2024: What Are the Issues We Will Need to Follow Closely?

Continuing curb on the freedom of expression, 'climate emergency' and inferred limitations to our blamed ways of living, as well as some other abuses of power – these will be the key issues for 2024.

In 2024, we will be hit by even more intense messages about the scale of the global climate emergency, while doubting will, in equal measure, be increasingly labelled as 'misinformation' and 'disinformation'. Those in power are imposing their own narratives, both directly and indirectly, and it is up to buy them or not. The major themes of the year will regard freedom of expression, the climate-destroying sin of being a human being, and obedience to authorities.

As I write these lines, there is a bitter frost outside my window in Tallinn, Estonia – the thermometer reads -18 C. Icy wind stings in your face when you go outside. At this moment, few of us here seem to be worried about global warming, instead, we’re putting on more woollen socks. But in Australia it is summer. Highs between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius are promised for this week in Sydney, while next week should see 29 degrees for one day. "Heat: The silent killer stalking Australia's summer," the BBC wrote in late December.

Although current temperatures don't show it, the BBC article says that one in every ten summer days just inland from the coast in the Sydney area will exceed 35 degrees, and people are finding it hard. It cites a study that shows that from 2006 to 2017, i.e. in 12 years, heat played a role in 36,000 deaths in Australia or an average of 3,000 deaths a year. By comparison, a total of 191,000 people died in Australia in the single year of 2022, compared to just over 171,000 deaths a year earlier in 2021. Heart disease, dementia, and cancer are now emerging as the leading causes of death.

The article directly links so-called heat deaths to anthropogenic global warming, blaming the use of fossil fuels. Australian Climate Council researcher Simon Bradshaw warns that if the country does not abandon coal, oil, and gas this decade, "a lot more people will soon be exposed to lethal heat". "It will keep getting hotter, but every ton of carbon we leave in the ground will reduce the severity of heatwaves in the future," he says.

A science-backed method to combat hot weather and carbon emissions: dunk your feet in a bucket of water

The article also says that experts say all households need to do their bit to reduce carbon emissions, which means teaching people different ways to cope with hot days, rather than turning on air conditioning. "We can't stay locked inside this vicious cycle, whereby we respond to hot weather with mass air conditioning use, fuelled by electricity that is predominantly generated by fossil fuel power plants," explained Professor Ollie Jay from the University of Sydney. Instead, Jay recommends using fans, wetting the skin, and dunking the feet in a bucket of water. Putting ice in a towel and placing it on the back of your neck also works, he assures. Jay says these are science-backed methods that can have a big impact on carbon emissions.

The science is settled: Australians as well as people in other parts of the world tend to go to the beach on hot summer days. Photo: Pixabay.

What do articles like this show us? First, they seem to move with the seasons. Europe's last, and by all accounts next, media season was and will be full of so-called heat-related problems. The UN declared last July the hottest on record, and the organisation's secretary-general declared the end of the 'global warming era', confirming the arrival of the era of 'global boiling'. He declared that this is a catastrophe, and scientists have long been convinced that humans are to blame. News headlines highlighted reports of forest and landscape fires in southern Europe, such as Greece, although it was often overlooked that this is sadly an annual problem in the region and that in 2007 more than 100,000 more hectares of forest and landscape burned in Greece than last year. Negligent people also make a strong contribution to the problem, but especially malicious arsonists – 79 arsonists were caught in Greece last summer.

Secondly, what is important in such messages is that they present us with a big and dangerous, even deadly problem, even though the numbers may not show it in terms of temperatures or deaths. What they show is rather people need to adapt. Yet the solutions of scientists quoted in the articles are uncomfortably simple and aimed at restricting people's freedom over their way of life – turn off the air conditioning and put ice on your neck, immediately abandon fossil fuels, reduce agricultural production, restrict people's movement and travel. What these steps would entail more generally, or whether they would in any way help to solve or exacerbate the problem outlined, is no longer up for much debate. The fact is that, if all this is to be done, it will have to be implemented with some level of coercion, taxing, or banning some activities.

In addition, we must realise that we will inevitably end up paying for this 'green deal' movement, and it will not be cheap or convenient – we will be spending much more money on energy in the future, but the question of where our energy supply will ultimately come from once we have moved away from fossil fuels is still lacking good answers.

These are some of the issues that we in Freedom Research want to highlight and address in a fact-based way this year.

Deepening concerns about freedom of thought and expression

The restriction of freedom of expression in the world, and especially in Europe, is a matter of growing concern. The Digital Services Act (DSA) introduced in the European Union last August, and regulations in other countries to combat 'misinformation', 'disinformation', and 'hate speech' through a similar mechanism, are in fact ways for the authorities to take greater control of our opinions, especially on social media. Again, it should be noted that the 'misinformation' or 'disinformation' that is 'combated' against is not something that is necessarily wrong but is often referred to as such when its messages appear undesirable or unbefitting from the authorities’ viewpoint, for whatever reason. In the Covid crisis, for example, many doctors and scientists who did not agree with the government's methods of controlling the spread of the virus were thus dismissed – an issue that is being addressed in depth in the United States in an ongoing case that is still awaiting Supreme Court’s resolution.

There are, of course, other examples of such censorship on social media. We experienced it ourselves last year when a Swedish scientist talking of problems with Covid vaccines in one of our stories had our video blocked on Facebook. Of course, others who are drawing attention to problematic issues are experiencing it too.

However, I think it is important to note and bear in mind that the desire to curb people's freedom of expression does not reside only in a few dictatorships or a few 'lost' Western countries, but that it is a trend in technocratic power circles internationally. For example, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which aims to promote international cooperation in education, culture, science, information technology, and media, published an action plan for the global regulation of social media platforms last November. It also said that there is a need to step up the fight against the spread of "disinformation" and "hate speech". For example, UNESCO believes that public regulators should be set up around the world to regulate social media. At the same time, these bodies should cooperate closely with each other internationally to prevent platforms from taking advantage of differences in regulation between the countries. It should also be ensured that 'content moderation' on platforms is feasible and effective in all regions and all languages.

And this restriction on speech is clearly linked to climate issues – another UN report last year worried that the widespread climate emergency doubt spreading on social media is "delaying urgently needed action to ensure a liveable future for the planet". We can also notice that any claim that casts any doubt on anthropogenic global warming and the climate emergency is ever more often treated as 'misinformation' or 'disinformation'.

UN report presents you with a graph to show you the threats of ‘misinfo’, ‘disinfo’, and ‘hate speech’. Photo: screenshot.

This all shows that efforts to restrict freedom of expression are being made at many levels internationally and that we must also pay more attention to such issues ourselves so that we won’t find ourselves one day in a situation from which we can no longer escape.

Abuse of power under the spotlight

In addition to freedom of expression and climate issues, we will look closely at issues that threaten or have threatened to painfully cut into our individual freedoms. Abuse of power comes almost always at the expense of individual freedoms.

Our customary freedoms are threatened by both state and corporate power in ever-widening areas. Let us look at some examples of this:

• We have seen the financial system dismiss people and deprive them of services,

• We have seen authorities wanting to introduce more ways by which they can employ digital surveillance of citizens,

• We have experienced authorities imposing health decisions on people,

• We have seen them imposing 'Wokeist' language and behaviours (gender denial, ethnic denial, aggressive egalitarianism, etc.) in schools, universities, academic institutions, public policy, and opinion spaces, etc.

• We can see how general mind control has increased.

Unfortunately, it is again true to say that these examples do not come from some oppressive dictatorships, China or Russia, where nobody would be surprised by them, but from the Western world, which is increasingly adopting the models of authoritarian regimes.

The aftermath of the Covid crisis also accompanies us into the future, as international rules are being prepared under the auspices of the WHO to 'prevent' possible future pandemics, which would continue to guide nation states along the path of lockdowns and coercive measures. I wrote in April last year in an article on the aftermath of the Covid crisis: “/.../ those who had hoped to see common sense finally return unto public debate this year, in regards to Covid matters, will be disappointed. We are still in a place where the poor efficacy and serious side-effects of the vaccines, the mindless coercion, and cancellation of a large part of the society, are not being discussed." This is still the case today and presents a need to continue to discuss in a rational and factual manner the consequences of the occurred restrictions on individual freedoms and the extent of the damage, as well as to draw attention to the growing body of scientific evidence on the serious health risks associated with Covid vaccines, etc. This is the only way to ensure that we can continue to have a rational and fact-based debate on the consequences of these restrictions on individual freedoms and the extent of the damage.

The important thing is to take note of all this and to keep it on our radar, otherwise, we too will quickly slip into a different 'model'. One in which the Orwellian doublethink 'freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength' is what applies.