Climatology is a science. Climatism is an ideology. Climatologists are scientists. Climatists are social or political organizers who abuse climatology in the service of ideologues. Climatology was and still is an investigation of nature. Climatism is the exploitation of the fear of nature to gain power, wealth and social esteem.

 Once, learned discussions about the climate, if not tomorrow's weather, were confined to climatologists. Today, public discussion about the climate in the Western media is dominated, maybe monopolized by climatists. The typical American, Canadian, European, Japanese, or Australian is exposed to climatism daily but hardly ever to climatology. Climatism is a Western ideology that has, generally, failed to expand its ambit of influence beyond rich people in rich countries.

 Climatism asserts that severe or catastrophic changes in the climate are ahead (but not just yet). The primary strain of climatism and the one known to the general public is that the earth is warming rapidly (Climatism W). This is a terrible thing. Human beings acting according to their nature i.e engaging in human activity are responsible. However, climatism has the solution: ruthless carbon suppression via total control of human society, globally. The secondary strain but one unknown to the public is that the earth is getting ready to cool dramatically (Climatism C). This is a terrible but entirely natural thing. Human beings have nothing to do with it and there will be few left anyway, assuming they follow some survival prescriptions, to worry about such things.

  As CS Lewis wrote about the historicism and scientism plaguing his own generation these ‘isms' are "the sweet poison of the false infinitive." His contemporary, Ronald Knox, pondering the same ‘isms' wrote" The world's future occupied their thoughts instead of a future world, and, by a kind of inverted Confucianism they fell to worshipping their grandchildren." To both Lewis and Knox the ‘isms' tempt people to live in the future, instead of the present which is our reality, because the future engenders both fear and hope ,which can be exploited.

 Climatists take a small, verifiable, truth and expand it to cover an enormous sphere of nature and human activity. They invoke the authority of science and the mystery of scientific nomenclature to bludgeon the public. Climatists are always certain. Climatologists readily admit their uncertainty. Climatists force fit every  event, observation or trend no matter how contradictory or palpably irrelevant to "prove" their superiority: from penguins to polar bears, to deluges and droughts, changing deserts and rainforests, expanding and retreating glaciers, thickening and thinning ice sheets, coral reefs and noctilucent clouds( clouds high above the surface of the earth made of chemical ice that shine like brilliant gems at night), volcanoes and typhoons, solar wind and water vapor, and of course, very small changes in the carbon dioxide composition of the atmosphere. Climatologists concede there is much they cannot fit or explain, much less predict.

  Climatism W has, until recently, succeeded in capturing the political imagination of the West and international bureaucrats paid and flattered by the West and the full range of the energy and environmental agenda in the West. It has failed to do so in the rest of the world, particularly the Global South. In the public climate discussion climatologists have been the silent majority. This appears to be changing as more climate scientists in both the West and the rest of the world (especially Russia and India) challenge Climatism W.  While politically Climatism W remains potent it may have peaked this year and possibly is waning. In the Global South it has been defeated as an ideology though still regnant as a convenient slogan. In the West its actionable victories have so far been minor although much trumpeted. Time is no longer on the side of Climatism W. It must either succeed in the next 2 years or not at all. Since Climatism C is not a political program its ideological success or failure is of no political or public policy consequence.  Read rest…