The Science of Climate Change

Chapter 8Delinearized History of Climate Change Hysteria

8.1 Introduction

Ever since the oil embargo of 1972, the world has been gripped with the fear of ‘energy crisis’. U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in 1978, told the world in a televised speech that the world was in fact running out of oil at a rapid pace – a popular Peak Oil theory of the time – and that the US had to wean itself off of the commodity. Since the day of that speech, worldwide oil output has actually increased by more than 30%, and known available reserves are higher than they were at that time. This hysteria has survived the era of Reaganomics, President Clinton’s cold war dividend, President G.W. Bush’s post-9–11 era of ‘fearing everything but petroleum’ and today even the most ardent supporters of petroleum industry have been convinced that there is an energy crisis looming and that is only a matter of time; we will be forced to switch no-petroleum energy source. During President Obama’s time, there had been a marked shift toward so-called renewable energy and the background of ‘only a carbon tax can fix the climate change debacle’ mantra was firmly established. President Trump has strived to undo much of those biases away from petroleum resources, but the scientific community remain unconvinced. In this chapter, we deconstruct some of the hysteria and unscientific bias that have gripped the scientific community as well as left leaning segment of the general public.

The general public is being prepared to ...