The Definitive History of Climate Change

Humanity turned the tide in its battle with climate change late in the 21st century.

The Definitive History of Climate Change

By: George Noga – January 31, 2021

Incredibly, MLLG has obtained a United Nations report written 100 years in the future to commemorate the final victory of mankind over climate change and the culmination of its struggle that spanned 150 years and cost several quadrillion dollars.

Summary of 2121 United Nations Report

The warming of our planet was caused by the convergence of two forces. The stronger force (by far) was solar-caused warming, which was part of the normal pattern throughout history of alternating cycles of warming and cooling. It followed a cooling period that ended circa 1850. As with other such cooling periods, it was followed by an interval of warming beginning in the late nineteenth century. It began abating (as best we can tell) circa 2075. Since that time there has been no established climate trend.

The second, and far weaker, force was the increase in emissions of greenhouse gasses from industrialization. Mankind became sentient about this circa 1990 and began taking measures to limit temperature rise. The first measures, including international climate accords, were ineffectual, pork-laden and politicized. Most damningly, they squandered treasure on schemes that, if successful, would have made no discernable difference. Worse yet, these schemes diverted scarce resources from other critical human needs and away from productive efforts to mitigate the effects of warming.

Mankind came to it senses in the middle of the 21st century. As temperature continued to rise, more funds were directed to mitigation, which achieved far greater results. Moreover, warming proved beneficial in many ways, most notably in agriculture, reforestation and the virtual elimination of deaths from cold. Humanity turned the tide and began to win the battle in the latter part of the 21st century and sealed the victory in the first two decades of this century. We owe our victory chiefly to four forces.

The warming cycle moderated after two centuries, as have all such prior cycles throughout history, including those long before man trod this earth.

Population peaked soon after the middle of the 21st century and inexorably began to decline. Today, population is less than 100 years ago and continues to plunge. As a direct consequence, greenhouse gas emissions stabilized and now are declining.

Economic growth was maximized. Humans began to behave rationally and people today are fifteen times richer than they were 100 years ago in 2021. A corollary of greater wealth is the willingness of people to spend more to protect the environment.

Mitigation worked. Throughout history, humans and market economies proved incredibly resourceful and successfully mitigated every deleterious effect of climate change. This was greatly facilitated by the fifteen-fold increase in wealth.

However, many critical mistakes were made early in the 21st century and it is imperative we learn from them. One grievous error must never be repeated. The politicization of science (along with everything else) came within a hairsbreadth of causing a catastrophe. Vast amounts of government funding ($3,000 to every $1 funded by others) were directed only to scientists and academics toeing the party line.

Extreme political correctness on campuses prevented those with differing views from speaking; even debates were banned. The media parroted the government position and mercilessly excoriated anyone who differed. Politicians glommed on, using climate as a pretext to achieve more control and power; they rewarded their friends with trillions of dollars of pork, wasted on ineffective, feel-good measures like wind and solar.

Fortunately, we overcame our early blunders and now may properly celebrate our epic victory over climate change even though it was a close-fought thing. Hopefully, mankind has learned from this experience never again to politicize science and always to value free debate even when – particularly when – it is the most unpopular.


Our next post on February 7th is MLLG’s State of the Union Speech
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