Are truth, accountability, and authenticity still virtues?

November 11, 2025

Andy Caldwell

OPINION by ANDY CALDWELL

One of the major problems in our society these days has to do with the fact that most people are led to believe sensational headlines that are later proved to be false. However, they never hear the correction of the falsehood.

For instance, how many of you heard that the cause of the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was caused by climate change?

Well, the truth is, it was caused by an arsonist.

Furthermore, how many of you heard that the fire was so devastating because of climate change?

Well, in actuality, the fire was made worse by complete and gross incompetence by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

How so? As reported in the LA Times and KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles, firefighters were ordered to abandon the smoldering underground fire that later became the devastating Palisades Fire, something the crews on the ground thought was a “bad idea.”

According to text messages reviewed by the Times, firefighters told their battalion chief that “the ground was still smoldering, and rocks remained hot to the touch” at the site of the Lachman Fire, which burned on New Year’s Day before being contained.

Despite that warning, “their battalion chief ordered them to roll up their hoses and pull out of the area on Jan. 2 — the day after the 8-acre blaze was declared contained — rather than stay and make sure there were no hidden embers that could spark a new fire,” the Times reports.

That first fire, which prosecutors say was started by an Uber driver, remained burning underground until the strong winds of Jan. 7 rekindled it. That blaze grew into the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and devastated the Pacific Palisades.

Climate change had nothing to do with it. And that my friends is the whole truth.

I would like to take this opportunity to share a couple of other interesting developments about climate change alarmism.

Bill Gates, who has invested over $2 billion to fight climate change, has, as of late, had some sort of epiphany. Whereas he still believes that climate change is likely to hurt the world’s most vulnerable—he now admits it won’t pose a catastrophic risk to civilization, so it’s time to focus on quality of life rather than emissions cuts or temperature rise.

Specifically, Gates issued a memo which states, “Although climate change will hurt poor people more than anyone else, for the vast majority of them it will not be the only or even the biggest threat to their lives and welfare. The biggest problems are poverty and disease, just as they always have been.”

Has Gates truly had an epiphany?  Or does the fact that the massive AI data centers, that can use as much power as a large city, need more oil, gas, coal, and nuclear generated electricity because wind and solar can’t supply what they need? Regardless, coupled with Trump cutting off funds from the federal government for green energy subsidies, and the pending repeal of Obama’s so-called “endangerment finding,” which has cost the American economy an estimated $1 trillion in regulatory costs, the financial wherewithal, and mandates to fund the green energy scam may soon be running on empty.

Whereas, Gates and Trump might be pulling the plug on green energy, I seriously doubt CALPERS, the California public employee retiree pension trust, has learned a thing. In case you haven’t heard, CALPERS took a bath as it lost 71% of its $468 million investment in a clean energy and technology private equity fund.

As Center Square pointed out, “Had the money put into the green energy fund been passively invested in an S&P 500 index fund, with dividends reinvested, the fund would have been worth approximately $3 billion.” But, of course, the board of CALPERS doesn’t really care because taxpayers are on the hook for these losses, in addition to the current $180 billion shortfall in their fund.

Unfortunately, for many, none of this will affect the general public’s allegiance to the climate change jihad. As Daniel Greenfield, of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, put it, “Environmentalism is a secular religion for a secular age. Bureaucracy is its priesthood, and activism is its sainthood.”

Yet, virtually none of its practitioners are willing to live a simpler life, for instance, without the benefits and byproducts of carbon-based fuels, and that is the real story here.

Andy Caldwell is the executive director of COLAB in Santa Barbara County and host of The Andy Caldwell Radio Show, weekdays from 3-5 p.m. on  FM 98.5, FM 99.5, AM 1240, AM 1290 and FM 96.9.