Summary of Darwall: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex | Tom Nelson Pod #82

00:00:00 - 00:40:00

In the Tom Nelson podcast, guest Rupert Darwall argues that the climate change movement was the result of the anesthetization of geopolitics following the end of the Cold War. The speaker suggests that Sweden's promotion of acid rain and global warming scares was the result of their Social Democrats' support for an independent energy source through a nuclear power program, aimed at reducing the country's reliance on imported energy and lack of coal. Darwall also suggests that Germany's anti-nuclear movement and the first political party advocating for wind power, the Nazi party, both laid the groundwork for the current climate industrial complex. He emphasizes the disfiguring and destruction of nature and wildlife habitats by wind turbines and solar panels. The speaker discusses how the older generation is manipulating the younger generation into believing that climate change is the cause of their problems and that climate change will be used as a tool to control society, resulting in the destruction of the West. Darwall emphasizes the control exerted by the establishment and mainstream media to push alternative viewpoints to the margins and the need for pushback.

• 00:00:00 In this section of the transcript, host Tom Nelson and guest Rupert Darwall discuss the importance of pushing back against censorship, particularly in regards to climate change. Darwall highlights the "spiral of silence" mechanism used by the establishment and mainstream media to push alternative viewpoints to the margins. He believes the extent of censorship has peaked and will be revealed, leading to a pushback. However, Darwall is skeptical that Twitter's opening up will put pressure on other platforms like YouTube and Google. He believes the climate industrial complex has tentacles in these organizations, and they are unlikely to open up anytime soon. Instead, he sees hope in recent events such as the Twitter files and lockdown files in the UK, which reveal government manipulation and cynicism. Darwall's book, Green Tyranny, explores the totalitarian roots of the climate industrial complex.
• 00:05:00 In this section, the speaker talks about the political origins of the climate change movement that began in 1988. He explains that it coincided with the end of the Cold War and the geopolitical de-escalation that followed. He argues that climate change as a political phenomenon needed geopolitics to be anesthetized, and it couldn't have been pursued while the US stood up to Chinese expansionism. The speaker also talks about how Sweden played a pivotal role in putting climate change on the political agenda in 1974, declaring it would be the biggest issue the world was facing by the end of the 20th century. He suggests that Sweden's reliance on imported energy and lack of coal led the Social Democrats to support an independent energy source through a nuclear power program, leading to the promotion of acid rain and global warming scares. The NGOs were initially hesitant to embrace the global warming scare due to the uncertainty of the science, but they ultimately recognized its potency.
• 00:10:00 In this section, the history of Germany's anti-nuclear movement and the formation of the Green party is discussed, highlighting their opposition to nuclear power. The Greens' anti-nuclear stance can be traced back to the protests against nuclear programs which swept Germany in the '70s and '80s. The podcast also notes the historical significance of the fact that the first political party to have a wind power program was the Nazi party. Moreover, the Nazi party was Europe's first greens and shared many beliefs with the modern day Green party, such as vegetarianism and protection of the environment. Tom Nelson's guest discusses how the acid rain issue was seen as a dress rehearsal for climate change, leading to the current climate industrial complex.
• 00:15:00 In this section, the speaker discusses how the popular notion that acid rain was caused by power station emissions was wrong. It was actually the result of land use change by loggers in the Adirondacks. Soil became more acidic, changing the pH of the runoff into the lakes, which benefited from increased insects, making fish more attractive. When conservationists came along and overturned the changes, it returned to its natural state, but the conservationists failed to realize that the "natural" state they were restoring it to was not the original, rather, it was a result of the damage caused by the logging industry. The speaker goes on to outline how the US Clean Air Act was passed under a false premise and how the EPA did all it could to suppress the scientific report that contradicted their claims.
• 00:20:00 In this section, the discussion focuses on the flaws of the IPCC approval process and how it is behind closed doors. The document, including the summary for policy makers, is written for and by policy makers with no transparency. The conversation then shifts to the DDT issue, which was deemed a hate chemical because of Rachel Carson's influential book "Silent Spring." The hatred towards DDT led to the 1972 UN conference on the environment where Richard Nixon announced the ban of DDT. The book's claims that modern civilization is carcinogenic and one in four people would die of cancer has had a significant impact on political attitudes towards the environment. The conversation also touches on how the decarbonization program and the promotion of diesel cars by the European car industry led to the worsening of air pollution in European cities.
• 00:25:00 In this section, the speaker discusses the sacrifices that are made for global catastrophism. He states that the industrialization of nature is at the heart of modern environmentalism, and ironically, wind and solar farms are disfiguring and destroying habitats for wildlife and nature, a prime example being the road construction through forests to install wind turbines. Furthermore, Apex predators, including eagles and raptors, are often killed by wind turbines, and insects and bats are not spared either. The speaker emphasizes that the impact of wind turbines and solar panels on nature is significant from the widespread loss of birds to decreasing insect populations, which are important food sources for birds. The conversation also highlights some of the significant misconceptions propagated by politicians like John Kerry, who claimed that climate change causes problems for insurance companies, while Warren Buffet stated his company never considered climate change when making calculations.
• 00:30:00 In this section, the speaker discusses the idea that climate change is being used as a tool of social control and that the older generation is manipulating the younger generation into believing that they are victims who need saving. He suggests that the reason why young people are not revolting against climate policy is because they are being elevated as victims and are therefore disempowered from questioning the narrative being presented to them. The speaker goes on to say that if climate change continues to dominate the discussion in 20 years, the West will be, in effect, destroyed. Additionally, he mentions the nuclear winter as one of the three big environmental scares and how all three reflect a catastrophic view of the world that does not hold up to scrutiny.
• 00:35:00 In this section, the discussion revolves around the nuclear winter and how it was used as a political tool during the Cold War. The Soviet Union was financing the peace movement and attempting to stop the West's response to their deployment of nuclear missiles by promoting the idea of a nuclear winter. The Soviet KGB is thought to have cooked up the concept and planted the story in Stockholm, which was eventually picked up by a Rockefeller Foundation executive who briefed some in New York. Scientists, NGOs, and media hangers on, who acted as sock puppets of the Kremlin, were criticizing Ronald Reagan's arms build-up and undermining the West's strategy, which was later proven to be successful. Fred Singer, a scientist, demonstrated that the nuclear winter was a scientific blunder and that it would have a slight warming effect, not the predicted cooling effect. Stephen Schneider was one of the few who demolished the concept of the nuclear winter. The episode highlights how climate scientists, in some cases, were political activists with their own agenda, and how the narrative of climate change has evolved over time.
• 00:40:00 In this section, the speaker argues that the IPCC's first assessment report had an equivocal verdict on the issue of climate change, contradicting claims that Exxon knew about the impact of fossil fuels on climate change before the scientific consensus. He asserts that this shows the propaganda nature of the climate industrial complex and contends that accusations against Exxon are baseless. The conversation ends with the speaker expressing his enjoyment of the session and expressing interest in doing it again.