For more than three decades, the world has endured a relentless campaign of fear. Activists, politicians, and media outlets painted a picture of impending doom. Rising seas would swallow cities. Polar ice caps would vanish. Unprecedented heat would devastate crops and starve billions. These apocalyptic visions gripped the public and justified trillions in spending. Yet none of those catastrophes arrived on schedule. The predictions failed. Temperatures barely budged. Meanwhile, a new green industry emerged, minting billionaires who lecture the rest of us from the comfort of their private jets.
Environmental scholar Bjorn Lomborg recently calculated that governments worldwide have poured at least 16 trillion dollars into the climate change industrial complex. That figure comes from Stephen Moore in his sharp analysis published on ZeroHedge. Moore asks a simple question: For what? He answers bluntly. Arguably, not a single life has been or will be saved by this shameful and colossal misallocation of human resources.
The war on affordable ‘fossil fuels’ has hurt the poorest nations most. It blocked access to reliable energy and kept billions in poverty. Moore notes that since the global warming crusade began some 30 years ago, the temperature of the planet has not been altered by one-tenth of a degree, as even the alarmists admit. In other words, 16 trillion dollars changed hands. A lot of people got very, very rich off the government largesse. But there is not a penny of measurable payoff.
Farmers know this story all too well. In the name of net zero targets, governments imposed strict regulations on fertilizer use, livestock emissions, and land management. These rules drove up costs and squeezed food production, especially in Europe and parts of the United States. Meanwhile, the green elite collected billions in grants and tax credits. Companies like those behind massive solar projects and battery factories became household names, their executives celebrated as saviors. The same leaders who demanded sacrifice from ordinary citizens jetted off to climate summits in private planes. Al Gore warned of an ice-free Arctic summer by around 2014. The ice remains. Leonardo DiCaprio and other celebrities crisscross the globe in fuel-guzzling jets while preaching austerity. World leaders arrive at COP conferences with fleets of private aircraft, then lecture about carbon footprints.
This is not environmentalism. It is one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history, dressed up as planetary salvation. The apocalyptic rhetoric kept the public scared and compliant. Failed forecast after failed forecast, from 1970s predictions of civilization ending by 2000 to claims of irreversible tipping points by 2016, rolled on without consequence. Each time, the solution stayed the same: more money for the green machine.
Moore calls the climate change derangement syndrome perhaps the most inhumane political movement in history. The good news is that the fever appears to be breaking. Even in Europe, net zero zeal is cooling under economic reality. In the United States, policies are shifting away from the most punishing regulations. The focus now turns to abundant, reliable energy that actually lifts living standards, including for agriculture.
The 16 trillion dollars is gone. Sunk costs cannot be recovered. But the lesson stands. When fear drives policy, the results enrich a few while the many pay the price. AgroWars readers see it daily in the fields: real challenges like soil health, water access, and market volatility deserve attention, not manufactured crises that line the pockets of jet-setting elites. The greatest financial scandal in history has been exposed. It is time to move on.