Climate Change - no such thing as settled science
We have a choice. What should we do?
Just a bit of background. I have a brother who believes that climate change is a hoax and that I have been brainwashed by the mainstream media etc. He also believes I'm hopelessly "woke" and have no real mind of my own. He may be right, but every time I think about this, I am simply drawn by logic and uncertainty to play the odds. If I'm wrong and climate change is a lade up nonsense, the worst that can happen is we end up with a cleaner and more habitable planet. If he's wrong and climate change is very real, we're cooked. So, here is a summary of what I think about this incredibly serious (or utterly pointless) issue.
Climate science isn’t 100% settled and it never will be. That’s not a flaw; it’s the nature of science. But some use this basic truth to undermine public trust, sow doubt and delay action. Climate denial doesn’t thrive on facts. It thrives on manufactured uncertainty.
We don’t demand perfect certainty in other areas of risk. We build sea walls before the flood. We buckle seatbelts before the crash and when the cost of being wrong is catastrophic, we act.
We should treat climate change no differently.
The Denial Machine Who It Is and What It Wants
The loudest climate deniers aren’t scientists - they’re media personalities, lobbyists and politicians with deep ties to fossil fuel interests.
High-profile deniers include
Senator James Inhofe, who once tossed a snowball in Congress to mock global warming.
Steve Milloy, a former tobacco and oil lobbyist who now pushes climate misinformation.
The Heartland Institute, a think tank with a long history of receiving fossil fuel funding.
Fox News and personalities like Tucker Carlson, who frame climate action as elitist overreach.
Their goal isn’t to win a scientific argument. It’s to delay regulation and protect existing revenue streams.
The strategy mimics the playbook Big Tobacco used for decades manufacture doubt, amplify fringe voices, question the motives of scientists, and insist the science isn’t “settled.” Groups like the George C. Marshall Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Cato Institute received millions in funding from ExxonMobil, Koch Industries and anonymised donor networks like DonorsTrust.
Their Case Weak and Worn Out
Denial arguments haven’t evolved much -
“Climate’s always changed.”
“CO₂ is good for plants.”
“It’s just a theory.”
“Models are unreliable.”
These claims ignore decades of data, consensus and observable impacts. They're rhetorical traps, designed not to persuade, but to paralyse.
The Real Money Question Fossil Fuels vs. Renewables
One of the most persistent myths is that clean energy is unaffordable. That may have been true 15 years ago. It’s flat-out wrong today.
Solar and wind are now the cheapest forms of new electricity generation in most of the world. (According to the International Energy Agency and BloombergNEF)
The cost of solar has dropped by over 90% since 2009.
Onshore wind has dropped by nearly 70%.
Battery storage is becoming cost-competitive with gas peaker plants.
In contrast, fossil fuels are volatile. Oil and gas prices spike with geopolitics. Coal is increasingly uneconomical and the external costs, pollution, health impacts, disaster recovery aren’t even priced in.
Future projections are even more dramatic
As economies of scale kick in and global supply chains mature, renewable prices will continue to fall.
Fossil fuels, by contrast, face rising costs due to carbon pricing, stricter regulations and stranded assets.
Investing in renewables isn’t just environmentally responsible, it’s economically inevitable.
The Bottom Line
Climate denial isn’t about science. It’s about power and profit. But the numbers don’t lie. The planet is warming. Fossil fuels are failing. And clean energy isn’t a dream, it’s already cheaper, faster and smarter.
The longer we let false narratives delay action, the more costly and chaotic the future becomes.
Uncertainty isn’t a shield. It’s a signal. It’s time to act.