On further reflection, the so-called war on climate change is worse than incompetent. Incompetence implies failed leadership and flawed execution. What we face is something more alarming: the absence of leadership altogether. There is no central authority, no unified command, and no one empowered to set priorities, coordinate action, or enforce an effective global strategy. This is a war in name only and tragically, one structurally incapable of victory.
Following Al Gore's 2006 film, An Inconvenient Truth, which brought the existential threat of climate change into public view, no unified plan of action emerged. Unfortunately, what developed--and persists--is a vast but disorganized effort: millions of "foot soldiers" scattered across government agencies, corporations, nonprofits, universities, and concerned citizens worldwide.
Despite the immense scale of the global climate industry, there is still no central registry identifying who the actors are, where they operate, what they are doing, or how much funding they receive--and from whom. Even more troubling, there is no command structure to coordinate this sprawling enterprise and no authority empowered to concentrate resources and personnel on the rapid development of technologies with a realistic chance of halting climate change.
After three decades and trillions of dollars spent, the outcome is unmistakable: atmospheric CO2 levels have reached record highs, global temperatures continue to climb, and the planet is in worse condition than when this disorganized campaign began.
A historical contrast helps clarify the failure:
Imagine it is December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor has just been attacked. Now imagine President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressing the nation with these words:"My fellow Americans, on this day of infamy, I call on all patriotic citizens to rise up and fight the enemy."
If that had been the essence of his "battle plan," World War II would have been lost.
Instead, President Roosevelt unified the nation under a single, organized command with one purpose: victory. The War Department was authorized to lead strategic planning. The draft created a massive army under centralized control. To coordinate operations of the military services, the Joint Chiefs of Staff was created (JCS). By Executive Order FDR established the War Production Board to transform peacetime industries into a coordinated engine of wartime manufacturing. Automakers were ordered to cease production of civilian vehicles and began turning out tanks, planes, munitions, and more. Every resource was aligned toward one goal: winning
Now contrast that with today's farcical "war" on climate change, where we somehow expect the very nations and institutions that created the crisis to solve it--essentially hiring the thieves to catch the thieves. No authoritative structure exists to organize, direct, or enforce a winning global strategy.
Fossil-fuel-producing nations have repeatedly failed to meet their emission-reduction commitments; virtually all are expanding production. Corporations that have pledged to shrink their carbon footprints have, in most cases, increased them. This trend is likely to worsen as nearly every company on the planet adopts energy-hungry AI systems. Add to that the explosive growth of the crypto industry, which consumes massive amounts of electricity
Is it any surprise that we are losing the dumbest war ever waged?
World War II threatened America's democracy and national survival. Climate change threatens something far greater: the survival of life on this planet. Meeting that threat demands the same unified command, coordinated global planning, and full mobilization of resources that the U.S. mustered in its darkest hour.
Only such organization and authority can concentrate resources at the scale necessary to bring truly climate-defeating technologies to full commercial functionality. A centralized command to set strategy and allocate resources could be implemented in a far more streamlined manner than the World War II mobilization, without totally disrupting daily life, if nations finally commit to the international cooperation and resolve required to win.
