Tracing the political origins of the global warming movement | Eastern NC Now

The idea that human produced CO2 impacts climate was a largely ignored and discredited one-man theory from the 1890s until it fit a political agenda in the 1980s and government money was pumped into it.  The boom of advocacny of this theory has been politically driven more than scientifically driven, as the politicians know that when you pump money into something, you will get followers.

The man who invented the theory was a Swedish scientist named Svante Arheniss who published a few articles in 1896 proposing it.  He got no support, and the theory was largely forgotten for decades.  Then in 1981, a British scientific magazine, The New Scientist, then editted by Nigel Calder, published an article about it.

That article generated political interest because the theory's anti-fossil fuel diktat was useful to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government's fights with the leftwing coal miners union and with the Arab oil sheiks.   To avoid dealing with the oil sheiks and the miners unions, Thatcher wanted to move to nuclear energy.  To pump up this largely dead, but politically useful, scientific theory, Thatcher had her Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, dump millions of pounds of research grants into promoting the theory. That was the first govenrment money thrown at the theory.

Money talks, and there was no problem with finding scientists willing to shill for the theory to get part of that research money.  In the early days, the more prestigious universities were not so much attracted to it, but the more obscure institutions that were more desperate for funding like the University of East Anglia, jumped on it.  It was the University of East Anglia that later became the site where the Climategate emails were unearthed.

The British political origins of the revival of this old theory are discussed in the British TV documentary, "The Great Global Warming Swindle" which was broadcast nationally on the UK's Channel 4.  Among those interviewed are both former New Scientist editor Nigel Calder, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson (now Lord Lawson of Blaby), both of whom reject the merits of the global warming theory.  That documentary can be watched free at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYhCQv5tNsQ

With the British political grant money breathing new life into the old theory, another powerful player also grasped how this theory could be used for their own political purposes, the United Nations.  This offered the UN an area where they could grow their power and influence, and they jumped on it.  Other globalist forces followed suit.   Others who see political or economic benefits for themselves to have western countries hamstrung by climate mandates have also jumped in.  Russian funding for American and European environmental organizations, much of it funneled through a holding company in Bermuda, has pumped up the global warming cause, as has Chinese money which has mostly been funnelled through universities.

Some political leaders have recognized the damage that can be done by the political use of this theory.  An example is Dr. Vaclav Klaus, who has served both as Prime Minister and as President of the Czech Republic, and who calls climate alarmism "a budding totalitarian ideology that is the greatest threat to freedom, democracy,and prosperity in the world today."  Dr. Klaus has written a book, "Blue Planet in Green Shackles - what is in jeopardy, climate or freedom?" to expound on his position, that has been published in eight languages.

Much as Hitler misused science to promote his authoritarian theories, today's authoritarians, the globalists, are playing the same game.