Virtue has always been for sale.

The oldest fragments of human civilisation contain tributes left for the gods in a futile attempt to court their good graces. We believed that through material sacrifice – be it in riches or blood – the forces of nature could be coerced in our favour.

Tlazolteotl, an ancient Aztec goddess, was honoured by murdering a person in a field with arrows so that their blood might fertilise the dirt. Half a millennia ago, the people of Chimú in northern Peru killed hundreds of children between 5-14 years old and buried them beneath the bodies of llamas in history’s largest known sacrificial event. There is evidence they were brutalised first, including the removal of their hearts. The Inca weren’t much better, killing children atop volcanoes in Pichu Pichu and Ampato where it is believed they were tied to stone slabs and left to be struck by lightning.

Our ancestors killed their children to change the weather.

The sacrificial mindset is a desire created by existential fear and the unwanted knowledge that our world tortures life indiscriminately. To regain control, humans reason that a virtuous society is surely entitled to salvation, whether earned or purchased. In this moment we transfer human emotion onto a chunk of rock and attempt to make a bargain.

For thousands of years, ‘the gods’ have remained indifferent to human virtue – rewarding the undeserving while throwing flood and fire at peaceful societies. The Greeks and Romans made sense of this through their Pantheon of tempestuous and irresponsible gods, the Vikings embraced existentialism, while other religions around the world indulged natural violence and worshipped the horror. Though most of these civilisations have long since collapsed, the human belief in the bargain of virtue endures in modern religious movements.

Progressive environmentalists usually recoil at the accusation of faith, protesting that they are ‘atheists’. They are not. At their least religious they are spiritualists that embrace mysticism and superstition. Others are devout in a variety of nature cults that have not yet coalesced into a coherent faith – but they will. This new religion has borrowed heavily from the Abrahamic faiths, no doubt because it is the only point of spiritual worship Western practitioners have to reference.

In 1095, Pope Urban II appealed to the sinful masses of Europe with a promise of heavenly forgiveness if they joined the First Crusade. These were sinful times and there were plenty of takers. This evolved into a system of indulgences within the medieval Church and the ‘treasury of heavenly merit’. Before long, there was a thriving trade of virtue that carried the same level of credibility as a rainbow background on a corporate logo.

Monetary absolution is a theme favoured by the cult of Climate Change. Radicalised teachers, media personalities, ‘scientists’, and politicians fill the national soul with apocalyptic guilt – laying the blame on hot and heavy until the demoralised public drag their wallets to the ATO and empty them in prayer.

Tax the poor. Save the planet.

Children, in particular, are traumatised into believing they are sinful by birth – that their existence is a carbon burden on the planet and a selfish act by their parents. To atone for being born, they are brainwashed into upholding the faith of global apocalypse and supporting political leaders – as a moral duty – who legislate profitable Net Zero ventures.

It is a political scam wrapped up in religious guilt and terror that we have allowed to permeate a civilisation that used to credit itself with the Enlightenment. How fitting that the West’s fall will involve a very real blackout as our energy grids flicker into death.

Until then, entire generations believe that they can escape the hellfire of a climate apocalypse (or is that a Biblical flood?) if they pay a carbon surcharge on their coffee or incorporate powdered cockroaches into their ‘bread and circuses’. Logic and reality are irrelevant concepts when in discussion about the emotional panic of sin and fear of punishment. Just as the priests of old draped themselves in silk and jewels while peasants tossed coins at the fire, today’s citizens see no hypocrisy in the spiritual leaders of the Climate Cult boarding private jets and super yachts or living in palaces by the sea.

Climate cultists don’t want to see the proof of their sacrifice, all they want is an expert to pat them on the back and say, ‘You are saved…’

For a political movement that claims to hate religion as a backward fiction designed to control the population, the practitioners of Climate Change certainly copy-pasted a few ideas. Not only do they adhere to the Eden-esque view of the world pre-humanity, they’re quite fond of the concept of original sin.

The Catholic Church talks about the treasury of the Church as a creation of ‘infinite value’ with the power to set the whole of mankind ‘free from sin’ if only a believer takes part in prayers, good works, and monetary tributes. In the same way, the constant repetition of Climate Change slogans, attendance at rallies, and the Net Zero taxation scam are all designed to enforce adherence to the ‘Faith’ even among the non-believers who are donating to a Church whose Pope resides in a Swiss Alps ski resort.

God’s treasury is described as limitless, but the Climate Change vaults are truly astonishing with trillions of dollars sliding through the backrooms of power. It’s the kind of money that makes the riches of the Vatican look like a dodgy yard sale.

When the naive ask, ‘Why would anyone lie about The Science?’ The answer is, for the same complex reasons people followed false Covid laws.

It’s obvious why the big end of town converted to the Climate Change Cult, but why do ordinary people wish to buy their way out of a sin they never committed to avoid a punishment that isn’t real?

Has a green religious delusion swept over the population and filled the void left behind by recently slain gods?

Perhaps. When trying to determine why people adhere to a scam, the explanation is usually a mixture of laziness and an irrational emotional attachment. In this case, they are in love with the idea of virtue and many have a saviour complex that, if it were to be dismantled, would rob them of purpose. Who are Millennials, Gen Z, and the Teals if not planet-saving climate warriors? Heartless idiots that advocated for taxing the poor to appease mining companies? Morons gluing themselves to the road in peak hour so a CEO can add an extra zero to their profit margin? It’s a bit of a reality shock.

When dealing with the Climate Change Cult, political commentators would be wise to stop treating this as a political discussion and instead view it as a deconversion from a toxic faith. You cannot simply tell people that their god is a lie – those at the top of power have to be exposed and ridiculed. The Faith will collapse on its own after that.

The Climate Cult has extended its greed for public cash well beyond donations for indulgences, and is now in a tithe-like situation where a percentage of personal and corporate earnings are siphoned off by government decree. Everyone is funding the Climate Change Cult. Everyone is contributing to the apocalyptic scam that has attached its jaws to the neck of Western Civilisation and drinks like a parasite, gorging itself while politicians stroke it like a pet.

Alexandra Marshall is an independent writer. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.