George Rebane

The ‘science’ of climate change, as reported to an ignorant public, has been and continues on a deluge of lies and hysteria.  Globally it is undoubtedly the most widespread and influential scam ever perpetrated by special interests in politics and, yes, science to make money and gain power.  The most prevalent m.o. is to ascribe all harmful weather events, from heat waves to blizzards, as due to global warming, never mind the mountains of evidence to the contrary. 

It is summer and therefore wildfire season.  It is also the annual hysteria du jour with yellow journalists devoting prime time to videos of burning vegetation with flames reaching for the sky and background commentary citing this or that ‘expert’ attributing it all to catastrophic global warming.  The clear message is that the only way to fix the climate is by destroying our economies through massive new taxes, regulations, curtailing freedoms, changing lifestyles all enforced by ever larger governments.

One of the constant voices of reason in this climate cacophony has been Dr Bjorn Lomborg, the frequently interviewed president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center – a noted think tank researching solutions to the world’s biggest problems, advising policy-makers and philanthropists on how to most effectively spend their money.

Lomborg makes it clear that the global threat of wildfires is overstated by the media and environmental activists.  He cites data from NASA’s Earth Observatory and the European Space Agency, which show a steady drop in global fires since comprehensive satellite tracking began in the late 1990s. The total acreage burned by wildfires has significantly decreased over the last century. He points to a decline of approximately 25% in the global annual burned area over the last quarter-century.  Combining this data with historical reconstructions, the resulting trend shows a clear, long-term decrease over the past 120 years, even as the planet has modestly warmed.

Lomborg asserts that public perception is skewed by intense media coverage of specific, severe regional fires (such as those in California or Australia, or now Europe). While he acknowledges that bad forest management has contributed to large fires in the U.S. recently, he notes that historical records show the 1930s Dust Bowl era was significantly worse for fires in America. Globally, he argues, fires have decreased in size and frequency on all other continents.

The bottom line from the reasoned analysis of the historical record argues against sweeping, expensive climate policies.  Spending trillions on reducing carbon emissions to theoretically lower temperatures decades from now is an incredibly inefficient way to handle fire risks. Instead, Lomborg advocates for direct, practical adaptation strategies—such as improved forest management, clearing underbrush, and better zoning laws—which he points out are much more cost-effective ways to protect communities.

But such counsel runs into the headwind of thwarting power politics, constricting readily available grant monies, and reducing media viewership eager for gratuitous catastrophic footage confirming the cause of the latest devastating disasters.