wryheat

The Broken Greenhouse – Why Co2 Is a Minor Player in Global Climate

A Summary of Earth’s Climate History-a Geologist’s View

Problems with wind and solar generation of electricity – a review

The High Cost of Electricity from Wind and Solar Generation

Impact of the Paris Climate Accord and why Trump was right to drop it

Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked

Why reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel will have no effect on climate ☼

THE SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PROJECT REPORTS

[SEPP provides a weekly roundup of news available every Monday as The Week That Was (PDF) and reprinted as a blog post here as Weekly Climate and EnergyNews Roundup. Click on date for full reports.]

APRIL 6:

Scope: This TWTW addresses the State of the Climate presented by Ole Humlum and the lack of knowledge of recent climate history presented by Ralph Alexander. Further, it briefly presents a bibliography for Climate: The Movie by Andy May, and further discusses the use of the linear no threshold model by organizations that abuse the scientific method by using it, ignoring that humans are living organisms capable of repairing themselves. Also presented are the absurd steps taken by those who claim weather events are caused by climate change and the coming shortage of US electricity generation that Washington ignores.

Humlum sums up with this:

“The global climate system is multifaceted, involving the sun, planets, atmosphere, oceans, land, geological processes, biological life, and complex interactions between them. Many components and their mutual coupling are still not fully understood or perhaps not even recognized. Believing that one minor constituent of the atmosphere (CO2) controls nearly all aspects of climate is naïve and entirely unrealistic. The global climate has remained in a quasi-stable condition within certain limits for millions of years, although with important variations playing out over periods ranging from years to centuries or more, but the global climate has never been in a fully stable state without change. Modern observations show that this behavior continues today; there is no evidence of a global climate crisis.”

To TWTW the two most important conclusions are:

“The perception that extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity is primarily a consequence of modern technology – the Internet and smart phones – which have revolutionized communication and made us much more aware of such disasters than we were 50 or 100 years ago. Before 21st-century electronics arrived, many weather extremes went unrecorded, especially in then more sparsely populated areas of the globe.”

And:

“Much of the fault for the widespread belief that weather extremes are becoming worse can be attributed to the mainstream media, eager to promote the latest climate scare. Constant repetition of a false belief can, over time, create the illusion of truth – a phenomenon well known to psychologists, and one exploited by propagandists. The falsehood can even become a ‘noble lie’ when exploited for political purposes. The failure by climate reporters to put today’s extreme weather events in a true historical perspective is contributing to the belief that weather extremes are on the rise when they are not.”

APRIL 13:

Scope: Ed Calabrese published another paper showing that the LNT model is based on a significant omission of evidence, an activity that is common in environmental science today. In their monthly temperature report Spencer, Christy, and the UAH science team demonstrate an integrity that is lacking in the temperature reports of NOAA and NASA-GISS. Most climate commentators ignore the dominant change to Earth from increased CO2 – global greening. Advocates of “ocean acidification” have misled the public by ignoring ocean chemistry. Effects of UN false claims about climate change are showing up in European courts. The US EPA continues to abuse its respected position by making absurd claims about chemicals.

Non-Science: Edward Calabrese and Paul Selbe had a paper published in the Archives of Toxicology demonstrating additional research efforts that were hidden in establishing the widely used and unworthy linear no-threshold model (LNT). The LNT model is widely used by government regulators, such as the US EPA, and some scientists to promote fear of chemicals without physical evidence.

Peak Greening? The dominant changing characteristic of Earth from increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide is the greening of Earth, with an increase in photosynthesis, including both land masses and the oceans.

APRIL 20:

Scope: Professors Lindzen, Happer, and Koonin have an essay asserting, with evidence, that carbon dioxide is essential for complex life on Earth and limiting emissions of greenhouse gases can result in mass starvation. Professor Howard Hayden discusses the failure of “climate scientists” to speak up when politicians make huge errors in presenting science. Independently, Jim Steele had a discussion showing the difference between the energy emitted by the surface of Earth and that going to space. Ron Clutz brings up a perceptive essay by Richard Lindzen on how academic and politicized science are deteriorating. Mark Mills discusses the “magical thinking” required to believe that the claimed energy transition will be easy or cheap. Note: “Net Zeroing” Fossil Fuels Will Cause Massive Human Starvation by Eliminating Nitrogen Fertilizer.

Click on “APRIL 20″ above to read more.

CLIMATE MADNESS

$100 Billion per Year Needed for US Carbon Removal [The demand for $100 billion per year, to fix a problem which only exists in the fevered imagination of broken computer models, is beyond parody.] (link) ☼

‘Absolute Genius’: How Three Alarmist Billionaires Bankrolled The Fake Climate Catastrophe (link) ☼

Study: Replacements For Plastic Products Increase Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Nearly All Cases

by Steven Hayward

A study in Environmental Science and Technology published in January has the goods, entitled “Replacing Plastics with Alternatives Is Worse for Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Most Cases.”

This article examines the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission impact of plastic products versus their alternatives. We assess 16 applications where plastics are used across five key sectors: packaging, building and construction, automotive, textiles, and consumer durables.

These sectors account for about 90% of the global plastic volume. Our results show that in 15 of the 16 applications a plastic product incurs fewer GHG emissions than their alternatives. In these applications, plastic products release 10% to 90% fewer emissions across the product life cycle. [It turns out paper shopping bags produce five times as much CO2 over their lifetime as plastic HDPE bags do]

Furthermore, in some applications, such as food packaging, no suitable alternatives to plastics exist. These results demonstrate that care must be taken when formulating policies or interventions to reduce plastic use so that we do not inadvertently drive a shift to nonplastic alternatives with higher GHG emissions. (Read more) ☼

Revolts because of stupid climate regulations:

Truckers challenge Biden administration over climate crackdown on electric big rigs (link)☼

The Fury Of European Farmers Is Terrifying The Elites (link) ☼

Thousands of Canadians gather nationwide to protest Trudeau’s carbon tax (link) ☼

Media Jump On Latest Lawfare Theory That Big Oil Are Climate ‘Mass Murderers’ (link) ☼

Analysis: Even The IPCC’s Latest Report Doesn’t Support Climate Activists’ Lies (link) ☼

ENERGY ISSUES

In Another Blow To Biden’s Green Schemes, New York Scraps Three Offshore Wind Projects (link) ☼

Twenty-Five State AGs Sue Biden EPA Over Economy-Crushing Emissions Mandates (link) ☼

When Politics and Physics Collide: The belief that mandates and massive subsidies can summon a world without fossil fuels is magical thinking. (link) ☼ The total direct and induced spending on the energy transition could easily exceed $5 trillion before a decade passes, or sooner, if advocates prevail.

Americans Face Rising Gas Prices Again

Overall, gas prices have risen about 50% since President Joe Biden took office. “Since the first day of his administration Joe Biden has waged a war on fossil fuels taking pride in denying drilling permits and land access for production,” Daniel Turner, executive director at the energy workers advocacy group, Power the Future…,. “Now those actions are catching up to us, but team Biden is thrilled: high gas prices will be used as a catalyst to force Americans into EVs against their will.” (Read more) ☼

Report: Biden Has Taken Over 200 Actions Against American Oil Since His Inauguration

by Bethany Blankley

President Joe Biden and his administration have taken over 200 actions against the U.S. oil and natural gas industry as energy prices have gone up, according to a new report. “President Biden and Democrats have a plan for American energy: make it harder to produce and more expensive to purchase,” the Institute for Energy Research states in a new report. (Read more) ☼

Study grades natural gas as best source for reliability, affordability and environmental impact

by Kevin Killough

A new study finds that natural gas is the most effective energy source meeting growing energy demands affordably and reliably, while balancing environmental and human impact.

The “Grading the Grid” study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a pro-free market nonprofit, and Northwood University rates natural gas, coal, petroleum, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, solar and geothermal generation sources on their reliability, environmental and human impact, cost, innovation and market feasibility.

Natural gas got an “A” grade, followed by nuclear, which got a “B+”. Wind and solar energy came in last, each receiving “F” grades, according to the study. (Read more) ☼

EVs, Wind, and Solar are Neither Reliable Nor Environmentally Friendly: Here’s Why

by Byron Soepyan

Wind and solar energy systems are not cheap, reliable or environmentally friendly, and EVs also prove to be dangerous, unreliable and expensive.

Various governments have made commitments to expand the use of electric vehicles (EVs) and alternative energy systems. The stated objectives include reducing pollution, improving human health and the environment, protecting the environment and providing reliable energy at lower costs. Among those jumping on this band wagon are the governments of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union, and the Governorate of Vatican City State.

Here’s the big question: Will adopting these technologies achieve these goals? To get an answer, we will examine what they require for operation, decommissioning and supporting infrastructure. (Read more) ☼

UK Electricity Rates Five Times Higher Than China’s Thanks To Net Zero

by Chris Morrison

The United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change in 1988 and in 1995 the first Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP1) was held in Berlin.

In the nearly 30 years since COP conferences began, the U.K. has halved its CO2 emissions so that we now account for a mere 1% of the global total. But in this same time interval, the developing world has massively increased its CO2 emissions.

For example, China’s CO2 emissions have quadrupled and now account for 29% of the global total. India’s emissions have tripled and now account for 7% of the global total. Both countries are still increasing their CO2 emissions.

The problem is that ‘green’ technologies are not very good. Electric cars and renewable energy are more expensive and inferior in performance to their fossil fuel equivalents.

So as the developing world industrializes, it is using fossil fuel technology to keep its costs down. Typically people in the UK pay more than twice as much for electricity as they do in the USA, where shale gas has transformed the energy market, and more than five times as much as in China, where they are still building coal-fired power stations. (Read more) ☼

Renewables will destroy America’s lifestyle back to the pre-1800s – this is the Biden energy plan!

by Ronald Stein P.E.

Regardless of intermittent weather, the electrical grid is expected to deliver continuous and uninterrupted electricity no matter what the weather to support computers for hospitals, airports, offices, manufacturing, military sites, and telemetry, which all need a continuous, uninterrupted supply of electricity.

Yet, policymakers continue to subsidize wind turbines and solar panels (with taxpayers’ money) for the generation of electricity that DO NOT work most of the time.

I find it amusing that twenty-three states have adopted goals to move to 100 percent clean electricity by 2050. Of the six electrical generation methods, wind and solar cannot compete with hydro, nuclear, coal, or natural gas.

Interestingly, all the components of wind turbines and solar panels are also based on products made from fossil fuels. Thus, in a fossil-free society, we’re decaying back to the 1800s, as there will also be NO electricity. Life was short and hard for the common man just a couple of hundred years ago! (Read more) ☼

Destroying The Myth of Cheap Wind and Solar

by Isaac Orr And Mitch Rolling

Wind and solar advocates often cite a metric called the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) to claim that these energy sources are cheaper than coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants.

However, these claims, which are already tenuous due to rising wind and solar costs, ignore virtually all of the hidden real-world costs associated with building and operating wind turbines and solar panels while also keeping the grid reliable. (Read more) ☼

States Retreating From Green Energy As Costs Skyrocket, But Climate Policies Harder To Kill

by Kevin Killough

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) recently took the unusual step of voting to pull back on the state’s renewable energy targets, over concerns they are too costly and produce few benefits. Most states are moving in the other direction, following California’s lead, but there are signs of some hesitation as the real costs of these policies are realized. (Read more) ☼

Biden’s Signature Climate Law Has a Major Achilles’ Heel — And Dems Are Making It Worse

by Nick Pope

President Joe Biden’s landmark climate bill is being held back by a lack of comprehensive permitting reform, the absence of which enables environmentalist lawsuits that impede green energy projects subsidized by the legislation.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contained hundreds of billions of dollars to subsidize green energy projects nationwide, but the bill did not include significant reform to the permitting process that would expedite construction timelines and insulate developments from environmental legal challenges. Unless Congressional Democrats can negotiate a permitting reform package with Republicans in an election year, these problems will continue to dog the IRA’s implementation, energy policy experts and stakeholders told the Daily Caller News Foundation. (Read more) ☼

Net Zero? China Dominates Surge In New Coal Power, Setting Record Capacity Globally

by Bloomberg News

Global coal-power capacity rose to a record last year, led by a surge in new plants in China and a slowdown in retirements around the world, according to a new report from Global Energy Monitor. The world’s coal fleet grew by 2% to 2,130 gigawatts, with China accounting for about two-thirds of the increase followed by Indonesia and India, according to the climate research firm. China also started construction on 70 gigawatts of new coal plants last year, nearly 20 times more than the rest of the world combined. (Read more) ☼

EV And AI Power Demands Will Only Fuel More Electric Rate Shocks (link) ☼

Expert’s EV Warning: ‘One Of The Biggest Energy Policy Blunders We’ve Ever Made’

(link) ☼

EVs, climate agenda are a national security threat used ‘to weaken us and ultimately destroy us,’ expert warns (link) ☼

Thousands of Solar Panels in Texas Destroyed by Hailstorm (link) ☼

200 Ways President Biden and the Democrats Have Made it Harder to Produce Oil & Gas

(link) ☼

Biden Admin Announces Massive Restrictions On Alaskan Oil Reserve And Hampers Key Mining Project In One Fell Swoop (link) ☼

The War On Cars

In a fit of self-loathing, the European Union has begun to destroy the economic engine that pays its bills. Some of this is well known, but some is not, and it will astonish you. (Read more) ☼

STATE OF THE UNION

Six Lessons for Keeping Your Country

by Ron Clutz

Jonathan Newman provides a brief overview of economic fundamentals for a free society in his article What are Mises’s Six Lessons? Ludwig von Mises’s Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow has become quite popular recently. The Mises Book Store has sold out of its physical copies, and the PDF, which is available online for free, has seen over 50,000 downloads in the past few days. Read a summary of the six lessons here. ☼

ORGANIZED THEFT IN THE NAME OF GOVERNMENT – Biden’s Executive Order 14008 locks away 30% of U.S. land by 2030, under the pretext of protecting the planet’ (link) ☼

The Brainwashing of America

By Jeannie DeAngelis

America was once a nation of free-thinking individualists priding themselves on the constitutional idea that God ordained and endowed each person as an end unto himself with rights to think, act, believe, and behave according to personal thoughts, conscience, and individual interest. According to the Declaration of Independence, those “inalienable rights” include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Therefore, because government’s power is derived from the consent of the free, the job of those running the country is to “secure,” not undermine those rights and freedoms.

Our nation’s Founders knew that the nature of individualism is what stimulates the kind of spirit that brings about the sort of advances America has achieved since its founding. Yet, by trusting humans to think, act, and live according to their beliefs, the framers left the door wide open for enemies of liberty to infiltrate the minds and hearts of the easily influenced. (Read more) ☼

The Big Lie Behind DEI (link) ☼ (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion )

11 ways Biden and his handlers are hell-bent on destroying America

from Fox News

1. Wipe out a 2,000-mile border.

2. Run up $35 trillion in national debt.

3. Appease or subsidize enemies like Iran and China.

4. In a multiracial democracy, redefine identity only as one’s tribal affiliation.

5. Recalibrate violent crime as understandable, cry-of-the-heart expressions of social justice.

6. Emasculate the military by using non-meritocratic standards of race, gender, and sexual orientation to determine promotion and commendation.

7. Reinvent the justice system to indict, bankrupt, convict, jail and eliminate political opponents.

8. Encourage the fusion of the bureaucratic state with the electronic media to form a powerful force for political audit, surveillance, censorship and coercion.

9. Make war on affordable gasoline and natural gas.

10. Marry late, but preferably not at all.

11. Turn world-class universities into indoctrination centers. (Read more) ☼

Biggest Corporate Welfare Scam of All Time

By far the biggest tax dodgers in the country are the wind and solar power industries.

by Stephen Moore

President Joe Biden keeps lecturing corporate America to “pay your fair share” of taxes. It turns out he’s right that some companies really are getting away scot-free from paying taxes.

But it isn’t Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley or the Wall Street financial company “fat cats” or big banks or Walmart. They pay billions in taxes.

The culprits here are the very companies that Biden is in bed with: green energy firms.

It turns out that despite all the promises over the past decade about how renewable energy is the future of power production in America, by far the biggest tax dodgers in the country are the wind and solar power industries. Over the past several decades, the green energy lobby — what I call the climate-change-industrial complex — isn’t paying its fair share. That’s because the vast majority of these companies pay nearly ZERO income taxes. (Read more) ☼

Electric vehicles are ‘direct wealth transfer’ from owners of gas-powered vehicles to EV owners, experts say. One expert said ‘all or nothing’ EV push is ‘one of the biggest energy policy blunders we’ve ever made’. (link) ☼

Biden’s Ill-Advised Alaska Oil Ban Means More Pain At Pump

by Diana Furchtgott-Roth

Earth Day is today, and once again President Joe Biden put the American people last and environmentalists first with Friday’s actions making swaths of Alaska off limits to the development of oil, natural gas, and critical minerals. America’s air is getting cleaner every year, and carbon emissions have declined by 1,000 million metric tons over the past 16 years. Even if America were to abandon all fossil fuels, global temperatures would only decline by two-tenths of 1 degree Celsius by 2100, according to government models. (Read more) ☼

Having Biden Declare A Climate Emergency Is A Crazy Idea

by David Blackmon

Bloomberg reported that unnamed officials inside the White House said the idea of declaring a climate emergency, first considered in 2021 and again in 2022, is once again under consideration. The only “emergency,” of course, is the president’s flagging approval ratings among impressionable young voters that threaten to derail his re-election chances. Declaring a climate emergency would arm the president with dictatorial powers to hamstring the domestic industry more than his regulators and hundreds of executive orders have already managed to do.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, actions being considered would include suspending offshore drilling, restricting exports of oil and LNG, and “throttling” the industry’s ability to transport its production via pipelines and rail. Given the industry’s crucial nature, it all sounds like a recipe for massive economic disaster. (Read more) ☼

The Kill Switch

by John Stossel

Soon the government might shut down your car. President Joe Biden’s new infrastructure gives bureaucrats that power. You probably didn’t hear about that because when media covered it, few mentioned the requirement that by 2026, every American car must “monitor” the driver, determine if he is impaired and, if so, “limit vehicle operation.” (Read more) ☼

PARTING THOUGHTS

“Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” – Albert Einstein

“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” – Albert Einstein

END

Climate – The Movie

This film (1 hour, 20 minutes) exposes the climate scam which is all about money and political power. The movie presents the real science and emphatically counters the claim that current temperatures and levels of atmospheric CO2 are unusually and worryingly high. It also debunks all the scary climate claims.

Read the commentary and watch the movie at:

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/20/climate-the-movie-watch-here/

For more climate background, see my post:

Geology & Climate – Rocks Tell the Story (link)

Biden’s Border Crisis: The Consequences of Failing to Secure Federal Border Lands

The following is a letter by my friend James Chilton who is a rancher in Southern Arizona. This letter was submitted to the House Committee On Natural Resources:

My name is Jim Chilton. I am a 5^th generation rancher from Arivaca, Arizona. Arivaca is a small rural town approximately 55 miles southwest of Tucson, Arizona. Our ranch is adjacent to the town and extends south to the international border with Mexico. The ranch includes private property, State School Trust lands and three federal grazing permits in the Coronado National Forest. Our entire family, my wife of 60 years, are blessed to be able to preserve our western ranching customs, culture, and heritage dating back to our pioneering ancestors who drove cattle from Texas to Arizona Territory in 1885. Our family has been in the cattle business in Arizona for about 139 years. We have a long-term view of the necessity to be excellent stewards of the grasslands we carefully manage. We are honored to have received various valued awards for resource conservation and wildlife stewardship.

Chilton Ranch and the International Border

Our family ranch is in a corridor identified as among the most active for drug smuggling and human trafficking in the Nation. My comments generally relate specifically to the portion of the border at the southern edge of our ranch extending from Nogales, AZ to Sasabe, AZ. However, my border concerns are similar to those of most ranchers in the Tucson Sector regardless of whether their ranch is located adjacent to the international boundary or one hundred miles from the border.

The following is a map of our beef-producing family ranch. Please notice that the southern end of the eastern part of the ranch is the international boundary for about five-and-one-half miles. Mexico is just across the fence. Our ranch boundary goes north and west bordering three other ranches. Border crossers on the western side of the ranch go through our neighbors’ grazing lands and then through our Federal land pasture.

Chilton ranch map

Chilton Ranch boundaries- South of Arivaca, Arizona and west of Nogales. Five-and-one half miles of the southern end of the ranch is the United States/Mexico international border. The 50,000-acre ranch, like many western ranches, is composed of U. S. Forest Service grazing allotments, State Trust and private land. The blue line is the international border with Mexico and the red line is the Ruby Road that runs through much of the ranch.

International Border Crossers on Chilton Ranch

For about ten years, my wife Sue and I and my friends at Secure Border Intel have collected motion activated camera film of drug packers, previously deported persons, criminals and other illegals crossing through our ranch. Of approximately 100 trails traversing our ranch, only five have hidden motion-activated cameras. As a consequence, our video images of crossers represent a small sample of the probable border crossers trespassing through our ranch.

Since January 2021, these cameras on our ranch have recorded evidence of 3,050 images of unlawful border crossers. Importantly, my Testimony today includes a computer thumb drive of the 3,050 photographed crossers (the actual film footage can also be googled at: https://youtu.be/j2pzKHRwmeY?feature=shared ).

On their way north through our southern pastures, illegal border crossers are wearing camouflaged clothes, carpet shoes and often identical backpacks. Almost all are men, in stark contrast to other border crossers along the international boundary in Texas, who wear casual street clothes and include women and/or children. There have never been any women with small children observed on our motion activated cameras during the last decade. Approximately only two percent–of these 3,050 intruders—do appear to be women. Why would a woman hike twenty to or more miles over this rugged mountainous terrain when other women just walk across the border and look for immediate apprehension, expecting to be released into the interior of the nation with a court date five or more years in the future? Are they being trafficked in the sex trade? Were they previously deported for an adjudicated violation of our laws?

Who are the 3,050 individuals and why are they being allowed to successfully sneak into our nation over rugged mountains and rough terrain? One Border Patrol intelligence officer estimates 20% of these crossers are drug packers while other knowledgeable individuals claim the percentage of drug packers on our video evidence is likely significantly greater than 20%. Most critically, are any of the 3,050 trespassers TERRORISTS entering our country to do Americans harm? Securing the border at the border and vetting potential entrants is, in fact, a national security issue. There are reports that over one hundred seventy different countries’ inhabitants have crossed into the United States during the Biden years including Chinese, Russians, Iranians and persons from middle eastern countries.

The aforementioned video documents approximately a five-fold increase compared with what we were documenting during the Trump and Obama years in the number of totally unknown international entrants seeking to evade detection and interdiction by choosing this route.

During the last four months, as I was out on our place working, checking cattle, waters and fences, I have not seen a single Border Patrol agent patrolling these known border entrance trails on our ranch since most agents are reassigned to immigrant-flooded and totally overwhelmed locations. There, out of view of these drug routes on our ranch, they struggle with the impossible requirement to deal with economic asylum seekers whom they are mandated to release into the nation under the catch and release policy. Since this is a rugged, between-ports-of-entry route, it is highly probable that border crossers choosing this rough, mountainous route are exceptionally motivated to evade detection and know they are ineligible for asylum status.

Mexican Cartel Scouts

What is most outrageous to me, is that Mexican Cartel scouts, occupying our ranch mountain tops on US soil, guide these border crossers. The scouts communicate with cartel operatives through encrypted satellite phones with radio function. Scouts are also equipped with the finest binoculars, night vision and backpack roll-down solar panels. Their purpose is to know where the Border Patrol is at all times and guide the Cartel drug packers or persons ineligible for asylum to sites where Cartel operatives inside the United States can pick up and then distribute the drugs and people throughout the Nation.

Drugs Crisis

From my perspective, it is impossible to separate the drug crisis from the immigration issue. Some border crossers are repeat professionals who work for the Cartels and walk back to Mexico after each fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine or cocaine delivery. In addition, the Cartel forces other undocumented persons to pay to traverse the international boundary either in cash or at a discounted rate if they pack drugs. Those crossing in this area are reportedly charged about $3,000 if Mexican, $7,000 to $10,000 when from South America or $25,000 to $75,000 for Asians. Some groups, after paying the Cartel to cross, are unaware that they are being used as decoys and led into probable detection to distract the Border Patrol while the Cartel is running drugs into the United States five to ten miles away.

Government reports indicate a massive increase in fentanyl traffic through the Arizona border. The precursors of this drug arrive from China, are off-loaded at Mexican seaports to be processed in Mexican labs, packaged and hidden for transport. This is chemical warfare. Many Border Patrol officers who were formerly trying to put a dent in this border disaster, have been dispatched to help handle the diversionary tactic of floods of undocumented immigrants crossing the border in other Tucson Sector locations and the Rio Grande River in Texas. This tactic clearly opens the between-ports rural ranching trails with unfinished border wall openings to nearly unimpeded passage. President Biden has signed a bill to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to “patrol” Americans and zero new agents to patrol illegal immigration and drug packing.

Need to complete the Wall

On our ranch, five miles of the Trump wall were well-started, but still under construction, when President Biden was inaugurated on January 20, 2021. One of President Biden’s first executive orders was to stop all construction on border security structures. At the end of the Wall on our ranch, there is a four-strand barbed wire cattle fence for over five more miles leaving a “convenient” gap of no wall at all along the international boundary right in a favored entry point for the Cartels. In addition, five additional large gaps, where gates were designed to be installed across water gaps and international Boundary markers, were left unfenced because of Biden’s executive order.

gap

This section of Arizona, including our ranch border, was just described by a Trump-era highly informed, highly placed Border Patrol spokesman as leading the entire border in “got-aways”—crossers who are not apprehended. In my opinion, President Biden must finish the wall, including all of the planned fiber optic cable, electronics, sensors and cameras. Then, ports of entry on the Mexican border need to be staffed and equipped to interdict the flood of drugs over-whelming these ports. The recent “mobbing-Texas tactic” and now the “mobbing strategically-selected California and Arizona entrance points tactic” guaranteed that between-port ranches and farms along the entire international boundary were likely to remain under Cartel control and undefended from Cartel operations.

Border Crosser Human Tragedies

There are intolerable human tragedies and abuses faced by border crossers, especially women. Crossers currently have no feasible option but to cross in the hands of the Cartel. It is reported by Alvaro Enciso, a Tucson citizen who puts crosses out to mark death sites, that about 4,100 border crossers have died just in Southern Arizona since 1990. Huge numbers of near-death experiences are common along with innumerable serious injuries. Women are often abused and raped. The Border Patrol, which is a first-class search and rescue team, together with humanitarian organizations spend much of their time saving mostly lost and abandoned would-be crossers in distress. These human tragedies could be avoided by securing the border at the border.

Need to Secure the Border at the Border

There are tremendous advantages to finishing construction of the Wall and closing the gaps in the Wall between Yuma, Arizona and New Mexico. To achieve border control, and ensure that rural Arizona is not the “sacrificed route,” effective structures and strategies must also be implemented all the way across Arizona’s borderlands. Most importantly, a completed Wall must be conscientiously patrolled 24/7 and must include surveillance technology. Congress needs to require the Wall to be completed together with the appropriation of the necessary funds.

Border Patrol

We want to emphasize that we support and deeply appreciate the Border Patrol. The agents are polite, well trained and there is a sincere effort by top officials in the Tucson and Nogales Stations to listen to and try to address ranchers’ border issues in our area. We, however are incredibly concerned that due to the massive invasion of economic asylum seekers, Border Patrol checkpoints along Arivaca Road, Sasabe Road and along other roads heavily used by drug packers have been closed for months and there is absolutely minimal presence of agents along the border since agents are focused on processing border crossers. I am concerned that drugs are flowing into the interior of our Nation without an attempt to impede vehicles from transporting drugs across our country from known crossing points.

Recommended Border Action

As a sovereign nation, the United States should have complete control of its borders and therefore only accept legal immigration. In my opinion, the following actions need to be considered:

1. Complete the construction of the Wall, including all of the planned fiber optic cable, electronics, cameras, and sensors that alert Border Patrol to approaching persons in time to interdict them.

2. Hire and train enough Border Patrol Agents to secure the border at the border, together with, if necessary, national guard and military assistance and back-up.

3. Require the Border Patrol to have complete presence at the Wall, 24/7, to arrest any person attempting to get over, under, or through the Wall.

4. Immediately deport apprehended arrested illegal intruders.

5. Retain sufficient welders and other maintenance personnel 24/7 to immediately repair any successful breaches or cuts in the wall.

6. Ports of entry on the Mexican border need to be staffed and fully equipped to prevent, to the degree possible, drugs and undocumented individuals from entering our country.

7. Require true asylum claim seekers to be processed at United States embassies, consulates or other government properties in foreign nations utilizing the internet backup personnel in the United States to assist in the processing.

8. Persons seeking economic opportunity do not qualify under the asylum category and need to return to their countries and submit an application for legal admittance.

9. As we understand the measure on border security currently being considered in the U.S. Congress, it permits the flood of economic opportunity claimants for asylum/admission to the U.S. to continue virtually unabated. We need to stop this end run around the legal immigration procedures and limitations.

10. Double or triple the current number of legal immigrants permitted to gain qualified entrance into our nation with effective vetting following the legally prescribed procedures. We welcome LEGAL immigrants in a number that can be assimilated and can contribute their future to this nation; we oppose flooding the United States with completely unvetted persons.

Advantages of Securing the Border at the Border

The following are some of the advantages to completing the wall together with effective border patrolling and appropriate technology:

First, multiple reports state hundreds of people crossing the open border sections of our Nation have been on the terrorist watch list. How many border crossers from terrorist nations including Russia, China, ISIS, Iran and other parts of the world have successfully entered our country through routes like those on our ranch without Homeland Security’s knowledge. Where are they, what are their plans and when and where will they strike? It took only 19 terrorists to demolish the World Trade Center, and murder citizens and first-responders in New York and attack the Pentagon and people working there.

Second, it is outrageous that Mexican Cartel scouts with satellite phones and other military-grade equipment are free to occupy strategically-selected hilltops for dozens of miles inside Arizona including on our ranch. The cartel scouts know where the Border Patrol is at all times so they can carefully guide drug packers, and people whom they know are not eligible for asylum, through the steep wooded canyons and along approximately one hundred smuggler trails on our ranch. Border Patrol officers report that only 20% of the illegal crossers on our ranch are apprehended while others argue that arrests are fewer than 20%. Securing the border at the border would stop the occupation of Arizona border ranchlands by these foreign cartel operatives and their clients.

Third, environmental costs of the current failure to effectively stop the flood of crossers are well-documented. Much of the border area includes national forests, conservation areas, national monuments, Indian reservations and wildernesses. These designated areas are open routes most used by the cartel-led operations because they are the least accessible to Border Patrol surveillance. The Border Patrol reported at a meeting we attended that undocumented crossers have left a reported average of 8.5 pounds of trash apiece on these lands. It is estimated that over 25,000 tons of garbage have been dropped by crossers in the Tucson Sector alone since 1992. Additionally, thousands of miles of wildcat roads and trails have had severe adverse environmental impacts.

Fourth, we have been burglarized twice by south-bound drug packers who, after depositing their drug load at GPS sites or safe houses, stole laptops, cameras, firearms, including historic pieces, and other valuable items they steal to carry on their return to Mexico. This is a typical situation for those of us near the border all across the Tucson Sector. Ranchers in the border area cannot leave their homes unguarded even for a few hours since their homes and ranch buildings are often broken into if someone is not on guard duty. It can be hours before law enforcement can respond to rural calls.

Fifth, Arizona borderland residents, ranchers and farmers as well as national conservation areas have suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage due to major forest fires set intentionally as decoy operations or accidentally by illegal crossers. The human and property costs of these fires, like the Monument Fire, the Murphy Complex Fire, Chiricahua Fire and the Horseshoe Fires and many other fires, must also be figured into the cost of NOT securing the border at the border. We have estimated that U. S. Forest Service costs in one year to fight fires caused by border crossers just in Arizona borderlands were about $600 million. We understand that illegal crosser- caused Forest Service fires are accounted for on the Forest Service books rather than more accurately charged to Homeland Security. The actual cost of fighting crosser-caused forest fires is hidden from the public.

Sixth, we are subjected to anti-ranching activist claims of over-grazing resulting from the constant entrance of Mexican cattle through the breached border. In order to try to reduce these devastating impacts on my grazing program, I personally added barbed wire to the Normandy barriers which were installed to reduce Cartel-managed vehicle access where the Wall had been left unfinished, and cattle, as well as Cartel “clients” were coming in (then that was cut and in came the Mexican cattle), then I welded on reinforcing rod across major entrance points (that was bent back and the crossers and the Mexican cattle came right through), and finally, I spent a lot of money on inch-and-a-quarter PIPE and took a skilled welder to one of these entrance points where we worked all day welding pipe onto the Normandy barriers. So far, this last step is still in place and is now limiting cattle intrusion.

The emotional cost to our families is summarized by noting we are all very much aware of what happened to rancher Larry Link the day after he reported a load of drugs on his ranch and was then murdered and to Sue Krentz’s husband Rob when he went out to check his ranch waters and was killed (including his dog) by an illegal who then escaped into Mexico. Recently, myself and others in our area have been called and told NOT to go to our border pastures because competing factions of drug cartels were, at that point, conducting armed warfare ON U.S. PROPERTY on this side or just south of the border over control of these valuable unsurveilled drug trails.

Seventh, opponents of effective border control in rural areas advocate prioritizing cross-border wildlife-roaming over interdiction of cartel operatives. We disagree. The route through our portion of southern Arizona, the drug traffic and the passage of potential terrorists makes this today’s Ho Chi Minh Trail .

Eighth, wildlife genetic diversity on both sides of the border can be achieved along with border security by legally transporting animals as scientifically deemed appropriate. Large mammals can be transported with safe capture across the border to promote genetic diversity while birds can fly over and small animals and reptiles can easily slip through the bollard-style wall. In addition, American engineers can create wildlife friendly, effectively managed passages at some parts of the wall to facilitate wildlife connectivity with Mexico. The “wildlife” currently facilitated by these unguarded portions of the border has two legs and is headquartered in Sinaloa, Mexico.

END

SCIENCE, CLIMATE, ENERGY AND POLITICAL NEWS ROUNDUP 2024 JANUARY

A monthly review of climate, energy, environmental, and political policy issues

Articles compiled by Jonathan DuHamel wryheat@cox.net

ATTEMPTED POWER GRABS

The highlight of December was the U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP28 which was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (a center of oil and gas production). Its goal was to eliminate fossil fuel use in the western world even while China and India are building more coal-fired electric generating facilities. (Read more). ☼

In January, the big deal for “elites” was the World Economic Forum (WEF) held from Jan. 15 to 19 in Davos. Switzerland. The conference included leaders from various industries and nations, celebrities and billionaires. Davos famously draws criticism for promoting a green agenda, as reports claimed up to 1,000 private jets carried conference goers to the meeting. (Read more).☼

WEF says world’s greatest threat is “Misinformation” — (The biggest threat to experts and billionaires is free speech) (link) ☼

After Years Of Spewing Disinfo, The New World Order At Davos Wants Your Trust (link) ☼

Out-Of-Touch Davos Elites Insist Disinfo On ‘The Science’ No. 1 Global Threat (link) ☼

More scary stuff from WEF:

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus has called on countries to sign on to the health organization’s pandemic treaty so the world can prepare for “Disease X.” Disease X is a hypothetical “placeholder” virus that has not yet been formed, but scientists say it could be 20 times deadlier than COVID-19. It was added to the WHO’s short list of pathogens for research in 2017 that could cause a “serious international epidemic,” according to a 2022 WHO press release. (Read more) ☼

CLIMATE SCIENCE BACKGROUND:

by Jonathan DuHamel

“Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” – Will Durant

For more on climate science, see my Wryheat Climate articles:

The Broken Greenhouse – Why Co2 Is a Minor Player in Global Climate

A Summary of Earth’s Climate History-a Geologist’s View

Problems with wind and solar generation of electricity – a review

The High Cost of Electricity from Wind and Solar Generation

Impact of the Paris Climate Accord and why Trump was right to drop it

Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked

Why reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel will have no effect on climate ☼

CLIMATE ARTICLES FOR JANUARY

U.S. Climate 2023 Year in Review – In one word: NORMAL (link) ☼

2023 US wildfire season sees total acreage burned under 3 million, far below 10-year avg. & lowest since 1998 (link) ☼

Paleoclimate Reconstructions Continue To Document A Much Warmer-Than-Today Holocene (link) ☼

Beijing records longest cold wave in modern history (link) ☼

Antarctic Sea Ice Volume Greater Than The Early 1980s (link) ☼

Impacts and risks of “realistic” global warming projections for the 21st century

by Nicola Scafetta. This paper demonstrates that realistic emissions scenarios and climate sensitivity values & scenarios of natural climate variability produce more realistic, non-alarming scenarios of 21st century climate. (link) ☼

61 Articles On Studies, Datasets From 2023 Show Climate Models Are Rubbish (link) ☼

Collapsing Antarctic Scare Narrative…4 NEW Papers Find Antarctic Ice Is MORE STABLE Than Thought (link) ☼

An Egregious Failure of Scientific Integrity (link) ☼

CLIMATE DYSTOPIA: How Life Would Get Worse If Climate Alarmists Carry Out Their US Agenda (link) ☼

Climate Alarmist Claim Fact Checks by Joseph D’Aleo, CCM, Jan 17, 2024 (link) ☼

Nearly 160 Scientific Papers Detail The Minuscule Effect CO2 Has On Earth’s Temperature (link) ☼

New Study Concludes ‘CO2 Can Have No Measurable Effect On Ocean Temperatures’ (link) ☼

Unpacking Climate Lies (link) ☼

Global Warming: Observations vs. Climate Models

by Dr. Roy Spencer

Warming of the global climate system over the past half-century has averaged 43 percent less than that produced by computerized climate models used to promote changes in energy policy. In the United States during summer, the observed warming is much weaker than that produced by all 36 climate models surveyed here. While the cause of this relatively benign warming could theoretically be entirely due to humanity’s production of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning, this claim cannot be demonstrated through science. At least some of the measured warming could be natural. Contrary to media reports and environmental organizations’ press releases, global warming offers no justification for carbon-based regulation. (Read full paper) ☼

Astrophysicist Nukes The Entire ‘CO2 Drives Climate Change’ Narrative

by Vigilant Fox

“The whole problem of this global warming is a complete nothing,” Dr. Willie Soon told Tucker Carlson. He says he’s 90% sure the sun, not carbon dioxide, is causing climate change and that the climate czars are so out of their minds that they are misleading the public. (Read more and watch video) ☼

Related from the Jo Nova blog: “They didn’t tell us, the term “fossil fuels” might be wrong too.

Dr Willie Soon unleashes on the failures of climate change and modern science for 40 minutes with Tucker Carlson. As an opening he explained how one of Saturn’s moons has more liquid fuel than all the oil and gas deposits of Earth, which rather pokes a hole in the idea that fossil fuels are only ever made from fossils.” (Read more) ☼

New Study Finds No Evidence Of A CO2-Driven Warming Signal In 60 Years Of IR Flux Data

by Kenneth Richard

“The real atmosphere does not follow the GHG [greenhouse gas] GE [greenhouse effect] hypothesis of the IPCC.” – Miskolczi, 2023

CO2 increased from 310 ppm to 385 ppm (24%) during the 60 years from 1948 to 2008. Observations indicate this led to a negative radiative imbalance of -0.75 W/m². In other words, increasing CO2 delivered a net cooling effect – the opposite of what the IPCC has claimed should happen (Miskolczi, 2023).

Also, there is “no correlation with time and the strong signal of increasing atmospheric CO2 content in any time series,” which affirms “the atmospheric CO2 increase cannot be the reason for global warming.” (Read more) ☼

Models, Myths, And Misinformation Undergird Climate Models And Energy Policy

by Paul Driessen

It’s mystifying and terrifying that our lives, livelihoods, and living standards are increasingly dictated by activist, political, bureaucratic, academic, and media elites who disseminate theoretical nonsense, calculated myths, and outright disinformation.

Not only on pronouns, gender, and immigration – but on climate change and energy, the foundation of modern civilization and life spans.

We’re constantly told the world will plunge into an existential climate cataclysm if average planetary temperatures rise another few tenths of a degree from using fossil fuels for reliable, affordable energy, raw materials for over 6,000 vital products, and lifting billions out of poverty, disease, and early death.

Climate alarmism implicitly assumes Earth’s climate was stable until coal, oil, and gas emissions knocked it off-kilter, and would be stable again if people stopped using fossil fuels.

In the real world, climate has changed numerous times, often dramatically, sometimes catastrophically, and always naturally. (Read more) ☼

What Is Climate?–Richard Lindzen

Read this essay and look at the figures (link). Lindzen points out that: “Averaging Mt. Everest and the Dead Sea makes no sense. Instead, we average what is called the temperature anomaly. We average the deviations from a 30-year mean. The figure shows an increase of a bit more than 1°C over 175 years. We are told by international bureaucrats that when this reaches 1.5°C, we are doomed. In all fairness, even the science report of the UN’s IPCC (i.e. the WG1 report) and the US National Assessments never make this claim. The political claims are simply meant to frighten the public into compliance with absurd policies. It remains a puzzle to me why the public should be frightened of a warming that is smaller than the temperature change we normally experience between breakfast and lunch….Earth has dozens of different climate regimes…at any given time, there are almost as many [weather] stations cooling as are warming.” ☼

ENERGY ISSUES

Coal’s Life-Saving Role Ignored By Climate-Obsessed Media

by Vijay Jayaraj

Billions of people all over the world do not have access to secure sources of heat and electricity. For these, winter can be a death blow. A political war against fossil fuels is making matters worse for those unprotected from frigid temperatures. Winter’s icy chill claims far more lives than scorching summer heat, according to global analyses of fatalities caused by various natural hazards. In fact, a 2023 health study conducted across 854 European cities reveals that an estimated annual excess of 203,620 deaths were due to cold while just 20,173 were attributed to heat. In comparative terms, only 1 in 10 excess deaths from extreme temperatures were attributable to heat while a majority were due to cold. (Read more) ☼

Energy at a Glance: Ethanol and Biodiesel

from the Heartland Institute

Biofuels produce more harm than benefits after accounting for their negative impacts on fuel economy, air quality, land use, and food prices.

Quick Bullets:

Ethanol has a lower energy density than gasoline, which means vehicles get fewer miles per gallon.

Per unit of equivalent energy, ethanol produces more carbon dioxide (CO2) than normal gasoline.

Ethanol fuels produce more nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other air pollutants, which contribute to worsening air pollution, especially in summer months

(Read more – read PDF version) For other topics from Energy at a Glance go here.☼

The Cult of Darkness

by Edward Hudgins

“Energy is not for conserving; it is for unleashing to serve us, to make our lives better, to allow us to realize our dreams and to reach for the stars, those bright lights that pierce the darkness of the night.” (Read more) ☼

New report highlights Green failure in Europe and warns America (link) ☼

Today’s Materialistic World Cannot Survive Without Crude Oil

by Ronald Stein, Heartland Institute

The elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss is that crude oil is the foundation of our materialistic society as it is the basis of all products and fuels demanded by the 8 billion on this planet.

As a reality check for those pursuing net-zero emissions, wind and solar do different things than crude oil. Unreliable renewables, like wind turbines and solar panels, only generate occasional electricity but manufacture no products for society.

Crude oil is virtually never used to generate electricity but, when manufactured into petrochemicals, is the basis for virtually all the products in our materialistic society that did not exist before the 1800s being used at these infrastructures like transportation, airports, hospitals, medical equipment, appliances, electronics, telecommunications, communications systems, space programs, heating and ventilating, and militaries.

Most importantly, today, there is a lost reality that the primary usage of crude oil is NOT for the generation of electricity but to manufacture derivatives and fuels, which are the ingredients of everything needed by economies and lifestyles to exist and prosper. (Read more) ☼

California’s War On Fossil Fuels Is Having Less-Than-Stellar Consequences

by Nick Pope

California has gone after the fossil fuel industry with vigor, but those efforts do not seem to have made much impact on climate change while proving detrimental to the state’s economy. California’s anti-fossil fuel push also has not moved the needle much on climate change, which alarmists continue to insist is accelerating at a dangerous pace, but it has raised energy costs for Californians, diminished grid reliability, and disincentivized corporate investment that would create or maintain jobs in the state. (Read more) ☼

A Federal Power Grid Would be Everyone’s Worst Nightmare (link) ☼

Caving To Climate Alarmists, Biden Jams Brakes On Massive Natural Gas Projects (link) ☼

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

The Electric Car Con Explained

By William Levin

Is electricity a source of energy? Most people will answer yes, which is incorrect. Electricity carries energy but it is not itself a source of energy, which in the U.S. is supplied 60% by natural gas and coal, 18% nuclear and 22% renewables (hydro, solar and wind).

The related question is whether cars are a major consumer of energy and hence a significant contributor of Co2 emissions? Again, most people believe both statements are self-evidently true, hence the importance of moving to electric cars.

In fact, cars (light-duty transportation) account for less than 5% of global energy demand, with U.S. cars accounting for 19% of the global car fleet, declining to under 15% by 2050 as car demand grows faster outside the U.S.

Putting these facts together, and they are indisputable facts, provides a stunning insight.

The U.S. car fleet accounts for a mere 1.0% of global energy demand (5% x 19%), declining to 0.8% by 2050. So even if the U.S. shifts 100% to electric-powered cars, the maximum climate impact in 2050 is a meaningless 0.2% (22% x 0.8%) reduction in global Co2 emissions from the current electric grid, up to a maximum of 0.5% assuming solar, wind, and hydro can, implausibly, power 60% of electric demand.

In other words, there is no factual basis to claim that the government mandate to switch to electric cars will have any material impact on global Co2 emissions. (Read more) ☼

EV’s Manganese Future

by Pat Risner

Manganese, a federally designated critical mineral and one of five minerals to earn increased focus under the Defense Production Act in 2022, is emerging as a potential gamechanger in the future of Evs. The problem: the United States has not actively mined manganese in fifty years, and more than 90% of the current market for manganese processing is currently done in China.

In Southern Arizona, we are looking to change that.

South32’s Hermosa project, located in a historic mining district in the Patagonia Mountains, is currently the only advanced mine development project in the United States that could produce two federally designated critical minerals—manganese and zinc. Both are critical to the clean energy transition. (Read more) ☼

Freeze Frame: Cold Weather Shuts Down Evs (link) ☼

‘Bunch Of Dead Robots’: Charging Stations Turn Into EV Graveyards Thanks To Frigid Temps (link) ☼

ENVIRONMENT

Lake Mead Recovery Stuns Climate Change Zealots

by Rick Manning

The water levels of Lake Mead had dropped more than 45 feet in the three years from January of 2020 to December of 2022. Knowing ‘scientists’ worried that the Lake could approach ‘dead pool’ levels in the near future ending the electricity generation from the dam. A catastrophic event for the Las Vegas and Phoenix population centers.

But something unexpected happened in 2023. It rained and snowed a lot in the California Sierra Nevada mountain range, but more significantly, the Rocky Mountains in Utah and Colorado also received above average rainfall and snow — increasing run off throughout the year. Now, Lake Mead’s water level is a whopping 23 feet higher than a year prior, cutting the effects of the three-year drought in half. (Read more) ☼

ECONOMY

MINERAL COMMODITY SUMMARIES 2023

Source U.S. Geological Survey:

https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023.pdf

Arizona was #1 in production of cement, copper, molybdenum, mineral concentrates, sand and

gravel (construction), stone (crushed). Value: $10.1 billion.

Arizona was the leading copper-producing State and accounted for approximately 70% of

domestic output.

Domestic gemstone production included agate, beryl, coral, diamond, garnet, jade, jasper, opal, pearl, quartz, sapphire, shell, topaz, tourmaline, turquoise, and many other gem materials. In descending order of production value, Arizona led the Nation in natural gemstone production,

followed by Oregon and Nevada.

The top 10 ranked States (based on total value including withheld values) were, in descending order of production value, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, California, Minnesota, Alaska, Florida, Utah, Michigan, and Missouri. ☼

STATE OF THE UNION

These 22 States Urge High Court to Allow Biden Admin, Big Tech to Censor Online Speech

(link)

Commentary: Biden Admin Wants To Promote Green Energy By Destroying 4 Hydroelectric Dams (link)

Past Time to Undo Obama’s ‘Fundamental Transformation’

by Clarice Feldman

Two decades of Obama policies have led to wars in the Middle East, the destruction of our educational systems, the danger to our lives from poor management, and a substantially weakened military capability. (Read more) ☼

Naked Power: Now Gov Wants to Regulate Our Clothes — in Climate’s Name (link) ☼

Biden admin failing to track Chinese ownership of US farmland: govt watchdog (link)

“This report confirms one of our worst fears: that not only is the USDA unable to answer the question of who owns what land and where, but that there is no plan by the department to internally reverse this dangerous flaw that affects our supply chain and economy,” Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said. “Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries to influence our food supply while we stick our heads in the sand.” ☼

Can Texas Constitutionally Engage in War and Protect Itself From Imminent Danger?

by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.

“No State shall, without the Consent of Congress … engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.” — Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution

“As each state will expect to be attacked and wish to guard against it, each will retain its own militia for it own defense.” — James Madison, speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788

“This is not over. Texas’ razor wire is an effective deterrent to the illegal crossings Biden encourages. I will continue to defend Texas’ constitutional authority to secure the border and prevent the Biden Admin from destroying our property.”

That’s the message sent via X (formerly Twitter) by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. (Read more) ☼

——————————————————————————————-

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” —Thomas Jefferson (1824)

“No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.” – Robert A. Heinlein

END

SCIENCE, CLIMATE, ENERGY AND POLITICAL NEWS ROUNDUP, 2023 NOVEMBER

A monthly review of climate, energy, environmental, and political policy issues

Articles compiled by Jonathan DuHamel

You may post comments at the end of this post or send them to wryheat@cox.net

STATE OF THE UNION

The fake “climate crisis” is being used to gain control over our daily lives and make us more dependent upon whimsical government decrees. The government wants to control what kind of household appliances we can have and what kind of cars we drive. They want us to get “smart” electric meters so they can control when and how much electricity we use. Articles in the climate section of this newsletter show that government climate policy is not supported by physical evidence.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” – H. L. Mencken

“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you

tell them what they want to hear.” —Thomas Sowell

“Pause to reflect that America is the only successful multiracial constitutional republic in

history. To survive in an increasingly dysfunctional and hostile world abroad, the unique idea

of the United States requires concord. But national cohesion is only possible through citizens

subordinating their tribal interests to a common culture. Only then do they cease being

automatons of warring tribes and collectives. As the world becomes ever scarier, Americans

must — as Benjamin Franklin once warned — hang together, or most certainly they will soon

all hang separately.” —Victor Davis Hanson

Why the CIA No Longer Works—and How to Fix It (link)

Another Instance Of Our Non-political Expert Regulators In Action: How Democratic administrations, feel themselves completely unconstrained to use their powers to suppress political opponents without the slightest concern about statutory or constitutional limits. (link)

Taxpayers Bankroll Electric Vehicles Even as Fewer People Buy Them

Ford and General Motors have tempered plans for E.V. production, but governments still spend billions of dollars in incentives. (Read more) ☼

Grassley’s USDA spending reforms would protect farmers and taxpayers

by Patricia Patnode

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is spending billions of dollars each year for programs that Congress never specifically authorized. Fortunately, Sens. Chuck Grassley, (R-IA.) Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) introduced a bill, the “U.S. Department of Agriculture Spending Accountability Act” (S. 2244), that ensures Congress, and not the USDA, decides how to spend this massive amount of taxpayer dollars. The funding mechanism used to provide the money for most farm bill programs is known as the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). Each year, the CCC has $30 billion to spend. But in any given year, there is a certain amount of money, recently between $12 and $17 billion, leftover in the CCC that can be used by the agriculture secretary (currently this is Tom Vilsack, former Iowa governor) to fund programs of his creation without congressional approval. The underlying law gives significant discretion to the Secretary on how to spend the money, which makes matters worse because he can often spend money for almost anything he wants. (Read more) ☼

Democrats’ Noncitizen Voting Scam

by Betsy Mccaughey

Letting noncitizens vote will dilute the political power of all other New Yorkers, who are the real victims of Biden’s open borders. If you think offering migrants luxury hotel rooms, free meals, laundry service, transportation, health care and immigration lawyers is excessive, just wait until they can vote. Democrats are pushing to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections in New York City, Boston and other municipalities, as well as statewide in Connecticut. (Read more) ☼

Know your rights. Exercise your rights. Defend your rights. If not, you will lose them.

Freedom’s greatest hour of danger is now. (Read more) ☼

The Bill of Rights are contained within the first ten amendments to our Constitution:

Amendment 1

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment 2

A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

Amendment 3

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment 4

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment 5

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

Amendment 6

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment 7

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment 8

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment 9

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. ☼

MORE ARTICLES:

America on the Edge of the Cliff (link)

Why Governments Have Replaced God with Global Warming (link)

How “National Monument” Designations Change the Land: Q&A with Arizona Rancher Casey Murph. President Joe Biden announced a new national monument in Arizona, covering nearly 1 million acres. The designation has raised concern from cattle ranchers, mining groups, agriculture supporters, and private landowners. (link)

CLIMATE ISSUES

CLIMATE SCIENCE BACKGROUND:

by Jonathan DuHamel

For more on climate science, see my Wryheat Climate articles:

The Broken Greenhouse – Why Co2 Is a Minor Player in Global Climate

A Summary of Earth’s Climate History-a Geologist’s View

Problems with wind and solar generation of electricity – a review

The High Cost of Electricity from Wind and Solar Generation

Impact of the Paris Climate Accord and why Trump was right to drop it

Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked

Why reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel will have no effect on climate ☼

New Documentary: A Climate Conversation—A Constructive Debate On Global Warming The video documentary (it’s less than an hour) uses empirical evidence, challenges the ubiquitous consensus (anathema to science), and explains the issues so any layperson can understand. The intro also provides links to other articles (Read and watch) ☼

A bad recipe for science

by Dr. Judith Curry

Politically-motivated manufacture of scientific consensus corrupts the scientific process and leads to poor policy decisions

In the 21st century, humankind is facing a myriad of complex societal problems that are characterized by deep uncertainties, systemic risks and disagreements about values. Climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic are prominent examples of such wicked problems. For such problems, the relevant science has become increasingly like litigation, where truth seeking has become secondary to politics and advocacy on behalf of a preferred policy solution.

How does politics influence the scientific process for societally relevant issues? Political bias influences research funding priorities, the scientific questions that are asked, how the findings are interpreted, what is cited, and what gets canonized. Factual statements are filtered in assessment reports and by the media with an eye to downstream political use.

How does politics influence the behavior of scientists? There is pressure on scientists to support consensus positions, moral objectives and the relevant policies. This pressure comes from universities and professional societies, scientists themselves who are activists, journalists and from federal funding agencies in terms of research funding priorities. Because evaluations by one’s colleagues are so central to success in academia, it is easy to induce fear of social sanctions for expressing the ideas that, though not necessarily shown to be factually or scientifically wrong, are widely unpopular.

Activist scientists use their privileged position to advance moral and political agendas. This political activism extends to the professional societies that publish journals and organize conferences. This activism has a gatekeeping effect on what gets published, who gets heard at conferences, and who receives professional recognition. Virtually all professional societies whose membership has any link to climate research have issued policy statements on climate change, urging action to eliminate fossil fuel emissions.

The most pernicious manifestation of the politicization of science is when politicians, advocacy groups, journalists, and activist scientists intimidate or otherwise attempt to silence scientists whose research is judged to interfere with their moral and political agendas. (Read more) ☼

The CO2 Coalition Learning Center

The CO2 Learning Center team is composed of highly motivated scientists and climate experts concerned about the quality and state of science education in America. They promote the scientific method rather than indoctrination. See https://co2learningcenter.com/about/ This site provides links to books, videos, lesson plans, and fun climate facts. ☼

The Actual ‘Climate Change’ Agenda

by Christopher Talgo

First Published at American Thinker

The latest edition of the State of the Climate Report, published in the journal BioScience, begins rather ominously: “Life on planet Earth is under siege. We are now in an uncharted territory.” These sentences are meant to instill abject fear and evoke a sense of doom in the general public, however, they are patently absurd and ought to be disregarded outright.

Like almost every climate change report I’ve come across, the 2023 State of the Climate Report is full of red herrings and bombastic assertions that are intended to alarm the public into believing that climate change is an existential threat that must be stopped at all costs, regardless of the collateral damage and unintended consequences that their so-called solutions would inevitably bring to bear.

But, what I find most alarming about this particular report, which 15,000 scientists signed, is the anti-human and anti-progress message that lies at the heart of it. (Read more) ☼

To what extent are temperature levels changing due to greenhouse gas emissions?

The greenhouse effect is so weak that it should be sidelined as an argument.”

Read discussion paper here. [PDF file 123 pages.] ☼

LA Times Pushes Sham Claim Areas Will Be ‘Uninhabitable’, ‘Too Hot For Humans’

by Anthony Watts

A guest opinion article in The Los Angeles Times (LA Times), written by researcher Daniel Vecellio titled “Opinion: Here are the places that could become too hot for humans due to climate change,” claims that heat and humidity will combine to make some areas of Earth “uninhabitable.”

While it is true that high levels of combined heat and humidity create heat stress in humans, there’s no evidence that climate change will cause some areas to be uninhabitable.

But there’s also the human history element to consider:

Our distant ancestors, the first primates, evolved about 56 million years ago during one of the warmest times in the Cenozoic Era. This was the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), when the global average temperature may have been ten degrees warmer than today. Primates not only evolved then, but they also thrived. They spread rapidly around the world according to the fossil record, that we exist today is a testament to their success.

The bottom line is this: humans can, did, and do survive just fine at much warmer temperatures and humidity. (Read more) ☼

See also: Turns out the media was totally wrong – Food crops booming despite ‘climate emergency’ as U.S. sees ‘biggest corn harvest ever’ (link)

A ‘Major Surprise’ Nature Study Finds Phasing Out Fossil Fuels Will Lead To Decades Of Warming

by Kenneth Richard

“We would expect from a 100% switchover from fossil fuels to zero-emission renewables…net radiative heating would increase drastically.” – Nair et al., 2023

Using observational data gleaned from COVID-19 lockdowns in South Asia, scientists publishing in a Nature journal (Nair et al., 2023) have now determined the ongoing switch to zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions renewables will subsequently lead to a dramatic reduction in climate-cooling aerosol (pollution) emissions. Because aerosol emissions have a relatively greater climate impact by reflecting shortwave radiation, the net effect of transitioning to renewables will be to “drastically” increase Earth’s temperatures over the coming decades. (Read more) ☼

Study Suggests Causes of Climate Change Beyond CO2

by H. Sterling Burnett

Reviewing the literature since World War II, the author, Stuart Harris, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of geography with the University of Calgary, finds multiple other explanations have been offered in various studies at various times for recent climate changes, beyond today’s current bete noire, carbon dioxide.

Harris writes:

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is only suggested as a cause in one theory, which, despite its wide acceptance by politicians, the media, and the public, ignores the findings in other studies, including the ideas found in the Milankovitch Cycles. [Increased carbon dioxide] also does not explain the well-known NASA map of the changes between the global 1951–1978 and the 2010–2019 mean annual temperatures. The other theories by oceanographers, earth scientists, and geographers fit together to indicate that the variations in climate are the result of differential solar heating of the Earth, resulting in a series of processes redistributing the heat to produce a more uniform range of climates around the surface of the Earth. Key factors are the shape of the Earth and the Milankovitch Cycles, the distribution of land and water bodies, the differences between heating land and water, ocean currents and gateways, air masses, and hurricanes.

Harris notes that historical warming and cooling preceded changes in carbon dioxide concentrations. In addition, he points out that the recent modest increase in global average temperature began in the later part of the 19th century and early 20th century, before significant human greenhouse gas emissions, and that temperatures since then have risen and plateaued a couple of times even as carbon dioxide concentrations steadily increased.

As a result, he argues climate changes are now, and historically have been, driven by external factors like solar activity, and internal factors, such as Milankovitch cycles and how the Earth’s rotation moves fluids, and the way the Earth responds to “uneven solar heating of the surface of the Earth and the movements of the excess heat in the tropics towards the cooler polar regions, primarily by the movements of ocean currents, modified by the movements of air masses.”

Whether or not the factors Harris identifies are driving present climate change, two things we can say with some certainty about them: they impact the climate; and they are inadequately accounted for, or completely ignored, in climate model representations of the Earth’s climate and model outputs. (Read more) ☼

Washington Post and ABC Are Wrong: There is No Evidence Surpassing 1.5 Degrees Constitutes a Climate Emergency

by Linnea Lueken

As the next UN climate conference nears, a number of mainstream media outlets are hyping a study claiming the Earth faces a climate emergency because it is approaching the 1.5 degree Celsius warming threshold set by the Paris Agreement. This is false. No scientific evidence exists indicating that an increase of 1.5 degrees above estimated pre-industrial temperatures constitutes a crisis, or means the Earth is approaching a tipping point. Data shows that the increase in extreme weather events projected to occur as temperatures have modestly risen have consistently failed to materialize. (Read more) ☼

Solving the Climate Puzzle: The Sun’s Surprising Role

by Javier Vinos

This post features a chapter from my new book Solving the Climate Puzzle: The Sun’s Surprising Role. The book provides a large body of evidence supporting that changes in the poleward transport of heat are one of the main ways in which the planet’s climate changes naturally. It also shows that changes in solar activity affect this transport, restoring the Sun as a major cause of global warming. Since climate models do not properly represent heat transport and the IPCC reports completely neglect this process, this new hypothesis will not be easily dismissed. I am sure that over time it will lead to a better understanding of how the climate changes naturally, and hopefully less climate hysteria.

Here is the text of Chapter 17 of my new book: The Ocean’s heat transport is largely wind driven

(Read more) ☼

Why IPCC “Scientists” Won’t Look at the Sun (video and transcript ( link) ☼

Climatologist: Are We Really In An Unprecedented Time Of Warming?

by Dr. Matthew Wielicki

Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events are one of the most striking discoveries in earth science related to past climate. These events are rapid climate fluctuations that occurred frequently during the last glacial period, illustrating a planet capable of swift and dramatic temperature shifts. The discovery of D-O events can be traced back to the ice core drilling projects in Greenland in the late 20th century. Analysis of the isotopic composition of ice cores, particularly the ratio of oxygen isotopes 18O and 16O, revealed evidence of abrupt climatic changes. (Read more) ☼

New Study Finds Most Of Antarctica Has Cooled By Over 1°C Since 1999…W. Antarctica Cooled 1.8°C

by Kenneth Richard

Significant 21st century cooling in the Central Pacific, Eastern Pacific, and nearly all of Antarctica “implies substantial uncertainties in future temperature projections of CMIP6 models.” – Zhang et al., 2023

New research indicates West Antarctica’s mean annual surface temperatures cooled by more than -1.8°C (-0.93°C per decade) from 1999-2018. In spring, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) cooling rate reached -1.84°C per decade. (Read more) ☼

See also: Analysis: The Media Has Been Silent on 2023’s Record Cold Temperatures (link) ☼

Fifth National Climate Change Assessment Propaganda “Science Report” Released

by Larry Hamlin

The White House has released the Fifth National Climate Change Assessment report providing the country the latest government hyped climate alarmism science propaganda updates as noted in the news article excerpts discussed below. …..(Read the hype)

Hamlin notes that NOAA data establishes that the highest maximum temperatures in the Contiguous U.S. occur in the month of July. For the period 1895 to 2023 the hottest months were July 1936, July 1934, July 1901, July 2012, July 2006, and July 1931. ☼

Read also a view by Roger Pielke Jr. who says the “ Fifth U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA)…. is much more a glossy promotional brochure than anything resembling a careful assessment of the scientific literature on climate change and the United States. (link) ☼

Read also Patriot Post assessment of National Climate (Alarmism) Assessment (link)

The report itself is hard to read (link) ☼

“In climate research and modeling, we should recognize that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that the prediction of a specific future climate state is not possible.” — Final chapter,Third Assessment Report, IPCC.

CLIMATE MADNESS

Scientists: Nearly 4 Decades of Climate Model Failure Undermines Confidence In Future Predictions (link)

US Backing New Plan To Cripple Coal Industry At UN Climate Conference (link), meanwhile: Beijing’s Coal Boom Is Here to Stay (link)

Gulf Stream Collapse Scare Debunked by Royal Society

From The Daily Sceptic

One of the more unforgivable climate scares foisted on the public by green fanatics is the suggestion that the Gulf Stream is about to break down, plunging the northern hemisphere into a new ice age. Last July, both the Guardian and the BBC reported that the Gulf Stream could collapse by 2025, bringing catastrophic climate impacts. All of this fearmongering relies on models, and these have also led the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to forecast it is “very likely” that the entire system of North Atlantic currents will weaken in the near future. Needless to say, these models have an impressively poor track record, and this has been revealed in a recent paper published by the Royal Society. “If these models cannot reproduce past variation, why should we be so confident about their ability to predict the future,” ask the scientific authors. (Read more) ☼

CFACT Blasts Fed’s “Floating Wind” Fantasy (link)

Trudeau’s Climate Obsession Runs Into A Pesky Thing Called Reality

by Joe Oliver

Reversing climate change has defined the Trudeau government, generating incessant virtue signaling and innumerable intrusive initiatives for which, after eight years, it is infamous.

But now the entire climate project is staggering from a trifecta of reality checks — missed emission targets, public blowback against the carbon tax, and at long last, growing realization that nothing Canada does will change global temperatures. (Read more) ☼

ENERGY ISSUES

The EPA’s Coming Energy Catastrophe

by Rich Nolan

The nation’s electric grid experts and operators now work in a constant state of emergency. There’s little if any respite in the change of seasons. Fears of soaring electricity demand overwhelming power supplies during searing summer heat are now matched by an equally unnerving fear millions will be left shivering in darkness during the coldest days of winter. The question is no longer will there be rolling blackouts or grid emergencies but rather when or where. (Read more) ☼

Net-Zero Grifters Are Pushing Us Over The Energy Cliff

by Paul Driessen

Seventeen states – including Virginia – tie their vehicle emission standards and electric vehicle sale mandates to California, the most climate-centric state in the Union. Unless current laws change, by 2035 all their new cars, pickups, and SUVs must be electric (or hydrogen-powered).

In further obeisance to California, most of these 17 states also require that their utility companies generate 100% of their electricity from “renewable sources” by 2045 or 2050.

They and the federal government are also mandating that electric models replace gas-fueled furnaces, water heaters, driers, stoves, and ovens within a decade or less.

This means electricity demand will double very soon – at the same time that reliable, affordable fossil-fuel (and nuclear and hydroelectric) electricity generation plummets. Charging massive batteries to ensure power on windless, sunless days would double demand again.

Home, hospital, school, and business lighting, heating, cooling, cooking, and computing costs will likely double or triple, hitting poor and minority families hardest. Blackouts will become commonplace.(Read more) ☼

California Continues to be a National Security Risk for America

by Ronald Stein

Governor Newsom directives increase California’s dependency on foreign crude oil to support the State’s international and military airports, and shipping terminals. Historically, California has been successfully reducing in-state oil production over the decades and has increased crude oil imports from foreign countries from 5 percent in 1992 to more than 75 percent today to meet the California consumption demand. That imported crude oil supports 9 International airports, 41 Military airports, and 3 of the largest shipping terminals in America. Newsom is constantly reducing in-state refining capacity to refine fuels and petrochemicals for the materialistic demands of society. (Read more) ☼

See also: California, the Great Destroyer by Victor Davis Hanson (link)

70% of Africa’s forest is gone. Without affordable energy it will vanish

from NetZeroWatch

70% of Africa’s forest has been cut down and the rest is falling fast. In Africa, an area the size of Switzerland is cleared of forest every year, with an estimated 90% of the wood used for cooking or heating.

Linked to this, on a continent that’s home to the Nile, Zambezi and Congo rivers, why do hundreds of millions struggle for water? Even where plumbing exists, often the dams are full but the pipes are dry.

Both problems stem from a lack of electricity: Trees are cut for charcoal and water can’t be pumped to a reservoir. In two powerful new papers, Hill looks at not only the causes, but ways the UK could help. (Read more) ☼

Replace Carbon Fuels with Hydrogen? Absurd, Exorbitant and Pointless

by Ron Clutz

Those promoting hydrogen as a substitute for carbon fuels are blind to the physical and economic facts, as well as miscontruing CO2 as some kind of demon gas boiling the planet. Thus their crusade is absurd, exorbitant and pointless. (Read more) ☼

CEI Special Briefing Series: Defending the Personal Energy Choices of Americans

from Competitive Enterprise Institute

To push its energy and climate agenda, the Biden administration thinks it should limit or even prohibit what kinds of goods Americans can buy, from the cars they drive to the appliances they use in their homes. Some states and local governments are also taking similar actions.

Not too long ago, the idea that the government would ban or severely limit Americans from driving gas-powered vehicles would have seen absurd. Well, that’s the current reality.

Quite simply, there is an unprecedented attack on the personal energy choices of Americans.

That’s why CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment is pleased to debut a special briefing series entitled “Defending the Personal Energy Choices of Americans.” (Read more) ☼

Problems with Electric Vehicles:

E-Bus Loses Power Going Up Hill, Rolls Backward, Crashes Into Row Of Cars (link)

Electric Vehicles Are Much More Costly than Commonly Claimed (link)

The Biden Administration’s EV Goals Are an Expensive Fantasy

by Brent Bennett and Andrea Hitt

The Biden administration is pushing for widespread electrification in less than 20 years through government subsidies and coercive regulations as part of its aggressive climate agenda. The truth is that President Joe Biden’s goals are an illusion at the expense of the American people. While EV proponents try to claim that EVs will soon be cheaper than gasoline vehicles, our new research demonstrates that EVs benefitted from hidden subsidies that total nearly $50,000 per EV. Who is footing that bill? Gasoline vehicle owners, taxpayers, and utility ratepayers are. (Read more) ☼

More Articles:

Say NO! to so-called “smart” meters (link)

Indonesia Shelves Net-Zero Fantasies For Prosperity And Security (link)

Don’t Get Spooked By CNN’s Alarmist Claim Of Rapid West Antarctic Ice Melt (link)

Largest Wind Farm Maker Abandons E. Coast Projects As Costs Explode (link)

The 8th Dirty Secret of Solar: Overspending for Solar Can Capsize an Entire National Economy. It is turning Germany into “The Sick Man of Europe” (link)

The Toxic Truth: The Impact Of Green Energy On Wildlife And The Environment (link)

Dutch Energy Prices Double As Country Transitions To ‘Cheap’ Green Energy (link)

Experts Raise Alarm After Biden Strikes Agreement With China To End Fossil Fuels (link)

China promised to strictly control coal then started 182 coal power plants instead (link)

The Biden Administration’s EV Goals Are an Expensive Fantasy (link)

World Leaders Ignore Growing Safety Issues with Green Energy (link)

Blue State Residents Are Paying Way More For Energy Than Red States, New Report Shows (link)

Parting thoughts:

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” —Cesare Beccaria

“Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was

killed by an ugly fact.” — Thomas Huxley

“Things in our country run in spite of our government, not by aid of it.” ~ Will Rogers

END

SCIENCE, CLIMATE, ENERGY AND POLITICAL NEWS ROUNDUP 2023 AUGUST

A monthly review of climate, energy, environmental, and political policy issues

Articles compiled by Jonathan DuHamel

You may post comments at the end of this post or send them to wryheat@cox.net

Highlights of subjects covered:

State of the climate – summer 2023; There Is No Climate Crisis; The Blunt Truth about Global Warming Models; NOAA data shows the vast majority of state maximum temperatures took place before 1955; The Climate Crisis Frenzy is a Mass Hysteria Movement; Antidote for CO2 Hysteria; EPA’s Proposed Power Plant Regulations are Dangerous and Unscientific; One Simple Energy Question Devastates ‘Net-Zero’ Pipe Dreams; Novavax: The Only Real Covid Vaccine.

CLIMATE ISSUES

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” —John Adams (1770)

“In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.” –Michael Crichton

State of the climate – summer 2023

by Judith Curry, Jim Johnstone, Mark Jelinek

A deep dive into the causes of the unusual weather/climate during 2023. People are blaming fossil-fueled warming and El Nino, and now the Hunga-Tonga eruption and the change in ship fuels. But the real story is more complicated. (Read more of this long post) ☼

“There Is No Climate Crisis”…1600 Scientists Worldwide, Nobel Prize Laureate Sign Declaration

1609 signatories recently signed a declaration that states there is no climate crisis, thus casting doubt over man’s alleged role in climate change and extreme weather. Their doubt is based on data showing that natural factors are very much at play, the warming is slower than predicted, the models are unreliable, that CO2 has great benefits and weather disasters have not increased. The media hysteria and weather hype are not supported by data. Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.

CO2 is not a pollutant. It is essential to all life on Earth. More CO2 is favorable for nature, greening our planet. Additional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also profitable for agriculture, increasing the yields of crops worldwide. (Read more) ☼

The Blunt Truth about Global Warming Models

By Vic Hughes

I may be one of the first scientists in the country to know that predicting long-term temperatures is not possible.

Almost 50 years ago, while in grad school, I had a contract from an Army research lab to use a state-of-the-art models to predict long-term temperatures. I quickly realized that the goal of the project, to forecast accurately the temperature long-term, was impossible because small errors in data inputs could result in huge forecasts errors. Equally important was that errors compounded so quickly that it caused the error ranges to explode. The results were junk. As an example, what good is a temperature forecast with an error range of plus or minus one hundred degrees?

I give university speeches to scientists and tell them: if you ever see some data or forecasts, your first question has to be “what’s the error range?” If you don’t know the error range, the data are almost useless. It’s not coincidental that the Climate Mafia don’t highlight this problem

So what about modern technology solving these problems? These error problems are still true today. It’s not that the long-term temperature forecasts are wrong; it’s that they can’t be right. All global warming modelers know this, or they are incredibly stupid, or they just lie about it for money or power.

When the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made even a pretense of being science-based, they used to admit it. From the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report: “The climate system is a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.” (Read more) ☼

Thanks to Government, Maui’s Lahaina Fire Became a Deadly Conflagration

by Connor O’Keeffe, Mises Institute

Though details are still emerging, it’s becoming clear that government failure did much to make this disaster worse—and possibly even started it. While the so-called experts are blaming climate change—and in the process demanding that government grab even more power and authority ostensibly to someday give us better weather—the destructiveness of this fire was the product of an all-powerful and all-incompetent régime. (Read full post) ☼

See also: The Real Cause of the Maui Wildfire Disaster (link) This post explains the unusual weather event (It was not climate change). ☼

NOAA U.S. Average Temperature Anomaly Data January 2002 Through July 2023 – Where’s the Crisis?

(link)

NOAA avg temp anomaly thru July 2023

See also: NOAA’s Actual U.S. Maximum Temperatures Data Completely Debunks Climate Emergency [the vast majority of state maximum temperatures took place before 1955] (link) ☼

What NASA and the European Space Agency are admitting but the media are failing to report about our current heat wave

By Thomas Lifson

The current heat wave is being relentlessly blamed on increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there is a much more plausible explanation, one that is virtually endorsed by two of the world’s leading scientific organizations. It turns out that levels of water vapor in the atmosphere have dramatically increased over the last year-and-a-half, and water vapor is well recognized as a greenhouse gas, whose heightened presence leads to higher temperatures, a mechanism that dwarfs any effect CO2 may have.

So, why has atmospheric water vapor increased so dramatically? Because of a historic, gigantic volcanic eruption in the South Pacific. When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, 2022, it sent a tsunami racing around the world and set off a sonic boom that circled the globe twice. The underwater eruption in the South Pacific Ocean also blasted an enormous plume of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools [about 38 billion gallons which increased atmospheric water vapor by 13%]. The sheer amount of water vapor could be enough to temporarily affect Earth’s global average temperature. (Read more and see a satellite view of the eruption) ☼

Hottest Day Ever? Nope, just fake news

The mainstream media is hyping the story that hot global temperatures in June and July, 2023, are the “hottest in the past 125,000 years.” That is fake news. Who was around measuring temperatures 100,000 years ago?

Let’s first look at the past 10,000 years of estimated temperature. The graphic below shows our current interglacial period, the Holocene. Physical evidence (from ice cores and rocks) show that the several previous warm periods were warmer than the current warm period.

CCIP fig1

From the CO2Coalition:

It was widely reported recently that July 4th, 2023 was the hottest day in Earth’s recorded history.

Paulo Ceppi, a climate scientist at London’s Grantham Institute stated: “It hasn’t been this warm since at least 125,000 years ago, which was the previous interglacial.” And, of course, it was reported that it was our fault due to our “sins of emission.”

This didn’t meet the smell test for the scientists at the CO2 Coalition. We know that previous warm periods were warmer than our modern temperatures. For example, during the Roman Warm Period there was citrus being grown in the north of England and barley was grown by Vikings on Greenland 1,000 years ago. Why aren’t they grown there now? It’s quite simple: Lower modern temperatures.

So, here at the CO2 Coalition, we did what scientists are trained to do:

We looked at the available data. Our Science and Research Associate Byron Soepyan reviewed temperature data from the US Historical Climatology Network and found that both the number of weather stations reporting temperature over 100 degrees F and the Maximum Average Temperature for July 4th were slightly declining since the record began in 1895 – not increasing – as Ceppi claimed. (source)

4th of July 2023

Finally we have a graph of the June, 2023 temperature as measured by the UAH satellite system which measures the temperature of the entire globe several times a day (source). The horizontal black line is the 1991-2020 mean.

UAH Satellite temps June 2023

For more on climate science, see my Wryheat Climate articles:

The Broken Greenhouse – Why Co2 Is a Minor Player in Global Climate

A Summary of Earth’s Climate History-a Geologist’s View

Problems with wind and solar generation of electricity – a review

The High Cost of Electricity from Wind and Solar Generation

Impact of the Paris Climate Accord and why Trump was right to drop it

New study shows that carbon dioxide is responsible for only seven percent of the greenhouse effect

Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked

Why reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel will have no effect on climate ☼

SCIENCE, CLIMATE, ENERGY AND POLITICS NEWS ROUNDUP 2023 JUNE

A monthly review of climate, energy, and environmental policy issues

Articles compiled by Jonathan DuHamel

This month I begin with a list of interesting articles you may like. Click the link to read them.

The Quota States of America

Martin Luther King said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Today “content of character” or merit is deemed racist. (link) ☼

Record World Cereal Outputs Forecast for 2023/24 (link and link) ☼

New Study: Antarctic Ice Shelf Area Has Grown By 5305 Km2 From 2009-2019 (link)

On Broken Science by William Briggs (link)

What Did the World Look Like in the Last Ice Age? (link)

Why are the predictions on climate change always so wrong? (link) Follow the money.

Biden admin is preparing to target Americans’ gas furnaces amid stove crackdown (link)

The Federal War Against Your Lifestyle (link)

Biden Kills Another Mineral Mine—A Week Before Construction Would Begin (link)

Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark Christie: Power Grid is Facing ‘Dire Consequences’ Due to Coal & Gas Retirements (link)

Your Federal Government In Action: The SEC (link)

A Comprehensive Critique Of Net Zero Fantasies (link)

EVs Prone To Rapidly Losing Their Charge, Getting Stranded On German Autobahns (link)

US Regulators Open Probe Into EVs That Suddenly Lose Power (link)

China is Throwing Away Fields of Electric Cars – Letting them Rot! (link and link)

Lab Meat: A Pharma Product with Huge Carbon Footprint (link)

STATE OF THE UNION

“The general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws: its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.” —James Madison (1787)

“The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife.” —Thomas Jefferson (1821)

“JFK is remembered for putting a man on the moon, while Joe Biden will be remembered for putting men in the same bathroom with little girls.” – Tony Heller

Constitutional Restoration: How to rebuild the separation of powers

by Dan Greenberg and Devin Watkin

A specter is haunting America—the specter of unlimited government.

A central feature of our Constitution is that it restricts the federal government’s powers. These restrictions are, in part, structural. Not only does the Constitution designate the limits of federal power beyond which the government cannot go, but the structure of the Constitution also separates and balances various executive, legislative, and judicial powers. These restrictions not only limit what the government can do, but they also limit which part of the government may do it. This demarcating, separating, and balancing is supposed to prevent any one branch of government from wholly dominating another.

There is tension between this classical vision of American constitutionalism and the day-to-day proceedings of the modern administrative state. In particular, many federal agencies—some that are independent and others that are part of the executive branch—now wield a multitude of both executive and non-executive powers. That is: some of these powers appear to be executive in nature, but others appear to be legislative or judicial. For instance, several Cabinet agencies now exercise powers once confined to just one of the three branches of the constitutional triad. Such agencies now investigate and prosecute those who are alleged to have broken the law (an executive function); they issue rules with the force of law (a legislative function); and they conduct hearings, trials, and appeals to apply the law (a judicial function). Those who observe these agencies exercising various powers—especially when those powers cross intragovernmental property lines—may wonder what is left of the Constitution’s promise of the balance and the separation of powers.

Both the separation and the balance of powers are vital elements of American governance. In this paper, we recommend setting new boundaries to restore these structural aspects of governance to their proper place. (Read more, 16 pages) ☼

Related: No One Voted for Administrative Rule Constraining Every Aspect of Our Lives

by GianCarlo Canaparo

What is administrative rule? It’s a system of government where nearly every aspect of Americans’ lives is regulated by obnoxious laws that nobody voted on, enforced by pedantic bureaucrats who nobody voted for. (Read more) ☼

This EPA rule will keep you from buying the cars you want

by Kristen Walker, Fox News

The Environmental Protection Agency is taking away your options within the automobile industry with its recently announced new rule that would require a drastic reduction in tailpipe emissions for light- and medium-duty vehicles. This administration has gone full speed ahead with its climate agenda and the federal government seems intent on fundamentally overhauling the automotive industry, regardless of what consumers want. The end goal is to get rid of gas-powered vehicles. (Read more) ☼

The Preservation of the Republic

By Melvin Anderson

A republic is a sophisticated form of government that relies on the morality and decency of the populace. But can this experiment persist? (Read more) ☼

DIE (diversity, inclusion, and equity) Litmus Tests are Robbing the Campus

By Janet Levy

Universities are forums for the free exchange of ideas, for learning how to think, not what to think; for debate, not indoctrination. Unfortunately, that can no longer be said of American universities. Open inquiry and critical thinking untainted by ideology have been supplanted by leftist dogma, including Critical Race Theory and social justice advocacy. Except at the increasingly rare institution offering a classical liberal arts education, it has become impossible for impressionable students to earn a degree without becoming steeped in leftist rhetoric and the extreme ideas of race and gender. They end up believing that America was built on racism and defining themselves as either oppressors or victims. (Read more) ☼

Reading and Math Scores Plummet as Racial and Sexual Activism Replace Academics

by Tony Kinnett

As America’s public education system reports the worst literacy and math performance in decades, its schools dedicate increasingly immense portions of their time to lessons on the supposed virtues of racial and gender segregation.

With only eight hours per day and 180 school days per year, one would think that everyone from the newest teacher’s aide to the tenured administrators would call “all hands on deck” to spend every moment trying to close the enormous performance gaps inflamed by COVID-19 lockdowns.

Instead of utilizing data-proven methods to close gaps in literacy and math, like many private and microschools do, most public schools have centered on a different tactic: political distraction. (Read more) ☼

Over $400 Billion in COVID Aid Was Stolen or Wasted

by Eric Boehm, Reason Magazine

Over the past three years, the federal government distributed more than $4.2 trillion in aid connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than $400 billion of it—nearly one in every $10 spent—was either wasted or stolen, according to a new report. And that figure is likely to grow. Already, prosecutors have charged more than 2,230 defendants with pandemic-related fraud crimes. If federal prosecutors are interested in catching the real culprits of this mess, they’ll have to take a look at government officials who were in charge of distributing the cash. (Read more)☼

RADIATION REGULATION FRAUD

Emails Reveal: Bureaucrats censor radiation risk science fraud by cancelling whistleblowers; Huge implications for nuclear power and more

by Steve Milloy, long-time editor and founder of JunkScience.com

What if the public’s fears about common exposures to radiation were not only baseless, but the product of epic science fraud? And what if the people we have trusted with setting radiation safety standards have knowingly suppressed that reality for decades, including up to the present day?

JunkScience.com is presenting for the first time emails uncovered via the Freedom of Information Act that expose the inner workings of a little-known bureaucracy dedicated to keeping in place the so-called “linear non-threshold model” (LNT). The LNT is used by regulatory agencies to set permitted exposure standards for radiation.

So if you have been concerned or scared of anything associated with radiation — from medical diagnostics to TSA screening to radon in your basement to nuclear power plants — you have been an unwitting victim of the LNT. As explained in this recent article, the LNT has been responsible for producing crippling fear of low-level radiation exposures. (Read more) ☼

ENERGY ISSUES

Britain’s Green Energy Disaster Should Be a Warning to America

by Capell Aris

“The UK already has 15 GW of offshore wind, more than 300 times as much as the USA: and our experience should be a terrible warning to Americans.” As the United States sets its sights on a significant expansion of offshore wind capacity, it would do well to examine the cautionary tale unfolding in Britain. With the UK already grappling with the consequences of an aggressive pursuit of green energy, American policymakers and citizens must carefully assess the feasibility and potential risks of such a rapid energy transition. The intermittent nature of wind power presents a fundamental challenge. In this article, we explore the concerns that Britain’s experience should serve as an awful warning to Americans. (Read more) ☼

Cruel Summer: The Dark Side Of The Green Energy Revolution

by I & I EDITORIAL BOARD

The green energy “revolution” is taking us backwards, to an era in which there won’t be enough electricity to meet the demand.

Members of the House Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security were told to expect “potentially catastrophic consequences” due to dispatchable generating sources being retired “far too quickly” in the race to replace those sources – natural gas, coal and nuclear, which are available on demand – with renewables, primarily wind and solar.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark C. Christie told the congressmen that lawmakers’ and activists’ obsession with green energy threatens “our ability to keep the lights on.” (Read more) ☼

Green Industrialization Greatly Increases CO2 Emissions

by David Wojick

Despite calling for rapid reduction in CO2 emissions, the left is rushing green industrialization which will dramatically increase emissions for the foreseeable future. This obvious absurdity has yet to be admitted.

On the one hand, there is growing literature on the enormous material requirements required for building huge numbers of wind and solar power generating systems. Then the growing realization that gas-fired backup will keep renewable power generation CO2 emissions high.

Combining these two factors means CO2 emissions should rise, not fall, as green industrialization proceeds. Both factors are ignored, but both are big. The energy transition increases emissions. It is that simple.

On the material side, we are talking about what I call “supply chain emissions.” It should be obvious that rebuilding the electric power system is hugely emission intensive. We are talking about a tremendous amount of mining, processing, and construction, with lots of transportation at each step. (Read more) ☼

Replacing Coal Power with Wind and Solar Increases Net CO2 Emissions

by Douglas Pollock

Advocates of wind and solar power confidently assert that using it to replace a coal-fired power plant will abate all the CO2 formerly emitted by the coal station, because unreliables do not emit CO2.

Not quite.

To keep the lights on when we need them, wind and solar requires backup from flexible sources, such as natural gas, that can react quickly when the Sun rises or sets, or when the wind drops or blows a gale.

This thermal backup emits CO2. Worse, when thermal stations are on standby, known in the trade as rotating reserve, they burn fuel without feeding any power to the grid and, when needed, they must be suddenly ramped up to full load capacity, thus emitting far more in the process than when running permanently at full load. Their emissions must thus be subtracted from the reductions achieved by decommissioned coal-fired capacity.

The most significant effects of adding wind and solar power to any grid are to destabilize it and greatly to increase the cost of electricity for homes and businesses everywhere. (Read more) ☼

The Actual Levelized Cost Of Energy

by Willis Eschenbach

A company named Lazard puts out an annual report on something called the “Levelized Cost Of Energy” (LCOE). Here’s the April 2023 version. The LCOE estimates the total capital, operations, and maintenance costs for new electric power plants coming into service. People use the Lazard LCOE all the time to claim that renewable electricity sources are now cheaper than fossil fuel electricity. However, the Lazard data has a problem—it doesn’t include the cost of backup and other costs for renewable energy. These costs fall into four groups: backup costs, balancing costs, grid connection costs, and grid reinforcement/extension costs.

Result: Solar and wind generation costs more the fossil fuels and nuclear. (Read more) ☼

Biofuels Are Bad for the Environment

by Linnea Lueken

A recent guest op-ed in The New York Times identifies some of the problems with biofuels that make them much less environmentally friendly than their promoters claim. The most common biofuels in the United States are ethanol and biodiesel, refined primarily from corn and soybeans, respectively.

The article, “The Climate Solution That’s Horrible for the Climate,” written by Michael Grunwald, describes many detrimental effects of using ethanol and biodiesel. Some examples include that they “accelerate food inflation and global hunger,” because the crops produced and land used to grow them them could otherwise be used to feed humans and animals. Indeed, a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimated that the impact of the Renewable Fuel Standards program, which mandates the use of increasing amounts of biofuels, was a 30 percent increase in corn prices. Corn-based ethanol in particular is a problem because it uses almost as much fossil fuel — from fertilizers made of natural gas to diesel tractors, industrial refineries and other sources — as the ethanol replaces. (Read more) ☼

The Iron Law Of Electricity Strikes Again: Vietnam Boosts Coal Burning

by Robert Bryce

The Iron Law of Electricity says that people, businesses, and countries will do whatever they have to do to get the electricity they need. And for countries all over the world, that means burning coal, lots and lots of coal. Yes, coal use in the U.S. and Europe is falling. But, as can be seen in the graphic above, coal-fired generation in Asia is soaring.

And despite massive spending on renewables, wind and solar still only supply about 10% of global electricity.

Furthermore, coal’s share of global generation hasn’t budged in nearly 40 years. Since 1985, the carbon-heavy fuel has been consistently burned to generate between 36% and 40% of the world’s electricity. Besides Vietnam, coal burning is increasing in India, China and in other countries. (Read more) ☼

This Might Be The Biden Admin’s Most Ludicrous Idea Yet

by David Blackmon

No aspect of the vaunted “energy transition” screams out the word “fantasy” quite so starkly as projections that the U.S. will have to install 47,000 miles of new high-capacity transmission lines by 2035. That’s the assessment not by renewable energy skeptics, but by the enthusiastic promoters of renewables at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). (Read more) ☼

CLIMATE ISSUES

Climate Fact-Check May 2023 Edition (link)

This summary serves as a fact check on the biggest false claims made in the media in May, 2023. ☼

33 Bullet Points Proving ‘Global Warming’ Is Caused by the Sun, Not Co2 — by Geologist, Dr Roger Higgs (link)

Surprise: Hurricane Activity Reconstructions Show Greater Storm Frequency When Globe Was Cold

by P Gosselin

Germany’s “klimanachtrichten” (climate news) here reports on surprise findings concerning hurricanes frequency. It turns out hurricanes were more frequent during the Little Ice Age, when global temperatures were a degree colder, than they are today. This finding contradicts the climate science claim that global warming cooks up more hurricanes. The data show the opposite to be true. (Read more) ☼

What The Media Won’t Tell You About Wildfires

By Roger Pielke Jr.

Wildfire, common to many healthy ecosystems, is a particularly challenging problem for society because of its impacts on property and health. It is also challenging because people like to locate themselves in fire-prone places and do things that ignite fires. We have learned through hard experience that complete suppression of wildfire is not the best policy — despite what Smokey Bear says — as it can lead to even greater and more harmful wildfire events. These dynamics together make wildfire a challenging issue for policy. This week, wildfire smoke from fires in Canada has drifted south along the eastern seaboard of the United States, affecting New York City and Washington, DC, and correspondingly capturing a lot of media attention. The event should offer a teachable moment on the complexities of climate and the challenges of adapting to a volatile world. With this post, I discuss some of the aspects of wildfires that I see as missing in the public discussion. (Read more)

See also: Wildfires And Climate Change: Narrative Ever More Detached From Actual Evidence by Francis Menton (Read more) ☼

Thinking Smartly About Climate Change

by Bjorn Lomborg

It is possible for us to have a sensible climate policy without breaking the bank and without sacrificing the amazing opportunities delivered by cheap and abundant energy. (Read more) ☼

CLIMATE SCIENCE BACKGROUND:

by Jonathan DuHamel

For more on climate science, see my Wryheat Climate articles:

The Broken Greenhouse – Why Co2 Is a Minor Player in Global Climate

A Summary of Earth’s Climate History-a Geologist’s View

Problems with wind and solar generation of electricity – a review

The High Cost of Electricity from Wind and Solar Generation

Impact of the Paris Climate Accord and why Trump was right to drop it

New study shows that carbon dioxide is responsible for only seven percent of the greenhouse effect

Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked

Why reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel will have no effect on climate ☼

CLIMATE MADNESS

The World Economic Forum & Corporations Are Coming for Your Cars

Marc Morano comments: “The Great Car Reset has arrived. Our transportation system is being intentionally collapsed; (and our freedom of movement is being stripped away) EVs to be forced upon YOU without a vote! This is the planned rationing of vehicles. An Australian bank is announcing it’s not going to give financing for loans to anyone buying a gas-powered car. The World Bank has now announced it wants to set a timetable to stop the funding for gas-powered cars. Gas station bans will create gas availability shortages. (Read more) ☼

If It’s Not Open Warfare, It’s Collusive Climate Lawfare

by Paul Driessen

The Biden Administration continues waging war on fossil fuels aided by environmentalists, politicians, and corporations chasing subsidies, competitive advantages, power, and profits.

They want to “fundamentally transform” America’s energy and economic systems, prevent “climate cataclysms”, and ensure “environmental justice” for some (by inflicting injustices on others).

Their weapons include withdrawing huge areas from economic activities; banning leasing, drilling, and pipelines; and imposing regulatory standards so costly or technologically impossible that coal-fired power plants, internal combustion vehicles, gas stoves, furnaces, and water heaters must be abandoned.

This open warfare is augmented and amplified by more clandestine “lawfare.”

Environmentalists have long employed lawsuits to impose by court decree what they cannot achieve via ballot boxes or legislation. (Read more) ☼

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” —John Adams (1770)

END

SCIENCE, CLIMATE, ENERGY AND POLITICS NEWS ROUNDUP 2023 MAY

A monthly review of climate, energy, and environmental policy issues

Articles compiled by Jonathan DuHamel

The climate crazies are still at work. They are after your gas stoves, refrigerators, AC units, automobiles and more.

In case you missed it, see these Wryheat posts:

Tucson Electric Power Should Dump Wind and Solar Generation of Electricity – Go Nuclear

Comments on Tucson’s Climate Action Plan

Problems with wind and solar generation of electricity – a review

CLIMATE SCIENCE BACKGROUND:

by Jonathan DuHamel

03-Antropogenic contribution to greenhouse effect

CLIMATE NEWS

More Carbon Dioxide Is Good, Less Is Bad

by Gregory Wrightstone, CO2 Coalition

People should be celebrating, not demonizing, modern increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). We cannot overstate the importance of the gas. Without it, life doesn’t exist.

First, a bit of history: During each of the last four glacial advances, CO2’s concentration fell below 190 parts per million (ppm), less than 50 percent of our current concentration of 420 ppm. When glaciers began receding about 14,000 years ago – a blink in geological time – CO2 levels fell to 182 ppm, a concentration thought to be the lowest in Earth’s history.

Why is this alarming? Because below 150 ppm, most terrestrial plant life dies. Without plants, there are no animals.

In other words, the Earth came within 30 ppm in CO2’s atmospheric concentration of witnessing the extinction of most land-based plants and all higher terrestrial life-forms – nearly a true climate apocalypse. Before industrialization began adding CO2 to the atmosphere, there was no telling whether the critical 150-ppm threshold wouldn’t be reached during the next glacial period.

Beneficial CO2 Increases

CO2 increased from 280 ppm in 1750 to 420 ppm today, most of it after World War II as industrial activity accelerated. The higher concentration has been beneficial because of the gas’s role as a plant food in increasing photosynthesis.

Its benefits include:

— Faster plant growth with less water and larger crop yields.

— Expansion of forests and grasslands.

— Less erosion of topsoil because of more plant growth.

— Increases in plants’ natural insect repellents.

A summary of 270 laboratory studies covering 83 food crops showed that increasing CO2 concentrations by 300 ppm boosts plant growth by an average of 46 percent. Conversely, many studies show adverse effects of low-CO2 environments.

For instance, one indicated that, compared to today, plant growth was eight percent less in the period before the Industrial Revolution, with a low concentration of 280 ppm CO2.

Therefore, attempts to reduce CO2 concentrations are bad for plants, animals and humankind.

Data reported in a recent paper by Dr. Indur Goklany, and published by the CO2 Coalition, indicates that up to 50 percent of Earth’s vegetated areas became greener between 1982-2011.

Researchers attribute 70 percent of the greening to CO2 fertilization from of fossil fuel emissions. (Another nine percent is attributed to fertilizers derived from fossil fuels.)

Dr. Goklany also reported that the beneficial fertilization effect of CO2 – along with the use of hydrocarbon-dependent machinery, pesticides and fertilizers – have saved at least 20 percent of land area from being converted to agricultural purposes – an area 25 percent larger than North America.

The amazing increase in agricultural productivity, partly the result of more CO2, has allowed the planet to feed eight billion people, compared to the fewer than 800,000 inhabitants living a short 300 years ago.

More CO2 in the air means more moisture in the soil. The major cause of water loss in plants is attributable to transpiration, in which the stomata, or pores, on the undersides of the leaves open to absorb CO2 and expel oxygen and water vapor.

With more CO2, the stomata are open for shorter periods, the leaves lose less water, and more moisture remains in the soil. The associated increase in soil moisture has been linked to global decreases in wildfires, droughts and heat waves. (Read more) ☼

Does More CO2 Warm or Cool the Planet?

by Ron Clutz

There are various answers to the title question. IPCC doctrine asserts that not only does more CO2 induce warming, it also triggers a water vapor positive feedback that triples the warming. Many other scientists, including some skeptical of any climate “emergency,” agree some CO2 warming is likely, but doubt the positive feedback, with the possibility the sign is wrong. Still others point out that increases of CO2 lag temperature increases on all time scales, from ice core data to last month’s observations. CO2 can hardly be claimed to cause warming, when CO2 changes do not precede the effect. Below is a post describing how CO2 warming is not only lacking, but more CO2 actually increases planetary cooling. The mathematical analysis reveals a fundamental error in the past and only now subjected to correction. (Read more) ☼

Solar Variability Linked To Climate Change…CO2 Not ‘The Primary Driver For Nearly All Of Earth’s History’

By Kenneth Richard

A new study exposes the uncertainty in solar activity reconstructions, but suggests solar models explain climate changes far better than atmospheric CO2 concentrations. CO2 changes lag behind temperature changes by hundreds of years in paleoclimate reconstructions, and CO2 variations “significantly depend on the surface temperature of the oceans.” If the CO2 variations are dependent upon temperature variations, the CO2 cannot be the driver of temperature variations. (Read more) ☼

The Role of Sulfur Dioxide Aerosols in Climate Change

by Buel Henry

In 2007, the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to Albert Gore and the IPCC for their work in promoting the theory that global warming was caused by greenhouse gasses, and that, based upon computer simulations, increasing amounts of these gasses in the atmosphere would cause runaway warming, with disastrous consequences for the planet.

At the time, this appeared to be a plausible explanation for the warming, since CO2 levels in the atmosphere were clearly rising. However, for the past 15 years or so, there has been a “Pause” (no statistically significant warming) in the warming trend, leaving scientists around the world scratching their heads for an explanation, since this was not predicted by any of their models.

However, it can be proven, from published data, that the observed warming was actually a “side effect” of the American Clean Air Acts (1963, 1979, 1990 ) and similar efforts abroad, and had nothing to do with greenhouse gasses..

Just as the global cooling caused by a large volcanic eruption ends after its stratospheric Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) aerosols have settled out of the atmosphere, warming will naturally occur when anthropogenic SO2 aerosols are likewise removed from the troposphere.

As the Clean Air Act efforts were implemented, warming naturally occurred, as it was expected to, but the warming was wrongly attributed to greenhouse gas emissions rather than simply to the cleaner, more transparent air (fewer dimming SO2 aerosols to weaken the sun’s rays).

(Read more) ☼ [The EPA caused global warming!]

See also: Little Ice Age Warming Recovery May be Over 2023 (link) for a detailed explanation of SO2 and its effect on climate history.☼

Ice Cores, Temperatures, And CO2

by Willis Eschenbach

I got to thinking about the ice cores. It’s pretty amazing to realize that the air trapped in the tiny bubbles in the ice is the very air that was trapped there way back when the ice formed. And that air can be hundreds of thousands of years old. Not only that, but we can analyze the trapped air to see the changes in CO2 over time. How accurate are the results? Well, different ice cores drilled and analyzed by different groups of scientists give very similar results. People keep saying that a slight global warming is an “existential crisis”. But in both of the previous interglacials, temperatures were up to 2°C warmer than today. That’s 3.6°C warmer than the “preindustrial temperature”, far above the impending terror temperature of 1.5°C warmer than preindustrial that they keep scaring us with. There were modern humans around for both of those hot spells, along with most modern life forms. It wasn’t an “existential crisis”. It wasn’t a crisis at all. It was a warm time. And humans also existed through the glacial periods. In total, humans have seen a swing of +2°C warmer than today’s temperature to -9°C cooler than modern times … a very wide swing. (Read more) ☼

Related: 1875 was coldest in 10,000 years, Warming A Good Thing

The problem is that we can all agree completely that we have had a global temperature increase in the 20th century. Yes, but an increase from what? It was probably an increase from the lowest point we’ve had for the last 10,000 years. And this means it will be very hard indeed to prove whether the increase of temperature in the 20th century was man-made or it’s a natural variation. That would be very hard because we made ourselves an extremely poor experiment when we started to observe meteorology at the coldest time in the last ten thousand years. (Read more) ☼

Thorough analysis by Clintel shows serious errors in latest IPCC report (Read more) ☼

The Real Climate Science Crisis: The Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW) Hypothesis Is Without Scientific Evidence

For a hypothesis to reach the status of being a legit theory, it requires withstanding the onslaught of observed empirical evidence. The CAGW hypothesis is no such animal. Known by its more contemporary aliases, such as ”climate crisis,” “climate emergency,” “climate collapse,” or “existential threat,” the CAGW has zero empirical evidence to support it. (Read more) ☼

New Study: 90% Of Recent Warming Is From Shortwave Cloud Forcing…Humans Contributed 0.03°C (Read more) ☼

Report: Plastic Waste Recycling Could Massively Increase CO2 Emissions (Read more) ☼

CLIMATE MADNESS

The Inhumanity of the Green Agenda

by Joel Kotkin

In recent years, the overused word ‘sustainability’ has fostered a narrative in which human needs and aspirations have taken a back seat to the green austerity of Net Zero and ‘degrowth’. The ruling classes of a fading West are determined to save the planet by immiserating their fellow citizens. Their agenda is expected to cost the world $6 trillion per year for the next 30 years. Meanwhile, they will get to harvest massive green subsidies and live like Renaissance potentates. (Read more) ☼

Joe Biden Wants Every US Military Vehicle To Be Climate Friendly

by Paul Homewood

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said she supports requiring the military to have an all-electric vehicle fleet by 2030. (Read more) ☼

War on appliances continues as Biden admin releases new rules for dishwashers

by Anders Hagstrom

The Department of Energy proposed new appliance rules that would cut water and energy use limits for Americans’ dishwashers well below current levels. The proposal would limit dishwashers to using 3.2 gallons of water per cycle, far below the current federal limit of 5 gallons. The rules would also require manufacturers to reduce their products’ energy consumption by nearly 30%. Dishwashers are not the only appliances Biden’s DOE has set its sights on, however, as the regulator is also considering crackdowns on washers, dryers and refrigerators that manufacturers say could reduce performance. (Read more) ☼

Explosion of AP climate change stories following $8 million environmental grant

by Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner

Associated Press from key climate change advocates, the news service has poured out at least 64 stories warning of environmental calamity, according to a new media study.

Media Research Center Business charted the stories and language used following the multimillion-dollar grant and found that AP also used over 500 environmental extremism buzzwords in the stories.

The media giant, which feeds news outlets worldwide, received grants totaling $8 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Quadrivium, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation in February 2022.

AP said it would hire 20 new environmental writers with the money to create a climate swat team to “enhance the global understanding of climate change and its impact across the world.”

(Read more) ☼

ENERGY NEWS

Nuclear Energy Is The Safest, Most Efficient Energy Source

by Vijay Jayraj

Nuclear energy offers humanity the safest, most efficient approach to harnessing natural resources for its use. As the densest energy source available, nuclear fuel requires the least amount of material and land for electricity production. According to the World Nuclear Association, “Uranium has the advantage of being a highly concentrated source of energy which is easily and cheaply transportable. The quantities needed are very much less than for coal or oil. One kilogram of natural uranium will yield about 20,000 times as much energy as the same amount of coal.” (Read more) ☼

Silence of the Grid Experts

by Planning Engineer (Russell Schussler)

There are many reasons why grid experts within the electric utility industry have not spoken out when unrealistic “green” goals were being developed and promoted over the last 20 years or so. A more open debate during this period might have helped provide a more realistic foundation for future development. This posting describes some reasons as to why at the corporate level electric utilities did not speak out more in defense of grid reliability. Collectively these factors tended to eliminate grid experts from playing any role in the development of policies impacting the grid.

The days of utility-based grid experts who’ve had skin in the game are over. Utility experts are charged with complying with reliability standards rather than maintaining reliability. Where utilities once had variety of tools at their disposal to better foresee and forestall reliability problems, utilities now follow compliance standards and hope for the best. (Read more) ☼

Electrified Compressors and the Great Texas Blackout (a threat to grid reliability everywhere)

by Ed Ireland

Ed Note: “Electric natural gas compressors contributed to the near collapse of the Texas power grid in 2021,” Ed Ireland argues below. “All U.S. power grids face the same risk.” His first-hand knowledge of this instance of ‘deep decarbonization’ politics gets to the why-behind-the-why of the still-debated Texas blackout, the worst electricity debacle in the history of the industry.

“The anti-fossil fuel movement started pressuring North Texas cities and towns to require electric compressors on natural gas pipelines based on arguments that the air pollution from natural gas-powered compressors was causing increased asthma and other health problems…. I said that electrifying natural gas pipeline compressors was a terrible idea that could affect the availability of natural gas when it was needed most, such as during bad weather events. Unfortunately, I lost that debate….” (Read more) ☼

Prepare for a Jolt to Your Power Bill

Joe Biden’s latest energy regulations are shaping up to be his costliest yet.

by Douglas Andrews

President Biden’s administration is poised to announce limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that could compel them to capture the pollution from their smokestacks, technology now used by fewer than 10 of the nation’s 3,400 coal and gas-fired plants.

Why, you ask, are fewer than 10 of our nation’s 3,400 fossil-fuel power plants using this technology? Answer: because it’s ungodly expensive. And guess who’ll be on the hook for that added expense? Yep, you. The regulations would increase the overall cost of electricity in the United States by at least 50 percent. (Read more) ☼

The Push for ‘Net Zero Emissions’ is Climate Hoax Fiction, Not Energy Reality (Read article) ☼

Net Zero grid batteries alone would bankrupt America (Read more) ☼

Biden’s Avalanche Of Regs Hits Consumers With Higher Costs, Worse Performance (Read more) ☼

Electric Vehicles Are Not Emissions Free

by Diana Furchtgott-Roth

Come 2032, if President Joe Biden has his way, most Americans who want new cars may have to buy electric vehicles. While the administration insists that such a mandate will reduce climate change, the fact is, when adding up the emissions required to produce and power the batteries of electric vehicles, EVs can create more carbon emissions than gas-powered cars. (Read more) ☼

Wind and Solar Facilities Produce a Lot of Hard to Manage Waste

by H. Sterling Burnett

Those who designed wind turbines and solar panels, the developers erecting them, and the federal and state governments pushing their use, largely failed to consider how to manage the large amounts of waste produced when turbines and panels fail prematurely or are decommissioned and replaced at the end of their useful lives. This already amounts to millions of pounds of waste annually. (Read more) ☼

Biden Ignores Runaway Wind-Farm Killing Of Protected Birds, Other Species

by David Wojick

That rapidly growing wind power development kills birds in ever-increasing numbers is clear. That it also kills whales and other marine mammals is becoming clear.

So the policy question is how much killing is enough before we stop killing more? This question seems not to be asked. [emphasis, links added]

The stampede to build huge amounts of wind power, on land and at sea, is potentially devastating to a great many species. (Read more) ☼

PROPERTY RIGHTS

Conservation and Landscape Health

Letter from Congressman Paul A. Gosar to Bureau of Land Management”

“I write to express my strong opposition to your recently proposed rule titled “Conservation and

Landscape Health.” I have been contacted by many constituents with grave concerns about this

proposed rule that exceeds any Congressional authority. This proposed rule would significantly

and negatively change the way the Bureau manages the 245 million acres of land it oversees, most of it in Western states.” (Read full letter) ☼

Biden-Appointed Bureau Of Land Management Zealot Targets American Ranchers

by Milt Harris

Biden’s legacy is being cemented with not just incompetence, but willful destruction. By continually appointing these radical zealots, he is destroying every level and aspect of American tradition and morality.

The left has now set their sights on a land grab in the American west, and they will use their puppet to try and use executive orders to circumvent what congress put in place decades ago. Essentially, Biden wants to change public lands from “multiple use” to a very vaguely defined “conservation” status.

Last month, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), let it be known that their intentions, without Congressional approval, is to radically change how public lands are managed. The changes will place a priority on preservation, which is vastly different from the “multiple use mandate” that was implemented by Congress for the BLM in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), of 1976. (Read more) ☼

Supreme Court Rules Against the Epa on Wotus

May 25, 2023

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over wetlands in a decision that will have a broad impact on mining. With a unanimous decision in Sackett v. EPA, the court ruled the agency does not have the power to regulate discharges into wetlands unless they are connected to navigable waters.

The ruling was a victory for the Sackett family, who wanted to build on their land near Priest Lake in Idaho. The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers determined their land was a wetland and they were told they would need a federal permit to build on their land.

The decision will more narrowly define what constitutes a wetland for the EPA’s jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (CWA), which prohibits the discharge of pollutants, including rocks and sand, into navigable waters. The EPA has maintained a broad interpretation of the CWA to include all waters of the U.S. (WOTUS).

“The Supreme Court today showed there are clear limits to the federal government’s reach when it comes to jurisdiction over water and land features,” said Rich Nolan, President and CEO of the National Mining Association. “Working together, the federal government and the states can effectively protect water resources while allowing responsible projects to move forward. The Biden administration must now recognize its own overreach in the introduction of the latest WOTUS rule, which has already been stayed in half the country, and should act immediately to rescind it.” (Source) ☼

STATE OF THE UNION

“A society that puts equality—in the sense of equality of outcome—ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.” –Milton Friedman

The Dark Side Of Biden’s ‘Climate Justice’ Agenda

by Paul Driessen

President Biden recently issued a 5,400-word executive order directing all federal agencies to emphasize “environmental justice” in every decision they make. In plain English, the order enables each agency to implement this infinitely malleable “justice” concept to justify whatever policies and regulations it is implementing in the name of abating the “climate crisis” and “fundamentally transforming” America’s energy and economic systems. It also allows agencies to ignore any “justice” issues that might interfere with their plans. The Environmental Protection Agency quickly issued a press release citing justice and “equity” rationales for eliminating coal and gas power plants, internal-combustion vehicles, and gas stoves, ovens, furnaces, and water heaters – all of which it says contribute to global warming. (Read more) ☼

The Problem With Biden Banning Cars That Don’t Run on Batteries

By Travis Fisher

President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency has announced an aggressive new auto tailpipe emissions rule that would ban most new cars and trucks that don’t run on batteries. In exchange for reductions in CO2 and other tailpipe emissions, the EPA plans to take away Americans’ freedom to choose our cars.

It also touts the benefits of supposedly lower consumer costs stemming from the regulation, which means the federal government—the same entity that saddled us with over $31 trillion in national debt—thinks it knows better than us how to be responsible with money.

The Biden administration is openly pushing that, by 2032, the share of new gasoline vehicles sold versus electric vehicles should be just one in three. This type of central planning has no place in a free country, and the federal government has no right to intervene in such an aggressive way in our transportation choices. (Read more)

See also: Electric Vehicles Are Not Emissions Free (link) and:

Stephen Moore: Who Turned the Lights Out? Joe Biden (link) and

Biden’s Expensive, Unrealistic Push for Electric Vehicles (link) ☼

EPA’s Appliance Regulations Considerably ‘Lower Performance’

by H. Sterling Burnett

It’s not just your gas stove that the Biden administration is seeking to regulate in the name of combating climate change — it’s coming for your entire home.

President Biden’s green energy goals have resulted in an array of new efficiency rules for a slew of household appliances, including microwaves and toothbrush chargers. The effort is forcing manufacturers to produce more costly products that they say reverse innovation by decades and potentially eliminate thousands of U.S. jobs. (Read more) ☼

Biden Federal Government Goes Full Suicide Bomber Against America

by Francis Menton

From his first days in office, President Biden has promised — threatened — to activate the administrative state at every level to address and solve the “climate crisis.” In the orthodoxy of the Biden/Democrat climate cult, this is to be accomplished by reducing U.S. carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Now, even if you believe that a little more CO2 in the atmosphere is some kind of a problem (it isn’t), there is nothing that the United States can do to have any meaningful impact on that situation, given that countries with populations a large multiple of ours (China, India, Africa) are building coal-fired power plants as fast as they can. Even if we closed our economy entirely and reduced ourselves to eating grass and bugs, the effect on the climate would be zilch.

Meanwhile we have waited through the first two plus years of Bidenism to find out exactly what punishments the administrative state has in mind for us for our sins of prosperity and enjoyment of life. In the last few weeks, we have learned at least part of the answer, in the form of a series of gigantic new regulatory proposals emanating from EPA and other agencies. The answer is, the federal government will become a suicide bomber seeking to blow up and destroy the American economy and the well-being of the American people.

Here are three major regulatory initiatives from the past few weeks, each one supposedly somehow addressing this “climate crisis” thing: (Read more) ☼

What do reparations repair?

By Robert Arvay

Racial reparations, in the form of taking money from one race of people and giving it to another, will repair nothing. It will do the opposite. It will create a class of ungrateful recipients and resentful donors. On the other hand, cultural reparation will be fruitful if it means such things as promoting true equality — equality of opportunity, not outcome; equality of responsibility; and equality of freedom, including the freedom of speech. (Read full post) ☼

The Green Movement Is a Jobs Killer. Are Unions Finally Figuring This Out?

by Stephen Moore

What a shock that a union that makes automobiles would have second thoughts about endorsing the reelection of a president who, just a few weeks ago, announced new regulations that are intended to end production of all gas cars within a decade. Could it be that union bosses are finally waking up to the cold reality that the greatest threat to steel workers, the United Auto Workers, miners, machinists and the Teamsters is the radical climate change agenda of the environmentalists? The green movement has taken the Democratic Party hostage – and President Joe Biden’s all-in embrace of far-left green policies is wreaking havoc on rank-and-file union jobs. (Read more) ☼

5 Areas Where Congress Could Cut Billions in Wasteful Spending (Read more) ☼

“Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” —Thomas Jefferson (1822)

For more on climate science, see my Wryheat Climate articles:

The Broken Greenhouse – Why Co2 Is a Minor Player in Global Climate

A Summary of Earth’s Climate History-a Geologist’s View

Problems with wind and solar generation of electricity – a review

The High Cost of Electricity from Wind and Solar Generation

Impact of the Paris Climate Accord and why Trump was right to drop it

New study shows that carbon dioxide is responsible for only seven percent of the greenhouse effect

Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked

Why reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel will have no effect on climate ☼

END

The Nonsense of “Net Zero”

“Net zero” is predicated on the assumption that rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels cause “dangerous” global warming. There is no physical evidence to support that assumption. In fact, rising CO2 in the atmosphere is produced, in part, by rising temperature. That is because the ocean holds about 50 times the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Cold ocean water contains CO2 more than warm water. Rising temperatures cause some of that carbon dioxide to leave the water and go into the atmosphere. In one sense, “Net zero” has cause and effect backwards.

Planet Earth is now in an interglacial period. Global temperatures are about 10°C cooler than in much of the past 600 million years during which life thrived. So global warming is not so “dangerous.”

Phanerozic temp

“Net zero” aims to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by carbon capture and storage. That is, capture CO2 emissions at the source and send it via pipeline to underground storage areas, a very expensive process.

Carbon capture plant

Electric vehicles are spawn of “net zero.” Electric vehicles have short ranges, require long refueling times, require almost twice the copper, cobalt, lithium as regular vehicles. Hence, CO2 emissions during mining and manufacturing are about twice that of vehicles run by fossil fuels.

“Net zero” also aims to reduce use of fossil fuels. Hence the rise of electricity production by wind and solar generation, both of which cannot respond to supply and demand, require fossil fuel backup, require huge expanse of land, destroy habitat, kill millions of birds and bats, and require production of millions of batteries. It is simply impossible to provide enough energy storage to make renewables reliable. (See: “A Simple Reason Why Net Zero Is Impossible” and “Net Zero grid batteries alone would bankrupt America”) A better solution would be to build many small nuclear reactors to produce electricity.

From H. Sterling Burnett:
A large-scale power grid consists of two segments: baseload power and peaking power. Baseload power is the minimum amount of energy needed for normal daily operations, which requires a fairly constant flow of power. Coal, nuclear, hydro, and to a lesser but growing extent natural gas have satisfied the country’s baseload for the past century because they operate full-time, providing a steady flow of power.

Peaking power is the additional power needed when the system is faced with unusual amounts of demand, as in July and August in Texas or Arizona, when air conditioner use soars, and in December and January in Minnesota or North Dakota, when the furnaces kick in. Natural gas has commonly served to provide peaking power because it can be cycled on and off quickly, as needed. (link)

Bottom line: “Net zero” will have no effect on climate, it will have very high costs, and it will reduce our standard of living.

For more background, see my blog posts: