Foreign Policy > Iran

After Trump's Action, Far Left Activists Saw Iran Only in Terms of CO2

Funny how it coincides with Iranian state propaganda blather.

Ned Barnett | April 23, 2026

The Guardian is a far-left newspaper in the U.K. It thrives on sensationalism and preaches to the far-left choir in terms of what the left already believes. 

It’s hardly a valid source … in most cases. However, if you actually want to know what the wider woke progressive crowd is pushing on an unsuspecting public, the Guardian is hard to beat.

I first read about progressive outrage over the current Iran military action in the Live Science newsletter, a source for reliable news about scientific breakthroughs, which I read to inspire my science fiction novels and short-story writing. 

However, for this article, I also tracked down the recent Guardian article that inspired Live Science’s coverage. Since, on all things political, both the Guardian and Live Science swim in the same progressive swamp, my source is also reliable as to what the far left is thinking and saying.

Here’s what they’re saying.  (headline) “…

… Iran war has already released a staggering amount of CO2 … Destruction of schools, homes and buildings is the biggest source …”Advertisement if (publir_show_ads) { googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.pubads().addEventListener("slotRenderEnded", function(event) { if (event.slot.getSlotElementId() == "div-hre-Americanthinker---New-3028") { googletag.display("div-hre-Americanthinker---New-3028"); } }); }); }

… Iran war has already released a staggering amount of CO2 …

Destruction of schools, homes and buildings is the biggest source …”

More on that lurid claim in a moment. 

That worldview is one progressive leftists want you to think, consider and believe. However, wait until you hear their sources. 

It’s clear they only had two sources. The Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for their bogus claims of the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and Patrick Bugger, the “research director” for the Climate and Community Institute.

On their website, CCI defines themselves as a “progressive climate and economy think tank … we work with movements and progressive policy makers” … to, among other things “shift narratives.” 

Clearly, not an unbiased organization.  However, when it comes to the destruction of civilian infrastructure, they are quick to cite their “unbiased” sources, specifically the Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Supposedly an organization inspired by the International Red Cross, but one that’s learned over fifty years of operating in a theocratic dictatorship – having survived almost fifty years of rule dictated by the Ayatollah, they are anything but unbiased.  More on them in a moment. 

Here’s what the RCSIRI says about the Iran war and the facilities Israel and America have targeted: “infrastructure that has been razed includes 16,191 residential buildings, 3.384 commercial units, 77 medical units and 69 schools.”

From the beginning, President Trump told America that we are targeting military facilities, including military airfields and navy coastal missile batteries that could impose a barrier to ships entering or leaving the Persian Gulf.  There is no reason, and no benefit from the destruction of homes, offices, medical facilities or schools.  Who would benefit from that?  Unless, of course, if the Iranian Republican Guards, Iranian secret police and perhaps other, similar stealth combat forces are hiding under medical clinics or schools, as Iran’s surrogates, Hamas in Gaza, did in the aftermath of October 7’s horrific terror assault.

To reach their goal of swaying public opinion, they had to batch the “direct, indirect and future” greenhouse gas emissions totals, such as CO2, which is ironic indeed in a major oil-producing country already famous for its petroleum-polluted waterways and minimal environmental standards.

A big “trigger” here is the use of estimated future emissions caused by violence created only in the first two weeks of what is now a five-week campaign, and since there are no independent sources of verification, the Guardian used an obviously unbiased group “the Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”  Doing so, they embraced a source that wouldn’t stand a close journalistic smell test, but since this is Trump’s war, and since Trump is “evil orange man,” no independent third party has stepped forward with an alternative interpretation, until now.

One of the Guardian’s sources, as cited by CCI, is the Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The RCSIRI is nominally not unlike the International Red Cross. However, after nearly fifty years of existing theocratic Iran, the CCI’s evaluations are not valid news sources.  However, one thing they do assert is that during the first two weeks of war, carbon-based CO2 and other aerial pollution, if continued for a full year, would add to worldwide CO2 will match the annual total of what Iceland releases in a year.  

Since Iceland is hardly a hot-spot CO2 emitter creating enough greenhouse gasses to worry the world, this is hardly an effective indictment of the war against Iran. 

The CCI also laid claim that the war’s emissions, if they lasted unchecked for a full year — something neither Israel nor the U.S. is projecting — would equal those of the 84 least CO2-polluting nations on earth. These polluters such as Iceland, Greenland, the Maldive Islands, Tonga, and other “high-energy powerhouses.” Hardly project near-term doom for Planet Earth.

If that’s the risk, let the good times roll! 

The source of this Iran war greenhouse gas includes firing greenhouse weapons — rockets, bombs, “kamikaze” drones and guided missiles.. That burns carbon-based fuel.

However, since pilots and crews would be flying anyway, that really shouldn’t count against America or Israel in this antisemitic charge of creating massive CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions. Their logic has little relation the group’s “assessment” – even when they apply it to aircraft carrier battle groups.  When not in dock for repairs, these behemoths of the sea are maneuvering and carrying out mock-attacks on “targets of opportunity,” to help the ships’ crews maintain peak readiness. So the ships, like their planes, would be operating anyway, and the fuel they’d burn should not be allocated against the war. Only those flight hours which exceed normal  training hours for aircraft, and with the same factors assigned to the ships during peacetime – only those should count.

Here’s how the playbook stands:  Since Feb. 28, and through March 14, if this rate is kept up, unchanged, for a full year, the warring factions would have released more CO2 and greenhouse gasses than eighty-four smallest-burning nations, combined. 

Places, as noted, such as Greenland or Tonga, the Maldive Islands or Iceland, are hardly countries that produce a lot of CO2.  These are not countries known for being major polluters. However, it’s also worthy of note that these eighty-four countries are not named, preventing an accurate assessment of which countries are in the lower eighty-four.

Bottom line.  This report is an example of what the progressive far left will do to stifle the success of the current air-and-sea attack on Iran, let alone allow President Trump to take credit for what he is doing to prevent Iran from rebuilding their nuclear capability or to finance violence against Israel and America.  They are learning what 20th and 21st century military historians know only too well.

This is also sending an important message to the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and perhaps the Ukraine and NATO, too. 

When provoked, the U.S. has military forces and beyond just “smart” weapons that can take down any country in a matter of days and weeks, not months and years.  That’s an important message to send.

Now, all that’s left, beyond military targets still on the list, is to negotiate a peace that meets America’s and Israel’s goals, not the “Gayatollah” who might actually be running the country, with or without the use of his legs — because nobody on the outside really knows who’s really running Iran.  Then, once Iran’s defeated, totally and utterly — like Germany and Japan in 1946 —we’ll probably also see a new, 21st century “Marshall Plan” for the economic rebuilding of that nation, ruled not by a religious fanatic, but by someone the people chose.  For that, only time will tell.

One final note.  In regards to my recent article about what the president can do to help hold Congress — House and Senate — during the midterm elections in November, winning in Iran will certainly help him carry Congress in November.

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About the Author:  I’m Ned Barnett, and I’m here to say I’ve been a frequent contributor going back two decades – in fact, I’ll reach that milestone in August of this year.  Before and during my tenure with American Thinker, I’ve written 41 published books, including 19 that were ghostwritten for clients.  If you are or would like to be a writer, please let me know how I can help you, with editing, coaching, or ghostwriting, as well as marketing and promotion once the book is ready for market.  Reach me at 702-561-1167 or [email protected].

Image: Dynamosquito, via Wikipedia // CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed

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