Mark Twain once said, “It is easier to fool people than convince them they have been fooled.” The people of the world have been experiencing climate shame by the tyranny of the few. Why? At times, it is for the benefit of the earth and technology advances, but, at times, it feels like the proverbial, “The sky is falling, we must act now or else!”

Doomsday prophesies about the earth have been stated for thousands of years. So far, the world is still here and yet the tyranny of the few still pontificate humans are killing the earth and it will not survive … as if humans were that effective. The climate has been changing for millions of years, and will continue to do so. So how do we, regardless of politics, work together to manage making the planet healthier and not vilify fossil fuels through climate shame?

The grassroots mobilization for environmental protection that led to the first Earth Day in 1970 was built on nearly a century of efforts to address the contamination of water, air and land caused by industrialization and urbanization. Today, there are 30,359 environmental organizations in the United States. Combined, these environmental organizations employ 134,250 people, earn more than $27 billion in revenue each year, and have assets of $72 billion. This industry creates climate public opinion, through the media, causing climate rage that is not always based on facts. The results have included people attempting to destroy works of art and laying in the streets, causing massive traffic standstills, to save the planet.

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I believe most people are environmentalists at heart. I have not experienced anyone who does not support the wise use of the earth’s natural resources. However, I have also observed in the last 20 years the tyranny of the few vilifying Americans’ energy use, and in fact, jeopardizing reliable energy delivery through misinformation that the earth is either cooling or warming beyond anything in history, causing irreversible catastrophic impacts.

The best example is when Al Gore misrepresented data and terrified people that the Arctic Sea ice would be completely gone by 2014. Like so many previous soothsayers, Mr. Gore lives a lavish lifestyle and does not blink an eye when traveling by plane or indulging in 11,000 square foot homes. The good news is the Arctic Sea ice is alive and well, and so are the polar bears. Climate does change and if you review any historical documents, one observes whole societies had to leave areas due to famine, floods, lack of wildlife or drought. However, unlike the nomads before us, we cannot move cities and farms to follow the cyclical nature of a changing climate.

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In an interview, Dr. Willie Soon observed global temperatures have dramatically fluctuated for as long as humans have left records. There are cities underwater because sea levels have risen within recorded history. Dr. Soon stated, “CO2 is nothing, and cannot cause the climate to change. It doesn’t change anything actually, it’s the sun. In fact, concrete and asphalt raise the temperatures more than CO2.”  Dr. Soon went on to say that the whole problem with climate science these days is related to how science is funded. Science must be funded with no strings attached by academia to achieve healthy debate and truthful data.

Therefore, fossil fuels are not the enemy. Should we continue to explore renewables and integrate into our energy use … absolutely, but not at the expense of fossil fuels, that unlike renewables, offer reliable 24/7 power unless force-majeure occurs.

A picture today of our energy mix shows how we keep the lights on. This illustrates the synergy of using all energy delivery options to create 24/7 delivery; isn’t that the goal, as our economy is the energy economy? I will also stress that renewables do have natural resource harvesting and environmental impacts in the materials used to create the product, such as solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal and battery storage, thus is the cure worse than the illness? The definition of renewable resources is what trips us up on the environmental impacts versus the production of the product. The renewable resource definition by the Energy Information Administration is, “an energy source that is regenerative or virtually inexhaustible.” 

Regulations and legislative mandates can make or break an industry, but ultimately impact consumers. Colorado’s oil and gas industry has spent years and millions of dollars staying in compliance with an ever-changing regulatory landscape. Thus, state and federal legislative virtue signaling is not the answer for consumers, especially since consumers are paying ever increasing utility bills. Have you ever seen a legislative bill that actually had a return on investment that was verified?

A Pew Survey performed in 2023 for topics related to energy use resulted in three unexpected results:

• Americans are reluctant to phase out fossil fuels altogether, but younger adults are more open to it.
• Democrats and Republicans have grown further apart over the last decade in their assessments of the threat posed by climate change.
• Climate change is a lower priority for Americans than other national issues.

What is real right now and works immediately are the simplest of efforts such as, don’t pollute, conservation, recycle, ride the bus/bike and most importantly, teach people how energy is created, delivered and used. If people understood the energy delivery ecosystem, I believe technological advances would be abundant.

This guest column was submitted by Routt County Republican Central Committee Chair Heather DeVos. For more, go to RouttGOP.com.

Editor’s note: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, since systematic scientific assessments began in the 1970s, the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact, with unequivocal evidence the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate and human activity is the principal cause.