The absurd claim that we only have 12 years before the earth is destroyed by climate change has become part of the Democrat mantra for the 2020 election cycle. But, at last one media outlet has finally moved to debunk the claim.

This week, after the accomplishment-free “Beto” O’Rourke jumped into the race for president, even the left-wing Associated Press had to admit that he was all wet with his idea that the earth is doomed in “12 years” if we don’t “do something” about global warming.

On Monday, the AP published a fact check of O’Rourke’s claim that the we will all die in 12 years if climate change is ignored.

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O’Rourke made the absurd claim that we have only 12 years left to live during his kick off for his run for the Democratic presidential nomination in Keokuk, Iowa.

“This is our final chance. The scientists are absolutely unanimous on this. That we have no more than 12 years to take incredibly bold action on this crisis,” O’Rourke piously exclaimed.

But the AP found O’Rourke’s proclamation a little bit less than the truth.

“There is no scientific consensus, much less unanimity, that the planet only has 12 years to fix the problem,” the AP wrote in its Monday fact-check.

The week in faux facts: Beto O'Rourke misrepresents the science on global warming; President Donald Trump's 'no collusion' refrain gets fact-checked by a judge: #APFactCheck https://t.co/TgiW1eO8O6

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) March 16, 2019

Of course, as he has pretty much already proven, O’Rourke is not a thinker and does not have his own ideas. He was merely spouting the idea du jour about globaloney as recently espoused by communist darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who said the earth will be destroyed in 12 years unless we act now to prevent climate change.

Ocasio-Cortez delivered this fact-free line at a Jan. 21 event marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day at which she called climate change “our World War II.”

Um… first of all, “our World War Two” was… you know… World War Two!

Here is what AOC said: “I think that the part of it that is generational is that millennials and Gen-Z and all these folks that come after us are looking up and we’re like, ‘The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change,’ and your biggest issue is–your biggest issue is, ‘How are we going to pay for it?” she said early this year.

Now, if you sandwich the word “like” between ever fourth word up in that quote you will get the full force of her comments.

Aaaaanyway….

.@AOC on millennials and social media: "We’re, like, the world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change" pic.twitter.com/HjhbVyfFN4

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 22, 2019

But the high priests of the religion of globaloney have been saying this garbage literally for decades.

Back in 1989… that is 30 years ago, folks… the U.N. was wringing its hands and telling the world that we only had 12 years to stop the end of the world. Indeed, in 1989 the UN claimed that by the year 2000 the coasts would be flooded, island chains would disappear, and the world would be turned into a mass of “eco-refugees.”

Thirty years later, not a single one of those predictions is even remotely true.

But, in the end, if you are one of those nutballs claiming that we only have 12 years to save the earth, you just aren’t very smart.

After all, the planet earth has survived far, far worse ecological disasters than global warming. Further, even if earth does become uninhabitable for humanity, the planet itself and life on it will continue to thrive, albeit in a different form.

It is just plain stupid to say humans can actually destroy the earth – at least at our current level of technology.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.