The Big Lie

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” Joseph Goebbels

The “lie” need not be a total intentional untruth. The “lie” can be a partial truth, intentionally repeated out of context. The “lie” can be an opinion stated and repeated as a fact. The “lie” can be assertion of an excessive degree of certainty about something which is uncertain. The “lie” can be an attempt to raise a level of concern regarding an issue which is out of proportion to the actual perceived threat.

The approach of the United Nations, through the UNFCCC and the IPCC, to the issue of climate change bears a startling resemblance to “The Big Lie”. The approach of some government leaders also bears such resemblance. Climate change is frequently referred to as the “climate crisis”, though there is no evidence that climate change is, or is leading to, a crisis. The US House of Representatives leadership is forming a “Select Committee on the Climate Crisis” to address the issue. The “Green New Deal” has been introduced in both the US Senate and House, accompanied by the assertion that the world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t act aggressively now. Government-funded studies assert that fossil energy can be replaced by renewable energy within this time frame, without significant adverse economic consequences.

The US Administration has recently suggested establishment of a Presidential Committee on Climate Security (PCCS) to conduct an independent scientific review of climate science related to the potential adverse impacts of climate change on national security. This suggestion has been met with outrage on the part of numerous climate scientists and numerous politicians supportive of the consensus position on climate change. There has even been an assertion that the proposed effort was “Stalinist” and akin to Lysenkoism. This is clearly hyperbolic reaction, though it is consistent with the long-standing position of the consensed climate science community that “the science is settled”, that “the time for debate is over” and that those who do not accept the consensus are “deniers” and their skepticism is disingenuous.

The controversy over the PCCS is essentially a conflict between the current “state”, as represented by the current Administration, and the previous “state”, as represented by the previous Administration and the embedded elements of the previous Administration commonly referred to as “the deep state”. The PCCS is intended to question “the political, economic and/or military consequences of the “lie”.

It is long past time for a skeptical review and assessment of the current state of climate science and the policy recommendations based upon the climate science.