SVG
Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Climate Policy and World Order

Greens forget the insight that crude interventions often make things worse.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
A billboard displays a temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 18, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Caption
A billboard displays a temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 18, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that humanity is threatened by “.” Migrant  outdoors in Kuwait are suffering kidney problems because of prolonged exposure to temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Naval planners are  of shrinking Arctic sea ice for warfighting in the far north.

A year of , unusual weather, destructive storms and raging has intensified the clash between the seemingly irresistible political momentum of the climate-change movement and the apparently unyielding economic and political realities of the world system.