The Week That Was: 2022-09-03 (September 3, 2022)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “Once you start doubting, just like you’re supposed to doubt. You ask me if the science is true and we say ‘No, no, we don’t know what’s true, we’re trying to find out, everything is possibly wrong’ … When you doubt and ask it gets a little harder to believe. I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing, than to have answers which might be wrong.” —Richard Feynman (1981) [H/t Javier Vinós & Andy May]
Number of the Week: Over 21 Billion Tons
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: The end of summer in the Northern Hemisphere must bring on the silly season – unsupported claims of what may have been or could be. SEPP board member David Legates addresses the claim that the world’s rivers are drying up from carbon dioxide-caused climate change. Using physical evidence, he shows that claims that the US west is experiencing the worst drought in human history are absurd. The same applies to rivers in Europe and China.
Sadly, Pakistan is experiencing significant floods and carbon dioxide-caused climate change is blamed, as if such flooding has not occurred before. Year-to-year changes in the monsoon seasons are not climate change.
The poorly named Science Advances published by the now-lobbying group American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) had an article claiming that CO2-caused climate change increases the risk of a California megaflood, similar to one that occurred in the winter of 1861-62. Meteorologist Cliff Mass addresses the diverse factors that converged to create that flood, and that none of these factors is made more likely by increasing CO2.
Nature Climate Change published an article that an increase in melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will cause the sea levels to rise severely. Separately, Anthony Watts and Paul Homewood point out the folly of the assumptions made in the article. Poor assumptions do not make good science.
The war in Ukraine is threatening a nuclear power plant in Ukraine. In the Wall Street Journal, Holman Jenkins discusses the folly of using the mathematical linear no threshold model that produces absurd results to evaluate nuclear power plants. Many nuclear agencies are guilty of creating fear beyond any reasonable concern.
Net Zero Watch produced a paper questioning the use of flawed climate models for evaluating financial risks. None of the models used by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been rigorously tested. The issue is the difference between precision and accuracy. The result of a model may be very precise, but that does not mean that it is accurate (reliable and realistic).
Jo Nova brings up an interesting article on natural plasticity of forests. They can adapt to warming. She also discusses a ten-year study of a mid-Pacific coral atoll which has been severely bleached twice but is thriving. Another example of natural plasticity which has occurred over millions of years yet ignored by many “experts.”
The Canadian Prime Minister was asked to expand exports of liquified natural gas (LNG) to Europe and said Nyet (No), sacrificing a great opportunity to help in the European energy crisis.
In a political speech, President Biden called a political group semi-Fascist. Fascism has specific characteristics, some of which TWTW will address.
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Drying Rivers: Writing in The American Thinker, David Legates addresses the false fear promoted by CNN that “the Colorado, Yangtze, Rhine, Po, Loire, and Danube are dwindling due to ‘a painful lack of rain and relentless heat waves.’” Although the rivers are in a low flow condition, human use places demands on water amplifying low flow conditions which happen through history. For the Colorado we have significant physical evidence that the “drying up” is more a condition of overuse of water than lack of rain. Legates writes:
“The Colorado River is cited as the first example, and, although CNN attributes its drying to the ‘historic drought in the US West,’ they do not suggest that this drought is human induced. They do mention, however, that ‘around 40 million people in seven states and Mexico rely on the river’s water for drinking, agriculture and electricity.’ But an evaluation of the current conditions from the USGS National Water Dashboard indicates, as shown below, that many stream gauge stations in western Colorado and Utah are near normal, and in New Mexico and Arizona, they are above and much above normal.”
“In fact, the 20th Century was the wettest century of the past millennium. Lake Mead (highlighted by the CNN article) is drying up, not because the streamflow in the region has gone to near zero, but, as University of Alabama climate scientist Roy Spencer shows, because the population of the ‘desert’ has grown so much that the water resources of the region cannot support the water demand.
“Next, the CNN article focuses on the Yangtze River in central China. The controversial Three Gorges Dam lies on the Yangtze River, and operation of the dam greatly affects the water levels of both the upstream and downstream portions of the river. Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, but it also serves to enhance the shipping ability of the Yangtze River by controlling streamflow and reducing flood potential for downstream communities. It has adversely affected the landscape and ecology of the region, which is why it has become highly controversial, both domestically and internationally.”
“For the Rhine, wetland restoration in the German mountains has had an impact on summer flow, particularly because ‘the recession flow following the peaks is higher’ (i.e., the decrease in flow following the flood peak is increased), which would, according to Wetlands International, cause the water to drain faster, thereby creating a low flow sooner. The Po, too, is low due to a drought, but its flow was lower seventy years ago — well before purportedly manmade global warming took hold. The effect of draining wetlands and extensive industrialization also has had an effect on the river. Euronews reported an expert’s view that while the Loire is ‘drier than usual this year,’ some of the photos of the Loire ‘are at least a dramatisation of the situation.’ And the Danube in Romania is affected by extensive urban land development, the loss of flood plains, and deforestation. All three will exacerbate floods but decrease the flow during low flow conditions as little water exists in transit to the river to sustain the flow when rainfall is low.”
The most devastating criticism is CNN’s comparison of 2022 aerial photos to 2021. A year-to-year variation is weather, not climate change.
In a separate post, Tony Heller mentions that agriculture is the dominant use of water in Colorado, the major Upper Basin beneficiary of the Colorado River Compact (52% of 7.5-million-acre ft/year, California gets 59% of the 7.5-million-acre ft/year allocated to the Lower Basin. As Legates indicates, the allocations are too high, developed during a wet era.
In 2021 in Colorado, “cattle and calves top the list of the state’s agricultural commodities, with dairy products, corn, hay and wheat following closely behind.” Corn for biofuels is interesting because it is heavily subsidized, an intense user of water and completely unneeded. A 2010 study mentioned by Heller has among its conclusions:
“Some of the fuels that have been promoted by government policies have larger-than-average water consumption, especially biofuels for transportation fuels. Corn ethanol has by far the highest water consumption of any fuel analyzed, largely due to irrigation during the corn-growing stage. A mandated move to advanced biofuels (cellulosic ethanol) could bring biofuels water usage closer to that of other fuels—these technologies are currently unproven on a commercial scale”
Thanks to hydraulic fracturing, directional drilling, and the exploration and development of deep-water resources in the Gulf of Mexico, massive subsidies for biofuels, solar and wind power are not needed in North America. Only false fears promoted by governments keep the subsidies flowing. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy, Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy – Other, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact, and https://farmflavor.com/colorado-agriculture/#:~:text=Cattle%20and%20calves%20top%20the,millet%2C%20floriculture%20and%20chicken%20eggs.
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Increasing Confusion: Adding to the confusion, “climate scientist” Katharine Hayhoe claimed: “The American West is experiencing its driest period in human history…” Apparently, the “Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law in the Public Administration program of the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University” did not bother to check records, such as the 1930s. [Boldface added] See link under
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
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Shifting Intertropical Convergence Zone? The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) changes from yet to year for reasons not well known. The ITCZ has long been known by sailors as the “doldrums” or “the calms” because in the days of sailing ships sailors would experience weeks and months of monotonous windless weather. In parts of the world the ITCZ merges with monsoonal circulation. Usually, monsoons are associated with wet weather, but they are responsible for dry weather as well. The process has been going on for millions of years and no relationship with carbon dioxide has been established.
Thus, it is strange that leaders of Pakistan, which has varying monsoons, are accusing the US of changing the weather by emitting carbon dioxide causing hundreds of deaths from flooding. They could accuse China which emits over two times the CO2 than the US, but it is unlikely that the leaders of China would respond sympathetically.
The East African monsoon system is also shifting, bringing drought as well as food problems to the horn of Africa. At least they are not accusing the “Whale of Pakistan” for causing these problems. See Changing Weather and https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70155254.
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The Great Flood: From December 1861 to January 1862 repeated atmospheric rivers brought massive rains and snows to Oregon, Nevada, and California. Nothing of that magnitude has been recorded since. Sacramento in the Central Valley, which frequently flooded, was flooded for months and the state capital was temporarily moved to San Francisco.
Meteorologist Cliff Mass systematically takes apart an article published in Science Advances claiming that CO2-caused climate change increases the chances of such a great flood (termed an ARk Storm) of recurring. (The reference to Noah’s ark is obvious,) According to Mass:
“The only ARk storm in the historical record occurred during December 1861/January 1862 in California, over a period of about 30 days. 2-3 feet of rain fell over much of central California, with even more in some mountain locations, due to roughly a half-dozen extreme atmospheric river events. This heavy rain was accompanied by above-normal temperatures, melting snowpack, and a relatively wet period prior.
“Larger areas of the interior of California were flooded. There was extensive loss of life and damage to buildings and farms.
“This kind of extreme, extended flooding event in California has occurred many times before, with evidence provided by layers of sediments in the coastal zone. Such events appear to occur every few hundred years.”
The Science Advances paper is based on untested global climate models assuming the highest rates of CO2 emissions. Any relationship between CO2 concentrations and rainfall is not well established.
Further Mass shows the results of the models are inconsistent with observations.
“According to their model results, the frequency and amplitude of big, multi-week precipitation events should already have been increasing.
“Observations do not show that. There is no evidence of an increase in heavy precipitation events or even changes in annual precipitation in California. Which implies something is wrong with their model simulations.”
After citing further physical evidence Mass concludes:
“But remember, it takes more than more moisture to produce an ARk storm: you need not only record-breaking atmospheric rivers but to have multiple ones, all hitting the same area. In short, there must be many extremely unusual “fire hoses” occurring in a short period and hitting the same geography.
And there is more: to have a record ARk flooding event you need to have a large pre-existing, ready to melt, snowpack in the mountains, which will lessen under global warming. And an antecedent wet period.
“No wonder it is rare to get an ARk event! A lot of moving pieces. And for most of the pieces, there is no reason to expect enhancement by global warming.
“Furthermore, California has a massive storage capacity for water in its reservoir system, something that did not exist 100 years ago. This can help buffer the next ARk storm.
“And there is one more consideration: reality is not following the predicted extreme precipitation increase projected by the climate models. Thus, it is quite possible that the models are overdoing the impacts of global warming. I am a modeler, read the papers, and have been at endless seminars on climate model performance. Trust me, these models have major problems, and many deficiencies are in the area of clouds and precipitation.” See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy
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Zombie Ice? A paper claiming the Greenland ice sheet is in disequilibrium and Greenland alone will cause 10-inch rise in sea levels during this century attracted separate criticisms from Anthony Watts and Paul Homewood. The paper was accompanied by articles promoting it. Perhaps the term “Zombie ice” used by Phys.org was meant to attract readers, but it really invokes derision. The term implies that the warming of Greenland will continue indefinitely, causing ice to melt. Winter is approaching and the ice will continue to melt?
The problem with the study is that it is based on 2012, which had the lowest estimated Greenland Ice in recent history. To project that amount indefinitely into the future is meaningless. Already by 2022, Greenland ice is increasing as measured at the end of the melt season. Usually, the end of the Arctic melt season is mid-September, but the Greenland ice sheet is at high altitudes and the season may have ended in the last week of August. We don’t know whether the weather will change. Paul Homewood sums his criticism:
“In summary the evidence clearly shows that:
1) Current temperatures in Greenland are not unprecedented, either on a 20th Century scale, or a Holocene one.
2) Temperature measurements only began during the Little Ice Age, the coldest era since the ice age.
3) The ice sheet is smaller now than for much of the Holocene.
4) Proper satellite measurements of the ice cap began after 40 years of significant cooling.”
See links under Changing Cryosphere.
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Nuclear Problems: Writing in the Wall Street Journal, columnist Holman Jenkins summarizes much of the misinformation concerning nuclear energy: He writes:
“If government followed the science, it would be ready to chuck established practice when better information came along. Not the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which one year ago upheld a 70-year-old nuclear risk standard while admitting that the science didn’t support it.
Why bring this scientific embarrassment up now? Because if the question were revisited a year later, reason might actually prevail. The climate crowd has begun rethinking its opposition to nuclear power. At the same time, depressingly, such a revolution could be urgently needed if events at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine poison the burgeoning pro-nuclear mood.
In a little-noticed fact, coal plants are estimated to emit 5,000 tons of uranium and 15,000 tons of thorium a year, about 100 times the amount of radiation that escapes into the environment from the world’s 440 nuclear reactors. If coal plants were made to follow the same rules as nuclear plants or even hospital radiation labs, we’d have no coal plants. The rules deliberately exaggerate the health risks from low-level radiation while requiring certain facilities (but not others) to spare no expense in reducing exposures to the lowest ‘reasonably achievable’ level.
One consequence, after the contained meltdown of three Japanese reactors in 2011 caused by a large earthquake and tsunami, no deaths from radiation exposure were recorded or expected, and yet a minimum of 32 deaths and as many as 2,000 were attributed to the forced evacuation of 150,000 people against an exposure risk equivalent to half a CT scan. Even more absurd, the underlying risk standard that produced this result not only was known to lack scientific backing, it increasingly appears to have been the product of scientific fraud in the 1940s.
But it’s not facetious to say political agencies aren’t going to be caught relaxing a nuclear safety standard as long the first thing Americans think of is the three-eyed fish from ‘The Simpsons.’ ‘The problem with nuclear is actually quite simple,’ the U.S.-based Energy Intelligence Group acutely puts it. ‘People are afraid of it, and this is justified by nearly everything they have heard about it since they were born.’
All this might, but won’t, shed light on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. The reactors are well contained and shielded, the Russians want the power, not to create a nuclear cloud that might blow back over Russia. Vladimir Putin wants to play on Europe’s nuclear fears.”
Jenkins then posits a failure of one or more reactors at Zaporizhzhia and writes:
“The disaster could be as bad as Chernobyl, a power plant so badly designed that it produced an uncontained meltdown without any outside assistance.
But it’s also worth noting that the thousands of cancer deaths expected from Chernobyl based on low-level radiation risk haven’t materialized, including lung cancer and leukemia deaths.
The recognized death toll consists of 60 (mostly firefighters) from acute radiation exposure, plus a likely 50 or so from preventable and usually curable thyroid cancer among millions who were exposed as children to radioactive iodine-131. (Against a repeat, Ukrainian officials have been handing out preventative iodine tablets, but nothing similar has been reported in Russia or Belarus.)
A disaster of historic proportions is already engulfing Ukraine, thanks to the war. An uncontained, Chernobyl-like meltdown would be a catastrophe piled on catastrophe. It would remind us, as nobody needed reminding, that nuclear power plants are sensitive, high-risk industrial installations. But then the U.S. government tells us that U.S. power plants, in normal peacetime operation, kill nearly 3,000 people annually with fine-particle pollution. The estimate is contentious but almost certainly more die in coal-mining accidents every year, especially in China, than the proven deaths from all nuclear accidents combined.”
The linear-no-threshold model (referenced by Jenkins) is used by the EPA and other government agencies to estimate the “radiation deaths” from nuclear power; it is a mathematical absurdity. It demonstrates that when there is something wrong with the hypothesis, then applying rigorous mathematics may produce absurd results. But bureaucrats and green promoters will claim the absurd results are science, because they are produced by mathematics. See Article # 1. ********************
Natural Plasticity: For simplicity, natural plasticity can be described as how plants and animals adapt to changing environment. CO2 Science has a number of articles on this. Jo Nova gives two good examples. One is the ability of forests to adapt to changing inter-annual temperature variability. The second is a ten-year systematic study of a coral reef in an isolated atoll in the central Pacific. Over the study period, the reef experience two significant bleaching events. The abstract states”
“The El Niño events of 2009–2010 and 2015–2016 resulted in acute thermal stress and coral bleaching was observed at both reef habitats during these events. Across 10 yr. and two bleaching events, the benthic community structure on Palmyra shows evidence of long-term stability. Communities on the RT [reef terrace, wave sheltered] exhibited minimal change in percent cover of the dominant functional groups, while the FR [fore reef, wave-exposed] had greater variability and minor declines in hard coral cover. There was also spatial variation in the trajectory of each site through time. Coral cover decreased at some sites 1 yr. following both bleaching events and was replaced by different algal groups depending on the site, yet returned to pre-bleaching levels within 2 yr. Overall, our data reveal the resilience of calcifier-dominated coral reef communities on Palmyra Atoll that have persisted over the last decade despite two bleaching events, demonstrating the capacity for these reefs to recover from and/or withstand disturbances in the absence of local stressors.”
Corals and forests have survived warming and cooling for hundreds of millions of years —including times when CO2 levels were at last 10 times as high as now—and there is no reason to assume human increase in CO2 will change that ability. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy and Changing Climate
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Maybe Not: Last week, TWTW suggested that the new climate bill may undermine the clear intent of the Supreme Court decision in West Virginia v. EPA. Attorney Marlow Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute argues that it does not. The courts are indifferent to what legislators claim after the fact. See Litigation Issues.
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Nyet: Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau has decided not to support Europe in its opposition to the Russian invasion by expanding oil and gas exports. According to reports, his reasoning is stunning: there’s no business case for Canadian exports of LNG to Europe. We have thousands of examples of LNG exports throughout the world on which a business case for Canadian exports to Europe can be built. What does not exist is a single business case showing the cost of making wind and solar power 99.99% reliable. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy
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Semi-Fascism? According to reports, in a stunning statement President Biden said
“What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy,” “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism.”
As a political philosophy, fascism embodies power of the executive over the legislature and the judiciary, and the power of government over the individual. Almost from the time he took office, President Biden issued executive actions to control individual production and distribution of reliable fossil fuels. In July, he announced new executive actions to “combat” climate change. He has supported massive subsidies to wind and solar, for which there is no business case showing the costs of making them reliable. Mr Biden has mastered the old debating trick of accusing your opponent of actions you are doing. See links under Change in US Administrations.
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Number of the Week: Over 21 Billion Tons. According to Tony Heller, the Polar Portal of the Danish Arctic research institutions reported almost 22 Billion tons of new snow in five days ending August 31, 2022. A New Hockey-stick? See links under Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice and http://polarportal.dk/en/greenland/surface-conditions/#c8397
Science: Is the Sun Rising?
The Sun-Climate Effect: The Winter Gatekeeper Hypothesis (V). A role for the sun in climate change
By Javier Vinós & Andy May, Climate Etc. Aug 28, 2022
Commentary: Is the Sun Rising?
With Record Sunshine, Germany’s 2022 Summer Was One Of The Warmest, Driest Since 1881
By Die kalte Sonne, Via P. Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Sep 2, 2022
Censorship
Surprise! The Biden Administration And Deep State Are Behind Massive Systematic Suppression Of Disfavored Speech On Social Media
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Sep 1, 2022
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-9-1-surprise-the-biden-administration-and-deep-state-are-behind-systematic-suppression-of-critical-speech-on-social-media
Shut Them Up, Argues the Academy of Science
By Tony Thomas, Quadrant Online, Aug 30, 2022
“In a move unprecedented in the democratic world, the Australian Academy of Science is lobbying the tech giants Meta (Facebook), Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and TikTok to censor and harass any Australians who circulate what the Academy insultingly labels ‘climate denialism misinformation.’”
Challenging the Orthodoxy — NIPCC
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science
Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2013
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/CCR/CCR-II/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Idso, Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2014
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-biological-impacts/
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/media-library/pdfs/CCR-IIb/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://store.heartland.org/shop/ccr-ii-fossil-fuels/
Download with no charge:
Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
The NIPCC Report on the Scientific Consensus
By Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), Nov 23, 2015
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/
Download with no charge:
https://www.heartland.org/policy-documents/why-scientists-disagree-about-global-warming
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
Global Sea-Level Rise: An Evaluation of the Data
By Craig D. Idso, David Legates, and S. Fred Singer, Heartland Policy Brief, May 20, 2019
World Climate Declaration: There is no climate emergency
By Nobel Laurate Professor Ivar Giaever, et al. CLINTEL.org, June 27, 2022
Natural as well as anthropogenic factors cause warming
Warming is far slower than predicted
Climate policy relies on inadequate models
CO2 is plant food, the basis of all life on Earth
Global warming has not increased natural disasters
Climate policy must respect scientific and economic realities
Is Extreme Weather Causing the World’s Rivers to Dry Up?
By David R. Legates, American Thinker, Aug 30, 2022
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/08/is_extreme_weather_causing_the_worlds_rivers_to_dry_up.html
Link to: USGS National Water Dashboard
https://dashboard.waterdata.usgs.gov/app/nwd/?aoi=default
The Fantasy World of Renewable Energy
By Gordon Hughes and John Constable, The Daily Sceptic, Aug 29, 2022
Will a Small Change in Average Temperature Lead to a Large Change in Extremes?
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, Aug 30, 2022
“Frequent readers will know that I don’t think temperature averages are quite proper for evaluating climatic changes, even short term and local. Here I use a long-term average only to follow the conventions of CliSci and to illustrate the falsity of their meme.
“A better way to look at temperatures, in my opinion, is to look at Tmax and Tmin shown on the same image. It is acceptable to show Tavg ( Tmax+Tmin/2 ) as a visual tool, though it is not particularly meaningful as it does not translate into the temperature profile of the day, which would be far more informative.”
How Serious is the ARk Storm (Catastrophic Flooding) Threat Along the West Coast?
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Aug 31, 2022
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2022/08/how-serious-is-ark-storm-catastrophic.html
Link to paper: Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood
By Xingying Huang and Daniel Swain, AAAS Science Advances. Aug 12, 2022
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2022/08/how-serious-is-ark-storm-catastrophic.html
The 2022 Climate Surprises No One Is Talking About: Arctic Sea Ice, Hurricanes And German Sunshine
By Stefan Kämpfe (EIKE), Via P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Aug 30, 2022
The British Energy Horror Story
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 28, 2022
Link to: British energy planning (a horror story)
By James McSweeney, The Critic.co.uk, Aug 29, 2022
https://thecritic.co.uk/british-energy-planning-a-horror-story/
“As the article explains, this kind of make-believe has been self-generating within official circles, with the green blob in BEIS [Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)] fudging the figures, using accounting tricks and even making stuff up, and ministers justifying their policies by reference to the Committee on Climate Change.”
Oh that energy crisis
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 31, 2022
Are fossil-fuel CO2 emissions good or bad?
By Andy May, WUWT, Aug 30, 2022
“Nordhaus claims that the optimal economic scenario leads to four degrees of global warming. Current realistic projections say we might see 2.5 to 3°C of warming in 2100. What is the fuss? More than 6000 years ago, temperatures were at least three degrees warmer than today in the Northern Hemisphere when civilization began. All Karoly and the IPCC have are ominous projections of future warming, with further projections of damages based on them. None of their projections have been validated, and they have been invalidated by Ross McKitrick and John Christy in two recent critical papers, published in 2018 and 2020.”
It’s almost like corals have been doing this for millions of years. 90% bleached but recovered in just two years?
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Sep 2, 2022
Link to paper: Decadal stability of coral reef benthic communities on Palmyra Atoll, central Pacific, through two bleaching events
By Adi Khen, et al. Coral Reefs, May 21, 2022
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-022-02271-6
It’s… it’s… impossible
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 31, 2022
“Cliff Mass begs to differ. He puts forward the “Golden Rule of Climate Extremes” that “The more extreme a climate or weather record is, the greater the contribution of natural variability and the smaller the contribution of human-caused global warming.” (And here let us grant that Mass has no MALD; he is merely “an American professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. His research focuses on numerical weather modeling and prediction, the role of topography in the evolution of weather systems, regional climate modeling, and the weather of the Pacific Northwest.”
Global Financial System at Risk From Flawed Climate Models
By Staff, Net Zero Watch, Aug 25, 2022
Link to paper: Acute climate risks in the financial system: examining the utility of climate model projections
By A J Pitman, et al. Environmental Research, Climate, Aug 18, 2022
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5295/ac856f
“The uncertainty dwarfs any signal from emission scenarios, at least over the next 50 years.”
“They add that when it comes to climate models accuracy and precision are not the same thing”
Net-Zero Is the Real Climate Catastrophe
By Duggan Flanakin, Real Clear Energy, Aug 29, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/08/29/net-zero_is_the_real_climate_catastrophe_850622.html
“Maybe Vladimir Putin SHOULD get the Nobel Peace Prize after all.”
Defending the Orthodoxy
Oil Industry Shenanigans Pile Up at Consumer Expense
By David Jenkins, Real Clear Energy, Aug 29, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/08/29/oil_industry_shenanigans_pile_up_at_consumer_expense_850553.html
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Rising temperatures tied to reduced well-being: analysis
By Jared Gans, The Hill, Aug 31, 2022
Link to poll; Rising Global Temperatures Linked to Declining Wellbeing
By Benedicte Clouek and Nicole Wilcoxon, Gallup, Aug 31, 2022
https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/398996/rising-global-temperatures-linked-declining-wellbeing.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication
[SEPP Comment: Scare tactics about increasing temperatures work on some!]
Costs associated with carbon emissions three times federal estimate: study
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Sep 1, 2022
Link to latest study failed, link to earlier study: The mortality cost of carbon
By R. Daniel Bressle, Nature Communications, July 29, 2021
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24487-w
[SEPP Comment: A rule in devious modeling: Inflate assumptions to inflate results. Who cares about the actual!]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Energy transition: The land use conundrum
By Judith Curry, Climate Etc. Aug 31, 2022
[SEPP Comment: In many locations, the area needed for productive capacity will be a far more important issue than area needed for installed capacity.]
If only they were on the sidelines
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 31, 2022
Thoughts About Clouds And Water (Vapor)
By Lars Schernikau, energy economist, entrepreneur, commodity trader, WUWT, Aug 29, 2022
After Paris!
Leaders In The Race To Net Zero
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Sep 1, 2022
Video: https://realclimatescience.com/2022/09/leaders-in-the-race-to-net-zero-2/
Text: https://realclimatescience.com/2022/09/leaders-in-the-race-to-net-zero/
Europe’s hypocrisy on fossil fuels
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 29, 2022
Video from India
[SEPP Comment: The hypocrisy of the COP 26 buffoons. Two wrongs do not make a right, they have no leg to stand on.]
How governments and the cult of net zero wrecked the energy market
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 27, 2022
“The upshot is that the market is broken and it is governments and do-gooders who broke it. They broke it wantonly, recklessly, touting their saintly intentions, and now we are all reaping the consequences. The only way to resurrect it is with more government intervention.”
[SEPP Comment: According to the do-gooders!]
Biden’s Semi-Fascist America
By Jeffrey Folks, American Thinker, Sep 2, 2022
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/09/bidens_semifascist_america.html
Joe Biden’s FERC Is Exacerbating America’s Energy Crisis
By Daniel Turner, Real Clear Energy, Aug 29, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/08/29/joe_bidens_ferc_is_exacerbating_americas_energy_crisis_850619.html
Former Keystone XL Pipeline worker says Biden, green agenda could lead to fuel shortages
Neal Crabtree said the US has ‘enough natural gas to solve this problem’
By Bailee Hill, Fox News, Aug 30, 2022
https://www.foxnews.com/media/former-keystone-xl-pipeline-worker-biden-green-agenda-lead-fuel-shortages
Rail Merger Is Not the Answer to Energy Cost Woes
By Brigham McCown, Real Clear Energy, Aug 29, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/08/29/rail_merger_is_not_the_answer_to_energy_cost_woes_850563.html
US creates Arctic ambassador as Russia, China competition rises
By AFP Staff Writers, Washington (AFP), Aug 26, 2022
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/US_creates_Arctic_ambassador_as_Russia_China_competition_rises_999.html
Seeking a Common Ground
Andrew Dessler vs. Steven Koonin Debate Official Version Posted
Posted by Charles Rotter, WUWT, Sep 1, 2022
Link to video: https://reason.com/video/2022/08/31/do-we-need-to-rapidly-convert-to-renewables-to-save-the-planet-a-soho-forum-debate/
Science, Policy, and Evidence
London, 1 September: Net Zero Watch has condemned the Government’s green energy policies as “a national disaster.”
Press Release, Net Zero Watch, Sep 1, 2022
Gazprom Slashes Gas Deliveries to French Utility Giant
ZeroHedge Oil Price.com, Aug 30, 2022
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Gazprom-Slashes-Natural-Gas-Deliveries-To-French-Utility-Giant.html
Measurement Issues — Surface
Systemic Error in Global Temperature Measurement
By Moritz Busing, WUWT, Aug 30, 2022
“The decade 1880 to 1890 is in recent publications 0.3°C (0.5°F) colder than it was in publications from 15 years ago, and 0.5C (0.9°F) colder than it was in publications 30 years ago. The weather station database for land surface temperatures of this time period has not changed much in the last 30 years, but the analysis methods have changed.”
Rural Heat Islands
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Aug 31, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/08/rural-heat-islands/
Video: “As humidity and dew points have increased in the corn belt due to increased yields, the likelihood of both very hot nights and cool nights has decreased.”
‘Global’ Warming Has Not Touched Since The 1800s
Scientists Identify 3 More Regions That ‘Global’ Warming Has Not Touched Since The 1800s
By Kenneth Richard, No Trick Zone, Sep 1, 2022
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
UAH Global Temperature Update for August 2022: +0.28 deg. C
By Roy Spencer, His Blog, Sep 1, 2022
“The linear warming trend since January 1979 still stands at +0.13 C/decade (+0.11 C/decade over the global-averaged oceans, and +0.18 C/decade over global-averaged land).”
Changing Weather
Pakistan’s south braces for deluge from swollen northern rivers; toll tops 1,000
By Ashraf Khan with Lehaz Ali, Sukkur, Pakistan (AFP) Aug 28, 2022
https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Pakistans_south_braces_for_deluge_from_swollen_northern_rivers_999.html
“Officials blame the devastation on human-driven climate change, saying Pakistan is unfairly bearing the consequences of irresponsible environmental practices elsewhere in the world.
The 2022 Heat Wave
And then there was 1936.
By William D. Balgord, The Patriot Post, Aug 29, 22022
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/90863-the-2022-heat-wave-2022-08-29
Record Low August Burn Acreage
By Tony Heller, His Blog Sep 2, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/09/record-low-august-burn-acreage-3/
“The southwestern US has been very wet this summer, and August burn acreage was a record low.”
Extreme weather at its worst: the heat and drought of AD 1540
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 31, 2022
German drought: unpleasant but not unprecedented
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 31, 2022
Shock finding: past climate change helps forests cope with present climate change
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 31, 2022
Link to paper: Global forests are influenced by the legacies of past inter-annual temperature variability
By Winslow D Hansen, et al, Environmental Research: Ecology, Aug 30, 2022
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-664X/ac6e4a
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
Why “Zombie Ice” and other claims of Greenland ice melt raising sea levels are just modeled hokum
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Aug 30, 2022
Link to: Zombie ice from Greenland will raise sea level 10 inches
By Seith Borenstein, Phys.org, Aug 29, 2022
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-greenland-major-sea.html
Greenland Ice Loss “Worse Than We Thought”
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 2, 2022
Link to questionable article: What’s going on with the Greenland ice sheet? It’s losing ice faster than forecast and now irreversibly committed to at least 10 inches of sea level rise
By Alun Hubbard, Professor of Glaciology, Arctic Five Chair, University of Tromsø, The Conversation, Aug 29, 2022
https://theconversation.com/whats-going-on-with-the-greenland-ice-sheet-its-losing-ice-faster-than-forecast-and-now-irreversibly-committed-to-at-least-10-inches-of-sea-level-rise-185590
Link to paper with Hubbard the second listed author: Greenland ice sheet climate disequilibrium and committed sea-level rise
By Jason E. Box, Alun Hubbard, et al, Nature Climate Change, Aug 29, 2022
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01441-2
Arctic-Wide Glaciers And Ice Caps Were Absent Or Smaller Than Today From 10,000 To 3000 Years Ago
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Aug 29, 2022
Greenland Ice Cap Mass Gains Above Average Again
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 1, 2022
21 Billion Tons Of Snow
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Sep 1, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/09/21-billion-tons-of-snow/
[SEPP Comment: A “hockey-stick” of August snow?
Last WH polar bears ashore even later than 2009 as Hudson Bay finally becomes ice-free
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, Aug 27, 2022
Video: Fat polar bears on the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, one catches a goose
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, Aug 31, 2022
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Everybody knows: climate change is destroying farming
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 31, 2022
Princeton: Ocean Low Oxygen Zones Shrank During Previous Warm Periods. So Why are Ours Growing?
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 1, 2022
Link to paper: Enhanced ocean oxygenation during Cenozoic warm periods
By Alexandra Auderset, et al. Nature, Aug 31, 2022
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05017-0
[SEPP Comment: Manufactured fertilizer?]
Lowering Standards
Germany’s DWD Weather Service Redefines “Heat Wave”: Now 3 Consecutive Days Of Warm Weather!
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Aug 28, 2022
Autumns To Get Drier–(Or Not, As The Case Might Be)
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 31, 2022
“How much taxpayers’ money is being wasted on junk studies like this one?”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
The Summer of 2022
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 2, 2022
“It’s been a summer of record-breaking hype, if little else.”
“We have always had hot and dry summers from time to time in Britain. There is no evidence whatsoever summers are getting hotter or drier.”
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
Five reasons extreme weather is bigger in Texas
By Saul Elbein, The Hill, Sep 1, 2022
Bizarre ‘Fact Check’ of World Climate Declaration Claims No Natural Climate Change For Almost 200 Years
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 30, 2022
“The blog’s author writes: ‘Natural (non-human) drivers of climate change have been mostly stable since the onset of modern warming and all the available scientific evidence implicates human greenhouse gas emissions as the primary culprit.’”
[SEPP Comment: Questions false claims of the “fact check” by those who disagree with the Daily Sceptic’s article supporting the World Climate Declaration that there is no Climate Crisis]
Communicating Better to the Public – Do a Poll?
Climate Change Actions Are Far More Popular Than People in U.S. Realize
“False social reality” obscures widespread U.S. support for climate protection measures
By Robin Lloyd, Scientific American, Aug 23, 2022
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-actions-are-far-more-popular-than-people-in-u-s-realize/
[SEPP Comment: The answer to: “What evidence led you to describe the misperception of support for climate policy as a ‘false social reality’ in the published study?” is pure mental mush.]
Communicating Better to the Public – Go Personal.
Are you trying to fuel paranoia?
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 31, 2022
“The best way to refute wrong statements, whatever their origin, is to expose them to the sunlight of open debate. And we certainly do not regard the discussion as a race to the bottom in which, if those who disagree with us pin ugly labels on us and say we are paid liars, we seize the excuse to do the same.”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Polar bears became global warming icons because biologists promoted a narrative of doom since 1999: it didn’t happen ‘by accident’
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, Sep 1, 2022
“’The polar bear became an ‘accidental icon’ of climate change’, claims a recent CBC Radio interview with ardent global warming promoter and polar bear catastrophist Andrew Derocher. Derocher’s insistence that the polar bear became a climate change icon ‘by accident’ is historical revisionism. While such a statement may be attractive now that polar bears are not dying in droves as he and his colleagues predicted in 2007, that doesn’t make it true.”
Dust to downpour: US weather whiplash shows climate change
By Huw Griffith, Los Angeles (AFP) Aug 26, 2022
https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Dust_to_downpour_US_weather_whiplash_shows_climate_change_999.html
“A series of ‘once-in-a-millennium’ rainstorms have lashed the United States in recent weeks, flooding areas baked dry by long-term droughts, as human-caused climate change brings weather whiplash.”
BBC Double Down On Bee-Eater Disinformation.
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 1, 2022
“Interestingly many of the earlier sightings mention the birds being shot, which was of course the norm in Victorian times. It is hardly surprising that the poor little blighters did not hang around for breeding!!”
It’s working, really
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 31, 2022
When people say things you don’t agree with and do things you don’t agree with they probably think things you don’t agree with. Case in point: the newsletter North American WindPower says it’s all coming together. “Value of Wind Energy Far Exceeds Costs”. Also “EIA: Renewables Will Comprise 22 Percent of Electricity Generation in 2022”. And the Inflation Reduction Act is the best. And so on. Pay no attention to your power bill.
Matt McGrath Fiddles, While Europe Gets Ready For Blackouts
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 30, 2022
“While the European public are being impoverished by sanctions on Russian gas, the idiot Matt McGrath is worried by carbon emissions.
“You could not make it up!”
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
Incitement Charges Dropped Against Zoe Buhler from Ballarat
By Jennifer Marohasy, Her Blog, Aug 31, 2022
Ocean Protection Fund | Wind Turbine Video
Posted By Pohanka Group, Real Clear Energy, Aug 30, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/video/2022/08/30/ocean_protection_fund__wind_turbine_video_850880.html
Expanding the Orthodoxy
Nationalizing The Energy Industry Is Not The Answer
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 29, 2022
Link to proposal to fix the electricity market: How To Fix The Broken Electricity Market
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 21, 2022
Questioning European Green
German Experts Warn Of Grid Instability…”Conventional Power Plants Needed For A Long Time To Come”
Via P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Aug 27, 2022
“Germany’s massive, subsidized expansion of electricity generation from renewable sources has squeezed out conventional generation units out of the market. Two experts warn of growing grid instability.”
[SEPP Comment: And no utility scale storage to be found.]
Questioning Green Elsewhere
Biden’s Green Agenda Doesn’t Help You
Regime propagandists are pitching radical climate policies as cost-efficient measures that put money in Americans’ pockets. Don’t listen.
By Jonathan Lesser, Nora KIenney, The American Conservative, Aug 26, 2022
Litigation Issues
No, Democrats’ Climate Law Does Not Overturn West Virginia v. EPA
By Marlo Lewis, Real Clear Energy, Aug 30, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/08/30/no_democrats_climate_law_does_not_overturn_west_virginia_v_epa_850881.html
Virginia AG says state bound by California rule phasing out new gas-powered cars
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Aug 29, 2022
[SEPP Comment: The 2021 Virginia State legislators gave the power to decide on automobiles sold in Virginia to 16 political appointees in California?]
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
California will get $310 million in federal funding to combat drought
By Staff, CBS News, Los Angeles, Aug 19, 2022
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/california-310-million-federal-funding-combat-drought/
EPA and other Regulators on the March
PFAS: Fear And Misinformation Runs Wild
By Susan Goldhaber, MPH, ACSH, Apr 22, 2022
https://www.acsh.org/news/2022/04/22/pfas-fear-and-misinformation-runs-wild-16263
EPA tells 15 states they missed air pollution plan deadline
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Aug 29, 2022
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued notices to 15 states for failure to submit plans for air pollution reduction, four months after a lawsuit on the matter from a coalition of environmental groups.”
Energy Issues – Non-US
Listening to European Electricity Traders Is Very, Very Scary
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 29, 2022
“’ Prices are worrying enough. British households were told on Friday that their power and gas bills will increase from Oct. 1 by 80%. The so-called energy price cap was set at £3,549 ($4,189) per year, up from £1,971 over the past six months and £1,277 during last winter.
“’But the industry’s teleconference suggests the problem is broader than just rising costs. Increasingly, the words ‘emergency’ and ‘shortages’ are being used, with participants focusing on when, rather than if, a crisis will hit. Imagine being able to overhear conversations between Wall Street executives and the Federal Reserve as the global financial crisis unfolded in 2008.’”
Europe’s Energy Crisis Has Ended Its Era Of Abundance
By Irina Slav, Oil Price.com Aug 29, 2022
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Europes-Energy-Crisis-Has-Ended-Its-Era-Of-Abundance.html
Energy Shortages Continue Powering Inflation In Europe…Reaching “Record 8.9 Percent”!
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Aug 31, 2022
Who Owns Our Offshore Wind Farms?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 30, 2022
“The combined output of these eight and London Array is about 16 TWh a year. At current prices of £375/MWh, the excess profit now being ‘earned’ is around £5 billion a year.”
Firms make deals to boost LNG exports 60% from U.S., Canada, Mexico
By Scott Disavino, Reuters, Aug 23, 2022
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/firms-make-deals-boost-lng-exports-60-us-canada-mexico-2022-08-23/
[SEPP Comment: A false comparison is LNG with what Russia is interrupting. An accurate comparison is volume of delivered natural gas.]
Ed Davey Destroyed Our Energy Security On A Fake Assumption
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 28, 2022
[SEPP Comment; Proud to have stopped fracking!]
Energy Hyperinflation Ship launching from UK in 3, 2, 1… prices so high there is talk of fracking?
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 28, 2022
Eric Nuttall: Stop dithering, Canada, and give the world what it wants — more natural gas
Canada is an energy powerhouse with the ability to satisfy much of the world’s growing energy needs for decades to come
By Eric Nuttall, Financial Post Canada, Aug 30, 2022
https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/oil-gas/eric-nuttall-canada-give-world-more-natural-gas?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1661855739
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Field Research Confirms Natural Gas Developed Safely
By David Callahan, Real Clear Energy, Aug 29, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/08/29/field_research_confirms_natural_gas_developed_safely_850651.html
The World’s Biggest LNG Exporter Has A Pipeline Problem
By Alex Kimani, Oil Price.com, Aug 22, 2022
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Worlds-Biggest-LNG-Exporter-Has-A-Pipeline-Problem.html
“In the Appalachian Basin, the country’s largest gas-producing region churning out more than 35 Bcf/d, environmental groups have repeatedly stopped or slowed down pipeline projects and limited further growth in the Northeast. This leaves the Permian Basin and Haynesville Shale to shoulder much of the growth forecast for LNG exports. Indeed, EQT Corp. CEO Toby Rice recently acknowledged that Appalachian pipeline capacity has ‘hit a wall.’”
Two Shots Of Happy – E&P Shareholders Reap Soaring Returns While Producers Boost Cash Balances
By Nick Cacchione, RBN Energy, Aug 31, 2022
https://rbnenergy.com/two-shots-of-happy-eandp-shareholders-reap-soaring-returns-while-producers-boost-cash-balances
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind: Risks Aplenty ($21 billion, could jump)
By Allen Brooks, Master Resource, Aug 30, 2022
Simon Kinsella vs. South Fork Offshore Wind (eco-issues aplenty)
By Sherri Lange, Master Resource, Sep 1, 2022
CNBC: Amazon Rooftop Fires Prompted Solar Panel Shutdown
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 1, 2022
How to Plan for West Coast Offshore Wind Development Opportunities
By Ryen Godwin & Lindsay Thane, Real Clear Energy, Sep 01, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/09/01/how_to_plan_for_west_cost_offshore_wind_development_opportunities_851057.html
“Shortly after taking office, President Biden issued an executive order stating his goal to double offshore wind production by 2030. With leases for offshore wind projects on the East Coast currently being issued, and the construction of two projects already approved (Vineyard Wind 1 and South Fork Wind Farm), others are bound to follow.”
[SEPP Comment: Must follow orders to oblivion?]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
Biofuels Drying Up Lake Mead
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Sep 1, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/09/biofuels-drying-up-lake-mead/
Link to report: Water Uses
By Staff, Colorado State University, Accessed Sep 2, 2022
Link to national study: Water Consumption of Energy Resource Extraction, Processing, and Conversion
By Erik Mielke, et al, energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group, Harvard Kennedy School, October 2010
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
SSE’s Billion Pound Pumped Hydro Plant
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 27, 2022
“But this sort of niche market will only work for a small number of players. To get large numbers of grid scale pumped storage units constructed will need hundreds of billions in taxpayer subsidies.”
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
The Future Of Transportation In Emerging Markets
By Oxford Business Group, Oil Price.com Aug 28, 2022,
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Future-Of-Transportation-In-Emerging-Markets.html
[SEPP Comment: Emerging markets need electricity first, then EVs.]
California Urges Residents Not to Charge EVs after 4pm
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 1, 2022
“California ISO issues Flex Alert for today, Aug. 31
“Extreme heat triggers urgent need to conserve electricity from 4 to 9 p.m.”
[SEPP Comment: California nirvana: No gasoline vehicles, no charging EVs?]
Oops: Alaskan Electric Buses Run Out of Power in Winter
Essay by Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 1, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Hoping for sunshiny days in December-January? In Juneau on Dec 21, 2021, Sunrise was at 8:41 am and Sunset at 3:10 pm.]
https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/juneau-ak/2021/12
Carbon Schemes
Wasting Money on Carbon Capture
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, Aug 28, 2022
Tell us about carbon sequestration again
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 31, 2022
“Yes, the stuff we’re supposedly all in trouble because of a surplus of. But there’s a serious point here: If it’s really true that carbon sequestration is a feasible technology, , that you can produce energy at a profit even after the effort of taking the CO2 out as garbage and disposing of it somewhere at a dead loss, why isn’t there a ready ‘trash to treasure’ supply of the stuff for sale to anyone willing to pay for it instead?”
“Mind you, as he [energy commentator Parker Gallant] pointed out in another article, people who think something that makes money with a massive subsidy is competitive with something that makes money without one are not exactly discerning consumers of the ‘dismal science’.”
California Dreaming
Federal government dives into climate fight, but California still leads
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Aug 29, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Into the Abyss?]
California Blackouts Looming
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 31, 2022
California to install solar panels over canals to fight drought, a first in the U.S.
By Greg Cannella, CBS News, Aug 30, 2022
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-solar-panels-canals-drought/
California doesn’t have the capability to support the electric car push: Shellenberger
Video with Michael Shellenberger, Fox News, Sep 1, 2022 [H/t Paul Homewood]
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6311693805112#sp=show-clips
Health, Energy, and Climate
Thinking Out Loud: ‘Midinformation’ And The COVID Pandemic
By Chuck Dinerstein, MD, ACSH, Aug 23, 2022
https://www.acsh.org/news/2022/08/23/thinking-out-loud-midinformation-and-covid-pandemic-16506
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde claims: Inflation comes from climate change
By: Vanessa Renner, Translated, Via Eduard Harick, Aug 29, 2022
[SEPP Comment: I’m incompetent because of climate change?]
Happy Labor-Saving Day (thank modern energy)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Sep 2, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Amusing look at some of the “modern” appliances of the past. No kerosene stoves.]
The World’s Energy Problem Is Far Worse Than We’re Being Told
By Gail Tverberg, Oil Price.com Aug 29, 2022
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-Worlds-Energy-Problem-Is-Far-Worse-Than-Were-Being-Told.html
“Politicians cannot tell the world how bad the energy situation really is. The problem with near-term energy limits has been known since at least 1956 (M. King Hubbert) and 1957 (Hyman Rickover). The problem was confirmed in the modeling performed for the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows and others.”
[SEPP Comment: The problem was mathematical bunk.]
ARTICLES
1. Climate-Change Fight Dies (Again) in Zaporizhzhia
The consequences of nuclear accidents are bad, but not as bad as the public has been told.
By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., WSJ, Sept. 2, 2022
https://www.wsj.com/articles/co2-fight-dies-again-in-zaporizhzhia-ukraine-russia-nuclear-power-plant-energy-disaster-europe-accident-11662149935?mod=hp_opin_pos_4#cxrecs_s
TWTW Summary: Covered in the This Week section above.
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