeps his (political) promises.

In his first campaign, he promised to “build a wall”, “drain the swamp”, “pull out of Paris”, “cut taxes”, “boost defence spending” and “move the US embassy to Jerusalem”. And to the best of his ability, he delivered.

This time round, he added a further promise to use tariffs to rebuild America’s industrial base, and – again – regardless of what you think of the merits, he’s been utterly faithful to his pre-election commitments.

Another frequently repeated Trump declaration has been that climate change – in the sense that mankind’s CO2 emissions are its main cause and that without urgent action the planet faces catastrophe – is a “hoax”.

Upon being nominated, the incoming US Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, declared that there’s actually “no climate crisis” and that, moreover, there’s “no energy transition”, given the world’s continuing need for fossil fuels.

US President Donald Trump was right to call climate change a “hoax”. Picture: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Just over a week ago, the Trump administration released a scientific report, A Critical Review of the Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emission on the US, authored – among others – by Steven Koonin, President Barack Obama’s undersecretary for science, and Professor Judith Curry, former professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The report concluded that “climate change is real and deserves attention but is not the greatest threat facing humanity”. Climate change, it said, “is a challenge – not a catastrophe”.

A much bigger challenge is actually “global energy poverty”, given that modern lifestyles depend upon cheap and abundant energy.

Naturally, this report has been panned by all the academics and vested interests that have built careers and made money out of pandering to climate alarmism. But after careful analysis of the objective data, the report concludes that temperature rises, past and forecast, have been exaggerated, that recent weather events are hardly unprecedented, and that increased atmospheric CO2 (because it’s a plant food) is more likely to do good than harm.

There’s even a table, based on recorded heights of the Nile at Cairo, to suggest that nothing significant has changed in some 1400 years.

Of course, we only have one planet and there’s a duty to care for it. But rather than dismiss or demonise reports like this, the advocates of ever more drastic “climate action” need to explain the full costs of their policies and justify them.

After all, what’s the point, if global emissions will rise anyway? Isn’t adaptation smarter?

THUMBS UP

Giggle CEO Sall Grover for appealing the court judgment that men can be women when biological reality is crystal clear, scientific and immutable.

THUMBS DOWN

The Albanese government for watering down the English-language requirements for some visas. It’s just plain dumb!

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Originally published as Peta Credlin: Trump-backed report reveals surprising findings on climate change impact