Just two weeks after Secretary of State John Kerry claimed the coolants used in air conditioners and refrigerators were as great a threat to human life as ISIS, the nation and the world have moved on.
But, perhaps, it was a missed opportunity to straighten out some priorities.
Kerry made his comments in Vienna last month as he attended meetings to update the Montreal Protocol, an agreement from the 1980s that was originally designed to combat the hole in the ozone layer but is now being re-purposed to achieve other priorities in the fight against climate change – including bashing hydrofluorocarbons.
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The refrigerants replaced the original products (chlorofluorocarbons) that were thought to be depleting the ozone.
To highlight the urgency of the alleged problem, Kerry used an analogy that raised many eyebrows.
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"Yesterday, in Washington, I met with 45 nations, defense ministers and foreign ministers, as we were working together on the challenge of Daesh, ISIL, and terrorism. It's hard for some people to grasp it, but what you are doing here right now is of equal importance because it has the ability to literally save life on the planet itself," said Kerry.
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He then removed any doubt that he misspoke.
"Measured against the global array of threats we face today, and there are many: terrorism, extremism, epidemics, poverty, nuclear proliferation, all challenges that respect no borders, climate change belongs on that very same list," said Kerry.
Kerry's comments drew derision from political critics all over.
"This truly was, while consistent with Sec. Kerry particularly but also the global warming alarmist movement, a hysterical moment," said Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Christopher C. Horner.
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However, Horner says the real agenda behind Kerry's remarks is not funny at all.
"It's a scarcity agenda. They're not against everything. They're enthusiastically in favor of scarcity. That is imposed by making things like automobility, indoor climate control to make things more comfortable, and other modern conveniences much more expensive to purchase and to use," said Horner.
Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Christopher Horner:
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"They want to make energy much more expensive so you use less of it because we have so much of it. So now we've moved on to that it causes the seas to boil, the skies turn blood red, dogs and cats living together, etc. Therefore, you must drastically change your lifestyle," he said.
Another reason the agenda is no joke is because it jacks up the cost of energy bills people pay when the weather gets very hot or very cold. He says high energy prices indirectly led to thousands of deaths in a brutal heat wave in Paris last decade.
"So 20,000 of the most vulnerable died. They're living in a society where they could afford the $150 unit. They just can't afford to run it. It's seniors and the poor. That's who dies when weather happens," said Horner.
The same horrors are true in cold weather, as England learned the hard way.
"In the winters now, energy poverty deaths have skyrocketed from something like 12,000 to 17 to 31 to 40,000 excess a year, year over year coincidental with imposing these energy scarcity policies," said Horner.
Horner says it's ludicrous for Kerry to suggest climate change is as great a threat as terrorist groups like ISIS, although the death toll from the policies is rising.
"Thanks to energy poverty, you can now point to more deaths from these policies than terrorism. That's not to say that one is worse than the other, but please keep in mind the tremendous costs of an agenda that, by the way, nobody claims would actually impact the climate," said Horner.
Instead, he says, the left has resorted to distracting people from the ineffectiveness of its big government policies by linking every natural disaster to man-made climate change.
"Everything is being targeted for global warming. Global warming is the reason for everything. It's the cause for everything, and addressing it is the cure for everything," said Horner.
But he says a simple conversation with a climate activist shows just how insincere they really are. Horner offered an example:
Activist: "Well, this is the greatest threat facing mankind."
Horner: "Okay, so we should build lots of nuclear power then?"
Activist: "Oh, no!"
Horner: "So global warming is the greatest threat facing mankind, except for nuclear power. How about dams?"
Activist: "No, those are mean to fish. Can't do that."
Horner: "How about frack for more gas instead of coal?"
Activist: "No, no, no. We can't do that."
Horner: "So global warming, the greatest threat facing mankind, is a lesser threat than nuclear power, hydropower, hydrofracking."
Horner says the greatest threat to mankind also takes a backseat to climate control at town halls for President Obama and a comfortable climate at the Democratic National Convention.
He says the alarmism offered by Kerry is ridiculous and people who know better need to speak out forcefully when they happen.
"It is a great shame that we don't take these moments to say, 'You know what? We're living in dangerous times in a serious world and you have a position of responsibility and authority. Cut it out. Get serious. Stop this. Focus on what's important,'" said Horner.
