The Climate Emergency movement is an illustration of the ‘power of a narrative’.

The mass of people caught up in the belief that there is a climate emergency are not driven by any clear understanding of the complexities, much less the uncertainties, of climate science. They are driven by a basic narrative that goes something like this:

Human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) – mostly caused by burning fossil fuel – are a pollutant that is overheating the Earth and causing a climate emergency.

As a movement, it has gained success because its proponents take every opportunity to repeat this simple narrative and...