Reality Caught Up to ‘Climate Change’

Victor Davis Hanson declares the collapse of the decades-long “sacrosanct” climate-change orthodoxy that dominated Western policy, culture, and trillions in spending.

He identifies five converging realities that have shattered the old green consensus:

Tech Billionaires Defect

Former climate zealots (most notably Bill Gates) have quietly abandoned renewables-first dogma. The explosive electricity demands of artificial intelligence (up to 100 additional gigawatts per year) make wind and solar alone impossible. The new imperative is “all of the above”: nuclear, natural gas, clean coal, plus renewables.

China’s Cynical Game Exposed

Beijing preached carbon guilt to the West while dumping subsidized solar panels and wind turbines below cost, simultaneously building 2–3 coal or nuclear plants every month. Europe’s self-inflicted de-industrialization (shutting efficient nuclear and fossil plants) now looks like strategic suicide, especially since the EU emits only 6% of global CO₂ while China races ahead in trade and military power.

The Climate-Reparations Shakedown

Developing nations now demand hundreds of billions in “reparations” from the West for emissions decades ago, ignoring that virtually all modern technology and consumer goods they use were invented and industrialized using Western carbon energy.

Energy Realism in Geopolitics

Abundant Western oil and natural gas production proved decisive during the Ukraine War (U.S. LNG kept Europe powered when Russia cut gas). Cheap fossil fuels starve hostile petro-states (Iran, Russia, Venezuela) of revenue for war and terrorism.

Science and Public Revolt

Climatologists, no longer afraid of cancellation, increasingly highlight natural multi-century climate cycles predating human existence. The public has grown weary of doomsday prophets who buy beachfront mansions and fly private jets while lecturing the middle class to endure blackouts and high energy bills.

Hanson concludes that the old renewable-only, carbon-phobic religion is dead. A pragmatic “all of the above” energy strategy (heavy on nuclear and natural gas alongside renewables) is the new reality, and the era of climate guilt-tripping the West while China and the developing world industrialize on fossil fuels is over.

“Carbon is dead, long live carbon!” 

https://amgreatness.com/2025/11/17/reality-caught-up-to-climate-change/