If you’ve never heard of a “Dreyfuss Moment” before, don’t be surprised. As far as I know, I’m coining the term.
It refers to that pivotal point in the iconic Steven Spielberg movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” when the character played by actor Richard Dreyfuss becomes convinced that the government has been lying about the air being poisonous to keep him and others from meeting the aliens at Devils Tower, Wyoming. His character rips off the gas mask he has been told to wear. Sure enough, the air is just fine. The political authorities have been lying (surprise, surprise)—there’s no danger.
As the United Nations convenes its annual climate alarmist extravaganza, COP28, in the United Arab Emirates, I find myself becoming increasingly confident that there will be a Dreyfuss Moment about the official climate change narrative.
Scientific evidence debunking the “human carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are causing ‘global boiling’” narrative hyped by U.N. head António Guterres continues to pile up. A recent study out of Norway found that the greenhouse effect has been in a downtrend for four decades.
For several decades, anyone who has challenged the official narrative has had their integrity questioned by media figures who have asked whether they’ve ever received money from a fossil fuels company—as if people who work in such industries are assumed to be liars. The key question to ask today is whether any scientist supporting the alarmist narrative has received, either personally or through the university they work for, government money. I suspect that a survey of experts independent of government would show a sizable majority endorsing the opinion that, while Earth’s climate is changing modestly, there’s no crisis and no need to radically retool human society.
What will precipitate a “Dreyfuss Moment” when it dawns on the public that the official government position is a myth and “We, the People” have been played as suckers? Being only an economist, I can’t make a prediction with any sort of precision, but let’s look at a few possibilities.
I hope I’m wrong, but my guess is that the most likely trigger for a “Dreyfuss Moment” would be a major breakdown of the electric grid—something such as the blackout that hit Texas two winters ago and resulted in more than 200 people freezing to death—but on a more lethal scale. What caused the unnecessary tragedy in Texas was an overreliance on intermittent energy sources (primarily wind) that destabilized the grid.
I suspect that if the U.S. electric grid breaks down because of overreliance on intermittent energy sources during a hot or cold spell and a large number of people die because they couldn’t keep cool or warm, we'll have our “Dreyfuss Moment.”
When it dawns on people that their primary protection against temperature extremes is the electric power that enables them to keep their homes at safe temperatures and that a zealously green government mob is pursuing policies that take that protection away from them, there will be a huge reaction.
Millions of Americans will turn against the climate change alarmists with fury and disgust. When they realize that the green policies adopted in the name of combating climate change pose a greater threat to their well-being than the climate itself, we'll be ready to return to a sane energy policy: allowing our electric utility companies to use whatever fuels produce reliable, affordable power for the American people.