EDITORIAL: Global warming on ice

Speaking of Christmas, it appears that Santa Claus, his reindeer and all the elves got a present they’ll be quite happy with. Al Gore, on the other hand, got another well-deserved lump of coal in his stocking.

In 2008, you might recall, the former vice president and current global warming alarmist in chief said, “Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance the entire north polar ice cap, during some of the summer months, could be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years.”

As the “South Park” caricature of Mr. Gore would have said, in explaining the seriousness of the issue, “I’m super, duper cereal.”

Time magazine was right on board with Mr. Gore, with a 2006 cover ominously stating, “BE WORRIED. BE VERY WORRIED” (yes, it was in all capital letters), with a photo of a lonely polar bear riding a piece of floating ice.

Five years after Mr. Gore’s statement, the North Pole is still around and, in fact, thriving. BBC News reported earlier this month that ice is up by a resounding 50 percent this year from 2012 levels. So things are still nice and frigid for all those at Santa’s workshop. The polar bear population is thriving, as well.

But such a turn of events won’t quiet the rabid climate change folks, because this has never been about what actually happens. It’s always been about alarmism, and that alarmism has been around quite a while. In 1975, Newsweek magazine published an article headlined “The Cooling World,” which suggested melting the polar ice caps.

The arrogance required to boldly predict anything that could happen on this planet — whether it’s in five years, 20 years, 100 years or more — is laughable.

The alarmism is less about “preventing” climate change than it is about raising gobs of money, which countless groups then use to push their agenda: to ratchet back first-world economies and living standards by making energy much more expensive and much less available.

Sure, there’s climate change. We like to call it “weather.” Enough with the hysteria. Stay cool, Mr. Claus.