The Independent Institute reviews how climate change dogmatism is in retreat, since current research and economic transactions (aka, voluntary action) are addressing issues without state force:
By all accounts, climate change alarmists are on the defensive—politically, scientifically, I would even say morally (see Bill Gates’s comment below). We could leave it at that. But there may be hope for a truce in this conflict—and if so, capitalism can take the credit.
The negatives for the climate change alarmists are substantial. Here are some:
- President Trump’s policies have deregulated oil and gas and withdrawn many subsidies for “clean” alternatives; the shock of the Iran war has made the importance of traditional energy more visible than ever.
- A conflict occurred over the manual that the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine routinely prepares to help federal judges deal with complicated scientific issues. The latest (2025) edition had a clearly biased chapter on climate change. Under political pressure, the publisher, the Federal Judicial Center, withdrew it, causing outrage by some; for others, it reaffirmed scientific integrity.
- Another embarrassment for alarmists is the recent retraction of a 2024 article in Nature. It predicted a stunning 62 percent decline in world GDP by 2100 due to climate change. Widely reported findings didn’t stand up to scrutiny—neither the predictions nor the uncertainties surrounding those predictions. So Nature took the article back.
- Local opposition to wind and solar power projects is high and perhaps growing. Robert Bryce tallied 735 rejections or restrictions on wind and solar between 2015 and 2024.…More