OPINION:
Eleven years ago, 2,500 of the world’s elite, including Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore, descended in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum summit. Many traveled in their socially inequitable private jets to preach about the rules the rest of us must follow to address catastrophic climate change.
“If we do not start reducing emissions, we could see within 50 years very heavily populated areas becoming physiologically unlivable,” Mr. Gore warned in his speech that year, using vivid imagery such as the sky becoming an “open sewer.” He advocated for radical climate action, including putting a price on carbon and achieving a net-zero emissions future through the implementation of sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar.
His remarks were met with rapturous applause.
Throughout the years, Mr. Gore has made an estimated $330 million with his climate alarmism, setting up a green investment firm now worth $36 billion, which pays him $2 million a month.
This year, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick delivered a rebuttal to Mr. Gore’s decades of climate rhetoric by outlining to the WEF audience why “globalism has failed.”
Mr. Lutnick publicly dismantled the WEF doctrine, explaining that net zero made Europe dependent on China, that nations must control their own industry, energy and medicine to protect their own people, and that sovereignty begins with border enforcement.
“Why are you going to do solar and wind? Why would Europe agree to be net zero in 2030 when they don’t make a battery? They don’t make a battery! So if they go 2030, they are deciding to be subservient to China,” Mr. Lutnick said of Europe’s energy policies.
He was booed by none other than Mr. Gore, who attended the speech.
“I sat and listened to his remarks,” Mr. Gore said in a statement to Mediaite. “I didn’t interrupt him in any way. It’s no secret that I think this administration’s energy policy is insane.
“And at the end of his speech, I reacted with how I felt, and so did several others.”
Ultimately, Mr. Lutnick’s event was called off before it ended.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde reportedly walked out during Mr. Lutnick’s speech, and the hosts ended the dinner before dessert, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Mr. Lutnick’s performance largely echoed those of others within the Trump administration, including the president himself, emphasizing American bravado and global dominance in contrast with Europe’s declining competitiveness and influence.
In a speech Wednesday, Mr. Trump mocked the “catastrophic energy collapse which befell every European nation” in recent years, berated Britain for not tapping more oil in the North Sea and referred to WEF’s climate hysteria as the “green new scam.”
Mr. Trump was correct.
Germany now generates 22% less electricity than in 2017, while prices have surged 64%. Britain produces just one-third of the total energy from all sources than it did in 1999, with electricity prices soaring 139%.
“The consequences of such destructive policies have been stark, including lower economic growth, lower standards of living, lower birth rates, more socially disruptive migration, more vulnerability to hostile foreign adversaries, and much, much smaller militaries,” Mr. Trump said.
The forecast growth rate for EU gross domestic product in 2025 is 0.9%, compared with 4.4% for the U.S. in the third quarter; basic living costs have outpaced wage growth in many EU nations, leading to falling living standards for households. Since Mr. Trump took office, real private sector weekly earnings are on track to rise 4% in the U.S., resoundingly beating inflation.
For Mr. Gore, who predicted in 2006 that Arctic Sea ice would disappear and the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro would be gone within a decade, Messrs. Trump and Lutnick’s remarks in the Swiss Alps must have hit like an inconvenient truth.
So, like a typical liberal, understanding his gravy train may be coming to an end, he resorted to heckling rather than debating on the issues.
After the event, Mr. Lutnick remarked on X: “Thankfully, we didn’t come to Davos for Al Gore’s praise.”
No, the Trump administration came to Davos to announce a new world order, one in which America leads and the European globalists follow.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.