The Church of Global Warming sees the coronavirus as a great opportunity to push its agenda, but the opposite outcome is more likely: the public losing its patience with alarmism, junk science, theatrics, and silly fetishes like the plastic bag ban.
An unprecedented economic disaster is going to leave the public in no mood to hear lectures that it should be even poorer, and embrace an even lower and less healthy standard of living, because the high priests of climate change demand it.
For at least the next decade, there isn't going to be a lot of spare change lying around to finance theatrical crusades or pay for politicized studies. The clamor to rebuild the economy will drown out shamanistic demands for expensive junk like solar panels and windmills.
Also, the Church of Global Warming gets much of its clout from celebrities and Hollywood, an industry that will be hit very hard by the pandemic crash. The movie industry might never be the same again. There will be less money and time for madcap radicalism in the years to come.
And not to put too fine a point on it, but millionaire lefties who love to hop out of private jets and lecture everyone else on their carbon footprints are probably going to find themselves getting a much colder reception in post-coronavirus America and Europe.
Our society indulged in a great deal of apocalypse role-playing because it was incredibly rich and comfortable. Many people felt aimless or guilty and wanted to see themselves as brave warriors tackling a challenge on par with World War 2, without too much actual discomfort.
Now that everyone has gotten a taste of a REAL crisis - and we haven't yet begun to feel the true extent of its economic aftershocks - the hunger for role-playing games and fanciful indulgences will diminish. The real thing isn't much fun, and it demands hard work and sacrifice.
Maybe there will be less aimlessness and guilt afterward, more appreciation for what we've built and how fragile it is. It probably won't be a good time to sell phantom fears whose "solutions" call for the exact opposite of what dealing with the real crisis demands. /end
