In the wake of deadly wildfires that have ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui, it might be helpful to look back on a similar event — though a non-lethal one — that occurred more than a year ago.
This reflection should persuade us that whatever we have heard about Maui thus far might prove false in the end.
In June, the New York Post reported that officials in Mariposa County, California, arrested a man in connection with the July 2022 Oak Fire that devastated a large portion of California’s Yosemite National Park. The fire destroyed 127 homes and burned almost 20,000 acres.
On June 16, police took Edward Fredrick Wackerman, 71, into custody on suspicion of arson.
“Ed Wackerman is facing several felony charges, including aggravated arson. These charges carry serious legal consequences and the District Attorney is committed to ensuring a fair trial and upholding justice,” Mariposa County District Attorney Walter Wall said in an online statement.
On June 20, Wall’s office announced that Wackerman would be detained without bail.
In some circles, Wackerman’s arrest represents a most inconvenient truth.
As they invariably do, leftist authoritarians, posing as environmental guardians, initially blamed the Oak Fire on climate change.
In fact, according to a July 2022 story in The Guardian, the usual suspects wasted no time exploiting the incident.
Do you think climate change is as bad as the alarmists say it is?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 100% (8 Votes)
Former Vice President Al Gore, godfather of climate hysteria, came forward with his standard apocalyptic nonsense.
“The survival of our civilization is at stake,” Gore said at the time.
Meanwhile, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told BBC that President Joe Biden could declare a climate emergency in light of the Oak Fire.
Like the dutiful establishment propagandist outlet it is, BBC reported the situation as historically urgent.
“The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions,” BBC declared.
All of this now seems rather embarrassing in light of Wackerman’s arrest.
To compound the inconvenience and embarrassment, the Washington Free Beacon reported in June that since 2020 Wackerman has donated $1,775 to Democrats and pro-establishment organizations, including $400 to the Lincoln Project, a group of establishment Republicans united by their unhinged loathing of former President Donald Trump.
Of course, we will wait in vain for an apology from the likes of Gore and Kerry. Nor will their establishment-media minions correct the record. They never do.
After all, climate change has replaced communism as the latest anti-human dogma to posit its own historical inevitability.
For communists, the consistency of their narrative meant nothing compared to the certainty it promised. Communism would defeat capitalism in the end. The communist faithful, therefore, could ignore all evidence to the contrary.
In like manner, climate alarmists need not fear evidence that complicates their narrative. They already know what will happen. No matter how many times their predictions prove false, they remain faithful to the apocalyptic end.
Hence the BBC’s confident pronouncement that the “world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began” and that it will continue to do so “unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.”
To the climate alarmist, this quotation amounts to a historical assertion from which follows an irresistible conclusion. The world has warmed in the past and will continue to do so.
Never mind that the industrial era began in the 18th century. Never mind that for much of the 20th century people in the Western world feared a new Ice Age.
The beauty of the climate change narrative, much like its communist predecessor, lay in its resistance to nuance. This precisely suits the needs of authoritarian ideologues.
“Give us power,” they say, “if you hope to save the planet.” They keep it simple.
Thus, we may correct the record, but we cannot shake the authoritarians from their sinister purpose. We can only hope to awaken the deluded faithful.
