Climate Change has often been quoted as being ‘The foremost threat to our environment’ and the ‘Greatest Threat of the 21st Century’. According to a Pew Research Center survey, there is a global consensus that climate change is a significant issue, with a majority in all 40 nations polled considering it a serious problem, while a global median of 54% regard the situation to be extremely dire. Moreover, an average of 78% support the idea of their country limiting the discharge of greenhouse gases as part of a transnational agreement based in Paris. All this evidence is sufficient enough to show one that it is a widely held belief that climate change is apparently hazardous to society and must be prevented by all means. However, some notable individuals in the general populace such as John Coleman, a retired American weatherman and meteorologist and the founder of the Weather Channel, has disagreed with these sentiments. He has been quoted with saying, “Global warming; It is a hoax. It is bad science. It is the greatest scam in history.” As ridiculous as it may sound, there is truth in his words.Before one can come to a conclusion, one has to understand the definition of Climate Change. Climate Change, also commonly known as Global Warming, is defined as ‘a long-term change in the earth’s climate, especially in a change due to the increase in the average atmospheric temperature.’ According to the European Commission, climate change is mainly brought upon by humans through the growing emission of greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Nitrous Oxide.  Causes of rising emissions include the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and an increment in the rearing of livestock. This, in turn, causes gases in the Earth’s atmosphere to act like glass in a greenhouse, trapping the sun’s heat and stopping it from leaking back to space. Consequences of these actions include more frequent wildfires, harsher storms and the shrinking of glaciers. However, is all of this entirely true?

Firstly, not all evidence from organizations such as NASA should be trusted in its entirety. This is because these organizations have been involved in manipulating data to serve the narrative of man-made climate change. The Washington Times reported in 2009: “Under pressure in 2007, NASA recalculated its data and found that 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year in its records for the contiguous 48 states. NASA later changed that data again, and now 1998 and 2006 are tied for first, with 1934 slightly cooler.” Another scandal, referred to as ‘Climategate’, proved that key data involving man-made climate change was being exploited. In 2009, the public discovered emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit exposing how scientists who have been enormously influential in promoting the concept of man-made climate change actually attempted to falsify accounts to obtain results that served their agenda that the planet was heating dangerously due to higher levels of man-made carbon dioxide.

One of these scientists included Dr. James Hansen, a former NASA climatologist who is known by some as the “father” or “grandfather” of the climate change myth, as it was his “Model Zero” that first introduced the concept of global warming. These scientists were all involved in trying “to lower past temperatures and to ‘adjust’ recent temperatures upwards, in order to convey the impression of an accelerated warming,” according to the leaked emails. Furthermore, when NASA declared 2014 to be the hottest year on record, they were only 38 percent sure about it. All this goes to show that Climate Change may not be what we assume it is.

Secondly, there is no solid proof that the earth has been warming in recent years. As The Daily Caller highlights, a recent peer-reviewed study concluded that when accounting for El Nino and La Nina – also known as “the fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the east-central Equatorial Pacific” that “occur on average every two to seven years,” there has been a flat-line temperature trend since 1997. In fact, the study found that the El Nino and La Nina disproved the existence of the Tropical Hot Spot, which the Environmental Protection Agency claimed as an indication of carbon dioxide supposedly warming the atmosphere. Besides, the amount of Arctic sea ice has become quite high. Contrary to popular belief and the words of politicians such as Al Gore, data from the Danish Meteorological Institute shows that the “average ice extent over the month of September is one of the highest in the last decade,” according to Paul Homewood. This is a direct counter to the predictions of climate change models. Activists have also ardently argued that rising sea levels are a direct cause of global warming. However, this has been proven untrue, as sea levels have been constantly increasing since the last ice age 10,000 years ago.

There is also no scientific or statistical evidence that global warming will cause harsher storms and other forms of extreme weather. It is also a myth that receding glaciers is sufficient evidence that validates global warming as glaciers have constantly been declining and growing cynically for many centuries. In fact, the science of what determines the earth’s temperature is surprisingly far from being determined or understood. Therefore, this shows that there is no sign that a big rise in temperature is occurring and the supposed consequences are false.

Lastly, humans are not the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Apart from the fact that there is no scientific proof that climate change is caused by the rise of greenhouse gases from man’s activity, man-made carbon dioxide emissions throughout human history constitute less than a mere 0.00022 percent of the total emanated from the mantle of the earth during geological history. Wind farms have been noted as an efficient way to reduce CO2 emissions, however, the reverse is true. Wind farms require a figure of 75 per cent back-up power, according to The British Wind Energy Association, doing little to reduce CO2 emissions.

In conclusion, while the presence of climate change is debatable, the very nature and aspects of it have been perverted, manipulated and exaggerated to the point where it is a giant fallacy. To end off this essay, I quote, “The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” This is something to be pondered about separately.