There are some, perhaps many, that say climate change is a hoax. One person in particular comes to mind. But here’s the thing. That’s not being honest. It’s not that some really disagree with climate change, they disagree with the urgency, severity, and most of all, cost of doing something about it.

A truthful exercise would not be to deny the science but make it an economic argument that the cost to the economy is too great to address it. While I disagree, that at least is an honest argument on climate change.

So, you say, it hasn’t been proven. Climate change is just the weather. It’s a natural phenomenon. Not really. The number of reputable and recognized scientists who believe that climate change is not real one can count on one hand, compared with the overwhelming number of scientists and models that confirm that fact.

It’s hard to argue with science and records. Two quick charts tell the whole story:

Source: National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration,: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increased 3.75 parts per million (ppm) to 422.7ppm between 2023 and 2024, the greatest increase in records. As the charts show, its exponential. What does this mean?

Ten of the warmest years of record have occurred in the past decade. Temperature is heat. Heat is energy. The more energy in the atmosphere, the greater atmospheric events, storms, droughts, precipitation events. Each of these have profound economic costs. It’s Thanksgiving in the Rockies where I live and my lawn is green at 7,100’. Not normal. I say that because I’ve lived here for nearly half a century. Skiers are not happy and wildfire responders are nervous.

The honest argument for those that reject climate change is what is the economic cost to the economy versus the cost of not addressing it. That’s an argument that at least has integrity.