Last week, it was widely reported that the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made some very newsworthy adjustments to its modeling. Its doomsday model had breathlessly foretold of 4 to 5 degree warming by the year 2100, causing massive crop failures, rising seas swallowing cities and land, the end of glaciers, the extinction of the polar bear, and unimagined death and destruction. The predictions have truly terrified tens of millions — while costing taxpayers all over the world hundreds of billions of dollars.

When greeted with the news of the adjustment, President Trump posted on Truth Social: “GOOD RIDDANCE! After 15 years of Dumocrats promising that ‘Climate Change’ is going to destroy the Planet, the United Nations TOP Climate Committee just admitted that its own projections … were WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!”

As researchers affiliated with the United Nations climate committee admitted: “For the 21st century, this range [of catastrophic predictions] will be smaller than assessed before: on the high-end of the range, the high emission levels … have become implausible, based on trends in the costs of renewables, the emergence of climate policy and recent emission trends.”

Gee, no kidding.

I have yet to speak with a person — Republican, Democrat or independent — who believed those “end of the world” predictions were even remotely plausible. That is not to say, however, that those non-stop scare tactics did not negatively impact the minds and lives of millions across the globe. Most especially, young people.

As a member of “Gen Dinosaur,” I am a huge fan of Gen Z. Be it via family or friends, I have the honor of speaking with many on a regular basis, and their perspective on life is often refreshingly brutal. The absolute reality is that, in one way or another, it’s going to be up to Gen Z to save a world going more sideways by the day. But for them to accomplish that task, we need to answer a critical question: Who is going to save Gen Z so they can save us?

To say that Gen Z has been wedged behind the eight-ball of life by prior generations would be a vast understatement. They have had to deal with one grifting machine after another, and it has taken a mental and physical toll upon them.

With regard to “climate change” and our young people, back in December of 2021, The Lancet reported that “More than 50 percent reported each of the following emotions: sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty.” As one fear-mongering climate change group after the other raked in billions, a by-product was damaging the minds of susceptible young people who bought their end-of-the-world schemes, hook, line, and sinker.

Speaking of 2021, that year would have been the height of yet another fear-mongering message machine, with all the warnings and draconian dictates associated with COVID-19. The dystopian pounding arguably hit Gen Z the hardest.

Go to school? Forget it? Eat in a cafeteria with your friends? Forget it. Go to an in-person graduation? Forget it. Be forced to wear masks for months on end? Check. Stand at least six feet apart from another human being for no proven reason? Check. Be told by your government that you had to take a vaccine for your own good? Check.

Then, when members of Gen Z did enroll into college after their virtual graduations, their higher education was hijacked by woke edicts. Instead of focusing on subjects that would help them secure a career, tenured professor after tenured professor admonished them on the need to place identity politics before the realities of the job market. And then those same liberal professors, perhaps out of a sense of guilt for cheating their students out of a practical education, would arbitrarily inflate their already-useless grades.

Beyond that, Gen Z has had to deal in real time with the non-stop aftereffects of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Their generation was blossoming during the age of Trump. All of a sudden, they were told — or warned — to pick a side. Get in a deep silo far from other opinions, thoughts, peers, friends and family members, and focus only on the individuals and groups they were instructed to “hate.”

Pause for just a second to honestly reflect upon everything Gen Z has had to deal with for the last decade. Back in the Reagan administration, after he was falsely accused of a crime, then Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan famously asked: “Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?” I believe Gen Z has every right to paraphrase that question and ask: “Which office do we go to to get our future back?”

I would offer them this bit of advice with regard to that question: The way to save yourselves while restoring your potential and great promise is to think for yourselves.

Your generation has paid a very steep price because of grifts, partisanship, and some using you as cheap disposable pawns to be manipulated for their selfish and greed-induced agendas. The leaders of our nation owe you an apology.

But in lieu of that, simply think for yourselves. Question everything and everyone and build your better future based upon your conclusions after examining every fact. We need you more than you need us.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.

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