Having abandoned objective reporting, the mainstream media’s refusal to adopt a neutral stance on climate change has transformed a complex scientific debate into a monolithic narrative of impending catastrophe.

Far from being impartial arbiters, media outlets are enthusiastic propagandists recycling doomsday predictions that consistently fail to materialize while ignoring a wealth of scientific research that challenges the narrative of disastrous warming.

This isn’t journalism; it is activism disguised as truth telling. The result? A global populace misled, policymakers swayed by fiction, and developing nations shackled by energy policies that prioritize “green” ideology over human well-being.

Lies, more lies and panic

Virtually every major publisher and broadcaster — from The Atlantic and Los Angeles Times to The Guardian and BBC — regularly churns out forecasts of a climate apocalypse. These outlets operate from a “post-truth” playbook: Amplify the most extreme prediction, discard it when disproven, and report the next scary story.

In 1971, the Washington Post said fossil fuel emissions would usher in an ice age. Yes, you read it right: an ice age! In 2006, the Guardian proclaimed the future would be a no-snow zone in parts of the U.K. In 2009, CBS reported that Arctic ice would soon vanish in summer. The problem: All those frantic, fearmongering prophesies did not come to pass. 

The 1970s “global cooling” scare, the 2000s hurricane frenzy, the 2010s “ocean acidification” panic each was breathlessly reported and quietly abandoned. The goal isn’t accuracy; it’s perpetuating fear.

Media elevate non-experts to prophetic status while sidelining rigorous scientific discourse. If Al Gore was the prophet of climate doom, Greta Thunberg became its patron saint. Thunberg, a teenager with no scientific credentials, was catapulted to global fame through feckless reporting and cynical exploitation of a child. Her 2019 “How dare you?” speech, a masterclass in emotional rhetoric, was framed as a clarion call from a generation betrayed.

Socially, the media’s alarmism breeds despair and division. Young people, bombarded with images of a dying planet, report rising levels of “climate anxiety,” a phenomenon documented in a 2021 Lancet study. Meanwhile, the vilification of skeptics stifles debate, creating an echo chamber where only one perspective is tolerated. This is not the hallmark of a free press but of a propaganda machine.

Appeal to authority in Global South

Perhaps the most tragic consequence of this media malpractice unfolds in the developing world. News agencies in Asia, Africa and Latin America often replicate alarmist content from Western outlets without independent verification.

With limited local expertise or access to balanced research, news media in these regions fall prey to the fallacy of appeal to authority — accepting any claim published by the BBC or The Guardian as being grounded in unassailable science. This creates a feedback loop where local journalists and policymakers, assuming Western media reflect scientific consensus, perpetuate falsehoods.

The result is a dangerous distortion of priorities. Nations grappling with poverty, unemployment and energy insecurity are pressured to adopt economically ruinous policies based on fallacious climate fears. It leads to a policy landscape where developing nations adopt costly, ineffective and utterly useless energy and environmental policies at the expense of economic progress.

Pulpit of vacuous sanctimony

Our planet is greener than ever, crop yields are breaking records, and humanity is blunting the effects of naturaldisasters through innovation. The media, however, refuses to report for optimism that doesn’t justify trillion-dollar “green” boondoggles. The climate industrial complex – a cabal of grant-hungry academics, rent-seeking corporations and activist-journalists – has turned the newsroom into a cartoonish pulpit of vacuous sanctimony.

What is urgently needed is a return to principles of journalistic neutrality. Dare we ask for integrity? This means presenting both the evidence for and against catastrophic warming scenarios, as science has been done traditionally.

It also requires acknowledging the legitimate economic and humanitarian costs of climate policies, particularly in the developing world. Energy poverty, industrial decline, and social dislocation are not abstract concerns but immediate realities for billions of souls. A positive path forward requires a radical reckoning and renewal. Sorely needed are media that dare to question, that place evidence over emotion and that respect the complexity of climate science rather than reducing it to absurd sound bites.

This commentary was first published at RealClear Markets April 30, 2025.

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