Over the past decade, the climate change movement has morphed into a social and political juggernaut that has weakened and exploited America’s institutions. Its success stemmed from two strengths: it fused science with ideology, creating a quasi-religious fervor — think Just Stop Oil or Extinction Rebellion.
The climate movement also won over the legacy media, which thrives on fear, sensationalism, and a bias toward statism. This alliance resonated with those favoring bigger government and tapped into a primal fear of looming catastrophe — a narrative amplified by widespread ignorance of energy and climate systems. For power-hungry politicians, climate catastrophism became their golden ticket to more influence and control.
Backed by legacy media cheerleaders and an academia dominated by Left-leaning statists, the movement snowballed, especially among the young. Recent debates and polling shifts suggest some improvement in public understanding, but the damage has been substantial.
The climate change story, however, rests on shaky scientific and moral ground. The climate has always fluctuated — warming and cooling in cycles — and always will. CO₂, while a greenhouse gas, is a minor player compared to water vapor and solar activity — not the villain it’s painted to be. History shows species thrive in warmer periods and struggle in colder ones.
As Bjorn Lomborg points out, over the past century, climate-related deaths have plummeted by 99%, with cold still claiming more lives than heat. The science simply doesn’t support the panic.
Your risk of dying from climate-related disasters dropped 99% since 1920.
This is because richer societies are much more resilient to disasters
Read more in my peer-reviewed article: https://t.co/CC0h7JKIKv pic.twitter.com/hQPpXF2AS2
— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) January 31, 2025
Morally, it’s worse. Billions of people lack access to affordable, reliable energy — a right most Americans enjoy as part of the fortunate one billion. Denying them the cheapest energy sources available, all in pursuit of carbon cuts, is the real injustice. The post-election pivot to prioritize energy access and human well-being over obsessive emissions reductions is a welcome return to reason.
This moral blindness is often cloaked in self-righteous virtue. The climate movement preaches sacrifice while demanding subsidies, mandates, and central planning. It calls for collective responsibility while punishing prosperity. It seeks compliance, not progress; narrative control, not truth. In true Orwellian fashion, freedom becomes pollution, and servitude is sold as sustainability.
The damage wrought by this movement was magnified by the erosion of institutional integrity. In the corporate world, where I operate, our duty is clear: maximize value for investors, as Milton Friedman argued. Property rights demand it. Yet leaders have grown lax, allowing political Trojan horses like ESG and DEI to infiltrate and hijack companies — and their shareholder’s property — for ideological ends. Banks and firms fell in line, abandoning their core mission. The pursuit of shareholder value was replaced with pandering to fashionable causes, often disconnected from performance or accountability.
Academia has suffered similar rot, even my alma mater, the University of Texas. Take the lazy use of terms like “green,” “clean,” and “sustainable” to describe solar and wind energy. Dig into the facts: mining rare earths and manufacturing these technologies are dirty processes, often tied to child labor in Africa, and far from sustainable without heavy subsidies. Describing them as ‘green’ or ‘clean’ is more than misleading, it’s a lie. Our institutions should have been bulwarks against this coercion, but they buckled. The guardians of inquiry and meritocracy became mouthpieces for activist orthodoxy.
The 2024 election and its aftermath signal that we’ve weathered the climate movement’s storm. Now what? At Atlas Energy Solutions, our chairman’s “Who We Are” letter laid it out: we stick to the Friedman Doctrine, building a fortress against political fads and focusing solely on value creation. We’ve aimed to lead by example, and it’s heartening to see others doing the same.
Business and politics don’t mix — nor should academia and politics. Universities owe students free inquiry and critical thinking, not indoctrination. It’s time to purge ideological agendas and revive institutional excellence.
Capitalism — real capitalism — requires moral clarity. It is not a tool of oppression, but a system that rewards value creation and voluntary exchange. The climate agenda, as it stands, undermines both. To restore institutional discipline, we must reaffirm what made this country exceptional: a commitment to liberty, property rights, free markets, and the truth. That’s the only path forward. That’s how we liberate American energy — and the human potential it powers.
* * *
Bud Brigham is an energy entrepreneur from Austin, Texas, and chairman of Brigham Exploration, Brigham Royalties, Langford Energy Partners, and Atlas Energy Solutions (NYSE: AEISI). He is also a founding board member of the American Energy Association, a trade organization representing companies that unabashedly support free markets to liberate American energy.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Continue reading this exclusive article and join the conversation, plus watch free videos on DW+
Already a member?
