In the years that I have been writing this column I have found that if your attitude towards climate change being caused by human actions seems less than wholehearted, unquestioning support you will be harshly criticized by those who think mankind is the whole problem. Our skepticism becomes seen as unforgivable ignorance because the “truth” about climate change is in plain view. I’m not sure that it is.

Advocates of human generated climate change argue that skeptics are anti-science, rejecting overwhelming scientific evidence which 97% to 99% of scientists supposedly agree on. I am not anti-science, and I support good science that is trustworthy, based on objective research built on existing knowledge to understand our world. After reading many articles and books on climate change, what disturbs me is that climate scientists who question to any degree the current stance on climate change become characterized as kooks and bad scientists.

I believe the release of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” 20 years ago brought on what I would characterize as climate hysteria that continues to grip a portion of our fellow citizens. He got a lot of things wrong, and he scared a lot of people. The film predicted a potential sea-level rise of up to 20 feet in the “near future” due to melting ice in West Antarctica and Greenland. Responsible Climatologists considered this highly exaggerated and without scientific proof. They asserted that it could not occur within the timeframe he used.  

Gore also predicted that the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro 210 miles south of the Equator would disappear within a decade of the film’s release. This did not happen, as it continues to snow on the mountain. The film asserted that the Gulf Stream might shut down although it never explained how that would occur and failed to point out that some parts of Antarctica were not experiencing the same drastic warming as other areas, with some ice in some regions increasing.

The film claimed that residents of Pacific island nations would have to be evacuated to New Zealand due to sea-level rise, but this was not supported by evidence. The film often implied faster changes than what climate scientists projected, such as CO2 levels and temperature rises, making the crisis appear more immediate

As for the shrinking polar bears population I remember that in the early days of the panic over climate change they became the symbol for the doomsday we faced if we continued using fossil fuels. This happened after the release of a video of a sick emaciated bear scavenging for food leading National Geographic to tell us that “This is what climate change looks like.”

However recent Reports indicate that they are not currently in danger with over 30,000 living in the Arctic, five times the number that were present in the 1950s. Even ABC News recently reported that polar bear populations are on the upswing because they have been able to adapt to changing conditions.

Gore told us that more and more powerful hurricanes would strike the U.S. To verify this claim I went to the National Weather Service website. From 1851, coinciding with the birth of modern meteorology, to 1940 168 hurricanes occurred, of which 47 were major ones. From 1941 until 2024 141 hurricanes occurred of which 51 were major ones. In reality there is little difference between an earlier period of the industrial age and our time. The Weather Service added that from 1851 to 1901 the number of hurricanes is underestimated because of the sparsely populated shoreline particularly in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

All the hysteria over climate change has had a negative impact on many, particularly many young people who it is claimed suffer from “ecoanxiety.” A 2021 a worldwide study of 10,000 people ages 16 to 25 published in the British medical journal the “Lancet” found that 60% were extremely worried about climate change with over half admitting they felt sad, anxious, helpless, and even guilty because of climate change.

Many were even advised by the climate activists not to have children who would only become an additional source of greenhouse gases and besides according to the likes of AOC the world would soon end. Following this kind of advice will quickly hasten the demise of Social Security and Medicare long before the destruction of humanity by climate change.

Some attitudes toward climate change are changing. Bill Gates said in 2025 that while climate change is serious he argued against a doomsday narrative. He emphasized a focus on human welfare aimed at improving lives, health, and prosperity in poor nations that offers the best defense against the impact of climate change. He also maintained that Climate change does not mean the end of humanity, an attitude he sees as hindering progress on other issues. He also sees climate, poverty, and disease as interconnected problems and advocates proportional resource allocation.

Climate change has been a reality since the Earth formed. Perhaps industrialization and the use of fossil fuels have had a role in increasing greenhouse gas emissions, but many other factors impact climate. These include dust clouds that our solar system and the Earth pass through, sunspots, other solar activity, and the Milankovitch cycles which are changes in Earth’s orbit, tilt, and wobble that affect the planet’s climate over thousands of years.

My hope is that we will not allow climate change to divide us.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com