JOEL KOTKIN: Elites Are Using Climate Hysteria to Immiserate the Working Class.

For some greens, the current energy shortages plaguing the U.S., China and Europe reflect progress towards a glorious net-zero emissions era. Climate activists see in the draconian pandemic lockdowns a “test run”for future social control, and the middle and working class have reason to fear the policies adopted by this elite. The “great reset” adopted by the Davos crowd identified squashing social mobility and limiting prosperity as perquisites for environmental salvation. We have seen the first flushes of poverty linked to climate policy—what one socialist neatly labeled “eco-Thatcherism”—with clear evidence in California, the U.K. and Germany. In large part due to climate policies, many middle and working class families will face fuel bills that could increase 50 percent this winter.

Such policies barely impact the upper classes who proudly attend events like Glasgow. After all, the uber wealthy—British royals, Hollywood celebrities, super-models, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos—have learned to embrace the climate “emergency” even as they continue to build new estates, hold $2 million weddings, fly their private jets and even take a joyride in space. All this while asking hoi polloi , and the impoverished developing countries, to live ever smaller.

Bringing the deplorables to heel — and making them miserable — isn’t a means to an end, it’s the end. They don’t view worsening working-class lives as an unfortunate price that must reluctantly be paid. They view it as a goal in itself.