Panicking over climate change has a cost, too

False Alarm: How Climate Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet” is the new book by the Danish political scientist and author, Bjørn Lomborg.

In it, Lomborg hones in on the subject which is rapidly becoming the most consequential area of political and social debate: climate change.

The risks posed by climate change, he argues, are exaggerated. Furthermore, the policy measures which governments around the world have embraced – like subsidising solar and wind power – are failing miserably.

Most importantly of all, a continuation of this fear-driven approach will result in serious costs to the world’s population over the next century, particularly poorer people in developing countries who cannot enter the middle-class without access to the affordable and reliable energy which comes from fossil fuels.

In spite of the obvious trade-off, it has almost become an axiom that climate change is an existential threat to mankind, and that all measures which could be taken to cut emissions should be taken, regardless of the financial or practical cost.

Just a few years ago, for instance, calls for a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions over the next decade would have been dismissed as being completely unachievable.

Yet now, that target is part of a Programme for Government which Ireland has happily signed up to.

These policy changes could not have occurred if a large segment of the population were not deeply worried.

A narrative this dominant inevitably seeps through to most of society. This is shown in polls cited by Lomborg which show that significant percentages of the world’s population – including four in ten Americans – believe global warming will lead to mankind’s extinction.

Here, as he has done in previous books such as “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming,” Lomborg calmly examines the facts and argues that this extreme pessimism is unfounded, given the undeniable progress which humankind has made.

Since 1900, average life expectancy has more than doubled, from 33 to 71. Rates of absolute poverty and illiteracy have shrunk and child labour has become rarer.

On the whole, people are living longer, healthier, more prosperous and more peaceful lives than ever before, and there is a very good chance that this progress will continue, with UN researchers estimating that by 2100 average incomes will be at 450 percent of today’s levels.

This much is hard to dispute given the abundance of data available, but interestingly Lomborg also asserts that the health of the planet is actually improving in ways which benefit us substantially.

“Higher agricultural yields and changing attitudes to the environment have meant rich countries are increasingly preserving forests and reforesting. And since 1990, 2.6 billion more people gained access to improved water sources, bringing the global total to 91 percent,” Lomborg notes. “Many of these improvements have come about because we have gotten richer, both as individuals and as nations.”

This is a core point in his overall argument. While many self-described environmentalists and socialists (these days, the two groups are scarcely distinguishable) claim that economic prosperity threatens the planet, Lomborg takes the opposite viewpoint.

Not only does greater wealth improve the quality of life, enhanced affluence also allows us to focus more attention on protecting the world around us.

To be clear, Lomborg is not a “climate change denier.”

A committed environmentalist, he refrains from eating meat, and welcomes the recent tendency to avoid giving the oxygen of publicity to those who dispute the science about rising temperatures.

Lomborg believes that climate change will have a negative impact overall, and insists it needs to be tackled.

However, he takes aim at those who have exaggerated the damage which has been occurring.

In the wake of any extreme weather events, politicians and campaigners are quick to point to the enormous economic toll as a reason to support measures such as new taxes, the closure of high-emitting industries, anti-car policies or dramatic changes to farming practices.

This, to Lomborg, is a false alarm.

True, the costs related to increased flooding or forest fires have increased, and rare events such as hurricanes or tropical storms can also pose enormous challenges.

But this increased cost comes at a time when we are much better able to afford to repair what nature has wrought, and where our improved material conditions mean we are far less likely to be physically harmed.

As Lomborg observes, deaths from climate-related disasters have dropped dramatically over the last century, at a time when carbon emissions and temperatures were going up. In the 1920s, such disasters killed almost 500,000 people annually, but now claim fewer than 20,000 lives annually, in spite of the world’s population having increased fourfold over the last century.

Higher incomes make for better and more secure housing, and as the developing world continues to make economic advances, the numbers dying needlessly due to natural disasters will likely fall even further.

While increased economic damage over the next century is very likely, there is an explanation for this too. As the world’s population has increased, so too has the number of houses and the amount of infrastructure in place.

The same sized flood or storm today will cause more financial damage than it would have a century ago, but recent economic growth means we are better able to afford this.

One of the areas where alarmist media coverage has been most evident is the issue of rising sea levels.

Prominent media outlets frequently point to a future where many large cities are submerged below water, as if this was going to happen suddenly, and as if humans were powerless to take defensive action.

Here again, Lomborg draws attention to what should be obvious.

Significant portions of the world are already at or below sea level and thriving regardless. The Netherlands and large areas of Vietnam, for instance, have long safeguarded low-lying areas by investing in dikes, dams and other flood protection measures.

As sea levels rise, a large amount of additional investment will be needed elsewhere in the next century, but again, this is far from being beyond the means of developed – and even developing – countries.

The greatest value of Lomborg’s analysis lies in his examination of the costs and benefits of existing policy approaches.

Given the consistent failure of solar and wind power to deliver results, he is deeply sceptical about large-scale investment in those areas, but he does have a number of policy recommendations, including the dedication of far more resources to efforts to adapt to a warming planet; a universal but modest carbon tax; and a dramatic increase in R&D spending on new technologies.

Above all else, Lomborg’s message is that we need to view the problem differently. Climate change, he writes, “is not like a huge asteroid hurtling towards Earth, where we need to stop everything else and mobilise the entire global economy to ward off the end of the world. It is instead a long-term chronic condition like diabetes – a problem that needs attention and focus, but one that we can live with.”

In this new reality, where every facet of government policy is likely to be impacted by how we respond to our planet’s changing climate, remaining out of this debate is no longer an option.

As such, it is well-worth taking the time to hear the views of a true humanist, a man who is confident that we have the ability not just to adapt and survive, but to prosper and improve as well.

James Bradshaw

James Bradshaw works for an international consulting firm based in Dublin, and has a background in journalism and public policy. Outside of work, he writes for a number of publications, on topics including… 

EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Recent Energy and Environmental News

Our latest Energy & Environmental Newsletter is now available… For the full version of this issue, go here, page 55.  To review some of the highlights, see below.

Two upbeat specials:

Short video: The US National Anthem and Sports Events

Short video: Imagine (sung by world leaders?)

My votes for the most outstanding articles this news cycle are:

COVID-19 related —

Study of 300,000 people: HCQ Helps Contain COVID-19 Cases

Video: Heated Vaccine Debate – Kennedy Jr. vs Dershowitz

Masks Are Neither Effective Nor Safe: A Summary Of The Science

COVID-19 Shows Us Why Science Needs Skeptics

Video: An Inconvenient COVID Truth

Pandemic To Usher In UN’s 2030 Agenda Ten Years Early

Energy related —

Green growth means economic contraction

Democrats Try to Sneak ‘Green New Deal’ in Tax Code

Biden Unveils $2 Trillion Climate Plan

Biden Energy Plan: Tens of Thousands of Turbines

Deceptive Advertising: Made with Wind Power

Leaders Hopelessly Misguided on Wind and Solar Power

Why a Great Reset Based on Green Energy Isn’t Possible

Climate related —

How climate change alarmists are endangering the planet

Environmental Facts vs. Environmental “Fact-Checkers”

Pandemic’s Collapse of Sustainable Development Exposes True Goals

New Climate Models Exaggerate Midwest Warming by 6X

Climate Models: No Warming For 30 Years – Possibly

Climate Model Predictions “Worse Than We Thought”

Study: Roman Warm Period Was 2°C Warmer Than Today

Greta’s Wishes Come True

Greta’s rival launches devastating vow to crush her arguments

Politics & Religion related

Short video: Nothing is More Important Than God

Tucker Carlson: On the Defacing of Statues and Churches

Outstanding Letter of Resignation from the NYT

New Opportunities for Marxists: Climate Change and COVID-19

The Left is following Communism’s playbook for revolution

Resolution to ban Democratic Party over past slavery ties

Under President Trump, Americans are breathing cleaner air

China’s Electrifying Rags-to-Riches Ascent . . . at America’s Expense

Education & Science related —

School openings across globe suggest ways to keep coronavirus at bay

Scientists: Thou Shall Not Preach, But Research

Cancel Culture Dominates Climate Research, Cancelling Scientific Method

The Sordid History of Scam Scientists

Believe Science But Be Skeptical of Scientists


COVID-19: Therapies and Prevention

Video: Welcome to Medical Tyranny 2020

Video: Heated Vaccine Debate – Kennedy Jr. vs Dershowitz

Study of 300,000 people: HCQ Helps Contain COVID-19 Cases

SIX positive clinical studies of HCQ

HCQ: The One Chart You Need To See

Germ vs Terrain Theory

Gates: multiple coronavirus vaccine doses likely to be needed…

COVID-19: Mask Effectiveness and Consequences

Masks Are Neither Effective Nor Safe: A Summary Of The Science

Trump Wears Mask Causing Media To Question Effectiveness Of Masks

Short video: Federal Employees and Lawmakers Exempt from Mask-Mandate

COVID-19: Models and Data

Covid-19 A Once in a Century Fiasco in the Making

Placing deadly faith in ‘the models’

COVID-19 Shows Us Why Science Needs Skeptics

Four Months of Unprecedented Government Malfeasance

The COVID Panic Is a Lesson in Using Statistics to Get Your Way in Politics

COVID-19: Misc

Video: An Inconvenient COVID Truth

Pandemic To Usher In UN’s 2030 Agenda Ten Years Early

COVID-19 Groupthink: The Politicalization Of Pandemic Hysteria

COCID-19 Stalks in the Darkness, But Do Not Be Afraid

Fauci: Career dotted with ethics, safety controversies inside NIH

New Documentary: The Coverup of the Century

Greed Energy Economics

Green growth means economic contraction

Democrats Try to Sneak ‘Green New Deal’ in Tax Code

Biden Unveils $2 Trillion Climate Plan

GOP senators warn Grassley against extending wind subsidies

Study: Fossil Fuels aren’t Subsidized, they are Overtaxed

The FRR risk: Beware of the cost of keeping the lights on

Wind Energy

Biden Energy Plan: Tens of Thousands of Turbines

Deceptive Advertising: Made with Wind Power

Leaders Hopelessly Misguided on Wind and Solar Power

Across U.S., Green Mega-Projects Aren’t Playing Well in Mayberry

End of Iowa’s wind boom? Renewable rules spark fears

Wind Energy: Offshore

Please sign this Petition against offshore wind energy

NY Council approves resolution banning offshore wind turbines

NY eyes Great Lakes offshore wind as foes blast ‘assault’

Lake turbines part of new NYS power play

Nighttime feathering for Lake Erie wind project is essential to protect birds

Nuclear Energy

Focus fusion is the hottest idea in nuclear energy

Russia, China and the Geopolitics of Nuclear Energy

EPA chief signs agreement to boost U.S. uranium

Misc Energy

Why a Great Reset Based on Green Energy Isn’t Possible

DC Circuit upholds landmark FERC storage order

Rule That Spurred U.S. Solar, Wind Growth is Overhauled

How Putin bested Obama, Biden and Clinton on energy

Video: Epstein Interview of Bjorn Lomborg

Biden vows to outlaw new production of gas-powered cars if elected

Will Renewable Projects Face Troubles That Have Bedeviled Pipelines?

Short video: Superheroes & Fossil Fuels

Manmade Global Warming: Some Deceptions

How climate change alarmists are endangering the planet

Environmental Facts vs. Environmental “Fact-Checkers”

Pandemic’s Collapse of Sustainable Development Exposes True Goals

Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) Scam?

Cuomo Administration Environmental Double Standards Are Blatant

California’s Green Energy Policies Help The Rich And Hurt The Poor

Manmade Global Warming: Bogus Models

New Climate Models Exaggerate Midwest Warming by 6X

Climate Models: No Warming For 30 Years – Possibly

Climate Model Predictions “Worse Than We Thought”

Study: Analyzing Observed vs CMIP5 Model of Global Temperature

Archive Study: What Humans Contribute to Atmospheric CO2

Manmade Global Warming: Misc

Study: Roman Warm Period Was 2°C Warmer Than Today

Greta’s Wishes Come True

Greta’s rival launches devastating vow to crush her arguments

Study: The Case for Carbon Dioxide

EPA’s partnership with states lowers pollution

Crushed rocks spread on farmland can capture billions of tons of CO2/year

US Politics and Socialism

Outstanding Letter of Resignation from the NYT

New Opportunities for Marxists: Climate Change and COVID-19

The Left is following Communism’s playbook for revolution

Climate Justice is Racial Justice!

Short Video: Minimum Wage Cost Me My Job

Capitalism And Environmental Destruction

Have We Reached The Point Of Irreconcilable Differences?

We Teeter On The Brink Of Catastrophe

Movie Trailer: Bleeding Blue

Other US Politics and Related

Resolution to ban Democratic Party over past slavery ties

Under President Trump, Americans are breathing cleaner air

China’s Electrifying Rags-to-Riches Ascent . . . at America’s Expense

Mueller & Weissmann Op-Eds at Odds With Their Report and Evidence

Fighting Three Wars at Once – Climate, COVID and China

Investigate Bill Gates And His Depopulation Agenda

Political Correctness Is Killing Me; Where Can I Get Help?

Religion

Short video: Nothing is More Important Than God

Tucker Carlson: On the Defacing of Statues and Churches

Ronald Reagan short video regarding religion.

Explaining America’s Dominant Religion and Its Secular Cultural Power

COVID-19 continues on, but faith can get us through

Education Related

School openings across globe suggest ways to keep coronavirus at bay

University wins disappointing court case against Dr. Ridd

Misusing Editorial Power to Censor Unpopular Research

Higher Ed Is Stoking the Flames of the War on History

Science and Misc Matters

Scientists: Thou Shall Not Preach, But Research

Cancel Culture Dominates Climate Research, Cancelling Scientific Method

The Sordid History of Scam Scientists

Believe Science But Be Skeptical of Scientists

Politics Has Hurt Science, COVID-19 May Have Killed It

Podcast: Roger Pielke, Jr – The Rightful Place of Science

Is peer review bad for science?

Putin pledges new hypersonic and underwater nuclear weapons

Study: Magicians’ priming techniques are effective at influencing choice

 Note 1: It’s recommended to read the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g. PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen…  Common fonts, etc. have been used to minimize display issues.

Note 2: To accommodate numerous requests received about prior articles, we’ve put together detailed archives — where you can search by year, or over the ten+ years of the Newsletter. For a detailed background about the Newsletter, please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change that complements the Newsletter. As a parallel effort, there is also a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on our WiseEnergy.org website.

Note 4: If you’d like to join the 10,000 worldwide readers and get your own free copy of this periodic Newsletter, simply send John an email saying that.

Note 5: John is not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or the WiseEnergy.org website) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. His recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical issues.

Copyright © 2020; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org)

The Sierra Club Is Disowning Its Co-Founder Over Racist Comments He Made Over 100 Years Ago

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune disavowed co-founder John Muir Wednesday, citing racist beliefs the iconic conservationist once held, and relationships he forged with people who supported white supremacy.

“It’s time to take down some of our own monuments, starting with some truth-telling about the Sierra Club’s early history,” Brune wrote in a statement on the group’s website. Sierra Club is ending its years-long reverence for Muir in an effort to distance the 128-year-old environmentalist organization from its co-founder’s racist past, he added.

Muir, who died in 1914, worked to preserve Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Forest, The Washington Post reported in an article Wednesday about the group’s disassociation from their co-founder. He also had a racist past, Brune said.

Muir made “derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes,” Brune wrote, noting that Muir’s positions evolved over time. He cited a 2016 article in Atlas Obscura highlighting Muir’s racist past.

Muir once referred to black people as “Sambos,” a pejorative term for African Americans, WaPo reported. He also called American Indians “dirty” and “lazy,” according to Atlas Obscura.

“Muir’s words and actions carry an especially heavy weight. They continue to hurt and alienate Indigenous people and people of color who come into contact with the Sierra Club,” Brune said.

“Such willful ignorance is what allows some people to shut their eyes to the reality that the wild places we love are also the ancestral homelands of Native peoples, forced off their lands in the decades or centuries before they became national parks,” Brune added.

Brune also highlighted Muir’s close relationship with Henry Fairfield Osborn, who led the New York Zoological Society and became the board of Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History. He also helped found the American Eugenics Society after Muir’s death in 1914. Osborn’s group believed nonwhite people and Jews were inferior to white people, WaPo reported.

Brune’s decision comes amid nationwide demonstrations against the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in May after a police officer kneeled down on his neck for nearly nine minutes, video of the incident shows. His death sparked a movement to defund the police, as well as a push for organizations to reconsider their past allegiances to historical figures with racist pasts.

Planned Parenthood of New York condemned its founder Margaret Sanger Tuesday for her “harmful connections to the eugenics movement,” the New York Times reported.

The Washington Redskins officially retired the team’s name on July 13 after the team’s primary sponsor, FedEx, requested a name change, ESPN reported July 2.

“I call on Dan Snyder once again to face that reality, since he does still desperately want to be in the nation’s capital,” Norton said in a July 1 statement to WaPo. “He has got a problem he can’t get around, and he particularly can’t get around it today, after the George Floyd killing.”

RELATED ARTICLE: Sierra Club Hammers Trump’s EPA For Trying To Help Out Plants Struggling With Compliance Due To Coronavirus

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Recent Energy and Environmental News

Our latest Energy & Environmental Newsletter is now available… For the full version of this issue, go here, page 45.  To review some of the highlights, see below.

Two upbeat specials:

Short video: Creativity Goes On

Short video: To The Human Race

My votes for the most outstanding articles this news cycle are:

COVID-19 related —

Dr. Raoult: The Marx Brothers are Doing Science

Excellent video re HCQ, politics, and Science

Are Prolonged Shutdowns Deadlier than the Virus?

The Bitter Irony of Revolutions

Executive Orders, Deregulation, and Bureaucratic Response

Energy related —

The Green Delusion continues to Perpetuate Costs upon the Poor

House Dems include more wind and solar tax credits in infrastructure bill

Study: Hundreds of ‘protected areas’ threatened by renewable energy

Why the World’s Most Advanced Solar Plants Are Failing

Why Climate Activists Will Go Nuclear — Or Go Extinct

Dangers of Nuclear Energy ‘Much Less Than Previously Thought

Debunking The Endless Myths Pitched by Renewable Energy Propagandists

China’s assault on Texas – this project threatens US national security

Climate related —

On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare 

Covid-19 pandemic is ‘fire drill’ for effects of climate crisis, says UN official

Book Review: ‘Apocalypse Never’ – False Gods for Lost Souls

Next-generation climate models: worse than ever!

Study: Structural Errors in Global Climate Models

EU Made ‘No Progress’ In Climate Action Over Past Five Years

Education & Religion related —

Three generations of brainwashing are paying off for the left

Now They’re Coming For Christ

Stop The Coronavirus Crackdown on Religion

A new way to end Big Tech censorship against Conservatives and Christians

Keys to the Progressive Kingdom

Environmentalism as Religion: A Leading Environmentalist Bemoans That

Politics, etc. related —

Confederate statues, now founders, next Jesus. Their real target: America

Apocalyptic science: How the West is destroying itself

Peterson video: The Marxist Lie of White Privilege

Thomas Sowell at 90: Understanding Race Relations Around the World

Short Video w Larry Elder: The Ferguson Lie

The Pandemic Claims New Victims: Prestigious Medical Journals

More Scientists Abandon Their Profession to Promote Left-Wing Politics


COVID-19: Therapies and Prevention

Low dose radiation may save people from Coronavirus

Excellent video re HCQ, politics, and Science

FDA Withdraws Emergency Authorization For HCQ

AAPS Lawsuit to Against FDA for obstructing the use of HCQ

Dr. Raoult: The Marx Brothers are Doing Science

The Miserable Pseudo-Science Behind Face Masks, Social Distancing & Contact Tracing

Many People Lack Protective Antibodies After COVID-19 Infection

Are Special Interests Undermining the Quest for a COVID-19 Vaccine?

COVID-19: Models and Data

Are Prolonged Shutdowns Deadlier than the Virus?

600+ Physicians send letter to the President

Did lockdowns really save 3 million COVID-19 deaths, as claimed?

COVID-19 and Environmentalist Injustice

Media Begging for a ‘Second Wave’ of COVID-19

COVID-19: Misc

The Bitter Irony of Revolutions

Executive Orders, Deregulation, and Bureaucratic Response

Video: Scientists – Coronavirus Altered in Lab to Better Attach to Humans

Video: What Impact Will the Covid-19 Crisis Have on the Green Movement?

How College Sports Can Survive

FDA warns against using these nine hand sanitizers

The Sneaky Covid War on Cash

COVID19 are Americans a Pride of Lions or a Herd of Cattle

Greed Energy Economics

The Green Delusion continues to Perpetuate Costs upon the Poor

House Dems include more wind and solar tax credit in infrastructure bill

Failing Cities and States use Climate Change Lawsuits as Fiscal Escape Hatch

Virginia’s latest folly — offshore wind power

UK: £3 Billion-A-Year to Prevent Green Energy Blackouts

Most Americans Wouldn’t Pay $10/Mo to Combat Climate Change

Renewable Energy Health and Eco-system Consequences

Study: Hundreds of ‘protected areas’ threatened by renewable energy

Evangelists Grappling with the Gruesome Human Cost of Renewable Energy
Study: Confirming Tonality at Residences Influenced by Wind Turbines

Lake Erie wind project faces stiff head winds because of warblers and waterfowl

Wind Energy

Astonishing Buildout Needed for “Clean” NY Grid

Turbines threaten unspoiled W Texas river and Air Force training routes

China’s assault on Texas – this project threatens US national security

At least 15 dead in southern Mexico wind project feud killings

Local Resistance to Wind Power Grows in Europe

Norway to rein in wind power after raging local opposition

Wind Turbines: The Pruitt-Igoes of the Plains

Solar Energy

Why the World’s Most Advanced Solar Plants Are Failing

Organization challenges Net Metering, and stirs ire of solar advocates

South Australia Solar Fiasco Suggests What’s Ahead for New York

Solar Maintenance To Cost $9.4 Billion By 2025

The Vagaries of Solar in New England

Nuclear Energy

Why Climate Activists Will Go Nuclear — Or Go Extinct

Dangers of Nuclear Energy ‘Much Less Than Previously Thought

COVID-19 undermining nuclear’s important role in clean energy transitions

Why the US Should Use Nuclear Power: Climate Change and Air Pollution

Former Extinction Rebellion activist: join me in embracing nuclear power

Short video: Wind Turbines or Nuclear?

Natural Gas Energy

Short video: Turning natural gas into Liquid Natural Gas (LNG)

Supreme Court deals blow to opponents of Atlantic Coast Pipeline

More Natural Gas Use = Lower Cost of Utilities

Biden Proposes to Ban New Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling

Coal Energy

Making coal from food waste, garden cuttings – and even human sewage

How Many Coal-Dependent Jobs Are There and How Important Are They?

India Announces New Coal Boom

Pakistan Aims To Increase Coal Share By 30% By 2030

China Adds New Wave Of Coal Plants After Lifting Curbs

Misc Energy

Debunking The Endless Myths Pitched by Renewable Energy Propagandists

Good news: Fed Govt over-rules NC re offshore energy seismic survey

Forget wind and solar power for COVID recovery

US Republicans Prepare For Energy ‘Cold War’ With China

NYISO Power Trends 2020

Fossil Fuels Still Supply 84% of World Energy — And Other Eye Openers

In Iowa, lobbyists look to counter local wind, solar opposition

Robert Bryce’s Power Hungry Podcast

Manmade Global Warming: Some Deceptions

On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare 

Covid-19 pandemic is ‘fire drill’ for effects of climate crisis, says UN official

Book Review: ‘Apocalypse Never’ – False Gods for Lost Souls

Study: MIT’s Dr. Lindzen Pokes Fun at the Naïve, Well-Funded CO2 Claims

The Climate Campaign Is Less And Less About The Climate

Michael E Mann, Loser (Again) and Deadbeat (for Sure)

Video: Alex Epstein interviews Naomi Seibt

Manmade Global Warming: Climate Models

Next-generation climate models: worse than ever!

Study: Structural Errors in Global Climate Models

Hurricane season is here, but don’t believe climate change pandering

The flaw in relying on the worst-case-scenario climate model

Manmade Global Warming: Misc

EU Made ‘No Progress’ In Climate Action Over Past Five Years

A Winning Trifecta for Climate Science and Rationality

Study: How Does CO2 Escape the Atmosphere?

Slideshow: Climate Statistics 101

Warming is not the only threat

Education Related

Three generations of brainwashing are paying off for the left

Charter schools’ enemies block black success

Equity vs. Excellence. Is the University of California Committing Suicide?

Save the Humanities by Flipping the Curriculum

Why Do American Universities Lead the World in Scientific Research?

Religion and Current Events

Now They’re Coming For Christ

Stop The Coronavirus Crackdown on Religion

A new way to end Big Tech censorship against Conservatives and Christians

Keys to the Progressive Kingdom

Environmentalism as Religion: A Leading Environmentalist Bemoans That

Trans-humanism: The new religion of the coming technocracy

US Politics and Socialism

Confederate statues, now founders, next Jesus. Their real target: America

Apocalyptic science: How the West is destroying itself

Peterson video: The Marxist Lie of White Privilege

Video: Manipulating America: The Chinese Communist Playbook

Young Socialists’ Vision Blind to Capitalism’s Virtues

America’s Own Color Revolution

Defend, Not Defund Police

Put Merit of CHOP’s Ideology to the Test

Other US Politics and Related

Thomas Sowell at 90: Understanding Race Relations Around the World

Short Video w Larry Elder: The Ferguson Lie

Short Video: The Hyprocricy is Unbelievable!

Preying Mattis Should Learn the Difference Between Protesters and Rioters

Science and Misc Matters

The Pandemic Claims New Victims: Prestigious Medical Journals

More Scientists Abandon Their Profession to Promote Left-Wing Politics

54 scientists have lost their jobs as a result of NIH probe into foreign ties

A War Against Science Waged by DC’s Rank and File

DOJ calls for Big Tech bias reform laws

EPA Finally May Look at Benefits and Costs of Rule-making Processes

EPA gives up on barring grantees from science advisory panels

Note 1: It’s recommended to read the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g. PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen…  Common fonts, etc. have been used to minimize display issues.

Note 2: For a detailed background about the Newsletter, please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change that complements the Newsletter. As a parallel effort, there is also a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on our WiseEnergy.org website.

Note 4: If you’d like to join the 10,000 worldwide readers and get your own free copy of this periodic Newsletter, simply send John an email saying that.

Note 5: John is not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or the WiseEnergy.org website) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. His recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical issues.

Copyright © 2020; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org)

BEHRENS: Green New Deal 2.0 Doesn’t Make Biden Look Any Less Radical

Meet the “new” Green New Deal…same as the old Green New Deal.

When House Democrats introduced their new climate plan it’s clear they did so not as a serious proposal, but to give cover to Joe Biden. Their problem? Not even their own members are buying it.

You might recall the first version of the Green New Deal met with disaster even among Democrats. Despite her prime role as a media darling, AOC has never had the ability to bring her Green New Deal to a vote in the House. Democrat leaders, including Speaker Pelosi, never signed on to it and the bill was so radioactive not a single member of the Senate voted in favor of it.

For all the attention the eco-radicals and the media garnished for the first Green New Deal, it seems like not a single leader in Washington was eager to actually vote for it. Of course they had good reason, they know it spells catastrophe.

Now Democrats are taking the lemon-with-a-new-coat-of-paint approach to their environmental policy by hoping you won’t notice their new “plan” is just as out of touch as the old one. The goal is clear: Democrats are betting this proposal will appear more reasonable than the original Green New Deal and Biden won’t look like an AOC climate puppet. However, it’s just as much a threat to America’s middle class families, or even worse.

Under the plan, every American will need to budget for a new electric vehicle in the years ahead. They will also need to prepare for skyrocketing electric bills that are the result of government restricting the open energy market. Families already struggling to make ends meet will have to grapple with electric bills increasing 17 percent and forced to pay thousands to come into compliance with the law. All this at the same time millions of their neighbors lose their job in energy producing states like Pennsylvania, Louisiana and New Mexico.

Environmentalist Who Apologized for Climate Scare Rips Bernie-Biden Plan

Joe Biden has ruinous plans in store for workers, rate-payers and the environment.

Just ask former climate campaigner Michael Shellenberger, who recently apologized on behalf of environmentalists for the entire climate scare.

Marc Morano posted extensive details to CFACT’s Climate Depot.

According to Shellenberger, Biden’s radical climate plan:

  • Unscientifically blames climate change for flood, storm, & fire, damage
  • Would raise energy prices & increase unemployment
  • Would kill off nuclear, the largest source of clean energy
  • Would increase killing of bald eagles & whooping cranes

“What you’re proposing, @AOC @JohnKerry @JoeBiden @BernieSanders is extremely radical, terrible for workers, and terrible for the environment. And we tried it already. Before the Green New Deal, I helped create the New Apollo Project. It was a disaster,” Shellenberger explained.

In short, Shellenberger reveals that Joe Biden has morphed from moderate to radical on energy and the environment, and has turned over his environmental portfolio to the anti-energy Left.

That’s why extreme efforts are underway to censor and silence Shellenberger, CFACT, and anyone who presents the facts that disprove climate dogma.

©All rights reserved.

EXPOSED: How the Sunrise Movement is Indoctrinating our Youth in Public Schools

Millennial Millie posted the below YouTube video and comments.

On the surface, the Sunrise Movement is group of peaceful young activists fighting for a “Green New Deal”. On a deeper level, they are a gateway to radicalization teaching young activists how to exploit tragedy, including one’s own victimization, for political gain.

I was wrong. We scared you unnecessarily, says environmentalist

Michael Schellenberger has been called an “environmental guru,” “climate guru,” “North America’s leading public intellectual on clean energy,” and “high priest” of the environmental movement for his writings and TED talks, which have been viewed over five million times. His latest book, Apocalypse Never, is creating a huge controversy. Below he showcases its main ideas.


On behalf of environmentalists everywhere, I would like to formally apologize for the climate scare we created over the last 30 years. Climate change is happening. It’s just not the end of the world. It’s not even our most serious environmental problem.

I may seem like a strange person to be saying all of this. I have been a climate activist for 20 years and an environmentalist for 30.

But as an energy expert asked by Congress to provide objective expert testimony, and invited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to serve as Expert Reviewer of its next Assessment Report, I feel an obligation to apologize for how badly we environmentalists have misled the public.

Here are some facts few people know:

  • Humans are not causing a “sixth mass extinction”
  • The Amazon is not “the lungs of the world”
  • Climate change is not making natural disasters worse
  • Fires have declined 25% around the world since 2003
  • The amount of land we use for meat — humankind’s biggest use of land — has declined by an area nearly as large as Alaska
  • The build-up of wood fuel and more houses near forests, not climate change, explain why there are more, and more dangerous, fires in Australia and California
  • Carbon emissions are declining in most rich nations and have been declining in Britain, Germany, and France since the mid-1970s
  • Netherlands became rich not poor while adapting to life below sea level
  • We produce 25% more food than we need and food surpluses will continue to rise as the world gets hotter
  • Habitat loss and the direct killing of wild animals are bigger threats to species than climate change
  • Wood fuel is far worse for people and wildlife than fossil fuels
  • Preventing future pandemics requires more not less “industrial” agriculture

I know that the above facts will sound like “climate denialism” to many people. But that just shows the power of climate alarmism.

In reality, the above facts come from the best-available scientific studies, including those conducted by or accepted by the IPCC, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other leading scientific bodies.

Some people will, when they read this imagine that I’m some right-wing anti-environmentalist. I’m not. At 17, I lived in Nicaragua to show solidarity with the Sandinista socialist revolution. At 23 I raised money for Guatemalan women’s cooperatives. In my early 20s I lived in the semi-Amazon doing research with small farmers fighting land invasions. At 26 I helped expose poor conditions at Nike factories in Asia.

I became an environmentalist at 16 when I threw a fundraiser for Rainforest Action Network. At 27 I helped save the last unprotected ancient redwoods in California. In my 30s I advocated renewables and successfully helped persuade the Obama administration to invest $90 billion into them. Over the last few years I helped save enough nuclear plants from being replaced by fossil fuels to prevent a sharp increase in emissions

But until last year, I mostly avoided speaking out against the climate scare. Partly that’s because I was embarrassed. After all, I am as guilty of alarmism as any other environmentalist. For years, I referred to climate change as an “existential” threat to human civilization, and called it a “crisis.”

But mostly I was scared. I remained quiet about the climate disinformation campaign because I was afraid of losing friends and funding. The few times I summoned the courage to defend climate science from those who misrepresent it I suffered harsh consequences. And so I mostly stood by and did next to nothing as my fellow environmentalists terrified the public.

I even stood by as people in the White House and many in the news media tried to destroy the reputation and career of an outstanding scientist, good man, and friend of mine, Roger Pielke, Jr., a lifelong progressive Democrat and environmentalist who testified in favor of carbon regulations. Why did they do that? Because his research proves natural disasters aren’t getting worse.

But then, last year, things spiraled out of control.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said “The world is going to end in twelve years if we don’t address climate change.” Britain’s most high-profile environmental group claimed “Climate Change Kills Children.”

The world’s most influential green journalist, Bill McKibben, called climate change the “greatest challenge humans have ever faced” and said it would “wipe out civilizations.”

Mainstream journalists reported, repeatedly, that the Amazon was “the lungs of the world,” and that deforestation was like a nuclear bomb going off.

As a result, half of the people surveyed around the world last year said they thought climate change would make humanity extinct. And in January, one out of five British children told pollsters they were having nightmares about climate change.

Whether or not you have children you must see how wrong this is. I admit I may be sensitive because I have a teenage daughter. After we talked about the science she was reassured. But her friends are deeply misinformed and thus, understandably, frightened.

I thus decided I had to speak out. I knew that writing a few articles wouldn’t be enough. I needed a book to properly lay out all of the evidence.

And so my formal apology for our fear-mongering comes in the form of my new book, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All.

It is based on two decades of research and three decades of environmental activism. At 400 pages, with 100 of them endnotes, Apocalypse Never covers climate change, deforestation, plastic waste, species extinction, industrialization, meat, nuclear energy, and renewables.

Some highlights from the book:

  • Factories and modern farming are the keys to human liberation and environmental progress
  • The most important thing for saving the environment is producing more food, particularly meat, on less land
  • The most important thing for reducing air pollution and carbon emissions is moving from wood to coal to petroleum to natural gas to uranium
  • 100% renewables would require increasing the land used for energy from today’s 0.5% to 50%
  • We should want cities, farms, and power plants to have higher, not lower, power densities
  • Vegetarianism reduces one’s emissions by less than 4%
  • Greenpeace didn’t save the whales, switching from whale oil to petroleum and palm oil did
  • “Free-range” beef would require 20 times more land and produce 300% more emissions
  • Greenpeace dogmatism worsened forest fragmentation of the Amazon
  • The colonialist approach to gorilla conservation in the Congo produced a backlash that may have resulted in the killing of 250 elephants

Why were we all so misled?

In the final three chapters of Apocalypse Never I expose the financial, political, and ideological motivations. Environmental groups have accepted hundreds of millions of dollars from fossil fuel interests. Groups motivated by anti-humanist beliefs forced the World Bank to stop trying to end poverty and instead make poverty “sustainable.” And status anxiety, depression, and hostility to modern civilization are behind much of the alarmism

Once you realize just how badly misinformed we have been, often by people with plainly unsavory or unhealthy motivations, it is hard not to feel duped.

Will Apocalypse Never make any difference? There are certainly reasons to doubt it.

The news media have been making apocalyptic pronouncements about climate change since the late 1980s, and do not seem disposed to stop.

The ideology behind environmental alarmsim — Malthusianism — has been repeatedly debunked for 200 years and yet is more powerful than ever.

But there are also reasons to believe that environmental alarmism will, if not come to an end, have diminishing cultural power.

The coronavirus pandemic is an actual crisis that puts the climate “crisis” into perspective. Even if you think we have overreacted, Covid-19 has killed nearly 500,000 people and shattered economies around the globe.

Scientific institutions including WHO and IPCC have undermined their credibility through the repeated politicization of science. Their future existence and relevance depends on new leadership and serious reform.

Facts still matter, and social media is allowing for a wider range of new and independent voices to outcompete alarmist environmental journalists at legacy publications.

Nations are reverting openly to self-interest and away from Malthusianism and neoliberalism, which is good for nuclear and bad for renewables.

The evidence is overwhelming that our high-energy civilization is better for people and nature than the low-energy civilization that climate alarmists would return us to.

The invitations from IPCC and Congress are signs of a growing openness to new thinking about climate change and the environment. Another one has been to the response to my book from climate scientists, conservationists, and environmental scholars. “Apocalypse Never is an extremely important book,” writes Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb. “This may be the most important book on the environment ever written,” says one of the fathers of modern climate science Tom Wigley.

“We environmentalists condemn those with antithetical views of being ignorant of science and susceptible to confirmation bias,” wrote the former head of The Nature Conservancy, Steve McCormick. “But too often we are guilty of the same.  Shellenberger offers ‘tough love:’ a challenge to entrenched orthodoxies and rigid, self-defeating mindsets.  Apocalypse Never serves up occasionally stinging, but always well-crafted, evidence-based points of view that will help develop the ‘mental muscle’ we need to envision and design not only a hopeful, but an attainable, future.”

That is all I hoped for in writing it. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ll agree that it’s perhaps not as strange as it seems that a lifelong environmentalist, progressive, and climate activist felt the need to speak out against the alarmism.

I further hope that you’ll accept my apology.

This article has been republished with permission from the website of Environmental Progress, which was founded by Michael Schellenberger.

COLUMN BY

Michael Schellenberger

Michael Shellenberger is an American author, environmental policy writer, co-founder of Breakthrough Institute and founder of Environmental Progress.

EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Prominent climate activist Shellenberger officially recants: ‘On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare’

Green Guru Michael Shellenberger, formerly Time Magazine’s “Hero of the Environment”:

“On behalf of environmentalists everywhere, I would like to formally apologize for the climate scare we created over the last 30 years. Climate change is happening. It’s just not the end of the world. It’s not even our most serious environmental problem. I may seem like a strange person to be saying all of this. I have been a climate activist for 20 years and an environmentalist for 30.

But as an energy expert asked by Congress to provide objective expert testimony, and invited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to serve as Expert Reviewer of its next Assessment Report, I feel an obligation to apologize for how badly we environmentalists have misled the public.”

[…]

Some people will, when they read this imagine that I’m some right-wing anti-environmentalist. I’m not. At 17, I lived in Nicaragua to show solidarity with the Sandinista socialist revolution…I became an environmentalist at 16 when I threw a fundraiser for Rainforest Action Network…In my 30s I advocated renewables and successfully helped persuade the Obama administration to invest $90 billion into them…

Scientific institutions including WHO and IPCC have undermined their credibility through the repeated politicization of science.

Until last year, I mostly avoided speaking out against the climate scare. Partly that’s because I was embarrassed. After all, I am as guilty of alarmism as any other environmentalist…I remained quiet about the climate disinformation campaign because I was afraid of losing friends and funding.

But then, last year, things spiraled out of control. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said “The world is going to end in twelve years if we don’t address climate change.” Britain’s most high-profile environmental group claimed “Climate Change Kills Children.

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER

On behalf of environmentalists everywhere, I would like to formally apologize for the climate scare we created over the last 30 years. Climate change is happening. It’s just not the end of the world. It’s not even our most serious environmental problem.

I may seem like a strange person to be saying all of this. I have been a climate activist for 20 years and an environmentalist for 30.

But as an energy expert asked by Congress to provide objective expert testimony, and invited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to serve as Expert Reviewer of its next Assessment Report, I feel an obligation to apologize for how badly we environmentalists have misled the public.

Here are some facts few people know:

  • Humans are not causing a “sixth mass extinction”
  • The Amazon is not “the lungs of the world”
  • Climate change is not making natural disasters worse
  • Fires have declined 25% around the world since 2003
  • The amount of land we use for meat — humankind’s biggest use of land — has declined by an area nearly as large as Alaska
  • The build-up of wood fuel and more houses near forests, not climate change, explain why there are more, and more dangerous, fires in Australia and California
  • Carbon emissions have been declining in rich nations for decades and peaked in Britain, Germany and France in the mid-seventies
  • Adapting to life below sea level made the Netherlands rich not poor
  • We produce 25% more food than we need and food surpluses will continue to rise as the world gets hotter
  • Habitat loss and the direct killing of wild animals are bigger threats to species than climate change
  • Wood fuel is far worse for people and wildlife than fossil fuels
  • Preventing future pandemics requires more not less “industrial” agriculture

I know that the above facts will sound like “climate denialism” to many people. But that just shows the power of climate alarmism.

In reality, the above facts come from the best-available scientific studies, including those conducted by or accepted by the IPCC, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other leading scientific bodies.

Some people will, when they read this imagine that I’m some right-wing anti-environmentalist. I’m not. At 17, I lived in Nicaragua to show solidarity with the Sandinista socialist revolution. At 23 I raised money for Guatemalan women’s cooperatives. In my early 20s I lived in the semi-Amazon doing research with small farmers fighting land invasions. At 26 I helped expose poor conditions at Nike factories in Asia.

I became an environmentalist at 16 when I threw a fundraiser for Rainforest Action Network. At 27 I helped save the last unprotected ancient redwoods in California. In my 30s I advocated renewables and successfully helped persuade the Obama administration to invest $90 billion into them. Over the last few years I helped save enough nuclear plants from being replaced by fossil fuels to prevent a sharp increase in emissions

Until last year, I mostly avoided speaking out against the climate scare. Partly that’s because I was embarrassed. After all, I am as guilty of alarmism as any other environmentalist. For years, I referred to climate change as an “existential” threat to human civilization, and called it a “crisis.” 

But mostly I was scared. I remained quiet about the climate disinformation campaign because I was afraid of losing friends and funding. The few times I summoned the courage to defend climate science from those who misrepresent it I suffered harsh consequences. And so I mostly stood by and did next to nothing as my fellow environmentalists terrified the public.

I even stood by as people in the White House and many in the news media tried to destroy the reputation and career of an outstanding scientist, good man, and friend of mine, Roger Pielke, Jr., a lifelong progressive Democrat and environmentalist who testified in favor of carbon regulations. Why did they do that? Because his research proves natural disasters aren’t getting worse.

But then, last year, things spiraled out of control. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said “The world is going to end in twelve years if we don’t address climate change.” Britain’s most high-profile environmental group claimed “Climate Change Kills Children.” 

The world’s most influential green journalist, Bill McKibben, called climate change the “greatest challenge humans have ever faced” and said it would “wipe out civilizations.” 

Mainstream journalists reported, repeatedly, that the Amazon was “the lungs of the world,” and that deforestation was like a nuclear bomb going off.

As a result, half of the people surveyed around the world last year said they thought climate change would make humanity extinct. And in January, one out of five British children told pollsters they were having nightmares about climate change.

Whether or not you have children you must see how wrong this is. I admit I may be sensitive because I have a teenage daughter. After we talked about the science she was reassured. But her friends are deeply misinformed and thus, understandably, frightened.

I thus decided I had to speak out. I knew that writing a few articles wouldn’t be enough. I needed a book to properly lay out all of the evidence.

 And so my formal apology for our fear-mongering comes in the form of my new book, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. 

It is based on two decades of research and three decades of environmental activism. At 400 pages, with 100 of them endnotes, Apocalypse Never covers climate change, deforestation, plastic waste, species extinction, industrialization, meat, nuclear energy, and renewables.

Some highlights from the book:

  • Factories and modern farming are the keys to human liberation and environmental progress 
  • The most important thing for saving the environment is producing more food, particularly meat, on less land 
  • The most important thing for reducing air pollution and carbon emissions is moving from wood to coal to petroleum to natural gas to uranium 
  • 100% renewables would require increasing the land used for energy from today’s 0.5% to 50% 
  • We should want cities, farms, and power plants to have higher, not lower, power densities
  • Vegetarianism reduces one’s emissions by less than 4%
  • Greenpeace didn’t save the whales, switching from whale oil to petroleum and palm oil did
  • “Free-range” beef would require 20 times more land and produce 300% more emissions
  • Greenpeace dogmatism worsened forest fragmentation of the Amazon
  • The colonialist approach to gorilla conservation in the Congo produced a backlash that may have resulted in the killing of 250 elephants

Why were we all so misled?

In the final three chapters of Apocalypse Never I expose the financial, political, and ideological motivations. Environmental groups have accepted hundreds of millions of dollars from fossil fuel interests. Groups motivated by anti-humanist beliefs forced the World Bank to stop trying to end poverty and instead make poverty “sustainable.” And status anxiety, depression, and hostility to modern civilization are behind much of the alarmism

Once you realize just how badly misinformed we have been, often by people with plainly unsavory or unhealthy motivations, it is hard not to feel duped.

Will Apocalypse Never make any difference? There are certainly reasons to doubt it.

The news media have been making apocalyptic pronouncements about climate change since the late 1980s, and do not seem disposed to stop.

The ideology behind environmental alarmsim — Malthusianism — has been repeatedly debunked for 200 years and yet is more powerful than ever.

But there are also reasons to believe that environmental alarmism will, if not come to an end, have diminishing cultural power.

The coronavirus pandemic is an actual crisis that puts the climate “crisis” into perspective. Even if you think we have overreacted, Covid-19 has killed nearly 500,000 people and shattered economies around the globe.

Scientific institutions including WHO and IPCC have undermined their credibility through the repeated politicization of science. Their future existence and relevance depends on new leadership and serious reform.

Facts still matter, and social media is allowing for a wider range of new and independent voices to outcompete alarmist environmental journalists at legacy publications.

Nations are reorienting toward the national interest and away from Malthusianism and neoliberalism, which is good for nuclear and bad for renewables.

The evidence is overwhelming that our high-energy civilization is better for people and nature than the low-energy civilization that climate alarmists would return us to.

And the invitations I received from IPCC and Congress late last year, after I published a series of criticisms of climate alarmism, are signs of a growing openness to new thinking about climate change and the environment.

Another sign is the response to my book from climate scientists, conservationists, and environmental scholars. “Apocalypse Never is an extremely important book,” writes Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb. “This may be the most important book on the environment ever written,” says one of the fathers of modern climate science Tom Wigley.

“We environmentalists condemn those with antithetical views of being ignorant of science and susceptible to confirmation bias,” wrote the former head of The Nature Conservancy, Steve McCormick. “But too often we are guilty of the same.  Shellenberger offers ‘tough love:’ a challenge to entrenched orthodoxies and rigid, self-defeating mindsets.  Apocalypse Never serves up occasionally stinging, but always well-crafted, evidence-based points of view that will help develop the ‘mental muscle’ we need to envision and design not only a hopeful, but an attainable, future.”

That is all I that I had hoped for in writing it. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ll agree that it’s perhaps not as strange as it seems that a lifelong environmentalist, progressive, and climate activist felt the need to speak out against the alarmism.

I further hope that you’ll accept my apology.

EDITORS NOTE: This Climate Depot column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Recent Energy and Environmental News

Our latest Energy & Environmental Newsletter is now available… For the full version of this issue, go here, page 45.  To review some of the highlights, see below.

Two upbeat specials:

Short video: Creativity Goes On

Short video: To The Human Race

My votes for the most outstanding articles this news cycle are:

COVID-19 related

Dr. Raoult: The Marx Brothers are Doing Science

Excellent video re HCQ, politics, and Science

Are Prolonged Shutdowns Deadlier than the Virus?

The Bitter Irony of Revolutions

Executive Orders, Deregulation, and Bureaucratic Response

Energy related

The Green Delusion continues to Perpetuate Costs upon the Poor

House Dems include more wind and solar tax credits in infrastructure bill

Study: Hundreds of ‘protected areas’ threatened by renewable energy

Why the World’s Most Advanced Solar Plants Are Failing

Why Climate Activists Will Go Nuclear — Or Go Extinct

Dangers of Nuclear Energy ‘Much Less Than Previously Thought

Debunking The Endless Myths Pitched by Renewable Energy Propagandists

China’s assault on Texas – this project threatens US national security

Climate related

On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare 

Covid-19 pandemic is ‘fire drill’ for effects of climate crisis, says UN official

Book Review: ‘Apocalypse Never’ – False Gods for Lost Souls

Next-generation climate models: worse than ever!

Study: Structural Errors in Global Climate Models

EU Made ‘No Progress’ In Climate Action Over Past Five Years

Education & Religion related

Three generations of brainwashing are paying off for the left

Now They’re Coming For Christ

Stop The Coronavirus Crackdown on Religion

A new way to end Big Tech censorship against Conservatives and Christians

Keys to the Progressive Kingdom

Environmentalism as Religion: A Leading Environmentalist Bemoans That

Politics, etc. related

Confederate statues, now founders, next Jesus. Their real target: America

Apocalyptic science: How the West is destroying itself

Peterson video: The Marxist Lie of White Privilege

Thomas Sowell at 90: Understanding Race Relations Around the World

Short Video w Larry Elder: The Ferguson Lie

The Pandemic Claims New Victims: Prestigious Medical Journals

More Scientists Abandon Their Profession to Promote Left-Wing Politics

COVID-19: Therapies and Prevention

Low dose radiation may save people from Coronavirus

Excellent video re HCQ, politics, and Science

FDA Withdraws Emergency Authorization For HCQ

AAPS Lawsuit to Against FDA for obstructing the use of HCQ

Dr. Raoult: The Marx Brothers are Doing Science

The Miserable Pseudo-Science Behind Face Masks, Social Distancing & Contact Tracing

Many People Lack Protective Antibodies After COVID-19 Infection

Are Special Interests Undermining the Quest for a COVID-19 Vaccine?

COVID-19: Models and Data

Are Prolonged Shutdowns Deadlier than the Virus?

600+ Physicians send letter to the President

Did lockdowns really save 3 million COVID-19 deaths, as claimed?

COVID-19 and Environmentalist Injustice

Media Begging for a ‘Second Wave’ of COVID-19

COVID-19: Misc

The Bitter Irony of Revolutions

Executive Orders, Deregulation, and Bureaucratic Response

Video: Scientists – Coronavirus Altered in Lab to Better Attach to Humans

Video: What Impact Will the Covid-19 Crisis Have on the Green Movement?

How College Sports Can Survive

FDA warns against using these nine hand sanitizers

The Sneaky Covid War on Cash

COVID19 are Americans a Pride of Lions or a Herd of Cattle

Greed Energy Economics

The Green Delusion continues to Perpetuate Costs upon the Poor

House Dems include more wind and solar tax credit in infrastructure bill

Failing Cities and States use Climate Change Lawsuits as Fiscal Escape Hatch

Virginia’s latest folly — offshore wind power

UK: £3 Billion-A-Year to Prevent Green Energy Blackouts

Most Americans Wouldn’t Pay $10/Mo to Combat Climate Change

Renewable Energy Health and Eco-system Consequences

Study: Hundreds of ‘protected areas’ threatened by renewable energy

Evangelists Grappling with the Gruesome Human Cost of Renewable Energy
Study: Confirming Tonality at Residences Influenced by Wind Turbines

Lake Erie wind project faces stiff head winds because of warblers and waterfowl

Wind Energy

Astonishing Buildout Needed for “Clean” NY Grid

Turbines threaten unspoiled W Texas river and Air Force training routes

China’s assault on Texas – this project threatens US national security

At least 15 dead in southern Mexico wind project feud killings

Local Resistance to Wind Power Grows in Europe

Norway to rein in wind power after raging local opposition

Wind Turbines: The Pruitt-Igoes of the Plains

Solar Energy

Why the World’s Most Advanced Solar Plants Are Failing

Organization challenges Net Metering, and stirs ire of solar advocates

South Australia Solar Fiasco Suggests What’s Ahead for New York

Solar Maintenance To Cost $9.4 Billion By 2025

The Vagaries of Solar in New England

Nuclear Energy

Why Climate Activists Will Go Nuclear — Or Go Extinct

Dangers of Nuclear Energy ‘Much Less Than Previously Thought

COVID-19 undermining nuclear’s important role in clean energy transitions

Why the US Should Use Nuclear Power: Climate Change and Air Pollution

Former Extinction Rebellion activist: join me in embracing nuclear power

Short video: Wind Turbines or Nuclear?

Natural Gas Energy

Short video: Turning natural gas into Liquid Natural Gas (LNG)

Supreme Court deals blow to opponents of Atlantic Coast Pipeline

More Natural Gas Use = Lower Cost of Utilities

Biden Proposes to Ban New Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling

Coal Energy

Making coal from food waste, garden cuttings – and even human sewage

How Many Coal-Dependent Jobs Are There and How Important Are They?

India Announces New Coal Boom

Pakistan Aims To Increase Coal Share By 30% By 2030

China Adds New Wave Of Coal Plants After Lifting Curbs

Misc Energy

Debunking The Endless Myths Pitched by Renewable Energy Propagandists

Good news: Fed Govt over-rules NC re offshore energy seismic survey

Forget wind and solar power for COVID recovery

US Republicans Prepare For Energy ‘Cold War’ With China

NYISO Power Trends 2020

Fossil Fuels Still Supply 84% of World Energy — And Other Eye Openers

In Iowa, lobbyists look to counter local wind, solar opposition

Robert Bryce’s Power Hungry Podcast

Manmade Global Warming: Some Deceptions

On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare 

Covid-19 pandemic is ‘fire drill’ for effects of climate crisis, says UN official

Book Review: ‘Apocalypse Never’ – False Gods for Lost Souls

Study: MIT’s Dr. Lindzen Pokes Fun at the Naïve, Well-Funded CO2 Claims

The Climate Campaign Is Less And Less About The Climate

Michael E Mann, Loser (Again) and Deadbeat (for Sure)

Video: Alex Epstein interviews Naomi Seibt

Manmade Global Warming: Climate Models

Next-generation climate models: worse than ever!

Study: Structural Errors in Global Climate Models

Hurricane season is here, but don’t believe climate change pandering

The flaw in relying on the worst-case-scenario climate model

Manmade Global Warming: Misc

EU Made ‘No Progress’ In Climate Action Over Past Five Years

A Winning Trifecta for Climate Science and Rationality

Study: How Does CO2 Escape the Atmosphere?

Slideshow: Climate Statistics 101

Warming is not the only threat

Education Related

Three generations of brainwashing are paying off for the left

Charter schools’ enemies block black success

Equity vs. Excellence. Is the University of California Committing Suicide?

Save the Humanities by Flipping the Curriculum

Why Do American Universities Lead the World in Scientific Research?

Religion and Current Events

Now They’re Coming For Christ

Stop The Coronavirus Crackdown on Religion

A new way to end Big Tech censorship against Conservatives and Christians

Keys to the Progressive Kingdom

Environmentalism as Religion: A Leading Environmentalist Bemoans That

Trans-humanism: The new religion of the coming technocracy

US Politics and Socialism

Confederate statues, now founders, next Jesus. Their real target: America

Apocalyptic science: How the West is destroying itself

Peterson video: The Marxist Lie of White Privilege

Video: Manipulating America: The Chinese Communist Playbook

Young Socialists’ Vision Blind to Capitalism’s Virtues

America’s Own Color Revolution

Defend, Not Defund Police

Put Merit of CHOP’s Ideology to the Test

Other US Politics and Related

Thomas Sowell at 90: Understanding Race Relations Around the World

Short Video w Larry Elder: The Ferguson Lie

Short Video: The Hyprocricy is Unbelievable!

Preying Mattis Should Learn the Difference Between Protesters and Rioters

Science and Misc Matters

The Pandemic Claims New Victims: Prestigious Medical Journals

More Scientists Abandon Their Profession to Promote Left-Wing Politics

54 scientists have lost their jobs as a result of NIH probe into foreign ties

A War Against Science Waged by DC’s Rank and File

DOJ calls for Big Tech bias reform laws

EPA Finally May Look at Benefits and Costs of Rule-making Processes

EPA gives up on barring grantees from science advisory panels

Note 1: It’s recommended to read the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g. PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen…  Common fonts, etc. have been used to minimize display issues.

Note 2: For a detailed background about the Newsletter, please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change that complements the Newsletter. As a parallel effort, there is also a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on our WiseEnergy.org website.

Note 4: If you’d like to join the 10,000 worldwide readers and get your own free copy of this periodic Newsletter, simply send John an email saying that.

Note 5: John is not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or the WiseEnergy.org website) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. His recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical issues.

Copyright © 2020; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org)

Supreme Court deals blow to opponents of Atlantic Coast Pipeline

In a closely watched decision that will move one of the nation’s largest energy infrastructure projects a few steps nearer to realization, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) acted lawfully when it granted a permit for the proposed $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) to cross under the Appalachian Trail.

The 7-2 ruling, handed down June 15, removes the biggest legal obstacle to the 600-mile pipeline, which would carry up to 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale basin in West Virginia to customers in Virginia and North Carolina.

Questions over which federal agency has the authority to issue a permit, known as a right-of-way, in the Appalachian Trail sector of the pipeline have kept the project tied up in courts. In issuing its decision, the Supreme Court overturned a 2018 ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the Forest Service lacked the authority to approve the right-of-way, because the Appalachian Trail is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Park Service (NPS). The pipeline wouldn’t actually “cross” the Appalachian Trail; it would be constructed and installed hundreds of feet beneath it.

Untangling Jurisdictional Questions

Speaking for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas addressed the vexing question of whether the Interior Department’s decision to make the NPS responsible for the Appalachian Trail also meant the NPS has authority over land underneath the trail. Thomas determined that the administrative arrangement did not remove the USFS’s power to approve construction under the trail.

“Accordingly, the Forest Service had the authority to issue the permit here,” he wrote.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), one of the green groups suing to stop the pipeline, remained defiant after the ruling was handed down.

“While today’s decision was not what we hoped for, it addresses only one of the many problems faced by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. This is not a viable project. It is still missing many required authorizations, including the Forest Service permit at issue in today’s case, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will soon consider the mounting evidence that we never need this pipeline to supply power,” SELC’s DJ Gerken said in a statement.

In Operation by 2022?

As expected, the court’s ruling was welcomed by the project’s two leading developers, Dominion Resources and Duke Energy. Dominion expects to begin construction later this year and is looking at having the pipeline in operation by early 2022.

“Today’s decision is an affirmation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and communities across our region that are depending on it for jobs, economic growth, and clean energy,” Duke Energy said in a statement. “We look forward to resolving the remaining project permits.”

The project’s developers should be able to obtain the missing USFS permit later this summer. Other permits shouldn’t pose a problem unless there is a change of administrations in January. Then, all bets are off.

Author

Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.

Bonner R. Cohen, Ph. D., is a senior policy analyst with CFACT.

EDITORS NOTE: This CFACT column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Recent Energy and Environmental News — Plus COVID-19 Models and Data

Our latest Energy & Environmental Newsletter is now available… For the full version of this issue, go here, page 42.  To review some of the highlights, see below.

Considering the end-of-times crises that now seem to appear almost weekly, please give careful consideration to Paul Harvey’s short, prophetic 1964 talk:

(please watch it on your computer, in full-screen mode)

Two upbeat specials:

Great short video: Me Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self

Six Tips for Finding Happiness (+ find religion!)

My votes for the most outstanding articles this cycle are:

A Compilation of Some HCQ Studies

Scientists, MDs Rip Anti-HCQ Study Published In The Lancet

Forecast Models Encounter Reality

Public trust in scientists will decline in wake of COVID-19

HCQ Farce Has Tragic Consequences


Democrats prepare to push clean energy in recovery packages

Reality Is Gradually Catching Up To Green Energy

America needs a realistic debate about our energy future

Study: IPCC’s core hypothesis is dead

Study (part 1): The Global Carbon Budget: Highly Questionable


To the Americans Who Are on Their Knees

Ben Stein: My View of Looters

Senator Tom Cotton Takes On the Woke Mob

George Floyd’s Brother Testifies In House Judiciary Hearing

Talk given to 2020 MIT Graduation Class

Why Public Schools and the Mainstream Media Dumb Us Down


COVID-19: Therapies and Prevention

A Compilation of Some HCQ Studies

Scientists, MDs Rip Anti-HCQ Study Published In The Lancet

LancetGate: Pulling a Fast One on Proponents of HCQ

COVID-19: Lancet retracts paper that halted HCQ trials

HCQ Farce Has Tragic Consequences

Report: When does government intervention make sense for COVID-19?

COVID-19: Models and Data

Forecast Models Encounter Reality

Covid vs. Climate Modeling: Cloudy With a Chance of Politics

Why Both Coronavirus and Climate Models Get It Wrong

COVID-19 Modeler Admits Error

CDC: Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19

Studies: 60% of People Naturally Resistant to SARS-COV2

The Modelers Thought of Everything — Except Reality

COVID-19: Misc

Public trust in scientists will decline in wake of COVID-19

Tucker video: Our leaders used a health emergency to subvert democracy

It’s time to Flatten the Fear

EO on Accelerating the Nation’s Economic Recovery from the COVID-19

The CDC Waited ‘Its Entire Existence for This Moment.’ What Went Wrong?

An Unvarnished Look into China’s Bio-Weapons Program

Short video: Woke Virus

Greed Energy Economics

Democrats prepare to push clean energy in recovery packages

SCC: the Most Important Figure You’ve Never Heard of

As Subsidies Run Out, 5000 German Wind Projects Face Shutdown

How Virginia’s Green New Deal Will Add to Residents’ COVID-19 Costs

The Virginia Clean Economy Act is a Disaster

California Continues to Inflict More Costs onto the Energy Used by Residents

Renewable Energy Health and Eco-system Consequences

New York’s Accelerated Renewable Energy Act Poses Risks to Birds

Filthy ‘Green’ Future: The Dark & Toxic Side of Wind & Solar Power

Study: Offshore wind could have major impact on fishing, shipping

Natural Gas Energy

EPA rule limits states from blocking pipeline projects

Russia Fears American Energy Dominance — And That’s a Good Thing

U.S. To Become World’s Top LNG Exporter

Study: Filtration a Viable Option for Marcellus Shale Produced Water

Cryobox Reduces Methane Emissions

Nuclear Energy

Bold American Strategy to Lead on Nuclear Energy

NYS Negates all Wind and Solar statewide by closing Indian Point

Renewable Energy

Reality Is Gradually Catching Up To Green Energy

Wind Energy Projects Are “Like Siting Landfills. Nobody Wants Them.”

Until we get a proper roadmap, Net Zero is a goal without a plan

COVID-19: Green New Deal dress rehearsal

Good Commentary on the Lake Erie Wind Project

It’s time for California to follow Mexico and pull the plug on Renewables

Misc Energy

America needs a realistic debate about our energy future

FERC Energy Primer: A Handbook of Energy Market Basics

Good film: Juice: How Electricity Explains The World

The End of Petroleum Products Would Be The End of Society As We Know It

2019’s grid storage additions fell for the first time since 2013. Why?

Report: Electrifying the UK, and the Want of Engineering

Study: The Brink of Darkness — Britain’s Fragile Power Grid

Manmade Global Warming: Some Deceptions

Study: IPCC’s core hypothesis is dead

Study (part 1): The Global Carbon Budget: Highly Questionable

Report: Weather Extremes — Are They Caused by Global Warming?

US Power Sector Meets Climate Targets 11 Years Ahead of Schedule

CO2 levels hit record high despite emissions dip from coronavirus

Alarmist queen Hayhoe takedown by Friends of Science

NASA Scientist: Climate Catastrophe Is White Supremacy

Study: Changes in Barents Sea ice Edge Positions…

Report: Global Warming — FB Thinks Its Opinion Is Better Than Yours

Short Video: The 97% Myth

Education Related

Why Public Schools and the Mainstream Media Dumb Us Down

Talk given to 2020 MIT Graduation Class

Why Students Have Turned Away from History

UNC-Chapel Hill Creates Commission to Battle ‘Invisible Racism’

Do the Math…or Not

Are You Sure You Want to Go to Grad School?

Short video: Graduation 2020: The COVID Class

US Politics and Socialism

To the Americans Who Are on Their Knees

Short video: Why?

Biblical Principles for Political Engagement

Reaping a False Narrative Sown by Our Elites

Undercover Investigation – Minneapolis Riot Was Preplanned

It’s Time to Investigate George Soros for Funding Domestic Terrorism

Donations to BLM Go Directly to ActBlue, Which Supports the DNC

The Real History of Antifa

Other US Politics and Related

Ben Stein: My View of Looters

Senator Tom Cotton Takes On the Woke Mob

George Floyd’s Brother Testifies In House Judiciary Hearing

Where Black Lives Don’t Matter

Facebook is ‘destroying the very fabric of democracy’

President Trump’s Executive Order Confronts Big Tech Bias

US Manufacturing Exodus From China Gets Underway

Video: Minneapolis Riot Was Preplanned

Study: Ten Thousand Commandments

Science and Misc Matters

Shutdowns show how clean our air already is

EPA: Increasing Consistency and Transparency in the Rule-making Process

What Makes Experts Special?

The sky’s the limit for commercial space flight  

Note 1: It’s recommended to read the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g. PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen…  Common fonts, etc. have been used to minimize display issues.

Note 2: For a detailed background about the Newsletter, please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change that complements the Newsletter. As a parallel effort, there is also a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on our WiseEnergy.org website.

Note 4: If you’d like to join the 10,000 worldwide readers and get your own free copy of this periodic Newsletter, simply send John an email saying that.

Note 5: John is not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or the WiseEnergy.org website) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. His recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical issues.

Copyright © 2020; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org)

Recent Energy and Environmental News — Plus Some George Floyd Insights

In this special version of our Newsletter, I’m only covering two topics:

  1. Some background about the Newsletterand
  2. George Floyd.

The AWED Newsletter

I receive a LOT of questions about the Newsletter (How long it has been published? How much time do I spend putting together each issue? Can the Newsletter be reposted on social media sites? Can past issues be easily searched for topics of interest?  Etc., etc.).

For the first time ever, I’m publishing answers to all the questions I’ve been asked. If I’ve missed any, let me know and I’ll update this summary.

Some George Floyd Insights

I wrote a commentary about this issue, from the perspective that our recent poor societal choices have made the riots (looting, arson and deaths) completely expected. My piece was published in the DailyWire last week.

Archbishop Vigano’s superior letter to the President touched on some of my theme, as did Dennis Prager’s excellent video about values.

Some Black Perspectives on the George Floyd Matter:

Jason Riley: Good Police Work SAVES Black Lives

Short video: Shelby Steel on Floyd Riots

Short video: Candace Owens Gives George Floyd Facts

President Obama (2015): Looters are ‘Criminals’ not Protestors

Rob Smith: Floyd protesters vandalism shows ‘stunning lack of knowledge of American history’

Some Other George Floyd Insights:

Heather MacDonald: The Myth of Systemic Police Racism

Tucker Carlson video: Our Leaders Dither as our Cities Burn

Understanding Genes, Decadence, and the Decline of Empire

Armed Patriots Patrol Coeur d’Alene

George Floyd and the Future of Police Misconduct

On George Floyd: There is Nothing to Protest

Note 1: We recommend reading the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g. PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen… We’ve tried to use common fonts, etc. to minimize display issues.

Note 2: For a detailed background about the Newsletter, please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change. As a parallel effort, we have also put together a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on our WiseEnergy.org website.

Note 4: If you’d like to be taken off this free distribution, simply send me an email saying that.

Note 5: I am not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or the WiseEnergy.org website) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. My recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical issues.

Copyright © 2020; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org)

Recent Energy and Environmental News

Our latest Energy & Environmental Newsletter is now available… For the full version of this issue, go here, page 38.  To review some of the highlights, see below.

Three COVID-19 upbeat specials:

Doctors were asked if we should re-open the country. Their responses.

28 Coronavirus Jokes to retrain your face how to smile.

Short video: Coronavirus Horse Race.

My votes for the most outstanding articles this cycle are:

Study: HCQ+ZPak+Zinc

The Campaign Against HCQ

The Risks vs. Benefits of Face Masks

The US Is Dramatically Over-counting COVID-19 Deaths

Computer Modeling for Covid-19 and Climate Change are Fatally Flawed

What the Pandemic Modeling Fiasco Reveals

The Full Fauci Timeline: Sorting Fact From Fiction

It’s Life vs Life: Dr. Fauci We’d Like a Second Opinion

We Must Stop Falling for the Coronavirus Moral Crusade

Wind and solar weaknesses: Part 1 and Part 2

Green Electricity Delusions

Allam Cycle carbon capture gas plants: 11% more efficient, all CO2 captured

Covid-19 Crisis Will Only Intensify Global Dominance Of Fossil Fuels

Planet Of The Humans Documentary Removed From YouTube

Why Economic Slowdown Won’t Show Up in the Atmospheric CO2 Record

Climate change and a pandemic of lies

Study: State of the Climate – 2019

A War Against ‘Normal’

Six Ways to Keep American Universities Alive

Word of the week: Experts

‘Nature Rights’ Advances to World Economic Forum

Maybe I’m Wrong But…

On Trump Hatred

A Time To Hate

COVID-19: Therapies and Prevention

Study: HCQ+ZPak+Zinc

The Campaign Against HCQ

Obama bureaucrat brags about blocking HCQ drug

The Risks vs. Benefits of Face Masks

WHO: Wear masks only when taking care of COVID-19 patients

The Remdesivir Study Is Finally Out, and It’s Not Good

T cells found in COVID-19 patients ‘bode well’ for long-term immunity

COVID-19: Models and Data

The US Is Dramatically Over-counting COVID-19 Deaths

Computer Modeling for Covid-19 and Climate Change are Fatally Flawed

What the Pandemic Modeling Fiasco Reveals

The Full Fauci Timeline: Sorting Fact From Fiction

It’s Life vs Life: Dr. Fauci We’d Like a Second Opinion

Study: Risk of Coronavirus Spreading in Schools is ‘Extremely Low’

70 Experts tell Trump how to regain control over COVID-19 crisis

COVID-19: Misc.

Data: Left-Demanded Mass Transit Fueled COVID-19 Deaths

We Must Stop Falling for the Coronavirus Moral Crusade

COVID Claptrap: Sorry, But, No, We’re NOT All in This Together

A Time to Provide New Guards

Let’s Hope This Pandemic Isn’t a New Abnormal

America Must Unite to Win This Viral War Together

Greed Energy Economics

Mexico Pulls The Plug On Renewables

Trump admin slaps solar, wind operators with retroactive rent bills

Turbine power plunges when tax credits go away

Renewable Energy Health and Eco-system Consequences

Déja vu and Wind Turbines

The dark side of renewable electricity

Destroying the environment to save it

Natural Gas Energy

Allam Cycle carbon capture gas plants: 11% more efficient, all CO2 captured

Covid-19 Crisis Will Only Intensify Global Dominance Of Fossil Fuels

China’s Cheap Energy Recovery Plan: Boost Fracking & Shale Development

NYS re Energy, Climate, etc.

Andrew Cuomo Is the Most Corrupt Governor in NY’s History

Cuomo grips the climate cudgel

Andrew Cuomo flexes his ‘green’ dictatorial powers

Cuomo gave immunity to nursing home executives after big donations

Carbon Free New York or Cerebral Cortex Free New York?

Misc Energy

Wind and solar weaknesses: Part 1 and Part 2

Green Electricity Delusions

Editorial: If You Like The Lock-Down, You’ll Love The Green New Deal

Wind & Solar Need Fossil Fuel Backup – Here Is Why

Short Video: Rare Earth Emergency #2

Help Stop America’s Dependence on China for the Resources We Need!

Movie: Planet of the Humans

Planet Of The Humans Documentary Removed From YouTube

Here is a new location to watch Moore’s movie

Good commentary on the movie: Green Energy Truths in Vermont

Yes, Virginia, there is no (green energy) Santa Claus

Moore’s website has some good responses to criticisms.

“Old Data” is a Lie (Jeff Gibbs, director of Planet of the Humans)

Manmade Global Warming: Some Deceptions

Why Economic Slowdown Won’t Show Up in the Atmospheric CO2 Record

Climate change and a pandemic of lies

Study: Some newer climate models project unrealistic future warming

The Abuse of Naomi Seibt — and you can help

Short Video: The Consensus Fraud part 1 – Climate of Freedom Series

The Paris Accord now looks like a suicide note from Western democracies

Manmade Global Warming: Misc

Study: State of the Climate – 2019

Study: Multi-decadal natural variability in European temperature

Coronavirus threatens ‘years of progress’ on climate issues

The real climate science deniers

Study: Ocean Health – Is there an “Acidification” problem?

Education Related

Idaho’s Higher Education Earthquake?

A War Against ‘Normal’

Six Ways to Keep American Universities Alive

A Premeditated Crime Against America’s Most Disadvantaged Children

US Politics and Socialism

‘Nature Rights’ Advances to World Economic Forum

Former CBS News president: ‘Liberal leaning’ media passes its tipping point

Maybe I’m Wrong But…

Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship

Other US Politics and Related

On Trump Hatred

A Time To Hate

Short video: Floyd media coverage giving false impression

The Railroading of Michael Flynn: How it Happened and Why it Matters

Short video: What Does Separation of Church and State Mean?

Science and Misc Matters

Word of the week: Experts

President Trump Hails NASA, SpaceX For Successful Launch

The death of the scientific method   

Note 1: We recommend reading the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g. PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen… We’ve tried to use common fonts, etc. to minimize display issues.

Note 2: Originally this was a monthly Newsletter. However, as pertinent material proliferated, it has been issued more frequently. As a guideline, once we collect a hundred worthwhile articles, a new Newsletter will be issued on the following Monday. Recently this has resulted in a once every three weeks frequency — and occasionally once every two weeks.

Note 3: To accommodate numerous requests received about prior articles, we’ve put together detailed archives — where you can search by year, or over the ten+ years of the Newsletter.

Note 4: Our intention is to put some balance into what most people see from the mainstream media about energy, environmental and education issues… If you want to know our perspective on current events, please read the Big Picture New Year/New Decade commentary.

Note 5: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change. As a parallel effort, we have also put together a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy.

Note 6: Please pass the Newsletter on to open-minded citizens, and link to it on your social media sites. If there are others who you think would benefit from being on our Energy & Environmental email list, please let me know. If at any time you’d like to be taken off this free distribution, simply send me an email saying that.

Note 7: This Newsletter is intended to supplement the material on our website, WiseEnergy.org. (For wind warriors, the most important page there is the Winning page.)

Note 8: I am not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or the WiseEnergy.org website) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. My recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical issues.

Copyright © 2020; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org)

Will Planet Earth really thrive with fewer people?

The new Michael Moore film ‘Planet of the Humans’ inadvertently reveals a silver lining to the dark coronavirus cloud, at least in the eyes of the filmmakers.

Executive producer Michael Moore and his writer, director, editor and narrator Jeff Gibbs have confounded fellow left leaning political activists by hitting out at the renewable energy industry.

According to Moore and Gibbs, the green energy movement is a sham. It is not mitigating the effects of climate change. Worse still, the movement is being used by corporate interests to legitimise otherwise unacceptable behaviour. Corruptible climate activists are caught in their web.

The amount of renewable energy being generated is less than the amount of fossil fuel used in its production, the film asserts, rendering the move to green energy counterproductive.

All forms of renewable energy rely, one way or another, on a mined product, Gibbs says, legitimising a point miners have been trying to make proudly for years.

But Gibbs is no friend of the miners or the green energy promoters. Miners blast the tops off mountains. Wind farmers blast the tops off mountains. They are equally repugnant. That is the Moore and Gibbs message. The two filmmakers are targeting everyone. Human beings are the problem.

Early in the film, Gibbs records a visit to a music festival promoting renewable energy use. Behind the stage, he finds a connection to the local power grid. Those attending, it seems, do not want to take a chance on a dodgy power supply, however green.

Gibbs uses the apparent dishonesty of the concert promoters as the stepping stone to a wide-ranging barrage against renewable energy double-dealing.

As a source of motivation, his concert experience is validly highlighted. That does not stop it being one of many misleading and potentially duplicitous uses of old film to manufacture an anti-growth story line.

In many respects, this is a film made about 2010 which just happens to have been released in 2020. Examples of industry practices, interviews and anecdotes are drawn repeatedly from five, ten or more years earlier. The film is not an account of today’s renewable energy industry. Nor does it need to be for Gibbs’ purposes.

The film deftly weaves old footage, dog whistling innuendo, ambush interviews and pregnant pauses to throw doubt on peoples’ motivations, without exploring arguments in any detail. Environmental campaigners Al Gore and Bill McKibben, in particular, come out looking sullied for having sold out to commercial interests.

Gore’s 2013 sale of his US television business to a subsidiary of Al Jazeera, founded by the fossil fuel-rich state of Qatar, is highlighted. A succession of clips lasting barely a few seconds, removing any vestige of context, shows Gore repeatedly trying to weasel out of the apparent hypocrisy.

Gore’s linguistic squirming might entertain some. Why his financial windfall should affect attitudes to climate change is less obvious. And why not simply congratulate the green Gore for having offloaded a dud TV business onto an egregiously wealthy but commercially inept carbon spewing despot?

Moore and Gibbs know which emotional buttons to press as they slyly husband support for their attack on the renewable energy industry.

Those on the left of politics regard the ultra-wealthy and politically potent Koch brothers as barely short of pure evil. So, too, are funds management firms, especially ones registered in the Cayman Islands.

So, merely mentioning that a Koch-owned business supplies parts to a solar energy array is supposed to be enough to instantly discredit the entire endeavour. Saying that Gore and McKibben are involved in funds management is enough to call into question the renewables shift which they support.

The film spends a good deal of time attacking the use of biomass to inflate renewable energy production numbers. Gibbs questions whether biomass even qualifies as ‘renewable’.

Biomass-sourced energy is characterised by Gibbs as simply destroying forests. More than that, biomass energy generators use potentially toxic chemicals and cavalierly emit pollutants, according to the film.

After attributing 70 percent of worldwide renewable energy production to biomass, Gibbs darts back to his US-centric storyline.  In rhetorically flagellating US biomass energy producers, Gibbs ignores any US data. According to the government’s Energy Information Administration, US biomass accounted for only 44 percent of renewable energy production in 2019 and 43 percent of the increase in renewable energy output since 1980.

As well as reeking of dishonesty, Planet of the Humans contains more veiled prejudices than one can easily recount.

Mining of so-called rare earth elements, needed to make high strength magnets used by clean energy technologies, is linked sneakily to unfettered radioactivity. A ticking Geiger counter is deployed to emphasise imminent danger. Forget that radioactivity occurs naturally before any mining is contemplated.

Radioactive waste is turned into a paste and spread over the desert floor, says one of the movie’s producers, pretending to be an independent expert. Investigations by US environmental agencies did identify extensive spillage of contaminated water in the 1980s and 1990s. They imposed penalties and initiated clean-up action.

The Mountain Pass mine which has been closed for the majority of time since 2000 has since been re-permitted to operate by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the government of California, where it is located. Without it, the US would be relying entirely on environmentally compromised and strategically risky Chinese output. None of the history is exposed in the film.

Gibbs contends that industrial activity, consumerism, pursuit of wealth and corporate power are the climate change drivers. The shift to renewable energy is simply feeding the monster, not solving the problem.

The film dwells on only one solution. Anthropologist Nina Jablonski from Penn State University describes population growth as the herd of elephants in the climate change room. We have to have our ability to consume reined in, says the expert on the evolution of human skin.

Another interviewed anthropologist, Steven Churchill from Duke University, is an authority on the causes of Neanderthal extinction. In obviously old footage, Churchill asserts that without “a major die-off” in the modern human population there is no turning back from the consequences of climate change.

Who dies, how they die and who chooses who dies are all questions conveniently left unaddressed from Churchill’s lofty academic perch.

“Species hit the population wall and crash”, according to Churchill, who channels the discredited 1970s doomsayer Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb. Human beings are following a well-trodden path. That is the natural order of things. There is no way out, he warns.

Moore’s reputation as a film maker was buffed and polished through his attacks on corporate misdeeds. He portrayed himself as a fighter for the underdog worker. Now, it seems, ordinary people are expendable in favour of a greater cause.

Moore has needed little prompting since the film’s release to link its warnings of humankind misbehaviour and its anti-growth message to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. He has described the pandemic as a huge warning from Mother Nature.

For Moore, the destruction of global economic activity over the past two months needs to become a permanent feature of life on earth. And, if the film is any guide, the meagre Covid-19 death count does not go far enough.

Moore’s solution to climate change is little different to the dire consequences of climate change itself. His film advocates death and mayhem to prevent death and mayhem. Why bother?

COLUMN BY

John Robertson

John A. Robertson is a consulting economist with a background in investment management, corporate strategy and public policy. He writes the weekly ‘From the Capital’ column for London-based Mining… More by John Robertson.

RELATED ARTICLE: Fertility rates fall in the USA

EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.