IBD:

Europe’s fixation with global warming indicates that many on the continent aren’t firmly tethered to reality. Consider the madness found in a leading German publication.

Using prose that would be better suited for fiction, Christian Schwagerl, in an opinion piece for Der Spiegel, wildly claims that “if the rest of the world were to follow the U.S. example in their approach to fossil fuels, the oceans would not only heat up, but would probably soon begin to boil.”

As if that wasn’t enough evidence of a growing European irrationality, the Der Spiegel staff writer drifts into a fevered narrative deeper in the piece.

“For most Americans, the world beyond the U.S.’ borders is nothing more than an irritating nuisance,” he wrote in an essay titled “Obama Has Failed the World on Climate Change.” “For this reason, arguments based on appeals about drowning Bangladeshis, starving Africans and flooded islands in Indonesia have little effect.”

Drowning Bangladeshis? Starving Africans? Flooded Indonesians? There’s no evidence that man’s carbon dioxide emissions are causing such problems. Yet Der Spiegel lets Schwagerl recklessly fling baseless charges. And the shrillness doesn’t end there.

“Entrenched lobbyists of the oil and coal industries,” he writes, “are the worst energy wasters on the planet — and are thus, indirectly, a major threat to world peace in the 21st century.”