Academics, woke organizations, and liberal publications are promoting a social engineering scheme aimed at inhibiting travel and limiting freedom in the name of fighting the specter of anthropogenic climate change.

CNN was among the latest outfits to recycle the claim that so-called carbon passports have become a necessity.

From COVID to climate

Over the course of the pandemic, numerous Western nations introduced or considered introducing vaccine passports — supposedly secure digital immunity certifications required for travel and admission to various events, businesses, and facilities.

Critics warned that besides invading citizens' privacy, trampling their mobility rights, and serving to maximize the number of veins opened to profitable vaccines, there would also be "function creep" with the medical passports.

Financial Post columnist Terence Corcoran noted in September 2021, "Somewhere deep in the cranium of the climate intelligentsia a seed was planted to produce the florid idea that the global COVID-19 virus could serve as inspiration for humankind to once and for all tackle the looming climate crisis."

Corcoran highlighted how Bloomberg chairman and former Bank of England governor Mark Carney wrote in his then-new book "Value(s): Building a Better World for All," that "if we come together to meet the biggest challenges in medical biology, so too can we come together to meet the challenges of climate physics and the forces driving inequality."

Carney was evidently not alone in his thinking.

220 medical journals uniformly published the same editorial titled, "Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health."

The editorial stated, "Many governments met the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic with unprecedented funding. The environmental crisis demands a similar emergency response."

"Governments must intervene to support the redesign of transport systems, cities, production and distribution of food, markets for financial investments, health systems, and much more," continued the cabal of health professionals. "Global co-ordination is needed to ensure that the rush for cleaner technologies does not come at the cost of more environmental destruction and human exploitation."

A "perspective" paper published in the journal Nature Sustainability made explicit what various climate alarmists flying back and forth from the U.N.'s yearly Climate Change Conference had in mind.

"Personal carbon allowances (PCAs) could play a role in achieving ambitious climate mitigation targets," wrote a team comprising British, European and Israeli activists. "We argue that recent advances in AI for sustainable development, together with the need for a low-carbon recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, open a new window of opportunity for PCAs."

The multinational team concluded, "PCAs could be trialed in selected climate-conscious technologically advanced countries."

Carbon passports

Now, years later, there appears to be a concerted effort under way with predictions and excuses to prime Westerners for carbon passports.

CNN, for instance, recently recycled an article from the Conversation titled, "It's time to limit how often we can travel abroad — 'carbon passports' may be the answer."

The article, penned by a pronoun-providing Ph.D .candidate at Leeds Beckett University, begins with criticism of the tourism industry's apparent return to normal in the wake of the pandemic, suggesting that "there's concern that a return to the status quo is already showing dire environmental and social consequences."

Despite evidence that human error and arson are often to blame, the article cited recent wildfires as evidence climate change is a growing problem, then suggested tourism is partly to blame.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 29% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 came from transportation, including planes, trains, and automobiles. The year prior to the pandemic, the figure was 33%.

The article highlights a possible remedy detailed in a 2023 report from Intrepid, a travel company that claims to be ethical.

The report, which has been taken up by various travel zines, claims that a "personal carbon emissions limit will become the new normal as policy and people's values drive an era of great change."

Martin Raymond, co-founder of the Future Laboratory, a consultancy outfit, said, "On our current trajectory, we can expect a pushback against the frequency with which individuals can travel, with carbon passports set to change the tourism landscape."

The report claims that unnamed experts "suggest that individuals should currently limit their carbon emissions to 2.3 tonnes each year – the equivalent of taking a round-trip from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. However, the average carbon footprint in the US is 16 tonnes per person per year."

As a point of comparison, Biden climate czar John Kerry's flights around the world promoting a green future reportedly generated 9.54 million pounds or 4,329 tonnes of carbon just between March 2021 and July 2022.

A personal carbon emissions limit would apparently ensure that those without the blessing of the government or the ability to pay off a substantial fine would be prohibited from travel deemed excessive or unnecessary.

"By 2040, it will be unusual to see members of Generation Alpha without a carbon-footprint tracker on their smartphones. Every Uber ride, plane journey, and trip to the supermarket will be logged in their devices, noting their carbon footprint in real time," said the report.

While the Intrepid report predicted that carbon passports might be enforced by 2040, the Conversation article recycled by CNN appeared more hopeful, noting that "our travel habits may already be on the verge of change."

This optimism over the imminence of vaccine passport rollouts was informed by recent European initiatives, such as the move to axe short-haul flights and impose taxes dissuading the working and middle classes from flying.

The author of the article threatened, "Holidaymakers should prepare to change their travel habits now, before this change is forced upon them."

While such threats issued by junior scholars in leftist publications may be idle, there has been statist interst in such schemes. For instance, the British government has previously considered implementing personal carbon trading and placing a "ceiling on the carbon available for consumption, rather than seeking to reduce demand."

The Biden administration has not proposed climate passports but recently noted in an EPA report that "achieving a sustainable transportation future will require implementing bold changes and different sets of solutions to address unique challenges in different locations and across all travel modes and applications."

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