An End To Climate Alarmism

WSJ Opinion: Free Expression

Gerard Baker, Editor at Large, The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week at the United Nations, Donald Trump derided the climate change movement, calling it a ‘con job,’ a view that the Republican party signed onto as the president won his second term last year. While it may not be a hoax, there's growing evidence that the supposed catastrophe climate change represents has been way overblown. One person whose views have undergone a radical change in recent years is Ted Nordhaus, co-founder and director of the Breakthrough Institute. On this episode of the Free Expression podcast, Gerry Baker speaks to Nordhaus, who explains how he has stopped worrying and learned, if not to love, then at least to accept the limited cost of climate change. He argues that government incentives have created a ‘climate industrial complex’ that continues to promote an alarmist message, but says the U.S. is actually on the right track in tackling climate change Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:26.4	And I'm not to say that because I work here. Get started today at banta.com.
0:32.3	From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker. Hello and welcome to Free Expression
0:41.4	from the Wall Street Journal editorial page. I'm Jerry Baker, editor at large at the journal. Thanks for joining us
0:45.6	again. If you're not already subscribing, please do subscribe at Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you do you're
0:50.2	listening. And remember to leave us a nice review and a good like. I'm recording this on
0:54.2	Wednesday, the 1st of October. There's a lot going on. Government is shut down in Washington.
0:59.8	Politics continues to play out in unpredictable and interesting ways. We're talking this week about
1:05.6	the climate. Donald Trump, of course, was here in New York last week, gave his speech to the United Nations,
1:12.2	which got a lot of attention, said a lot of things to the assembled multitudes of the world,
1:17.3	most of which didn't go down very well with them, but seemed to have gone down quite well with his supporters and a large number of Americans.
1:23.8	And while a lot of attention was inevitably paid to his remarks about what had gone wrong in the world,
1:29.7	one thing that was particularly interesting, I think, was what he said about climate change.
1:34.1	And I'll quote, he said, this climate change, it's the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion.
1:40.7	All these predictions made by the United Nations and many others often for bad reasons were
1:44.6	wrong, made by stupid people. It's classic Trump. But nonetheless, as I say, I think it resonates
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