U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch recently told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she has asked the FBI to weigh in on whether “climate change deniers” may be prosecuted for “pretending that the science of carbon emissions’ dangers is unsettled.” Her boss, President Obama, has repeatedly claimed that “the science is settled” on climate change — it is real, it threatens mankind, and our use of fossil fuels, which emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, is causing it. If the FBI responds in the affirmative, Lynch says she will begin pursuing civil actions against these “deniers.”
This would be among the most egregious abuses of the government’s prosecutorial authority ever, and an outlandish violation of the free speech provisions in the First Amendment. Simply put, the science is definitely not settled that climate change is occurring, or, if it is occurring, that humans are causing it. For every study published saying climate change is real and humans are at fault, there is a counterfactual study proving it isn’t real and even if it is, Mother Nature contributes far more to climate change than mankind ever has.
In fact, according to one recent study, during the past 100 years there has been a .7 degree Celsius increase in the average global temperature — that is seven-tenths of one degree — which is actually consistent with well-established and long-term natural climate trends. As to its causes, another recent study says that man-made carbon dioxide emissions in all of human history constitute less than 0.00022 percent of the total CO2 naturally emitted during Earth’s geological history. In other words, these studies say, climate change isn’t happening, and even if it was, humans aren’t causing it.
Are these two studies indisputable? Not at all. They are conclusions based on statistical data that those who published the studies gathered by using methods that others might contend are manipulative and misleading. Further, those countless other scientific studies that come to the opposite conclusions are just as vulnerable to charges of manipulated and misleading data.
The point is that the debate is far from “settled,” but if the FBI responds positively to her request, guess which participants in that debate Loretta Lynch, America’s chief law-enforcement officer, and the FBI, America’s most powerful law-enforcement agency, will be prosecuting. And if this stands, they can go after anyone — scientist, columnist, politician, even civic-minded citizens writing to their local newspapers — who denies climate change’s reality.
That would be a sad day for every American. Except, perhaps, for Hillary Clinton, who would love to see FBI agents investigate climate-change deniers, rather than their current investigation of her for repeatedly violating federal law by using an unsecured email server to send and receive classified documents.
