By Wallace Manheimer

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advances.”

This was the opening statement in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inaugural address in 1933.  The statement was made at the depths of the great depression, when many people understandably felt they had much to fear. However, FDR counseled that this fear “paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advances.”

We are in a similar situation today. Mankind’s main peacetime objective is to “advance” the spread of prosperity to all humanity, consistent with Judaism’s concept of tikkun olam – repairing the world to improve it. In the West, this was accomplished over several centuries by replacing the energy used since prehistoric times, that of human and animal muscle, solar and wind. This was replaced with coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear.

Then, the pseudoscience of extremists was popularized in “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s 2006 film, which said that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide would overheat Earth and destroy civilization. If not nameless, it was certainly an “unreasoning, unjustified terror” over the relatively modest “greenhouse” effect of a life-sustaining gas that took hold in the minds of many.

Certain policymakers became convinced that we must abandon fossil fuels and return to the prehistoric sources – back to, in the current vernacular, “net zero.” Never mind that before the widespread use of hydrocarbons civilization was a thin veneer over squalor and misery preserved by the likes of slavery, feudalism, colonialism and tyranny.

This demonization of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide has been debunked in many well-documented books by top-of-the-line experts, including Steven Koonin, Alex Epstein, Michael Shellenberger, Patrick Moore, Bjorn Lomborg and Gregory Wrightstone. In addition, tens of thousands of qualified scientists have signed public statements rejecting climate alarmism, including the Global Warming Petition Project and Clintel’s climate declaration. Organizations such as the CO2 Coalition, Heartland Institute and CFACT regularly publish materials refuting alarmist claims.

Nevertheless, fear remains. Even many prestigious scientific societies have supported alarmist assertions despite overwhelming evidence of their falseness.

Governments in places like California, England and Germany have gone to great lengths to incorporate solar and wind power into electric systems to the detriment of their economies and citizens. At least half of their electric power continues to come from coal or natural gas since the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow.

California now suffers relatively frequent rolling blackouts and brownouts, just like underdeveloped countries do. Among major European countries, Germany has by far the largest fraction of its electricity coming from solar and wind. The cost of a kilowatt-hour (kWh) in Germany is about double that in France, which is mostly nuclear, and about triple that in the U.S.

Assuming it is even possible, achieving “‘net zero” would further increase costs because some scheme to power civilization is needed to compensate for the intermittency of wind and solar. Consider the cost of currently favored huge battery banks, which can provide power for, let’s say 10 days.

U.S. power demand is about 400 million kilowatts. Hence, battery banks, located around the country, would have to last for about 10 days, or approximately 250 hours to provide the necessary 100 billion kWh of energy.

Tesla batteries have between 50 and 100 kWh of storage and cost $5,000-$20,000. Assuming conservatively a cost of $10,000 for every 100 kWh of energy, the country would have to spend $10 trillion on 1 billion batteries. Not only that, but battery life is only about 10 years, making annual replacement cost $1 trillion.

Such wasteful expenditures destroy civilizations.

This recalls a tragedy nearly a century ago, when France, confronted with a powerful, hostile neighbor, wasted enormous effort and resources constructing the Maginot Line, a gigantic white elephant of steel and concrete that spectacularly failed to repel German invaders in 1940. For this disastrous mistake, the French were enslaved for four years, their country wrecked.

Fortunately, the Allies, through much sacrifice of their own, were able to save the French. But who can save us from the destructive forces of net zero? It would seem only ourselves.

Clearly, the only thing we have to fear about climate change is “unreasoning, unjustified terror” – namely the fear of climate change!

This commentary was first published at The Washington Times on April 7, 2025.

Dr. Wallace Manheimer is a life fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and is a member of the CO₂ Coalition. He is the author of more than 150 refereed papers.