A Rogues' Gallery of 'Net Zero' Apostates

"This is just the pure religious nature of the climate catastrophist movement. It has one commandment: 'thou shalt not impact nature.' They just think that everything good is a happy climate god and everything bad is a vengeful climate god." -- Alex Epstein

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According to John Stossel, world leaders and corporations who once backed Net Zero are "ditching" that foolhardy and dangerous policy, some more quietly than others:

Now, countries like Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom are walking back their net-zero push.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz now says rules must "better align climate targets, market realities, companies and jobs."

He also said, "It was quite simply a strategic mistake to phase out nuclear energy."

No kidding.

And here in America, I hear less climate fearmongering.

The Washington Post reports, "analysis of lawmakers' appearances and posts on social media show they are going quiet on climate."

"It's very surprising to many people," says [author Alex] Epstein, "how unserious the climate catastrophists were about net zero, and the way you can see this is what's happened with the rise of AI."

Tech companies now report increases in emissions, even though "five years ago, they were all telling us: 'climate change, existential crisis, got to go net zero!'" Epstein laughs. [bold added]

I was glad Stossel interviewed Alex Epstein for this piece, since the good news he delivers deserves good analysis. Epstein holds that we're in a better intellectual environment, but is quick to point out the fact that so many people who once pushed Net Zero seem to have memory-holed their past actions.

I wouldn't say climate catastrophism is dead, but it is in a real retreat worldwide, rather than just superficially looking that way in the United States because the current President has slightly hindered it, and tends to suck all of the oxygen away from other news.

-- CAV