As hot issues go, climate change hasnâ€t been setting the world on fire lately.
Gallup reports that voters in the 2024 U.S. presidential election ranked climate change No. 21 on their list of “extremely important†concerns. That put it well behind inflation, crime, and war, but somewhat higher than crabgrass.
The COP29 climate confab in Baku, Azerbaijan, offered little solace to climate alarmists. Azerbaijanâ€s president Ilham Aliyev set the tone by telling delegates that the fossil fuels they hate are a “gift of God.â€
There were no further gifts from the heavens for the summiteers, as trillions sought to “fight†climate change were lost in someoneâ€s luggage (paging Sam Brinton).
Add in the news about the collapse of Germanyâ€s government after its Net Zero follies, EV sales continuing to tank and taking jobs down with them, the Atlantic Ocean failing to cough up enough hurricanes to meet the leading alarmists†doomsday prediction of a record number of named storms, and the hits just kept on cominâ€.
But just as Bogart and Bergman would always have Paris, climate alarm enthusiasts will always have New York.
The Big Apple showed up right on time last week to ring the climatists†bells with Gov. Kathy Hochulâ€s revival of the stateâ€s congestion pricing program for Manhattan, a plan lauded by activists for taking cars and trucks off the streets and saving the planet.
In a statement put out by Hochulâ€s office to demonstrate the love that some ‘leaders’ feel for this bad idea, Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp offered this salute:
“It has never been more important for state leaders to take decisive action to fight climate change.â€
New York routinely kills permits for badly needed gas pipelines, yet it remains an avid practitioner of gaslighting.
It framed the congestion pricing shakedown of motorists as a “savings,†since the state will charge a mere $9 for entering Manhattanâ€s streets rather than the previously announced $23, which dropped to $15.
For those who donâ€t understand New York math (test scores indicate our students donâ€t), this means cops, firefighters and teachers driving to work will shell out $2,500 more a year.
The money will supposedly be used by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to shore up our creepy subways. The MTA needs the dough because it fails to collect $700 million each year from fare beaters. The beatings will continue but will now be directed at drivers.
The governmentâ€s stated rationale that the pricing will reduce congestion doesnâ€t pass the laugh test.
If congestion were truly the issue, they wouldnâ€t clog our major arteries with bike lanes, bus lanes, pedicabs charging unwitting tourists $9.95 a minute, and fruit peddlers working the stoplights.
The real goal is to get people out of dirty cars and onto clean bikes. Please disregard the inconvenient truth that bike fatalities in the city hit a 20-year high in the first six months of this year. No one said there wouldnâ€t be casualties in this fight to save Mother Earth.
New York League of Conservation Voters President Julie Tighe said, “New Yorkers deserve less traffic, cleaner air, and robust investments in mass transit because we cannot drive our way out of the climate crisis.â€
No, but we can drive our way out with U-Hauls, as the stateâ€s population suffers from shrinkage more embarrassing than George Costanza in cold water.
Cornell University predicts a drop of two million people in the state over the next quarter-century. As to why, a NY Post editorial says: “Simple: Progressives keep boosting taxes and letting crime and lawlessness run rampant.â€
The only good I can see in New Yorkâ€s insanity on climate issues is that it offers grist for my writing mill.
My newest novel, “Hostile Climate,†dramatizes how climate is setting the stateâ€s energy agenda in ways that suggest our leaders have lost their minds. The bad news is theyâ€re moving into dangerous territory that might also lose our lives.
The greens can take comfort in the idea that their reversals arenâ€t likely to last long. Thereâ€s too much invested in the notion that “something must be done†to stop climate change.
As congestion pricing shows, they will stop at nothing, not even to pay their fares. That will be charged automatically.
Jon Pepper is a novelist and consultant based in New York City. He was formerly a business columnist for The Detroit News and an executive in the automotive and energy industries. His fifth novel, “Hostile Climate,†was released today. The satirical story of an ambitious politicianâ€s campaign to blame an energy company for climate change was reviewed in Climate Change Dispatch here and here.
