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)

SCIENCE, CLIMATE, ENERGY, AND POLITICAL NEWS ROUNDUP 2024 MARCH

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

Articles compiled by Jonathan DuHamel wryheat@cox.net

COMMENTS ON THE STATE OF THE UNION

“Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.” —Alexander Hamilton (1788)

“A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.” —Alexander Hamilton (1788)

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” —Thomas Jefferson (1809)

“If the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” —Samuel Adams (1772)

“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” —Thomas Jefferson (1816)

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: American Paralysis And Decline (link) ☼

Biden Is Still Trying To Take Your Gas-Powered Car As His EV Dreams Collapse

by Kristen Walker

The EPA recently finalized its tailpipe rule, which aims for a fleetwide emissions standard target of roughly 57 miles per gallon. The proposal estimates that electric vehicles (EVs) would account for 67% of all new light-duty vehicle sales and 46% of new medium-duty vehicle sales by 2032.It is as if the Biden administration has failed to read between the lines or is completely tone-deaf. The majority of Americans are not exactly jumping on the EV bandwagon, and the last several months have been proof positive of that fact. Just look at the car industry. Ford Motor Company, one of the top auto manufacturers, lost $32,000 per EV and closed out 2023 with close to $5 billion lost in their EV division. It announced in January that it was slashing its F-150 Lightning truck production in half on account of softened EV sales. (Read more) ☼

Foundations of Science Under Attack in U.S. K-12 Education

by Ralph B. Alexander

Little known to most people is that science is under assault in the U.S. classroom. Some 49 U.S. states have adopted standards for teaching science in K-12 schools that abandon the time-honored edifice of the scientific method, which underpins all the major scientific advances of the past two millennia.

In place of the scientific method, most schoolchildren are now taught “scientific practices.” These emphasize the use of computer models and social consensus over the fundamental tenets of the scientific method, namely the gathering of empirical evidence and the use of reasoning to make sense of the evidence. (Read more) ☼

Did Biden Just Create A Constitutional Crisis?

I & I Editorial Board

The Supreme Court told President Joe Biden that he didn’t have the authority to forgive student loan debt. But he did anyway, bragging that the Court “didn’t stop me.” So why do we even have a legislative branch and a high court if the president is going to make law as if he were a king?

It’s Biden’s party, and its activist media, that has been carping for years about losing “our democracy.” Yet when a Democratic president bypasses the checks and balances that are the backbone of our republic, the three co-equal branches framework of government that is intended to guard against descending into a dictatorship, they celebrate rather than condemn. (Read more) ☼

President Biden’s Climate Agenda Is Contributing To Ballooning Deficit, CBO Reports

by Nick Pope

President Joe Biden’s massive climate agenda is contributing to the ballooning federal deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The administration’s green spending, which Vice President Kamala Harris recently estimated to cost $1 trillion, is playing a role in the growing federal deficit, according to a new CBO report that assesses the outlook for the budget and the general economic situation in the country for the next ten years. The CBO says that energy-related tax credits are actually more costly than initially understood, and that other climate regulations and actions are also contributing to the costs as well. (Read more) ☼

‘Net-Zero’ Policies, ESG Reporting Raise Farm Costs, Food Prices

by Tim Benson

So-called “net-zero” climate policies are imposing significant costs on American farmers and families, according to a new report from The Buckeye Institute.

A model developed by Buckeye for the report, Net-Zero Climate-Control Policies Will Fail the Farm, indicates that complying with net-zero emissions mandates, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting standards is likely to increase annual operating expenses for farmers by at least 34 percent. In addition, the model indicated the mandates will result in a 15 percent annual increase in grocery bills for families, as well as significant increases in individual grocery item prices, such as American cheese (79 percent), beef (70 percent), bananas (59 percent), rice (56 percent), and chicken (39 percent). (Read more) ☼

The Democrats’ Long Game for 2030 Census

by Dennis Lund, American Thinker

Much has been written analyzing the issues regarding the Biden Border Crisis. One aspect, however, that has not been adequately covered should be deeply troubling to all honest Americans: The impact of 8-10 million illegal residents on the future make-up of Congress as a result of the allotment of congressional districts. (Read more) ☼

Government-Run Education

Democratic government depends on people being at least knowledgeable enough to make basic choices about how their government operates. But is it wise to put government in charge of education? Timothy Sandefur, Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute, explains everything you need to know about government-run education in this Foundations of Freedom video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruR_PBnhFso (13 minutes) ☼

Congress Wastes Billions With Bogus Emergency Declaration

And it isn’t the first time.

by Emma Camp |

What constitutes an emergency? According to Congress’ new spending package, research equipment and facilities for the National Science Foundation is an emergency. So are the 2024 Democratic National Committee convention and the Republican National Committee convention. So is NASA space exploration.

By classifying all these line items as emergencies, Congress can get hundreds of millions of taxpayer funding for them with reduced oversight.

Congress’ latest spending package, released this week, is hardly the first time obviously nonemergency projects have been given this special funding designation. According to a January report from the Cato Institute, Congress has approved over $12 trillion in spending for emergencies over the past three decades, making up around 1 in 10 federal budget dollars spent—more than both Medicaid and veterans programs combined.

How is this possible? Much of it comes down to lax rules that let lawmakers classify regular spending projects as “emergencies.” (Read more) ☼

A $7.3 Trillion Nightmare

Joe Biden’s budget proposal is a campaign pitch that would be disastrous in practice.

by Nate Jackson

When Biden took office, the national debt was $27.7 trillion, but here we are, $34.5 trillion in debt and counting, and all President Fiscal Responsibility wants to do is tax more and spend even more than that. His budget represents an 18% increase over two years, and he’s proposing massive deficits as far as the eye can see. He wants spending to reach nearly 25% of GDP on federal outlays, which is a major increase over the 21% average of his 50 years in Washington. It’s also a lot more than tax revenue will provide — even at roughly 20% of GDP, which is far higher than the 50-year average of 17.3%. Biden wants almost $5 trillion in tax hikes, yet that won’t even begin to fund his spending plans. (Read more) ☼

Unlawful and Unconstitutional Federal Agencies (link) ☼

Many federal agencies could be deemed unconstitutional (link) Examples: The Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, and many other federal agencies. ☼

U.S. at Risk of Being ‘Largely Reliant’ on China for Syringes and Other Critical Supplies, Senators Warn

by Kristina Wong

The United States has more than doubled its reliance on imported needles and syringes from China and other countries in the last six years, putting Americans at risk, despite President Joe Biden recently touting efforts to manufacture goods in America.

According to Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), in 2018, the U.S. imported only 15 percent of the 10 million needles and syringes used every day in America. However, that percentage is now 40 percent, the senators said in a recent op-ed. Not only is that putting Americans’ lives at risk from faulty Chinese needles and syringes, but it has caused the shutdown of four out of six manufacturing sites in the U.S., the senators said. (Read more) ☼

Plastic Bag Bans Backfired in California and New Jersey, Increasing Waste (link) ☼

PROTERTY RIGHTS

Organized Theft in the Name of Government

by Tom Deweese

Most Americans today tend to think of private property simply as a home – the place where the family resides, stores their belongings, and finds shelter and safety from the elements. It’s where you live. It’s yours because you pay the mortgage and the taxes. Most people don’t give property ownership much more thought than that.

There was a time when property ownership was considered to be much more. Property, and the ability to own and control it, was life itself. The great economist John Locke, whose writings and ideas had a major influence on our nation’s founders, believed that “life and liberty are secure only so long as the right of property is secure.”

America, be aware, private property is quickly being destroyed across the nation, and note the growing lawlessness beginning to surround you. The fear of climate change has become the excuse for government to grow and dictate how every strip of land will be used.(Read more) ☼

ENERGY

“The cavemen had the same natural resources at their disposal as we have today, and the difference between their standard of living and ours is a difference between the knowledge they could bring to bear on those resources and the knowledge used today.”—Thomas Sowell

Electric Transmission Buildout Could Cost Americans Trillions of Dollars

by Bernard L. McNamee

Though windmills and solar panels get the headlines, the big energy topic in Washington is electric transmission. Whether it is Congress’s newfound interest in permitting reform, the U.S. Department of Energy’s new Grid Deployment Office, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) upcoming final rule on transmission planning and cost allocation, how to build and pay for long-range transmission to connect generators to customers is considered the final piece in the quest to meet net-zero goals. Like so many issues in Washington, the need for more transmission lines is accepted without question and the costs are not considered. But for American consumers, especially low-income and elderly, as well as small businesses and energy intense manufacturers, building new transmission lines could result in much higher monthly bills and leave them on the hook for stranded assets. According to the “Net-Zero America” analysis published by Princeton researchers, achieving net zero goals with 100% wind and solar by 2050 will require an additional $3.5 trillion in capital spending for new transmission lines. (Read more) ☼

Four Ways Net Zero Ruins Us

by Ron Clutz

This is a beginning post toward infographics exposing the damaging effects of Climate Policies upon the lives of ordinary people. And all of the pain is for naught in fighting against global warming/climate change, as shown clearly in the image above. This post presents graphics to illustrate the first of four themes:

Zero Carbon Means Killing Real Jobs with Promises of Green Jobs

Reducing Carbon Emissions Means High Cost Energy Imports and Social Degradation

100% Renewable Energy Means Sourcing Rare Metals Off-Planet

Leave it in the Ground Means Perpetual Poverty (Read more) ☼

See also: Net Zero an urgent threat to national security (link) ☼

The Political Sabotage of Nuclear Power

by Zach Weissmueller, Reason Magazine

Once upon a time, America embraced nuclear power as the future of energy. Today it accounts for a mere 18 percent of the nation’s electricity generation, while fossil fuels remain dominant at 60 percent. Why did nuclear fail to take off?

From 1967 to 1972, the nuclear sector experienced significant growth, and 48 new nuclear plants were built. But in March 1979, a meltdown at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, which resulted in no casualties and no lingering environmental damage, spooked the entire nation and empowered anti-nuclear activists.

After the incident, the momentum behind nuclear reactor construction tapered off and no new reactors were built for the next two decades. Nowadays, the landscape remains unchanged: The federal government makes permitting arduous, while many states impose severe restrictions on new plant construction and force operational ones to shut down prematurely. (Read more) ☼

More stories:

Report: Bill to End Colorado Oil, Gas Permitting Could Have $2B Impact on Tax Revenue (link) ☼

Politico: ‘Democrats pushed climate action. Then utility bills skyrocketed’ – ‘Electricity bills are biting lawmakers in coastal, Democratic-leaning districts’ (link) ☼

The myth of cheap “Renewables” (link) ☼

How International Climate Treaties Benefit China At America’s Expense (link) ☼

DOE Poised To Zap Nation’s Critical Power Transformers In Net Zero Crusade (link) ☼

CLIMATE

Climate The Movie: Watch Here (1 hour, 20 minutes) (link)

This film exposes the climate alarm as an invented scare without any basis in science. It shows that mainstream studies and official data do not support the claim that we are witnessing an increase in extreme weather events – hurricanes, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires and all the rest. It emphatically counters the claim that current temperatures and levels of atmospheric CO2 are unusually and worryingly high. On the contrary, it is very clearly the case, as can be seen in all mainstream studies, that, compared to the last half billion years of earth’s history, both current temperatures and CO2 levels are extremely and unusually low. We are currently in an ice age. It also shows that there is no evidence that changing levels of CO2 (it has changed many times) has ever ‘driven’ climate change in the past. ☼

The Greatest Scientific Fraud Of All Time — Part XXXII (Sea Level Rise Edition) (link)

by Francis Menton

The Greatest Scientific Fraud Of All Time is the fraud by which government functionaries alter data collected and previously reported in official data bases in order to support a narrative of impending catastrophic global warming. No other scientific fraud in world history comes close to this one in scope or significance. While prior frauds may have scored a crooked scientist some funding or maybe some temporary fame, this one drives trillions of dollars of worldwide government spending and seeks to transform the entire world economy. The prior 31 posts in this series are all collected for your reading enjoyment at this link. (They are in groups of six posts each, beginning with the most recent. After each six, you must go to the bottom and click the “NEXT” button to get the next six posts.) ☼

The Little Ice Age Enigma: Exploring Other Factors Beyond CO2

by Matthew Wielicki

The Earth’s climate is a coupled, nonlinear, and chaotic system, influenced by a multitude of factors beyond any single variable.

While the current rise in global temperatures is a concern, it’s crucial to understand that climate history is full of changes in surface temperature with little change in GHG concentration. For example, the Little Ice Age (LIA), a period of regional cooling between the 16th and 19th centuries, offers a valuable case study for understanding the limitations of solely attributing global temperature variations to CO2 levels. During the Little Ice Age, Earth experienced a significant cooling period although CO2 levels were relatively stable.

During the LIA there were periods of significantly diminished solar activity known as the Spörer Minimum (1460-1550) and Maunder Minimum (1645-1715). Large volcanic eruptions during the LIA injected vast amounts of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, which reflected sunlight and caused cooling. Changes in ocean currents during the LIA redistributed heat around the globe, leading to regional cooling. The Earth’s orbit around the Sun is not a perfect circle, and its tilt and orientation change over time. These variations, known as Milankovitch cycles, can influence the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface. (Read more) ☼

Climate Fact-Check February 2024 Edition

by Steve Milloy

Editor’s note: This summary serves as a fact check on the biggest false claims made in the media in February, 2024. The naturally caused El Nino that started in 2023 is still here and warming the NASA satellite data. (Read more for fact checks on the issues) ☼

Problems With Climate Change Data

by tyler Durden

Temperature records used by climate scientists and governments to build models that then forecast dangerous manmade global warming repercussions have serious problems and even corruption in the data. Problems with temperature data include a lack of geographically and historically representative data, contamination of the records by heat from urban areas, and corruption of the data introduced by a process known as “homogenization.”

The flaws are so significant that they make the temperature data—and the models based on it—essentially useless or worse, three independent scientists with the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences (CERES) explained. (Read more) ☼

Climate Change Skeptics’ Arguments Are Inconvenient Facts, Won’t Ever Be Refuted!

by P Gosselin

Huge data gaps, crude models, system complexity and endless unknowns frustrate climate scientists The science of climate change is very complex and there are many different points of view. This post summarizes some of the strongest arguments of climate skeptics. (Read more) ☼

The Conclusion Humans Drive Atmospheric CO2 Increases Is Undermined By Carbon Isotope Data

by Kenneth Richard

“From modern instrumental carbon isotopic data of the last 40 years, no signs of human (fossil fuel) CO2 emissions can be discerned.” – Koutsoyiannis, 2024

It is routinely claimed that a telltale sign human emissions (fossil fuels) have irrevocably altered the atmospheric CO2 concentration is a declining trend in carbon isotope 13 (δ13C), considered an interruption of natural carbon cycle processes. But new research examining isotopic data from four observation sites (South Pole, Mauna Loa, Barrow, La Jolla – regarded as “global” in their coverage) indicates there is no isotopic pattern consistent with a human fingerprint. (Read more) ☼

New Report: History Of ‘Extreme Weather’ Reveals Little Has Changed

by Dr. Benny Peiser

A new report published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation challenges the popular but mistaken belief that weather extremes – such as flooding, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires – are more common and more intense today because of climate change. Drawing on newspaper archives and long-term observational data, the report, written by Dr Ralph Alexander, documents multiple examples of past extremes that matched or exceeded anything experienced in the present-day world. (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

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

FEBRUARY 24:

Scope: This TWTW presents the comments SEPP made to the EPA on Scientific Integrity. It discusses a major problem in global climate models – the failure to accurately account for changes in humidity. The bias of fact-checking social networking organizations is discussed. A follow-up on the failed appeal of the Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council against the EPA for its Endangerment Finding is presented. Also discussed are some of the problems involved in changing electricity markets including those associated with increased reliance on unreliable, weather-dependent electricity generation.

MARCH 2:

SCOPE: A paper by Russian climate modelers is presented that discusses a possible technique for modeling the important El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and that emphasizes the failure of the global climate modeling enterprise to successfully model cloud formation and dissipation. A post on Climate Etc. discussed the latest IPCC hockey-stick and brings out the failure of clear standardization to assure quality control of proxy data. A post by Jim Steele addresses the failure of “ocean acidification” advocates to understand the organic processes in the formation of mollusks and corals. A German power plant engineer addresses the important distinction between grid forming electricity generating machines and grid following generating machines. The inability of the high-tech industry to succeed in transportation is discussed. Also discussed is the failure of the EPA to recognize the difference between the air used in laboratory experiments on greenhouse gases and the atmosphere and its consequences. Several papers show evidence that climate models are wrong.

MARCH 9:

Scope: This TWTW addresses the lack of mature, critical thinking shown in the UK and the EU policies on Net Zero carbon dioxide emissions which are being followed in Washington and certain states. It questions what is meant by the green slogan Beyond Carbon. Apparently, a reporter for the Washington Post has become aware that “clean tech” and “high-tech” means a high need for reliable, affordable electricity. Also discussed are a new solar facility with storage at Edwards Air Force Base and the pursuit of bats.

MARCH 16:

Scope: This TWTW addresses the following issues. The US film premier of “Climate: The Movie (the Cold Truth).” The use of a probability tree for rational decision making on policy alternatives with suggested additions of the benefits of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide. Issues arising from trying to claim Earth is exposed to a constant sun. The failure of many scientists and commentators to understand that atmospheric carbon dioxide depletion has resulted in mass extinctions. The efforts of Ted Nordhaus and Roger Pielke Jr. to demonstrate that humans are not experiencing an increase in extreme weather events and have never been safer from such events.

MARCH 23: Scope: This TWTW addresses scientific integrity and how it is lacking in a great number of government reports. Also mentioned are issues of nuclear waste storage, the need for standardization when different procedures or instruments are used, and a questioning of net zero in Canada.

CLIMATE MADNESS

Geoengineering The Sky, Part 2.0

by Lynne Balzer

The people pushing the “climate crisis” narrative are finally starting to realize that the measures undertaken to cool the Earth by reducing carbon dioxide are not working as well as they had hoped. So now they’ve decided to take more extreme measures. [some of which are very dangerous to plant life and to the ozone layer which protects us from ultraviolet radiation] (Read more) ☼

The Climate Conundrum of Project Tundra: More Emissions Than Solutions

by Jonas Bubach and Miles Pollard

A “green energy” project in rural North Dakota is yet another such initiative that misses the mark. Despite the Energy Department’s admission that the Tundra Project would emit three times more carbon dioxide than it captures, a department grant worth up to $350 million is going to this proposed carbon capture and storage endeavor. The venture is backed by two American companies, Minnkota and Kiewit, as well as Canada’s TC Energy and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. But Project Tundra, planned for North Dakota’s Oliver County, presents a climate problem of its own. The project could emit more greenhouse gases than it stores because of the energy it takes to transport the carbon dioxide. (Read more) ☼

Biden Admin Shells Out Taxpayer Dollars On Getting Americans To Eat Trash-Fed Crickets

by Robert Schmad

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) began funding research into trash-fed crickets as an alternative to conventional and “unsustainable” protein production in July 2023, a federal grant listing shows. The $130,000 grant supports research that “addresses the need for more cost-efficient production of crickets as a sustainable protein source,” according to the listing. Specifically, the grant will support research into using municipal landfill waste to feed crickets that will later be harvested for human consumption. (Read more) ☼

Climate Bureaucrats Give China a Free Pass

by Oliver McPherson-Smith

China’s annual greenhouse gas emissions have soared over the past 20 years, dwarfing those of the U.S. But according to our progressive federal bureaucrats, America’s cumulative historical emissions are the problem and Beijing now deserves a free pass. The federal government’s climate.gov site ostensibly provides “timely and authoritative scientific data and information about climate science, adaptation, and mitigation.” This mandate apparently includes trying to guilt Americans out of questioning progressive policies while the world’s second-largest economy emits greenhouse gases at an unparalleled level. (Read more) ☼

NY AG Letitia James Sues Meat Company For Selling Too Much Meat (Think Of The Emissions!) (link) ☼

Let them eat–snake?! Python farming could offer one of the most sustainable sources of meat in the world – ‘Much less carbon intensive’ (link) ☼

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

After Billions In Subsidies, Reality Is Sinking In That EVs May Be The New ‘Edsels’ (link)☼ ☼

Biden’s Electric Car Fiasco Is Already Causing An Economic ‘Bloodbath’ (link)☼

Electric cars release MORE toxic emissions than gas-powered vehicles and are worse for the environment, resurfaced study warns

by Nikki Main Science Reporter for Dailymail.com

Electric vehicles may release more pollution than gas-powered vehicles, according to a report that has recently resurfaced.

The study, which was published in 2022 but has begun circulating again after being cited in a WSJ op-ed, found that brakes and tires release 1,850 times more particulate matter compared to modern tailpipes which have filters that reduce emissions. It found that EVs are 30 percent heavier on average than gas-powered vehicles, which causes the brakes and tire treads to wear out faster than standard cars and releases tiny, often toxic particles into the atmosphere. (Read more) ☼

Child Labor in the EV Supply Chain (link)☼

END

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GEOLOGY & CLIMATE-ROCKS TELL THE STORY

by Jonathan DuHamel, 03-02-24

I am a geologist which means I have rocks in my head and some of those rocks have recorded the climate history of Earth. Here is their story.

We will start with the big picture. The graphic below shows the estimated temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide content for the past 600 million years.

Phanerozic temp

The blue line is the estimated temperature; the black line is estimated carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere.

Notice that for much of the past 600 million years, the temperature has been about 12°C warmer than it is now and life has flourished. (Note that the climate crazies claim that if the global temperature increases by 2°C above present, we will die.)

The dips in the temperature curve are ice ages. Ice ages have occurred on a cycle of about 145 million years. Ice ages consist of glacial epochs and warmer interglacial periods. We are now in an interglacial period. (In the popular vernacular, glacial epochs are often called “ice ages.”) The glacial epoch cycle happens whenever our solar system, in its travels around the center of our galaxy, goes through some spiral arms of the galaxy with very dense clusters of stars which bombard the Earth with more cosmic rays which produce more clouds and other effects in the atmosphere which limit the amount sunlight that gets to Earth’s surface. Cosmic ray flux can be deduced from the so-called cosmogenic nuclides, such as beryllium-10, carbon-14, and chlorine-36, as measured in ancient sediments, trees, shells, and in meteorites.

A general estimate of climate is given by the types of sedimentary rocks deposited, such as limestone, siltstone, shale, sandstone, and glacial deposits. Each type of rock is deposited under certain climatic conditions. Fossils within the rocks give an even better picture.

Another method of estimating temperature is by using oxygen isotopes, a method which is claimed to be able to estimate temperature within one degree. Normal oxygen is O16 with eight protons and eight neutrons. There is also “heavy” oxygen with eight neutrons. When combined with hydrogen to produce water, each molecule has a different reaction to temperature. The geologic reconstruction of temperature is based on oxygen-18 isotopes from fossils and cave stalagmites.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is also estimated by rock types and especially by fossil leaves. Leaves have pores called stomates whereby the plant takes in carbon dioxide and expels oxygen. If carbon dioxide is abundant, the leaves have fewer and/or smaller stomates than when carbon dioxide is scarcer.

Notice in the graphic above the Carboniferous Period circa 300 million years ago. This was an age when most of Earth’s coal deposits were formed. That sucked up lots of carbon dioxide. Notice that carbon dioxide started to decline about 375 million years ago but temperature decrease of the ice age started about 320 million years ago. Carbon dioxide rose again only after ice-age temperatures warmed the ocean driving some carbon dioxide in the ocean into the atmosphere.

Besides rocks, ice cores also give us some information about climate in our current ice age:

D-Our current ice age

Now let’s take a look at our current interglacial period, called the Holocene, which began about 11,000 years ago.

C-CCIP fig1

Here, too, we see a temperature fluctuation (recorded by lake-bed sediments and ice cores). The fluctuations are due mainly to several different solar cycles which when combined produce a 1,500-year cycle of warming and cooling. Notice that the magnitude of warm periods are declining with time. Does that mean we are heading for another glacial epoch?

History shows that the cool periods were often times of famine because crops would not sufficiently grow.

Another influence on climate is the relation of the Earth to the sun. Earth’s orbit around the sun is elliptical which varies in eccentricity. The tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation relative to its orbital plane also varies. These are called Milankovitch Cycles and may be caused by the varying gravitational attraction of the large planets in our solar system. These cycles cause variations in sunlight reaching polar regions.

B-Milankovitch cycle

The climate also changes with position of the continents which control ocean currents. Submarine volcanoes must be considered when evaluating the causes of climate change. Usually, these changes are regional, not global, however they may have global influences such as changing precipitation patterns as seen with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

(See: Huge Volcanic Eruption near Tonga Responsible for Most of Recent Warming

A Note on the “Greenhouse) hypothesis:

There is much hype about so-called “greenhouse” gases. The “greenhouse” hypothesis deals with heat transfer by conduction and radiation, but completely ignores heat transfer by convection (i.e. wind). As the sun warms the Earth’s surface, heat is reradiated into the atmosphere as a broad spectrum of infrared radiation some of which is captured by greenhouse gases and sent back to the surface. Greenhouse gases don’t really warm the surface, they slow the cooling. Without them, night-time temperatures would drop to freezing.

The table above shows the contribution of each “greenhouse” gas. Water vapor is the principal player. Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels comprise only 0.1% of total “greenhouse” gases; methane represents only 0.06%. Neither have any effect on global temperature.

END

SCIENCE, CLIMATE, ENERGY AND POLITICAL NEWS ROUNDUP 2024 FEBRUARY

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

Articles compiled by Jonathan DuHamel wryheat@cox.net

STATE OF THE UNION

Some principles being ignored:

“The people… are the rightful masters of both congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.” – Abraham Lincoln

“To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals.” – Mark Twain

“Without justice being freely, fully, and impartially administered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected.” —Joseph Story (1833)

“Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.” – Thomas Sowell

Biden EPA Unveils Strict Air Pollution Rule That Could Hamstring American Industry

by Nick Pope

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its update to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM2.5, imposing stringent restrictions despite warnings from industrial executives that tightened NAAQS could severely impact America’s industrial sector. The agency is reducing the annual PM2.5 standard from 12 micrograms per cubic meter to nine micrograms per cubic matter, or by about 25%. These more stringent standards could reduce U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by about $87 billion and imperil up to 311,000 jobs, according to a May 2023 study conducted by Oxford University and commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers. (Read more) ☼ Related: Biden Officials Warned EPA Its Aggressive Power Plant Scheme Had Serious Flaws, Docs Show (link) ☼

The SEC Oversteps its Powers on Climate Change

By H. Sterling Burnett

Nearly two years ago, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule that would force publicly traded companies to take climate change seriously by reporting on how climate change might materially affect their operations. The mandatory reports were to include, among other things, what actions they are taking to fight climate change, to anticipate and mitigate its potential impacts, to report on their emissions, and the emissions created throughout their supply chain, and any efforts they were taking to reduce emissions. This was a purely political action pushed by the commission’s three Democrat appointees. Facing fierce backlash from investors, the public, and Congress, the SEC has delayed, for the moment, formally imposing the rule. (Read more) ☼

Mineral Import Dependence: A Threat to US Economic and National Security

by Minerals Make Life

The United States faces deep, ongoing vulnerabilities in its mineral supply chains according to a new government report. The 2024 Mineral Commodity Summaries Report by the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) provides information on the production, consumption, import, export and price of various minerals that are essential for the U.S. economy and national security. The report also identifies the countries that are the leading sources of these minerals and the degree of import reliance that the U.S. has on them.

This year, the report shows the U.S. is reliant on imports for more than one-half of the country’s consumption of 49 minerals and 100 percent import-dependent for 15 of them. China continues to be the top supplier of the minerals that the U.S. needs, providing 24 of the 49 commodities with a greater than 50 percent import reliance. China also dominates the global production and export of minerals such as rare earth elements, graphite and lithium, which are vital for the energy, manufacturing, technology, transportation, infrastructure and defense sectors. (Read more) ☼ [Note: There have been several recent discoveries of rare earth mineral deposits in Wyoming which are being explored and may soon be under development. According to the Wall Street Journal: “The discovery of 2.34 billion metric tons of rare-earth elements near Wheatland, Wyo., signals the beginning of a new era in the competition for the raw materials that power the global economy. If wisely exploited, this find—estimated to be the richest in the world—will give the U.S. an unparalleled economic and geopolitical edge against China and Russia for the foreseeable future. The lode at Halleck Creek has the potential to make the U.S. the world’s largest processor of the minerals used to make computer chips, smartphones and aircraft engines. Production depends on government permits.] ☼

‘Traitorous’: UN Foundation Quietly Fueling Climate Policy, Funding Staff In Dem-Led States (link) ☼

‘Electrify Everything’ Slammed Again By Ninth Circuit, Reaffirms Its Natural Gas Ruling (link) ☼

CBO: Biden’s Climate Agenda Is Contributing To Ballooning Deficit (link) ☼

Experts Predict Biden’s Climate Agenda Will Send Food Prices Skyrocketing (link) ☼

America’s Open Border – Intentionality or Incompetence? (link) ☼

ENERGY

Biden’s War on Domestic Energy Intensifies

by Matt Egan & Brent Bennett

On Jan. 26, President Joe Biden took an aggressive step forward in his war on American energy by halting the permitting of new liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals. This action has massive global implications.

It also has the added benefit for the president of attacking primarily Texas and Louisiana, red states that account for the bulk of U.S. LNG exports. This decision comes on the heels of Texas taking steps to secure its border with Mexico, putting the state directly at odds with the administration—once again.

But the president’s politically motivated actions will reverberate far beyond America’s natural gas producing regions. By locking global supply and demand imbalances in place for longer, this decision will send billions of dollars to foreign producers and raise the cost of energy globally. (Read more) ☼

The Key to Energy IQ

by Ron Clutz

The history of America is, in many ways, the history of energy. The steam power that revolutionized travel and the shipping of goods. The coal that fueled the railroads and the industrial revolution. The petroleum that helped birth the age of the automobile. And now, if we only have the will, a new era of renewable energy.

Except … it’s a little more complicated than that. It’s not really a matter of will, at least not primarily. There are powerful scientific and economic constraints on where we get our power from. An energy source has to be reliable; you have to know that the lights will go on when you flip the switch. An energy source needs to be affordable–because when energy is expensive…everything else gets more expensive too. And, if you want something to be society’s dominant energy source, it needs to be scalable, able to provide enough power for a whole nation.

Those are all incredibly important considerations, which is one of the reasons it’s so weird that one of the most important concepts we have for judging them … is a thing that most people have never heard of. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the exciting world of…power density. Put simply, power density is just how much stuff it takes to get your energy; how much land or other physical resources. (Read more) ☼

Is Renewable Energy Actually Making Us Rely More on Fossil Fuels?

by Mario Loyola

Renewables such as wind and solar are intermittent and largely unpredictable energy sources, with rapid swings in output from one minute to the next. This creates major challenges for operators of the nation’s electricity grid, because supply must equal demand, and the supply “curve” in a given area never tracks the output from intermittent renewable sources. As a result, the more that intermittent solar and wind capacity is deployed to an electricity grid, the more of what’s called “dispatchable” capacity needs to be deployed to stabilize the grid to meet demand.

What this means, ironically, is that the rush to deploy solar and wind is locking us out of the one energy source that could actually achieve a zero-emissions grid, namely nuclear, and locking us into fossil fuel sources of electricity generation such as natural gas.

“Dispatchable” capacity refers to power plants that can quickly ramp up and ramp down as needed. This means simple-cycle combustion-turbine power plants such as “intermediate” and “peaker” natural gas-powered generators, and (in the developing world) power plants fired by heavy fuel oil. (Read more) ☼

Time to Retire the Term “Renewable Energy” from Serious Discussions and Policy Directive: Part II

by Planning Engineer (Russ Schussler)

“Renewables:” some resources support a healthy grid, others challenge it.

The first part of this series discussed some of the shortcomings of the renewable/nonrenewable dichotomy. Renewable generation resources are not necessarily sustainable or environmentally sound and non-renewable options can be clean and highly sustainable. For example, you will find many ardent environmentalist groups strongly opposed to “renewable” biomass generation. Similarly, more and more environmentalists are dropping their objections to “nonrenewable” nuclear power. For those who are concerned with the health of the planet as well as those who want to use the earth for human flourishing the renewable/nonrenewable dichotomy is losing relevance. Referring generally to “renewable” and “nonrenewable” resources or structuring policy to favor renewable does more harm than good as we face the complicate challenges ahead in maintain an adequate electric power supply in an environmentally responsible manner. This posting examines the impacts of various generation alternatives s on the power system and the electric grid. (Read more of this long post) ☼

Wood Pellets Aren’t CO2 Neutral, Emit More Than Coal… Double Of Natural Gas (link) ☼

When You Crunch The Numbers, Green Hydrogen Is A Non-Starter (link) ☼

CLIMATE

The following articles debunk the “climate crisis” meme and the need for “net zero” CO2 emissions.

The Sun’s Impact on Climate Change

The Sun’s heat and energy output varies over time rather than being constant or steady. Scientists have been able to reconstruct the Sun’s heat output going back hundreds of years. The data show changes in global temperatures have almost perfectly mirrored variations in the Sun’s heat output throughout the past several hundred years, including during our current period of modest warming. (Read more) ☼

Climate Fact-Check January 2024 Edition

by Steve Milloy

This summary serves as a fact check on the biggest false claims made in the media in January, 2024. Any way that you look at the “average global temperature” for January 2024, the notion of emissions-driven warming fails. Per the NASA satellite record, January’s temperature confirms what we predicted last year: i.e., a 2023 El Nino would cause a step increase in temperature as it has since the 1980s. Per the real-time surface station record maintained by Temperature-global, there still has been no global warming since the last El Nino in 2015-2016. (Read more) ☼

Real Science Guy: Climate Crisis Imaginary (link) (link to original)

For the past 35 years, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned us that emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, predominantly carbon dioxide (CO2), are causing dangerous global warming. This myth is blindly accepted — even by many of my science colleagues who know virtually nothing about climate. As a scientist, my purpose here is to help expose this fairy tale. ☼

The Secret Partnership Fueling Climate Hawk Journalism

by Caleb Howe

Wealthy liberal foundations have been seeking to have influence on media coverage of energy and environmental matters by funding workshops, courses, and seminars for journalists focused on climate change – and some of the world’s most elite universities are happy to oblige. (Read more) ☼

How Hydrothermal Vents And Other Seabed Structures Heat Our Oceans

by James Edward Kamis

Overwhelming amounts of reliable information taken from hundreds of research studies prove that emissions of super-heated fluids and gases from the estimated 10 million ocean floor geological features, including hydrothermal vents, are responsible for warming Earth’s oceans, not human activities. (Read more) ☼

New Study Finds Global Cities Have Warmed Due To Rising Solar Surface Forcing Since 1986

By Kenneth Richard on

The globe’s cities are warming primarily due to declining albedo, not CO2 radiative forcing.

According to a comprehensive new study published in Remote Sensing of Environment, CO2 fertilization has led to an enhanced greening trend in 72.6% of cities across the world since 1985, accelerating to 89.2% since 2001.

Per the authors, this greening trend is the key factor lowering the albedo reflecting incoming solar radiation in urban areas, amounting to a +2.76 W/m² increase in solar radiation reaching the surface from 1986-2020.

In contrast, the clear-sky-only trend from CO2 surface forcing only amounts to 0.2 W/m² per decade (22 ppm), or 0.02 W/m² per year, in the 21st century. (This trend only represents the forcing from CO2 in an imaginary world where no clouds exist.)

Thus, the positive radiative imbalance from the declining trend in albedo explains urban warming far better than an enhanced greenhouse effect from a clear-sky-only CO2 radiative forcing. (Read more) ☼

New Study: Climate Models Get Water Vapor Wildly Wrong – A ‘Major Gap In Our Understanding’

By Kenneth Richard

“Here, we have demonstrated a major discrepancy between observation-based and climate model-based historical trends in near-surface atmospheric water vapor in arid and semi-arid regions.” – Simpson et al., 2024

A new study published in PNAS [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences] has demonstrated, once again, that climate models fail to simulate what happens in the real world with regard to fundamental climate change variables like water vapor. This is a devastating finding, as water vapor is the most significant greenhouse gas due to its alleged “feedback” capacity, accelerating warming well beyond what CO2 is said to be capable of alone. (Read more) ☼

A Climate Science Team Report on the Scientific Validity of EPA’S 2009 GHG Endangerment Finding

by ICECAP Climate Science Team

On December 11, 2023, the Supreme Court refused to examine the numerous science-based arguments contained in a Petition for Reconsideration of EPA’s 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding. This court ignored the eight quite specific, but easy to understand scientific arguments contained in the Petition and simply denied the Petition claiming the petitioners did not have Standing – a well-known tactic to avoid decisions in a highly politically-charged situation.

Unfortunately, this Supreme Court decision denied scrutiny to the one regulation in the U.S. that is not only the single most economically significant, but also the single most scientifically flawed, of all of the regulations on the Federal books. The ramifications of this Supreme Court Denial will be enormous if an EPA GHG Endangerment Finding Reconsideration is not initiated very quickly. This fact should have been clear to the Court by the arguments quoted verbatim below:

“In short, based on the sum total of the eight validated arguments, contained in the Petition, the currently contemplated Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) estimates are not only worthless; they are extremely dangerous to put forward to current U.S. energy, economic and national security-related policymakers as credible input to their analyses. (Read more) ☼

New study finds that CO2 is increasing the rate by which the globe is greening, even under drought (link) ☼

CLIMATE MADNESS

An Explanation of Elites’ Plan To Use CO2 Restrictions Against Humanity

From C3Headlines

This video explains how the world’s technocrats, billionaires and giants corporations will employ natural asset companies, carbon credits, carbon taxes, carbon restrictions, and central bank digital currencies (CBDC) to facilitate global control over all nations and their citizens. The rabid fear-mongering of climate change doomsday propaganda is the ruling class elites’ justification for their plan is to severely reduce individual freedoms and liberties.(Watch video, 5 minutes) ☼

No, CNN and Other Media Outlets, Climate Change Is Not Causing the Ocean Circulation to Collapse

by Anthony Watts

A recent CNN headline, “Critical Atlantic Ocean current system is showing early signs of collapse, prompting warning from scientists“ misleads its readers into believing that a collapse of a critical Atlantic Ocean current is pending. This is false.

This episode is yet another “tipping point” scare for the ocean currents, and one that has been debunked multiple times at Climate Realism.

Despite the title, rather than being “physics-based” the research published is actually “climate model-based,” describing an outcome projected by a single climate model’s calculation for the distant future for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC). The AMOC is also part of the well-known “Gulf Stream” current.

However, behind the scary headlines pushed by the mainstream media is this one immutable fact buried in the study: the supposed AMOC tipping point will not occur until 1758 years from now, in the year 3782 AD. (Read more) ☼ [The Atlantic Current that brings warm water to Northern Europe from the Gulf of Mexico is a consequence of the Earth’s rotation and the distribution of the continents and it’s not going to change as long as the Earth keeps turning.]☼

Yes, Popular Mechanics, Scientists ‘Have Miscalculated Our Global Warming Timeline’

by Anthony Watts

An article published in Popular Mechanics magazine titled, “Oops, Scientists May Have Miscalculated Our Global Warming Timeline” with the subtitle “Clues have emerged that reveal a much hotter history than we thought” makes a refreshing admission that confirms what Climate Realism has pointed out since its inception – Earth has already surpassed the arbitrary 1.5°C limit imposed at the 2015 Paris Climate Accords. It is important to note that the 1.5°C threshold is an arbitrary number, not one established or defined by science. The European temperature data show temperatures began rising about the year 1820. Note that this was 130 years before the large modern rise in carbon dioxide emissions began, that are claimed to to be driving dangerous warming. (Read more) ☼

CNN: ‘It’s time to limit how often we can travel abroad – ‘Carbon Passports’ may be the answer’ – ‘Drastic changes to our travel habits are inevitable’ – Suggests restrictions will be ‘forced’ upon public (link) ☼

Now they are coming for your — HAIR?! Wash Post touts ‘recycling human hair…into clothes’ as a ‘climate solution’ – ‘Weaving with human hair…keeps hair out of landfills & incinerators, where it would release greenhouse gases’ (link) ☼

Report: Democrats Are Giving Away $1 Trillion In Taxpayer Funds For ‘Green’ Subsidies – Due to ‘Green pork provisions included in Inflation (Reduction) Act’ (link) ☼

Wind and Solar Slaughtering India’s Iconic Bird (link) ☼

Scientists Look to Fight Climate Change by Dumping 6,000 Gallons of Chemicals into Ocean Near Martha’s Vineyard (link) ☼

EVS

Ford Lost $4.7B On EVs Last Year, Or About $65K For Every EV Sold (link) ☼

Why China Wants You to Drive an EV (link) ☼

CLIMATE SCIENCE BACKGROUND:

by Jonathan DuHamel

Geologic evidence shows that Earth’s climate has been in a constant state of flux for more than 4 billion years. Nothing we do can stop that. Much of current climate and energy policy is based upon the erroneous assumption that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, which make up just 0.1% of total greenhouse gases, are responsible for “dangerous” global warming/climate change. There is no physical evidence to support that assumption. Man-made carbon dioxide emissions have no significant effect on global temperature/climate. In fact, when there is an apparent correlation between temperature and carbon dioxide, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been shown to follow, not lead, changes in Earth’s temperature. All efforts to reduce emissions are futile with regard to climate change, but such efforts will impose massive economic harm to Western Nations. The “climate crisis” is a scam. U.N officials have admitted that their climate policy is about money and power and destroying capitalism, not about climate. By the way, like all planetary bodies, the earth loses heat through infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases interfere with (block) some of this heat loss. Greenhouse gases don’t warm the Earth, they slow the cooling. If there were no greenhouse gases, the night side of the planet would freeze every night.

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 ☼

THE SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PROJECT REPORTS

JANUARY 27:

Scope: Topics to be discussed include Roy Spencer’s new paper on the failure of global climate models to accurately describe current temperatures. Howard Hayden suggests a major problem with the IPCC may stem from its (or the UNFCCC’s) definitions for climate change. Interviews with David Legates and Willie Soon are presented. Major economic problems stemming from expensive, unreliable electricity in Germany and the UK are briefly discussed. A reversal in US energy exports is presented.

FEBRUARY 3:

Scope: Daniel Nebert’s essay that the climate crisis is a fairy tale is presented [well worth a read]. The video series Juice is discussed. Gwythian Prins presents the failure of policies of replacing affordable, reliable electricity from coal, oil, gas, and nuclear with wind and solar from a philosophical standpoint. The misleading use of graphs is brought up. And the growing failure of electrical vehicles is presented.

FEBRUARY 10:

Scope: Using graphs, Roy Spencer demonstrates that his graphic techniques of presenting datasets reveal differences in data rather than hiding them. In another post, Spencer explores why different time periods fit different models better than other time periods. As discussed in two reports, the high cost of wind and solar power has become evident in Europe.

Hide or Reveal? Richard Feynman set a high goal for scientific research when he wrote: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.” Many of those who are motivated by a passionate interest in a topic easily fool themselves by ignoring data that questions their desired result or adjusting the data to give their views the most favorable impact. The graphs presented by Al Gore in the movie “The inconvenient truth” are an example. He shows graphs indicating that temperatures and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations move together based on Antarctic ice cores. He claims this “proves” that changes in carbon dioxide concentrations cause temperature changes.

Actually, it does not. The graphs just show that there may be a correlation. Certainly, based on experiments, carbon dioxide is absorbed more readily in cold water than warm water, and as water warms CO2 is released. This can be seen in ocean upwelling, which are rich primary producers of aquatic sea life. They bring to the surface cold water that is rich in carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorus promoting phytoplankton which begins the energy base for a complex food chain including providing food for fish, marine mammals, seabirds, and other creatures.

Numerous studies have pointed out that Mr. Gore had the timelines wrong to claim causation. In general, temperature changes occurred before CO2 changes, by an average of about 800 years. (continue reading about the many problems with “net zero” by clicking on the date above.)

FEBRUARY 17:

“There is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science [pseudoscience]…It’s a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty — a kind of leaning over backwards.”– Richard Feynman

Scope: This TWTW focuses on the above quote from Richard Feynman to distinguish between cargo cult [pseudoscience, not realistic to nature] and the integrity and utter honesty needed for realistic physical science. Howard Hayden discusses the failure of the IPCC to check its findings against the Stefan-Boltzmann law. A group of scientists, largely from China, present evidence that, in part, the warming for the past thirty-five years may have come from a changing of Earth’s albedo. Ole Humlum presents the state of the climate until January 2024. The CO2 Coalition presents a climate report for Wyoming, emphasizing the benefits of increasing CO2. And Stephen McIntyre presents some glaring deficiencies in the IPCC process leading to its Assessment Reports.

Tide gauges along coasts indicate a typical global sea level increase of about 1-2 mm/yr. Coastal sea level change rate last 100 year has essentially been stable, but with periodic variations. If change rate remains stable, global sea level at coasts will typically increase 8-16 cm by year 2100, although many locations in regions affected by glaciation 20,000 years ago will experience a relative sea level drop.

Sources and sinks for CO2 are many. However, changes in atmospheric CO2 follow changes in global air temperature, and changes in global air temperature follow changes in ocean surface temperature.

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 DECEMBER

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

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

Newt Gingrich (not an attendee) opined: “Think about the irony. You go to the Middle East, the center of producing oil and gas, in order to have a conference about why you shouldn’t produce oil and gas.” Conference President, UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says there is no science behind the phase-out of coal, oil and gas, and such a phase-out would take world ‘back into caves’. The media claimed that there were about 100,000 attendees, most arriving by private, carbon-dioxide spewing jet planes. The media also notes that the attendees feasted on prime-rib steaks while saying we ordinary folks should stop eating meat.

Bottom line: The conference ended with a “suggestion” that the western world “transition away” from fossil fuel use. Read more in the “Climate Madness” section below.

CLIMATE NEWS

Climate Advocacy: Incompetence Or Intentional Fraud?

By Francis Menton

It’s the question that must always be front and center in your mind when you read anything generated by advocates of energy transition as a supposed solution to “climate change”: Is this just rank incompetence, or is it intentional fraud? (The third possibility — reasonable, good faith advocacy — can generally be ruled out in the first few nanoseconds.). As between the options that the advocate is completely incompetent or an intentional fraudster, I suppose it would be better to be merely incompetent. However, often the misdirection is so blatant that it borders on impossible to believe that the author could be so stupid as to actually believe what he or she is saying. So let’s apply this inquiry to a piece that has come to my attention in the past few days. (Read more) Menton concludes, for the example described, that it is fraud. ☼

From Now To 2100 Emission Reduction Policy Costs Greatly Exceed Any Net Benefit From Averted Warming (link) ☼

The Absurdity Of Global Mean Temperature And Mean Sea Level Metrics

by Dr. Matthew Wielicki

Global mean temperature (GMT) and mean sea level (MSL) are frequently used as key indicators of climate change. However, a critical examination reveals that these metrics, while convenient for broad discussions, may lack scientific significance due to the immense variability and complexity of the Earth’s climate and geophysical systems. (Read more for details) ☼

Climate Fact-Check November 2023 Edition (link) The cooling trend since January 2015 continues. ☼

‘Catastrophic Climate Tipping Points’ Paper Is ‘Political Advocacy’ Dressed Up As Science

by Anthony Watts

This week a number of mainstream and online media outlets have run alarming headlines warning of imminent “catastrophic climate tipping points,” citing a recently published paper that warns of the immediate danger of passing the 1.5°C mark of planetary warming.

The claim is false. Not only does objective data show that this mark has already been passed with no effects whatsoever, but the claimed dangers are based on climate model projections, not actual cause-and-effect connections demonstrated by data. (Read more) ☼

Debunking The Utterly Unscientific 1.5°C Climate Cliff

by Linnea Lueken

Reason magazine recently posted an article on its website titled “There Is No 1.5°C Climate Cliff,” arguing that the 1.5°C threshold touted by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, world governments, and activists, is not based on any scientific investigation, but is rather arbitrary. This is true. There is no evidence that irreversible tipping points exist at all.[Lueken goes on to cite many other studies which show the 1.5°C threshold is fake.] (Read more) ☼

U.S. Climate ‘Existential Threat’ Still AWOL

from C3Headlines

NOAA’s gold-standard USCRN climate monitoring system has been updated with latest data through November 2023, and there is a surprise in the context of the “hottest” year narrative being pushed by legacy media. …monthly maximum temperatures reveals that the U.S. lower 48 states have been on a very slight cooling trend since September 2014. That’s a total of 3,348 days (9 years and 2 months) of non-warming, even with the past several months of warmer temperatures and despite the large U.S. CO2 emissions.

As a result, 2023 max temperatures pale in comparison to those experienced in 2015 and 2016. Even the 1930s had higher maximum temperatures.

In addition, and literally, CO2 levels have had zero impact (R2 = 0.0001) on maximum temperatures over the last 9+ years.

Over the last 25 years, the maximum temperature warming trend has been rather mild, at a per-year rate of +0.0007°C. If that long-term maximum temperature rate continues, the U.S. will have warmed by an unnoticeable +0.2°C by 2050. (Read more and see chartt) ☼

Bjorn Lomborg: Climate Change, Poverty, and How Governments WASTE Your Money

(link to 46 minute video) ☼

Scientific Empirical Evidence Under Attack: The Uniparty Embraces Falsehoods

from C3Headlines

It is simply no longer debatable that most Democrat politicians, and quite a few Republicans, have chosen to turn their backs on scientific factual evidence, and instead, they now embrace falsehoods that support a wide variety of Uniparty establishment political narratives and desires.

Many such falsehoods are solely in the realm of politics, such as the past laughable beliefs that Trump is a Russian agent or that the Jan. 6 protest-riot on Capitol Hill was an “armed insurrection,” both of which have been thoroughly debunked.

Those types of political untruths and smears can do much damage, but even potentially more damaging over the long run are science falsehoods that are spread, which completely undermine the bedrock foundation of science—empirical evidence. The end result is the permanent ‘Idiocracy’ governance.

This loss of faith in bedrock facts not only terminally harms the scientific method, but it also makes a hash of policymaking necessary to establish a sound foundation of solutions for any given societal issue.

For example, the irresponsible narrative that climate change is an ‘existential threat’ to humanity is not based on any known empirical scientific evidence. Even the UN’s own head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who is in the best position to know, states that the hyped existential threat is not credible.

There are no actual facts that support the insidious propaganda of climate doomism. (Read more) ☼

CLIMATE SCIENCE BACKGROUND:

by Jonathan DuHamel

Geologic evidence shows that Earth’s climate has been in a constant state of flux for more than 4 billion years. Nothing we do can stop that. Much of current climate and energy policy is based upon the erroneous assumption that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, which make up just 0.1% of total greenhouse gases, are responsible for “dangerous” global warming/climate change. There is no physical evidence to support that assumption. Man-made carbon dioxide emissions have no significant effect on global temperature/climate. In fact, when there is an apparent correlation between temperature and carbon dioxide, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been shown to follow, not lead, changes in Earth’s temperature. All efforts to reduce emissions are futile with regard to climate change, but such efforts will impose massive economic harm to Western Nations. The “climate crisis” is a scam. U.N officials have admitted that their climate policy is about money and power and destroying capitalism, not about climate. By the way, like all planetary bodies, the earth loses heat through infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases interfere with (block) some of this heat loss. Greenhouse gases don’t warm the Earth, they slow the cooling. If there were no greenhouse gases, the night side of the planet would freeze every night.

“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.

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

Why The COP28 Charade Was A ‘Spectacular Failure’

by Robert Lyman

COP28 was a spectacular failure, as measured against the goals that the UN had set for it from the beginning. It did not achieve a single one of the objectives that climate activists sought.

Even more importantly, despite the voluntary commitments that various governments made during the conference (mostly aimed at domestic audiences), it is virtually certain to have little or no effect on the global trends in GHG emissions or the climate. (Read more) ☼

Time To Defund The United Nations’ Climate Cops

by Paul Driessen

This year’s U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP28, just sputtered to a predictable close. In many ways, it was much like previous gatherings. The original goal was to determine what effects human activities, especially fossil-fuel use, might have on Earth’s climate. But that quickly mutated into an inquisition grounded in the absurd notion that those activities were the only factor in climate change. It then mutated even more grotesquely into demands that humanity quickly eliminate all fossil fuels — 80% of the world’s energy — despite the many negative consequences. COP28 was supposed to formalize solid commitments by all countries to eliminate fossil-fuel use by 2050 and by wealthy nations to commit to trillions of dollars in climate “reparation” and “adaptation” payments to poor countries allegedly victimized by rich countries’ use of fossil fuels. Fortunately, COP28 turned out to be unlike previous conferences. (Read more) ☼

Greens erupt as fossil fuel ‘phaseout’ is dropped from proposed climate deal (link)

The COP28 summit, as outlined in Politico’s report, emerges not as a forum of rational discourse and pragmatic solutions but as a theater of the absurd. The retreat from a fossil fuel phaseout to a vague suggestion of ‘reducing’ them is not just a policy failure; it is a testament to the unrealistic and often theatrical nature of the climate debate. It lays bare the chasm between the lofty ideals of environmental activism and the pragmatic realities of global energy needs. One can’t help but appreciate the humor in watching these climate crusaders grapple with the inconvenient truth that their lofty alarmist aspirations often crumble under the weight of practicality. Welcome to the real world, where good intentions meet the hard road of reality. (link)

COP28 Climate Summit Wraps With No Agreement To End Fossil Fuels (link)

Time for a climate exit

by Viv Forbes

The sinister hidden agenda of COP28 in Dubai is about rationing and depopulation — they want to ration energy, reduce meat production, and eliminate wasteful driving and “useless eaters.” They want us locked into 15-minute cities with our movements tracked and restricted to walking, bicycles, and small communal electric cars. They plan to abolish the freedom of cash so they can track our consumption. They want to see us restricted to green smoothies, oat-milk coffee, minced crickets, and fake meat burgers while they jet off to a new well fed tourist destination every year. (link)

UN Climate Summit Includes Session On ‘Responsible Yachting’ (link)

At COP28, The Climate Cops Are Coming For Your Burger (link)

The COP 28 threat to global food production

by Bonner Cohen, Ph. D

Aside from the usual commitments to reduce emissions (which continue to rise globally) and redistribute income (primarily from middle-to-lower earners to corrupt governments and well-heeled members of the climate cartel), attendees at UN COP28 in Dubai took a break from grazing at the many sumptuous receptions to call for farmers the world over to change their ways and practice “climate-friendly” agriculture.

Cattle, sheep, and other farm animals now stand accused of endangering the planet by producing methane. Methane is routinely cited as a “potent” greenhouse gas that must be ruthlessly suppressed. Humans are being told, in no uncertain terms, that they must reduce, and eventually eliminate, their consumption of meat. Substitutes include lab meat and, everyone’s favorite, insects. (Read more) ☼

How Far Will The Climate Cult Go?

I & I Editorial Board

The answer to the question in our headline is: All the way to full tyranny. Don’t think so? Take a look at where the warming alarmists have already gone.

Carbon passports are catching among the climate clergy. “Personal carbon allowances could help curb carbon emissions and lower travel’s overall footprint. These allowances will manifest as passports that force people to ration their carbon in line with the global carbon budget,” says a report from a ??small group adventure travel company. “By 2040, we can expect to see limitations imposed on the amount of travel that is permitted each year.” CNN reports that “several laws and restrictions have been put in place over the past year that suggest our travel habits may already be on the verge of change.”

In Great Britain, “property owners who fail to comply with new energy rules could face jail time as the government pushes ahead with net zero measures,” according to media reports.

Ann Carlson, the White House’s acting National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator, “has long stressed the need to force Americans to live climate-friendly lives,” according to the Washington Free Beacon. While an academic at UCLA, she insisted the federal government is duty-bound to “induce behavioral change” by enacting policies that “make the bad behavior more expensive.” She has also said we “could benefit from a simpler life” but doesn’t believe “most people will engage in dramatic behavioral change” unless they are “forced” to.

Meat will be off the menu if the climatistas get their way.

United Nations researchers recently told the Guardian “that scientists should be given the right to make policy prescriptions and, potentially, to oversee their implementation by the 195 states signed up to the U.N. framework convention on climate change.” Journalist Alex Newman – correctly – says doing so “would undermine self-governance while ushering in an ‘insane’ totalitarian technocratic form of government.”

“How we live, heat, get around, travel and what we eat could soon no longer be an individual decision, but increasingly be dictated by the state,” says Kristina Schröder, who served under German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany’s Federal Family Minister from 2009 to 2013 regards the pandemic restrictions as “a blueprint for the climate movement on how to enforce fundamental restrictions on basic rights” and is “convinced that large sections of the climate protection movement are also fighting our way of living and our economy at least as much as they are fighting climate change.”

She is also persuaded that “if a technical solution were to be found tomorrow that would allow us to render CO2 harmless overall, large sections of the radical climate protection movement would not be relieved, but disappointed.”

She’s absolutely right. The damnable scheme to save the planet from human greenhouse gas emissions is, to borrow from H.L. Mencken, the “false-face for the urge to rule it.” (link) ☼

EDITORIALS:

Five Reasons Why Climate Skepticism And Dissent Are Important (link)

Debunking Gavin Newsom’s Top Ten Myths About Climate And Energy (link)

Delusions about the sun, from the global warming fanatics (link)

CNN: ‘It’s time to limit how often we can travel abroad – ‘Carbon Passports’ may be the answer’ – ‘Drastic changes to our travel habits are inevitable’ – Suggests restrictions will be ‘forced’ upon public (link)

Study Says Human Breathing Is Worsening Global Warming (link) ☼

ENERGY ISSUES

Arizona Corporation Commission Should Reject Utility-Proposed ESG Net Zero Resource Plans

Arizonans have faced repeated attempts over the last six years by various interest groups to impose costly Green New Deal energy mandates on utility ratepayers. In 2018, liberal billionaire Tom Steyer bankrolled a statewide ballot measure to require utilities to obtain 50% of their energy from renewable sources by 2030. Voters realized the danger of this California-style energy plan and rejected it by a 2 to 1 margin.

Immediately after the Steyer initiative failed at the ballot, the Arizona Corporation Commission began considering their own green energy mandate to completely ban fossil fuel generation in Arizona by 2050. The Commission’s plan was even more radical than the energy initiative, and this time the mandate was being pushed by our regulated utilities, not far left radicals. This caught most observers by surprise—the utilities were among the opponents of the Steyer initiative, and now they were cheerleading energy mandates.

Why the change of heart by our monopoly utility providers? The reason is simple—they knew that if the Commission adopted official policy requiring Green New Deal mandates, they would be guaranteed full cost recovery from their captive ratepayers. (Read more)☼

Biden’s Dam Removal Plan and Its Impact on Electrical Supply

In a recent development, the Biden administration, in concert with environmental groups and Native American tribes, has set in motion a plan that could lead to the removal of four hydroelectric dams in Washington state. This decision, ostensibly made to protect salmon populations, raises significant concerns about the stability and reliability of the western power grid, particularly in terms of grid inertia and energy supply. A grid with reduced inertia is more susceptible to fluctuations in power frequency, which can lead to blackouts and other reliability issues.

Apart from the electrical implications, there’s also the agricultural angle. The dams facilitate the transportation of about 60% of Washington’s annual wheat exports via barges. Removing them could disrupt this supply chain, impacting both local and national agricultural markets. (Read more) ☼

America pursues intermittent renewables as worldwide nuclear expansion underway

American political leaders such as President Joe Biden and California Governor Gavin Newsom continue “to dream the impossible dream” that intermittent electricity from wind and solar can run the world while countries such as Sweden, China, India, and Russia are changing from occasional electricity by renewables to electricity from nuclear that is continuous, uninterruptible, and fossil-free.

With regards to reliable electricity, Sweden has said their electricity policy goal is “changed from 100% renewable to 100% fossil-free”. The Swedish government unveiled a roadmap that envisages the construction of new nuclear-generating capacity equivalent to at least two large-scale reactors by 2035. Sweden plans ‘massive’ expansion of new nuclear generated electricity by 2045.

The Swedish agreement also said necessary regulations should be developed to create the conditions for the construction and operation of small modular reactors (SMRs) to service smaller communities. In addition, the permitting process for nuclear power plants must be shortened.

Elsewhere, about 60 nuclear power reactors are currently being constructed in 15 countries, notably China, India, and Russia. Together, China and Russia account for 70 percent of new nuclear plants.

America continues its pursuit of reducing crude oil usage in favor of wind and solar-generated electricity. In addition, the “American renewables dream“ would mean sacrificing an estimated 6,000 useful products that rely on by-products manufactured from crude oil – products that range from asphalt for highways to fertilizers, cosmetics, synthetic rubber, medicines and medical devices, cleaning products, plastics, so many more. (Read more) ☼

Days After COP28, IEA Delivers More ‘Coal’-Hard Reality

by Robert Bryce

Like The Dude in The Big Lebowski, coal abides.

Last Friday, two days after the COP28 meeting in Dubai ended, the International Energy Agency reported that global coal demand will set another new record this year. The IEA said that the use of this carbon-heavy fuel in Western countries is falling, but demand in emerging and developing economies “remains very strong, increasing by 8% in India and by 5% in China in 2023 due to rising demand for electricity and weak hydropower output.” (Read more) ☼

Turning Food into Jet Fuel

The folly of using corn ethanol for jet fuel. See the numbers. (Read more) ☼

INTERESTING ARTICLES:

Two New Studies Show How ‘Net Zero’ Fails The Cost-Benefit Test Miserably (link)

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) inventory only has a 20-day supply for country (link)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Biden’s EV Boondoggle Enriches Himself (link)

Car Dealers Want Biden To ‘Tap The Brakes’ As EVs Sit Unsold (link)

Consumer Reports finds that EVs have significantly more problems than ICE counterparts (link)

Congress Spent Billions On An EV Charging Network. Not A Single One’s Been Built (link)

Researchers reveal EV industry can still be linked to child labor-fueled mines (link)

True cost of charging an EV is equivalent to paying $17.33 a gallon of gas, per new report (link)☼

ENVIRONMENT

Green Groups Are No Longer Promoting a Cleaner Environment (link)

The Endangered Species Act at 50 (link) A Record of Falsified Recoveries Underscores a Lack of Scientific Integrity in the Federal Program (116 pages).

Ranch and Researchers in Montana Launch a Pilot Virtual Fence Project

By Derek Draplin

The McFarland White Ranch and the Property and Environment Research Center, a market-based think tank, have launched the project that will remove 16 miles of internal barbed wire fencing to allow for better migration of the area’s wildlife like elk, deer and pronghorn. Instead of fencing, the ranch’s cattle will be equipped with GPS collars that use sound and “light shock” to keep the livestock within their boundary. The ranch’s 2,000 cattle will be tracked by six solar-powered signal towers. (Read more) ☼

STATE OF THE UNION

“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

Commentary: Biden’s Restrictions on Critical Minerals Harm America

by Miles Pollard and Austin Gae

It’s no secret that China subsidizes its own companies to dominate the global markets in rare earth minerals.

This dominance is both an economic and national security issue for America and her allies because so-called critical minerals are crucial not only for producing electronics and renewable energy technologies but also for the defense industry.

Yet, as the world becomes increasingly dependent on these minerals, the Biden administration panders to those who oppose mining rather than use America’s domestic resources in this new Cold War.

For starters, China has a virtual monopoly on rare earth elements because it controls 38% of the global rare earth reserves, 60% of rare earth mining, 85% of rare earth processing, and 90% of the manufacturing of rare earth permanent magnets. These high-powered rare earth magnets, often neodymium-iron-boron magnets, are used in 76% of offshore wind turbines and 32% of land-based ones. (Read more) ☼

‘Hidden Tax’: Biden Clocks In Biggest Regulatory Burden In Recent Memory, Report Says

by Will Kessler

The Biden administration has outpaced other recent presidents in issuing significant regulations that place a financial burden on taxpayers, according to a report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Under President Joe Biden, the federal government completed 89 economically significant rules in 2022, defined as those with at least a $100 million economic impact, which is higher than any point in the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations when deregulation is accounted for, according to CEI’s “Ten Thousand Commandments Report.” Regulations as a whole resulted in $1.939 trillion in added costs for the average American in 2022, exceeding every form of tax except income tax, which it rivals at $2.263 trillion. (Read more) ☼

Save The Salmon, Kill The Humans?

I & I Editorial Board

A leaked Biden administration document is “a strong sign” that the U.S. will consider breaching four Snake River dams to promote salmon populations on the river. Normally, we wouldn’t care, but the push to tear down these (and other) dams exposes the rank hypocrisy of the “climate change” zealots.

Those four dams are hydroelectric stations. In other words, they are sources of clean, carbon-free energy. According to the non-profit NW Energy Coalition, they produce about 1,000 megawatts of power throughout the year, but that can climb to 2,200 MW during peak energy demand.

So, where’s that energy to replace that loss supposed to come from? Coal plants? (Read more) ☼

The pronoun police have arrived and are coming for you next

byRoger Severino

If your boss required you to publicly announce that 2 + 2 = 5 and act like you sincerely believed it, would you comply or be fired? Unfortunately, tens of thousands federal employees are being put to a similar test by the Biden administration. But instead of being required to deny basic math, they are being forced to deny basic biology under radical “gender identity” policies. (Read more) ☼

Chinese-Tied Nonprofit Sent Millions To Fund US-Based Eco Groups’ Climate Schemes

by Thomas Catenacci and Joe Schoffstall

A climate-focused nonprofit with significant operations in Beijing has wired millions of dollars to fund climate initiatives and environmental groups in the U.S., according to tax filings first obtained by Fox News Digital.

While the Energy Foundation’s financial filings indicate that the group is technically headquartered in San Francisco, a Fox News Digital review determined that the majority of its operations are conducted in China with a staff that boasts extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). (Read more) ☼

Biden Forcing All Govt Employees To Use EVs, Rail, Public Transit

by Eric Katz

Federal employees should also consider bike sharing or not traveling at all under new guidance.

Federal employees must proactively take steps to make their work travel more sustainable under new guidance from the Biden administration, which the White House said would save taxpayer money and help take on the climate change crisis. (Read more) ☼

Rand Paul’s ‘Festivus Report’ exposes $900B in government squander (link)

How Joe Biden Is Diverting Money From Medicare ‘Savings’ To Subsidize Evs (link)

Dems Want To Replicate California’s Disastrous Policies Across America (link)

Shortlist For EPA’s ‘Green’ Fund Grants Features Groups Connected to the Biden Administration and Democrats (link)

Biden WH Pledges Millions To UN ‘Climate Reparations’ Slush Fund; China Exempt (link)

Trump’s One Simple Campaign Message for Reelection (link)

Biden WH Is Giving California Billions In Taxpayer Funds For Its ‘Train To Nowhere’ (link)

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government—lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” —Patrick Henry

“The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.” —James Madison (1788)

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” – Bertrand Russell

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so” – Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain

“Where there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.” —Benjamin Rush (1788)

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.

“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) ☼

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 OCTOBER

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

Climate policies are more dangerous than climate change.

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