Opinion
By Tom Harris
10/10/25
Most organizations and individuals who are fighting against the expansion of wind turbines, solar power, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) are not addressing the elephant in the room. The truth is that the science driving the climate scare is wrong, and so the energy transition promoted by environmental groups is not required.
For fear of being dismissed as “climate change deniers,” opponents to the “green energy” expansion focus on blocking renewable energy projects in their regions for other reasons such as the infeasibility of the project, high costs, or environmental and health concerns. In so doing, they often unwittingly promote the climate scare. This is because they aren’t addressing the underlying fact that humans are not causing dangerous climate change, so the energy transition is a complete waste of money and threatens to leave us bankrupt, hungry and freezing in the dark for no environmental benefit at all.
Their strategy is analogous to objecting to your doctor that your cancer treatment is costly, uncomfortable, and painful. Your doctor will reply, “Yes, the treatment has serious side effects, but it is needed to save your life.” That argument would make sense if you do indeed have cancer. But what if another, even more qualified doctor doubts that you actually have cancer? Wouldn’t it make sense to thoroughly consider that point of view? If the second doctor is correct, then the anti-cancer treatment is worse than useless, and no amount of expense and discomfort is worthwhile. Similarly, we don’t need any “treatments” for our energy sector: costly renewable energy projects are unneeded, just like cancer treatments for healthy patients.
One organization that falls into this trap is Citizens for Responsible Solar. They promote using solar power on rooftops and commercial land rather than rural farmland. Of course, it makes sense to prevent solar panels from being built on farmland and cutting down forests to build solar farms, but the organization fails to address the fact that the panels are not required in the first place since there is no climate crisis.
Citizens for Responsible Solar say, “Destroying farmland and cutting down trees will not solve climate change.” They advocate for solar power to be used responsibly, which is indeed important, but their message completely avoids the elephant in the room. They write: “We believe that true ‘green’ energy solutions do not involve destroying farmlands, forests, wildlife habitat, families, and homes.” That is true: but we don’t need “green energy” solutions at all. We need clean, conventional energy that will power our cities and industries, something that solar power is not yet capable of.
There are also many groups opposing wind turbines, for instance, Wind Concerns Ontario. This group has many excellent resources on the detrimental effects of turbines, however, they also say that “the global challenge of climate change is to choose smart, effective solutions.” Unfortunately, this is furthering the climate scare, because there is no “global challenge of climate change” that should concern us, apart from hardening our societies to adapt to natural environmental changes. Many other local groups throughout North America have voiced similar concerns about wind turbines but totally fail to address the climate change propaganda that is driving the push for so-called renewable energy.
Fossil fuel companies, however, are the worst of all. Many are capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and pumping it underground with costly “carbon” capture and storage (CCS) technologies. They are on the right track promoting conventional power, but CCS is entirely unnecessary and greatly increases the cost of energy for no benefit.
For instance, ExxonMobil has detailed plans on how they will reduce emissions, promoting “Low Carbon Solutions” in their Advancing Climate Solutions report. Directly stating that “Climate change is real and stands as one of the major challenges facing the world today” does nothing to help their goal of providing reliable energy to the world. They want to expand their power but are also crippling themselves with investments to lower CO2 emissions.
Shell too promotes the climate scare with their target to become a “net-zero emissions energy business by 2050,” citing the Paris Agreement on climate change that aims to limit the rise in the so-called “global average temperature” this century to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Not only is this unnecessary, but it will significantly increase the cost of electricity and make heating and cooling our homes especially difficult for those living in poorer communities. Instead, fossil fuel companies should champion CO2 as a life-giving molecule that is greening the planet rather than try to “decarbonise” their industry.
Groups opposing “green energy” should look into the science that is driving the climate scare to see if it actually holds up. A good place to start would be the fully-referenced 88-page book Energy & Climate at a Glance: Canadian Edition (click here to order for $14 Canadian plus tax, shipping and handling) published by Canadians for Sensible Climate Policy and The Heartland Institute. The book is a timely counter to the “Net Zero” push and outlines how that goal is unachievable by 2050, scientifically unnecessary, and will ensure lower standards of living with no appreciable environmental benefit.
Furthermore, groups that oppose a massive expansion of renewables, including BESS, should also oppose events such as Climate Week NYC, which took place at the end of September. Large public events like these are one of the primary drivers of the climate scare and so must be tackled head-on. Rather than just protesting against wind turbines, solar panels, and BESS, we should speak up against the propaganda promulgated at these events. Our message should be clear: the climate scare is not based on sound science. If Climate Week and other enterprises are discredited, it will be harder for companies to build the wind, solar and BESS facilities that have been harming communities around the world.
Another activist group promoting solar and wind energy to be opposed is SunDay, with its inaugural event last month. They say they “celebrate the progress we’ve made [on renewables] and push for more.” Although their messaging is wrong on many fronts (e.g., solar power cannot sustain our society), their primary reasoning is that they need to introduce these new energy sources to “stop climate change.” They write, “If we can keep building solar power, we’ll have a shot to stop climate change” and reference carbon dioxide as “carbon pollution.” This is the principal message that we must oppose.
By staying true to their base and the facts about climate change, organizations opposing BESS and renewable energies will be in a better position to sway public opinion. We need strong leaders who aren’t afraid to call out the unscientific anthropogenic climate change narrative as simply wrong. Instead, they need to promote sensible policies to adapt to climate change rather than trying to stop it with damaging, expensive and inadequate technologies.
Note: Mary-Jean Harris, BSc, MSc (physics), contributed to this article.
Tom Harris is Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
