American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2019 - 97

ConventionCoverage: Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association

Speakers Shine Light On Climate Hype
WICHITA, KS.-Far from saving
mankind, the purveyors of impending
climate disaster are leading a misinformed
public on a path toward government dominance, two keynote speakers told the
Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association's 2019 annual convention audience.
Speaking at KIOGA's Aug. 12 breakfast
session in Wichita, Clear Energy Alliance
President Mark Mathis identified today's
climate hysteria as a form of mass delusion
manifested as a false moral panic.
Luncheon speaker, geologist and author
Gregory Wrightstone, refuted many of
the claims underpinning disastrous global
climate change.
Mathis offered examples of moral panics
ranging from the Salem witch trials of the
late 17th Century to the Y2K panic. "You
will be surprised to realize there are many
more mass delusions that we really aren't
aware of, but they happen," he advised.
He cited as an example, milk companies
around the country putting pictures of
missing children on milk cartons in the
1980s, which he said stoked an irrational
fear about the safety of children.
Another, Mathis continued, was promoting self-esteem over hard work, humility and respect in the 1970s. "That
still is with us today," he mused. "And
you won't be surprised to hear that people
with the highest levels of self-esteem are
criminals and murderers."
The Y2K panic of the late 1990s,
Mathis recalled, created a mad rush to
make computers "Y2K compliant." Despite spending $600 billion, he related,
"The world didn't even come close. Then
the year 2000 came and nothing happened.
All the experts were saying this was
going to be Armageddon."
Citing sociological studies, Mathis
said a moral panic "can give the state
cause to enact legislation that would seem
illegitimate without the perceived threat
at the center of the moral panic.
"The whole idea of a panic is that we
have to put the state in charge to do
things, spend money, we otherwise would
not do," Mathis paraphrased. "That is
the tactic with climate change."
As proof, he turned to a quote from
Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff
for Green New Deal author Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who
said, "Do you guys think of it as a climate
thing? Because we really think of it as a

Today's climate hysteria is a form of
mass delusion manifested as a false
moral panic akin to the Salem witch trials
of the 17th Century or the Y2K panic of
the late 1990s, describes Mark Mathis,
president of the Clear Energy Alliance,
to the Kansas Independent Oil & Gas
Association on Aug. 12 in Wichita, Ks.

how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy
thing."
Refuting Alarmists
The justification for the Green New
Deal and other climate responses is a
belief that human-generated greenhouse
gases are the primary agent of global
warming, which is responsible for rising
drought, floods, famine, forest fires, extreme weather events, etc.
One by one, Wrightstone demonstrated
how such claims were based on mischaracterized data and faulty science.
For example, he said, data from the
National Interagency Fire Service show
an 80% decline in forest fires since 1926,
and the state of California has seen a
50% drop during the past 30 years. The
most severe droughts of the 20th Century
all occurred prior to 1960, the number
and intensity of hurricanes has decreased,
and extreme weather-related deaths in
the United States have declined 98% in
the past 80 years.
But even more convicting, Wrightstone
showed, is that warmer temperatures and
rising CO2 actually are beneficial. "There
is a great correlation between the rise
and fall of temperature and the rise and
fall of civilizations," he stated. "Great
civilizations arose during each (historical)
warming period. People were prosperous;
food was bountiful. It was the intervening

cold periods that were horrible. Food
crops failed and there was famine, pestilence and mass depopulation. That is the
opposite of what they are telling us."
The "biggest (untold) story of the late
20th and early 21st centuries" Wrightstone
said, is data from the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration showing that
up to 50% of the earth today is "greening"
(i.e. vegetation is increasing) while only
4% is "browning."
"The earth is thriving and prospering
because of increased CO2 and precipitation," he insisted.
He pointed to the United Nation's
2018 Global Report on Food Crises in
the face of record food and crop production
and said laboratory studies proved adding
300 ppm CO2 in greenhouses increased
food plant growth by 46%.
And he called the U.N.'s May 2019
prediction of 1 million species extinctions
during the next several decades "an example of how they manipulate the scientific
process."
Wrightstone explained the U.N. prediction was based on only five data points
cumulating extinctions by century. "I
looked at the same data decade by decade
and found there was a peak in the late
1800s when we were populating the Pacific Islands and introducing species that
wiped out native species," he related.
The rate of extinctions has been declining since 1870, Wrightstone attested,
and has averaged two a year for the past
40 years. "(The U.N.) is telling us we
are going to have 25,000-30,000 a year,"
he countered. "Does anyone think that
makes sense?"
Finally, using the temperature assumptions in the Green New Deal, Wrightstone
calculated that if the United States eliminated all CO2 emissions immediately, it
would avert 0.07 degrees F of global
warming by 2050 and 0.2 degrees by
2100. If Kansas alone eliminated CO2
emissions, it would avert 0.001 degrees
F of global warming by 2050 and 0.0023
degrees by 2100. "How many lost jobs
is that worth?" he asked.
❒

Coming In October
Official Convention Coverage for
PAW's annual meeting, Aug. 19-21
in Cheyenne, Wy.
SEPTEMBER 2019 97

American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2019

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