Opinion

TURNER: Leftist Elites Create Massive Carbon Footprint … To Go Lecture Everyone Else About Their Carbon Footprint

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Daniel Turner Contributor
Font Size:

If you believe the propaganda from the left, fossil fuels cause climate change. This is such an existential problem that President Biden himself must fly Air Force One to the United Nations Climate Conference in Scotland in person. Our carbon footprint is such a threat that 13 cabinet members are also attending the event, called COP26. Several governors are attending, including John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, and of course, Gavin Newsom of California.

No one likes the limelight more than former President Barack Obama. So he’s going.

But these high-profile figures don’t travel lightly. Between staff and security, Secret Service details and advance teams, conservative estimates suggest about 750 people from America will attend this event. An enormous footprint to reduce footprints. But it’s not just Joe Biden’s America that’s so full of green hypocrisy. An anticipated 30,000 global citizens are also attending, including members of the British Royal Family and dignitaries from The Vatican. All of them with motorcades and meals, hotel rooms and cocktail parties.

And yes, they could get on a Zoom call like some poor 4th grader learning long division over the internet, but they can use all the fossil fuels in the world when there’s a world to save.

It’s like the logic we use this time of year when it comes to our weight: let’s gain another 10lbs over the holidays and then start the diet.

Do you know who’s not attending the conference? Vladimir Putin. He’s too busy building a pipeline to make Europe further dependent on Russian national gas and launching cyberattacks against the United States. Putin is bolstering his army in Crimea to assure his dominance of the energy-rich peninsula. He is focused on building up the Russian army in the Arctic Circle to conquer the enormous oil and gas reserves.

Putin has no time for COP26. He has a world to conquer.

Someone else not attending: Xi Jinping. China welcomes the West’s collective Neville Chamberlain moment at COP26 while it continues to emit more CO2 than Europe and the US combined. China is responsible for a majority of the world’s ocean plastic pollution. China continues to build and claim islands in the South China Sea and threatens Taiwan with the world’s largest navy. China is building hundreds of coal plants to power the world’s largest manufacturing hub and use this dominance as a bargaining chip so the West ignores human rights abuses and slave labor in exchange for cheap goods.

Xi has no time for COP26. He has an America to destroy.

Make no mistake. This column is in no way praising the leaders or actions of Russia and China. They are our biggest geopolitical threats, and that’s exactly the point.

This leaves us with a few conundrums: can climate change be a “global” problem if the world’s biggest countries are not part of the sacrifice? It’s like putting all the circus animals on a scale and telling the fleas to lose weight while ignoring the elephants. Joe Biden and the left love to use the phrase “pay their fair share” when it comes to American citizens being parted from their hard-earned income, but where’s the harsh rhetoric for China and Russia doing their “fair share” when it comes to the aforementioned “global” problem of climate change?

A problem whose root, they tell us, is our lifestyle, our consumption, our diet … is being addressed at an international gathering at cocktail parties with Scottish salmon and 21-year Laphroaig. Fascinating.

We are told this problem is imminent. There is no time to waste. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told us nearly three years ago the world was going to end in 12 years from climate change. With only 75% of the time left, the world should be shaking in fear. But not the UN. COP27 is already scheduled for 2022. So too is COP28 in 2023. Maybe the teleconferencing will be working by then, but it’s doubtful. After all, COP27 will be in the luxury resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Egypt’s Red Sea, a much better place in November than chilly Scotland. Let the delegates feel that global warming as they sip cocktails on the shore.

Climate change is not a hoax. The current climate change fear is. This conference is further proof of that. Anyone boarding a plane this week to spend a week at a conference all because of fear of climate change is either a fool or an opportunist. Neither should be making decisions about America, our energy, our economy, or our personal freedoms, especially while our real existential threat, Russia and China, sits on the sideline laughing.

Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF