The Week That Was: 2024 08-03 (August 3, 2024)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”— Booker T. Washington
Number of the Week: $20.5 Trillion
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: Below, physicist Howard Hayden discusses the confusion arising from substituting effect for cause. US Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen claims that the Inflation Reduction Act was the beginning of significant US Climate Action. Jo Nova reports extremely high electricity prices in Australia when wind power failed on cold, still, winter nights. TWTW had planned to discuss a lecture on Radiation Transfer in Clouds by William Happer at an EIKE Conference in early July. At the last moment, TWTW received the transcript of his important talk from Happer. To eliminate possible errors, that section has been postponed until next week.
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Causes & Effects: Commentators on energy and environment are frequently distorting cause with effect. This includes calling trivial influences as The Cause. As a reminder, AMO physicist Howard Hayden distinguishes between Cause and Effect. Hayden writes in the Energy Advocate:
“Building the Empire State Building moved the center of mass of the planet. So did building the Grand Coulee Dam and letting it fill with water. The bright lights of cities at night send energy to outer space, thereby cooling the planet. The more people you have around you, the more ionizing radiation you get from the potassium in their bones. We can write hundreds of such undeniably true statements that are of trivial consequence.
The true statement that has frightened all too many people into irrationality, however, is: Adding CO2 to the atmosphere warms the planet. In logical terms, the addition of CO2 to the atmosphere is a cause, and temperature rise is an effect. It is physically impossible: 1) for the CO2 increase since the last glacial maximum to be responsible for the temperature rise, we have in the present interglacial period; 2) for the CO2 rise since the Little Ice Age to be responsible for the temperature rise by the 21st century; and 3) for the temperature rise measured since satellites began taking data. The ‘radiative forcing’ caused by the CO2 increase is totally inadequate to block the additional heat radiation from the warming surface from going to space. Even with the positive feedback IPCC assumes for H2O, the radiative forcing is still inadequate to account for the warming. Nevertheless, adding CO2 to the atmosphere does warm the planet. A couple of decades ago, that was called Global Warming. The logical statement (of trivial consequence) was ‘Increasing CO2 causes global warming.’
Then the terminology changed to ‘Increasing CO2 causes climate change.’ Political inventions like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a US NOAA government website climate.gov, NASA’s science.nasa.gov/climate-change, and the German www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/climate-energy to name just a few came into being. Non-governmental groups, including many news organizations also took up the cudgel: Greenpeace, NPR, The Guardian, and many others—too many to mention—became obsessed with ‘climate change.’ Indeed, NPR can’t seem to get through a news broadcast without some zealot from the Climate Desk blaming something (or many things) on ‘climate change.’
Important for the propaganda effort was a switch in logic. ‘Climate change’ used to be an effect; now it has become a cause. For example, the search engine Yahoo finds 15 million times that the expression ‘caused by climate change’ and 43 million times ‘due to climate change’ have been used on the internet. (Google no longer reports the count, nor does Microsoft’s Edge.)”
Hayden gives specific examples. Perhaps the most notorious is declaring the destruction of parts of the Great Barrier Reef caused by cyclones as general destruction by climate change. TWTW adds another notorious example: the former Administrator of NOAA labeling a slight decline in the alkalinity of the ocean, a solution with strong acids and bases by a weak acid (CO2), as ocean acidification. Such claims are deliberately misleading, less than utterly honest.
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Fiscal Irresponsibility: The Inter-American Development Bank held a conference in Belem, Brazil, the site of the 30th Conference of Parties (COP 30, 2025) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The conferences have become international fashion show where politicians promise the sacrifices they will demand from others “To Save the Planet.” According to a press release from the US Department of the Treasury, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen asserted [Boldface added]:
“Climate change poses a daily and existential threat to individuals, communities, and countries. It harms human health, damages homes and businesses, and strains government budgets. It poses risks across sectors of our economies, from agriculture to infrastructure. And the harsh reality is that the people and countries with fewer resources to prepare and respond often must bear even greater costs.
In the Amazon and elsewhere, we also see another concerning trend: the unprecedented and accelerating loss of nature and biodiversity. Like climate change, this loss has wide-ranging impacts, from driving migration and fragility to increasing food and water insecurity. And we are in a vicious cycle: Climate change accelerates nature and biodiversity loss, while this loss turns carbon sinks into carbon sources and eliminates natural infrastructure that supports resilience to climate change.
Put simply, neglecting to address climate change and the loss of nature and biodiversity is not just bad environmental policy. It is bad economic policy.
But being so close to the magnificent Amazon is also a reminder that the transition to a lower-carbon global economy is also the single greatest economic opportunity of the twenty-first century. The transition will require no less than $3 trillion in new capital from many sources each year between now and 2050. This can be leveraged to support pathways to sustainable and inclusive growth, including for countries that have historically received less investment.
So, the Biden-Harris Administration has made supporting the transition to net zero a top priority, and the Treasury Department is playing a key role. At home, we are implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, the most significant climate legislation in our nation’s history. It is driving hundreds of billions of dollars of investments in the clean energy technologies and industries that will propel us toward our climate goals and fuel our economic growth. We launched the Net-Zero Principles for Financing and Investment to provide guidance to U.S. financial institutions pursuing net-zero commitments. And we and other federal agencies together put forward Principles for Responsible Participation in Voluntary Carbon Markets.”
Did Members of Congress who supported the Inflation Reduction Act tell their constituents that it was climate legislation and that it was a downpayment for an expected Three Trillion per year? Does Secretary Yellen know about photosynthesis? It is well established that adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is causing a flourishing of green life on Earth and increasing it has a trivial impact on temperatures and climate. What benefit is there in green technologies such as wind and solar power which cannot deliver reliable, affordable electricity? Where is the $3 Trillion per year coming from? Yellen did not say. See links under Defending the Orthodoxy and Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide.
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False Comparisons: One of the favorite tricks of promoters is using false comparisons. Wind and solar promoters compare marginal costs when their system is working with total costs or average costs of other means of generating electricity. The issue is how affordable is a system that delivers reliable electricity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
On her blog, Jo Nova discusses the folly of those who accept these false comparison. Remember that the contiguous 48 states of the US cover about 3.1 million square miles and Australia covers about 2.97 million square miles, so Australia is about 96% as large as the contiguous US.
Australia has committed heavily for wind power, especially South Australia which has abandoned coal-fired power plants. This past week, winter in Australia, a high-pressure system sat in the ocean off eastern Australia for several days, bringing cold, still nights. Jo Nova writes:
“Wholesale Electricity prices hit $17,000 in five states in Australia –Renewable fans blame a lack of coal power (?)
It’s a 6pm bonfire on the Australian grid
Over at WattClarity on Monday when every state had prices over $3,000 per MWh simultaneously, Dan Lee noted that this was extremely rare. Since 2008, there have only been 32 intervals when prices were above $1,000 in all five states at once and nine of the 32 occurred on Monday.
Then Tuesday was so much worse:
Naturally the Sydney Morning Herald is blaming ‘aging coal plants’
Because we can’t get rid of coal fast enough, right? Somehow, it’s a ‘harbinger of the price hikes’ we’re facing ‘if aging fossil fuel generators are forced to stay open longer’. So, geniuses, if prices hit $17,000 a megawatt-hour when some coal power is down for a day, what happens when we get rid of coal entirely? Is that when Tinkerbell saves the day by turning Sydney Harbor into a giant battery, or when $17,000 prices become the ‘new norm’?
Somehow the unplanned outages of reliable coal plants create sky high prices, whereas the unplanned outages of wind and solar power create Utopia.
Not so coincidentally, the price spikes on July 31, 2024, occurred when wind and solar generators were out:
The price spikes were also boosted by the cold weather we aren’t supposed to be getting in our warmer world.
The synoptic chart for July 31 shows that old familiar pattern. One high pressure cell can ruin wind turbine production everywhere:
Daily prices are on fire this week — the average wholesale prices for the last three days were about $250/MWh in NSW and Queensland, in the order of $300 in Victoria and Tasmania, and a shocking $675 for South Australia (which has lots of wind and solar power and no ‘old coal plants’ at all). That’s effectively 72 hours of wildly high prices. And even though the retail electricity providers will be hedged, the spot prices still feed through to the retail electricity bills sooner or later.”
For comparison, the average US wholesale price for electricity was $36 per megawatt hour (WMh) in 2023. Using a currency conversion rate of 1 Australian dollar equals 0.65 US dollars, the peak $17,000 Aus per MWh works out to $11,050 USD and the three-day average of $675 Aus is $439 USD. See link under Energy Issues – Australia
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Number of the Week: $20.5 Trillion. In her commitment for green energy “to save the planet” Secretary Yellen does not state who provides the money and how much. Already investment funds specializing in green energy are having troubles. The blog Mish Talk provided some estimates. Allocated by Gross Domestic Product, the $78 Trillion would require $20.5 Trillion from the US, “only” $789 Billion per year. Each Member of Congress who supported the deceitfully named Inflation Reduction Act should be asked two questions. Do you agree with Secretary Yellen? If not, what are you going to do about it?
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/
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-fossil-fuels/
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/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
Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer
The Role of Greenhouse Gases in Energy Transfer in the Earth’s Atmosphere
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Preprint, Mar 3, 2023
Challenging the Orthodoxy
Climate Scientists Dishonestly Cherry-Pick Wildfires to Push a Climate Crisis!
By Jim Steele, WUWT, July 29, 2024
The Top 10 Inconvenient Facts About Climate Change
Video with John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2024
Useless Residential Solar Electricity
By Norman Rogers, Real Clear Energy, July 30, 2024
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2024/07/30/useless_residential_solar_electricity_1048193.html
When the utility charges a homeowner 15 cents for a kilowatt hour of electricity the implicit bargain is that 2 cents is for the electricity and 13 cents is for the infrastructure that supplies the homeowner’s maximum demand on the hot day in July. Residential solar is a scheme for breaking that bargain — cheating. If a kilowatt hour of solar is substituted for a kilowatt hour of utility electricity, the utility saves 2 cents because it has to generate less electricity, but the utility loses 13 cents that would pay for the homeowner’s share of the infrastructure. The homeowner becomes a free rider that utilizes the infrastructure, but no longer pays his fair share of the cost.
Defending the Orthodoxy
Janet Yellen Seeks $78 Trillion to Fight Climate Change
By Mish Talk, July 28, 2024
Link to speech: Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at the Goeldi Museum in Belém, Brazil
Press Release, U.S. Treasury, July 27, 2024
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2504
Janet Yellen Calls For $78,000,000,000,000 To Tackle Climate Change
By Rebeka Zeljko, Daily Caller, July 27, 2024
https://dailycaller.com/2024/07/27/janet-yellen-78-trillion-climate-change
The climate is changing so fast that we haven’t seen how bad extreme weather could get
By Simon H. Lee Lecturer in Atmospheric Science, University of St Andrews, Hayley J. Fowler Professor of Climate Change Impacts, Newcastle University and Paul Davies Chief Meteorologist, Met Office and Visiting Professor, Newcastle University and Chair of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Conversation, July 30, 2024 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://theconversation.com/the-climate-is-changing-so-fast-that-we-havent-seen-how-bad-extreme-weather-could-get-235726
Comment by Richard Courtney: I write to support your assessment that says of the article, “Uh…NO!”. An insert to the article says: “Fight back against disinformation. Get your news here, direct from experts.” But that is an exhortation to trust in “disinformation”.
The correct exhortation would be: “Fight back against disinformation. Get your news from several sources, including here, and direct from a range of experts which provides the range of scientific interpretations of all the available data.”
[SEPP Comment: Question statements such as: “When 40°C first appeared in ensemble forecasts for the UK before the July 2022 heatwave, it revealed the kind of extreme weather that is possible in the current climate. Even if it had not come to fruition, its mere appearance in the models showed that the previously unthinkable was now possible.” They demonstrate an ignorance of climate history.]
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Climate change means that tropical cyclones in Southeast Asia are developing faster, lasting longer
Press Release, Nanyang Technological University, Via Science Daily, July 31, 2024 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/07/240731141053.htm
Link to paper: Changes to tropical cyclone trajectories in Southeast Asia under a warming climate
By Andra J. Garner, et al., Nature Climate and Atmospheric Science, July 2, 2024
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-024-00707-0
From abstract: Here, we assess >64,000 simulated TCs from the nineteenth century to the end of the twenty-first century for both moderate- and high-emissions scenarios.
Comment by Kepshire: NO need to panic. “Based on the analysis of more than 64,000 modelled historic and future storms from the 19th century through the end of the 21st century…”
“Counting on advanced climate models to uncover new cyclone risks ” [His emphasis.]
[SEPP Comment: No effort to check if the models accurately reproduce history.]
Countries must collaborate on migration amid escalating climate crisis
By Sophie Jenkins, London, UK (SPX) Jul 30, 2024
https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Countries_must_collaborate_on_migration_amid_escalating_climate_crisis_999.html
Link to paper: Anticipating the global redistribution of people and property
By Marten Scheffe, et al., One Earth, Accessed July 30, 2024
Climate change will worsen conditions for people in the Global South, while conditions in large parts of the North will improve. Migration seems an effective adaptation strategy. However, making that a win-win for migrants and receiving communities requires revision of the food system, rules for mobility, and strategies for social integration.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
[SEPP Comment: Based on false claims of sea level rise.]
Study finds major Earth systems likely on track to collapse: 5 things to know
By Saul Elbein, The Hill, Aug 2, 2024
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4806281-climate-change-earth-systems-collapse-risk-study
Link to paper: Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions critical to limit climate tipping risks
By Tessa Mölle, et al., Nature Communications, Aug 1, 2024
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49863-0
From the abstract: Under current emission trajectories, temporarily overshooting the Paris global warming limit of 1.5 °C is a distinct possibility. Permanently exceeding this limit would substantially increase the probability of triggering climate tipping elements. Here, we investigate the tipping risks associated with several policy-relevant future emission scenarios, using a stylized Earth system model of four interconnected climate tipping elements.
[SEPP Comment: Phony tipping points used to justify a phony UN goal. The sun is moving southward from the northern latitudes, will it reach a tipping point when it will be directly overhead of Antarctica – triggering massive glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere?]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
The Return On Your Investment
By Willis Eschenbach, WUWT, July 30, 2024
Hottest day never
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 31, 2024
Link to “All-Time” Statewide High Temperature Records
By Chris Martz, NOAA data, Accessed July 31, 2024
Hottest Day Ever
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 30, 2024
Video: https://realclimatescience.com/2024/07/hottest-day-ever-4/#gsc.tab=0
Text: https://realclimate.science/2024/07/29/hottest-day-ever-2/copyq-cvsjpn/
“NASA Data Shows July 22 Was Earth’s Hottest Day on Record”
#CheerfulCharts #2: Global per capital CO2 emissions
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 31, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Based on UN IPCC projections which are nonsense.]
Climate Change Weekly #514: Evidence Mounts that Green Tech Is Wiping Out Species
By H. Sterling Burnett, Environment & Climate News, Aug 1, 2024
Possible link to article: Global threats of extractive industries to vertebrate biodiversity
By Ieuan P. Lamb, et al., Current Biology, July 26, 2024
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)00895-9#%20
Any century now
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 31, 2024
“If you tell me what result you want, I can find you a study in support of that result. The very long emergence timescales mean that it will be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to identify with evolving experience which projections may be more accurate than others.”
So don’t let the “mathiness” intimidate you. On the contrary, when someone makes a highly improbable statement about probability, assume they’ve already confused themselves and are now working on you.
After Paris!
Claim: Methane is producing “Unnatural” Climate Disasters
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Aug 2, 2024
One of the most significant achievements of the 26th United Nations climate conference in Glasgow (COP26) three years ago was the launch of the Global Methane Pledge. The goal is to reduce global methane emissions at least 30% by 2030.
[SEPP Comment: The parties to the Global Methane Pledge demonstrate an appalling ignorance of the importance of water vapor and how it diminishes the influence of other greenhouse gases.]
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
New Study: ‘Widespread Increase’ In Plant Transpiration Driven By Increasing CO2 Concentration
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Aug 1, 2024
Link to paper: Widespread increase in plant transpiration driven by global greening
Han Chen, Yizhao Wei, and Jinhui Jeanne Huang, Global and Planetary Change, April 2024
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921818124000420
Percent dry weight (biomass) increases for wild radish following 300 and 600 ppm increases in the air’s CO2 concentration
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 31, 2024
From the CO2Science Archive:
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Air New Zealand scraps its 2030 carbon emissions target, saying solutions are costly and scarce
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31, 2024
Bit by bit, Net Zero ambitions are coming up against the wall of reality.
Buildings – The Achilles Heel of Net Zero
By Michael Keppy, Net Zero Watch, July 30, 2024
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/buildings-the-achilles-heel-of-net-zero
[SEPP Comment: Primitive huts for everyone?]
Climate Superfund Fees Are Counterproductive
By Jonathan Chanis, Real Clear Energy, July 29, 2024
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2024/07/29/climate_superfund_fees_are_counterproductive_1047920.html
If we are going to solve the climate problem, it will come through innovation, new technologies, and government-private sector collaboration, including with oil and gas producers. Penalizing the companies that help keep the lights on and make it possible to move around our communities is counterproductive. Twisting science to produce a desired policy outcome by ginning up a climate superfund fee will only raise the cost of energy for all Americans and distract us from applying our resources to solving this problem.
Seeking a Common Ground
It’s All About the Base(line)
Climate fueled extreme weather, Part 5
By Roger Pielke Jr., The Honest Broker, July 29, 2024
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/its-all-about-the-baseline?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=119454&post_id=147104064&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=f7h7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
[SEPP Comment: Unfortunately, Pielke ignores that carbon dioxide is essential for photosynthesis, and Earth is flourishing thanks to it. Its influence on Earth’s climate is trivial.]
Science, Policy, and Evidence
DESNZ Has Net Zero Competence
By David Turver, The Daily Sceptic, July 28, 2024
Models v. Observations
Models versus observations: water vapour edition
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 31, 2024
One surprising aspect of climate science, perhaps more surprising to alarmists than anyone else, is that CO2 on its own doesn’t do a lot of warming in climate models. Instead, it causes a bit of warming that supposedly causes extra water vapour to accumulate in the air and in turn cause a lot of heating. But how do we know extra water vapour should accumulate? It’s the usual “simple physics”. You see, the Clausius-Clapeyron rule says that for every degree warmer the air gets, its potential humidity rises by about 7%. Climate models predict that the air’s water vapour content (called the “specific humidity”) should rise with temperature. Or, more technically, both the specific humidity and the potential maximum humidity (the ratio of which is called “relative humidity”) should remain about constant. But a recent study shows that, especially over the arid and semi-arid regions of Earth, it’s not. As the authors state, “This is contrary to all climate model simulations in which it rises at a rate close to theoretical expectations, even over dry regions. This may indicate a major model misrepresentation of hydroclimate-related processes; models increase water vapor to satisfy the increased atmospheric demand, while this has not happened in reality.” So the simple physics isn’t so simple after all. Again.
Model Issues
Claim: Google NeuralGCM AI Might Improve Climate Models
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 28, 2024
Measurement Issues — Surface
ENSO: Recent Evolution, Current Status and Predictions
By Staff, NOAA Climate Prediction Center / NCEP, July 29, 2024
Hottest Day
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31, 2024
Nothing like a thermometer next to the runway to provide climate data!
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
UAH Global Temperature Update for July 2024: +0.85 deg. C
By Roy Spencer, His Blog, Aug 1, 2024
The linear warming trend since January 1979 now stands at +0.15 C/decade (+0.13 C/decade over the global-averaged oceans, and +0.21 C/decade over global-averaged land).
Unconventional Sign Conventions
By Willis Eschenbach, WUWT, Aug 1, 2024
[SEPP Comments: Issues regarding IPCC’s use of CERES data.]
Changing Weather
So about those hurricanes…
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 31, 2024
An important difference between climate science and the normal kind is that in climate science, failed predictions don’t diminish people’s faith in a theory. For instance on hurricanes. The 2023 season was meant to be nasty and fizzled out. So they predicted horrors for 2024 as well. And as it’s proving a dud too, we’re told “Here’s when hurricane activity is expected to return”. And if it doesn’t, well, you just wait for 2025. Or 2026.
[SEPP Comment: The La Niña has fizzled thus far. According to WetherBell LLC, strong hurricane seasons are associated with strong La Niñas.]
So about those Canadian fires…
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 31, 2024
For perspective, including on that silly government plan-like object to plant 2 billion trees to change the weather, Canada has over 300 billion trees. As far as anybody’s wild guess knows.
Earlier Forecast Of “A Summer From Hell” in Germany Just Isn’t Materializing. July Comes In Near Normal!
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 30, 2024
Why has it been so humid?
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Aug 2, 2024
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2024/08/why-has-it-been-so-humid.html
Thus, the dew point is a good measure of the moisture content of air. Higher dew points mean more water vapor in the air.
The highest dew point I have ever experienced was 83F in Washington DC. Just miserable.
Has Global Warming Changed the Nature of Northwest Heatwaves?
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, July 31, 2024
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2024/07/has-global-warming-changed-nature-of.html
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
Chinese Academy Of Sciences: “Antarctic Cold Spells Shattered Records” In July-August 2023
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 27, 2024
Link to paper: Extreme Antarctic Cold of Late Winter 2023
By Anastasia J. Tomanek, et al., Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, June 13, 2024
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00376-024-4139-1
From the abstract: A review of automatic weather station measurements and staffed station observations revealed a series of sites recording new record low temperatures. Four separate cold phases were identified, each a few days in duration and occurring from mid-July to the end of August 2023.
Underwater mapping reveals new insights into melting of Antarctica’s ice shelves
Press Release, University of East Anglia, Via Science Daily, July 31, 2024
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/07/240731170945.htm#google_vignette
Link to paper: Swirls and scoops: Ice base melt revealed by multibeam imagery of an Antarctic ice shelf
By Anna Wahlin, et al., AAAS Science Advances, July 31, 2024
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn9188
Link between global warming and rising sea levels
Understanding the relationship between the Antarctic Ice Sheet and the earth beneath is key to predicting future climate change impacts
Press Release, McGill University, Aug 2, 2024 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/08/240802144615.htm
Link to paper: The influence of realistic 3D mantle viscosity on Antarctica’s contribution to future global sea levels
By Natalya Gomez, AAAS Science Advances, Aug 2, 2024
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn1470
[SEPP Comment: Assumes a relationship between CO2 emissions and Antarctic ice melt that may not exist.]
Petermann Fact Check
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 30, 2024
Greenland’s Petermann Glacier has grown nearly ten miles over the last 12 years, and the press and NASA boldly declare the exact opposite.
Polar bear “boom” reported in East & Southwest Greenland comes with the usual problems
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, Aug 1, 2024
Changing Earth
Early 1900s Maps Reveal Sea Levels Have Fallen Dramatically Near Estonia
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, July 29, 2024
Link to paper: Overview and evolutionary path of Estonian coastal lagoons
Author links open overlay panel
By Ülo Suursaa, et al., Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, August 2024
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272771424001999
From highlights of the paper: Postglacial uplift is the main shaper of lagoons; barrier formation the secondary.
Many inland lakes and bogs up to 20–30 m altitude are palaeolagoons in Estonia.
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Charging California farmers for groundwater use could yield massive conservation gains, researchers find
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, July 29, 2024
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4797942-california-farmers-groundwater-usage-charge-research
Link to paper: Groundwater and Crop Choice in the Short and Long Run
By Fiona Burlig, Louis Preonas, and Matt Woerman, Energy Institute at Haas, July 2024
From the article: California farmers are willing to cut back on groundwater usage when their local governments start charging for this formerly free resource, new research has found.
[SEPP Comment: A surprise?]
Lowering Standards
Are Heatwaves Getting Worse?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31, 2024
Link to Press Release: Temperature extremes and records most affected by UK’s changing climate
Met Office, July 25, 2024
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2024/temperature-extremes-and-records-most-affected-by-uks-changing-climate
But even if there is no UHI in Oxford, which would be a ridiculous claim, the worst that is happening is that we now get days of 28C, which 150 years ago might have been 27C instead.
And it is certainly not bringing challenges for infrastructure, health and wellbeing. [Homewood’s emphasis]
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
4 hottest days ever observed raise fears of a planet nearing ‘tipping points’
Since last July, Earth’s average temperature has been at least 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
By Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post “Democracy Dies in Darkness”, July 27, 2024 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Robert Rohde, chief scientist for the climate data nonprofit Berkeley Earth, called these extreme events “suggestive” of what will happen to the planet if global temperatures consistently exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming — something that researchers project will occur in the early 2030s.
Studies indicate that crossing that threshold could trigger irreversible changes in major Earth systems: the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, complete loss of tropical coral reefs, abrupt thawing of some permafrost.
“The fluctuations we’re seeing are relatively modest on top of a very large, decades-long warming trend,” said climate scientist Kim Cobb, director of the Institute at Brown University for Environment and Society. “We’re dancing about a climate average that is very dangerous for communities and ecosystems around the world.”
[SEPP Comment: Tenths of a degree will kill tropical reefs? Excuse me Miss reporter, your ignorance of climate history is showing.]
“How close is our planet to suffering the most catastrophic effects of climate change?
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 30, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Apparently many academic “climate scientists” have no knowledge of climate history – it is not continuous warming, whatever the cause.]
No, CNBC, Insurance Premiums Are Not Increasing Due to Climate Change
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, July 30, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Where would journalism be without “experts say”?]
The New York Times Is Clueless When It Comes to Climate and the #ParkFire
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, Aug 1, 2024
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
“Missing Context”: How Climate Catastrophists at NOAA Mislead without Lying
By E. Calvin Beisner, WUWT, July 30, 2024
Firefighters Helped by Cooler Weather Battle Blaze That Has Scorched Area Size of Los Angeles
By Nic Coury, Eugene Garcia, and Olga Rodriguez, AP, July 28, 2024
https://apnews.com/article/us-wildfires-california-park-fire-chico-5f4325a97727eb2fbd3d59ab8ec6b877
[SEPP Comment: Typical nonsense from the Integrated Reporting of Wildland-Fire Information, National Interagency Fire Center, Esri, NOAA, USGS, EPA; WILDFIRE TRACKER BY: Caleb Diehl, Linda Gorman, Phil Holm, & Koko Nakajima showing all of the Pacific Northwest, except Seattle ablaze. LA and half of Arizona, including Phoenix and Tucson are burning. The deceptive map shows puts big spots of orange on fire sizes of 5,000 acres or more and does not differentiate between grass fires and forest fires.]
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
Met Office State of the UK Climate Report
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 28, 2024
The Met Office are back with their “extreme weather” fraud:
In short, the Met Office has been caught out attempting to con the public into thinking that rainfall is becoming more extreme, when it is not.
Lies, damned lies and heated climate statistics
Progressives have track record of spinning catastrophes from unusual weather
By Anthony J. Sadar, Washington Times, July 27, 2024
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jul/27/lies-damned-lies-and-heated-climate-statistics
Communicating Better to the Public – Do a Poll?
68% of Australians can believe renewable energy will push up power prices
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 31, 2024
Communicating Better to the Public – Go Personal.
Climate Heretic
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 28, 2024
Video: https://realclimatescience.com/2024/07/climate-heretic-2/#gsc.tab=0
Text: https://realclimatescience.com/2024/07/climate-heretic/#gsc.tab=0
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 31, 2024
Classic climate “one rule for thee, another for me”: After some Just Stop Oil activists were given prison sentences for blocking public roads, causing people to miss vital medical appointments, two writers in the Guardian say “Let’s stop locking up our truth tellers. The people who are shouting ‘fire’ because there’s a fire…. These people might be annoying…. But in a democratic society, they do not belong in prison.” Yet one of the writers, Dale Vince, “has multiple times called for the incarceration of ‘climate deniers.’” Ugly.
Climate Activists Thwarted in Paris
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, July 27, 2024
Questioning Green Elsewhere
The Energy Transition Ain’t Happening: “Green” Economy In Retreat
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Aug 1, 2024
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-8-1-the-energy-transition-aint-happening-green-economy-in-retreat
Link to one opinion: Why the ‘Green Economy’ Is Suddenly in Retreat—in EU, US, and on Wall Street
By Jon Miltimore, American Institute for Economic Research, July 30, 2024
From Menton: Even the 45% figure cited there is a fantasy and consists mostly of a power plant at Niagara Falls that pre-existed all of this energy transition claptrap. So far all of our politicians are in a state of denial.
[SEPP Comment: Politicians classifying hydropower, such as the Niagara Falls Power Plant which opened in 1905, as renewable may be technically true, but inappropriate when emphasizing wind and solar.]
Net Zero targets “Unachievable” says Air New Zealand and nearly 70% of Australian companies “not even trying”
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 1, 2024
Green Energy Fail: Bottom Lines from a Participant/Observer
By Harry Blake, Master Resource, July 29, 2024
The current green agenda is flawed. I say this not as policy wonk or a political partisan but as someone with industry experience as an engineer, management consultant, and interim CTO for a solar company.
Logical slowly
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 31, 2024
The current state of climate policy discussion furnishes more tentative confirmation of J. Budziszewski’s democracy-sustaining claim that people are logical, slowly. As long as the Green New Deal was some distant and abstract vision it was easy to rhapsodize about its walls of jasper and streets of pure gold, like transparent glass. But once objects in calendar proved closer than they appear, and practical matters intruded, we increasingly read that, for instance, the City of Vancouver abruptly dumped its ban on natural-gas heating and cooling systems in new homes because it was a hugely expensive pain in the furnace.
Funding Issues
Exposing the Financial Web: Clinton-Run Organizations Funding Climate Activists
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Aug 2, 2024
GWPF welcomes Charity Commission’s findings
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 30, 2024
The Commission examined a range of areas, including the GWPF’s research and publication review process, its funding sources and its relationships with Net Zero Watch and with the American Friends of the GWPF.
It noted our introduction of an open peer review process for our publications and the procedures in place to ensure that Net Zero Watch does not impact on our charitable purpose.
It also examined concerns that the charity was financially supporting Net Zero Watch and said it “found no evidence to back these concerns up.”
The Political Games Continue
Bill to Reform Energy Permitting Process Arrives Not a Moment Too Soon
By JC Sandberg, Real Clear Energy, July 29, 2024
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2024/07/29/bill_to_reform_energy_permitting_process_arrives_not_a_moment_too_soon_1047923.html
No Gov. Inslee, Repeal of Washington State’s Climate Law Won’t Hurt the Climate
By Steve Goreham, Master Resource, July 31, 2024
“The Climate Commitment Act will have a negligible effect on the climate, but if not repealed, it will continue to significantly raise fuel, food, and utility prices in Washington State.”
Litigation Issues
Held Case Underscores the Importance of Scientific Debate
By Roger Koopman, Cornwall Alliance, July 25, 2024
Montana state government defending against the lawsuit: “For the purpose of this trial, there is a scientific consensus that earth is warming as a direct result of human GHG emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels.”
Most politicians, like most judges, are woefully uninformed on climatology and the competing sides of the climate change debate. All the more reason why the state should have jumped all over the opportunity to bring to light the widely censored other side of this important debate.
Climatologist Dr. David Legates points out that CO2 is beneficially greening the planet, that hurricanes, tornados and heat waves are not increasing in intensity or frequency, and that floods and droughts increase due to land use changes, not climate.
[SEPP Comment: The Montana government action was a sick joke.]
Legal Challenges to the SEC’s Climate-Related Disclosures Rule
By Rupert Darwall, WUWT, July 30, 2024
In justifying the rule, the SEC falls beneath the standards of truthfulness it rightly expects of those whom it regulates.
Court sides against EPA, extends emissions deadline for facility in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Aug 2, 2024
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4808247-court-rules-epa-louisiana-rubber-manufacturer-emissions-deadline
[SEPP Comment: The substance in question is Chloroprene which is used to manufacture neoprene. According to the NIH National Library of Medicine NCBI: Symptoms reported from acute (short-term) human exposure to high concentrations of chloroprene include giddiness, headache, irritability, dizziness, insomnia, fatigue, respiratory irritation, cardiac palpitations, chest pains, nausea, gastrointestinal disorders, dermatitis, temporary hair loss, conjunctivitis, and corneal necrosis. Symptoms of chronic (long-term) exposure in workers were fatigue, chest pains, giddiness, irritability, dermatitis, and hair loss. Chronic occupational exposure to chloroprene vapor may contribute to liver function abnormalities, disorders of the cardiovascular system, and depression of the immune system. Occupational studies have found that exposure to chloroprene increases the risk of liver cancer. Studies in animals have found an increased risk of tumors in multiple organs. The EPA has classified chloroprene as likely to be carcinogenic to humans.]
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Chloroprene
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
The Future of the EV Mandate
By Duggan Flanakin, Real Clear Energy, July 31, 2024
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2024/07/31/the_future_of_the_ev_mandate_1048553.html
Energy Issues – Non-US
Global Power Demand Is Soaring, IEA Expects 4% Growth in ’24 & ‘25
Coal powers growth in India & China, gas burn in U.S. sets new record as wind goes AWOL
By Robert Bryce, His Blog, Aug 2, 2024
https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/global-power-demand-is-soaring-iea?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=630873&post_id=147253329&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=f7h7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Link to: Electricity Mid-Year, July 2024
By Staff, international Energy Agency, July 2024
From report: Increases in Electricity Demand (Use): China up 6.5% in 2024 compared with 2023; India up 8% in 2024; US up 3%; and EU up 1.7%.
From Bryce: But here’s one of the most striking facts in the report:
“Over the last three years, China has been adding on average roughly one Germany each year in terms of electricity demand and this trend is expected to continue through 2025.”
That’s simply stunning. Germany has the world’s third-largest economy (after the U.S. and China.) In 2023, Germany generated about 518 terawatt-hours of electricity. Last year, China’s power generation jumped by 608 TWh! The IEA’s coal market report shows that China and India are the key drivers of global CO2 emissions and coal consumption. Here’s another key passage:
“China dominates the global market for coal to a much greater degree than for any other fuel, accounting for 58% of world demand and driving growth through the 2010s. China’s electricity sector alone is responsible for over one‐third of global coal demand. China is also the largest coal producer by far, accounting for over half of global output, and is the largest coal importer…. Demand for coal is beginning to flatten in China, but coal still accounted for around 60% of its energy supply and electricity generation in 2023. India is the second‐biggest single coal consumer, accounting for 12% of world coal demand. Like China, India has a population of around 1.4 billion people, but its per capita energy demand is one‐quarter that of China’s, reflecting lower GDP per capita. As in China, coal is the cornerstone of electricity generation in India, accounting for around three‐quarters of total generation. Together, China and India account for over two‐thirds of global coal demand. [Boldface by Bryce]
17 Requirements for National Security
By Ed D’Agostino, Mauldin Economics, July 30, 2024
https://www.mauldineconomics.com/global-macro-update/17-requirements-for-national-security
China controls roughly 60% of global rare earth mining and 85% of global rare earth processing capacity. It has far greater rare earth mine reserves than any other nation.
Why have electricity prices risen?
By Andrew Montford, Net Zero Watch, July 31, 2024
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/why-have-electricity-prices-risen
In the Telegraph last week, Peter Lilley asked some very pertinent questions about Net Zero. This has prompted an absolute shocker of a response from the Energy and Climate Change Information Unit on Twitter. Almost nothing in the whole thread of their thread is true and much of it is grossly misleading. Rather than rebut the whole thing, however, I thought I’d focus on just one of Peter’s questions, and the ECIU response.
Ed Miliband’s Epitaph
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 29, 2024
“Labour’s pledge to cut consumer energy bills by £300 was an election campaign centrepiece. Yet the promise began to unravel this week even as it was launching Great British Energy – its flagship project aimed at achieving lower bills.
During the election campaign, Sir Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, repeatedly said their controversial plan to decarbonise UK electricity by 2030 would reduce household bills by £300.
But when challenged in the Commons on Friday and in interviews, both men refused to repeat the pledge. Miliband admitted that any reduction might take years to deliver.”
Miliband to add £1.5bn to energy bills in record offshore wind investment
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31, 2024
Quite why the failure of offshore wind to offer competitive prices last year is “catastrophic” is a mystery!
Labour is accused of ‘lying’ over pledge to knock £300 off energy bills
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 27, 2024
Why weaning Britain off gas threatens to give Miliband a £74bn headache
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 30, 2024
This is a microcosm of the entire Net Zero fiasco, which involves spending unbelievable amounts of money in pursuit of an unachievable end.
[SEPP Comment: Long post.]
Austerity may kill Labour’s green superpower ambitions at the first hurdle
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 2, 2024
It is, of course, the hopeless intermittency of wind power that makes Miliband’s entire plan a fairy tale. Even AEP belatedly accepts that green hydrogen will be of little help, and interconnectors cannot be relied on either.
Given all of this, where is the sense in wasting hundreds of billions on upgrading the grid, building wind farms and carbon capture?
Renewables Are Helping Europe Enhance Its Energy Market
By Mark Temnycky, Real Clear Energy, July 31, 2024
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2024/07/31/renewable_energy_is_helping_europe_enhance_its_energy_market_1048536.html
[SEPP Comment: Part time help for a 24/7 job?]
Energy Issues – Australia
Wholesale Electricity prices hit $17,000 in five states in Australia –Renewable fans blame a lack of coal power (?)
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 2, 2024
Energy Issues — US
Smarter Than You – AI, Data Center Power Demand And The Implications For Natural Gas
By Rusty Braziel, RBN Energy, July 31, 2024
https://rbnenergy.com/smarter-than-you-ai-data-center-power-demand-and-the-implications-for-natural-gas
Data center power demand is soaring as AI — artificial intelligence — rapidly expands across all sorts of applications. That statement is certainly the top buzz factor in today’s energy markets. These facilities need 24×7, super-reliable power, and there’s only one power generation fuel that has any hope of keeping up with the demand surge: natural gas. While most data center developers would prefer green energy to cover their power requirements, the intermittent nature of wind and solar means that for many facilities, it can’t happen, at least for the short-to-medium term hyped-up market we are seeing right now. But how much incremental power are we talking about? And how much natural gas will be needed? That’s what we’ll explore in today’s RBN blog.
[SEPP Comment: According to these numbers; fueled by the government, Virginia (Washington) has the greatest power load for data centers of any state and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future. Solar and wind are hopeless in providing super-reliable power. Thus, in its campaign against natural gas, Washington is biting the hand that feeds it.]
A Strong America Requires Reliable, Plentiful, and Affordable Energy
By Emily Arthun, Real Clear Energy, July 30, 2024
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2024/07/30/a_strong_america_requires_reliable_plentiful_and_affordable_energy_1048199.html
These Are America’s Cheapest Sources Of Electricity In 2024
By Tyler Duren, Zero Hedge, July 26, 2024
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/these-are-americas-cheapest-sources-electricity-2024
[SEPP Comment: False comparison of optimal conditions while the need reliability 24/7.]
Compendium of DEFR Analyses
By Roger Caiazza, WUWT, July 29, 2024
The organizations responsible for the New York State electricity system transition to net-zero agree that new technologies are necessary to keep the lights on during periods of extended low wind and solar resource availability. This article references six analyses that describe a new category of generating resources called Dispatchable Emissions-Free Resources (DEFR) needed for a future grid that depends upon wind, solar, and energy storage resources.
[SEPP Comment: Caiazza points out the New York State is seeking pixie dust that works.]
5 things to know about potential causes of Texas’s power crisis
By Saul Elbein, The Hill, July 29, 2024
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4798551-texas-power-crisis-potential-causes-senate-hearing
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Texas deregulated its electricity market but left the “poles and wires” portion of the market — the part represented by CenterPoint — as a regulated monopoly, reporter Russell Gold noted in Texas Monthly a week after the storm.
[SEPP Comment: The finger pointing has begun. The deregulation was partial; it favors unreliable wind and solar. Vegetation is a big problem for all utilities It must be locally handled.]
Oil Spills, Gas Leaks, Flaring & Consequences
An Awful Thing to Waste – The Push to Consume More Natural Gas Close to Where It’s Produced
By Housley Carr, RBN Energy, July 26, 2024
https://rbnenergy.com/an-awful-thing-to-waste-the-push-to-consume-more-natural-gas-close-to-where-its-produced
Associated gas production continues to rise, especially in the Permian but also in the Bakken and other crude-oil-focused plays. While most of that incremental production is piped long distances to far-away customers, any gas that can be consumed closer to where it’s produced reduces the stress on existing takeaway capacity (see Verde Clean Fuels and Xcel Energy above). Also, in many cases, stranded gas that might otherwise be flared can be put to good use nearby, either to produce power or low-carbon methanol.
[SEPP Comment: The power production started this summer; the methanol production has not been demonstrated and may be a waste of energy.]
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Nuclear Power Startup Plans 6-GW Fleet of U.S. Plants
By Darrell Proctor, Power Mag, July 25, 2024
https://www.powermag.com/nuclear-power-startup-plans-6-gw-fleet-of-u-s-plants/?oly_enc_id=7809H6412578J0B
Those factors, along with more U.S. manufacturing as companies build new factories, in part due to incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, have utilities and other power generators looking for ways to increase electricity output.
[SEPP Comment: The article and The Nuclear Company website have no information on if and when the Nuclear Regulatory Agency will approve its plan, if it has one, and the cost of construction.]
Rolls-Royce One Step Closer To SMRs
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 30, 2024
Of course, successful development of SMRs would soon make wind and solar power redundant. Why duplicate capacity?
One might almost think that the Green Blob has been deliberately putting the brakes on the development of nuclear power.
Uranium Fever – Small Modular Reactors Could Be Part Of Nuclear Revival, But Hurdles Remain
By Lisa Shidler, RBN Energy, Aug 1, 2024
https://rbnenergy.com/uranium-fever-small-modular-reactors-could-be-part-of-nuclear-revival-but-major-hurdles-remain
[SEPP Comment: Demonstration project needed. With the current Nuclear Regulatory Agency, who knows about time required for approvals?]
Why Are We Still Relying on Russia?
By Ed D’Agostino, Mauldin Economics, July 23, 2024
https://www.mauldineconomics.com/global-macro-update/why-are-we-still-relying-on-russia
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Virginia’s risk of offshore wind turbine blade failure is serious
By David Wojick, CFACT, July 29, 2024
https://www.cfact.org/2024/07/29/virginias-risk-of-offshore-wind-turbine-blade-failure-is-serious/#
Now let’s look at the blade stress physics just a bit, as it is amazing. SG [Siemen Gamesa, the manufacturer] has a quick look on their website, saying this:
“The rotational forces found in offshore wind turbines in operation put IMMENSE STRAIN ON THE BLADES and the rest of the wind turbine structure. (Emphasis added) At a tip speed of approximately 90 meters per second – equivalent to 324 kilometers per hour! (201 mph!) – and a projected lifetime of more than 25 years, high-quality and innovative design is imperative. For a 108-meter-long blade, the rotational forces are around a staggering 80 million newton meters, and the strain on the blades and the structure is intense! To put this into perspective, the force pulling on a human shoulder while spinning a 1 kg object around in an outstretched arm is only about 10 newton meters!”
(80 million newton meters is about 59 million pound-feet of torque).
Chinese Solar Farms Are Crowding Out Much-Needed Crops
By Chun Han Wong, WSJ, Aug 1, 2024
https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-solar-power-farms-food-security-fb104751?mod=hp_lead_pos9
Local farmers told CCTV [China Central Television] that the area’s agricultural yield had fallen by some 80%.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
British Green Energy Biomass Plant Hands £300 Million to Shareholders, then Demands More Subsidies
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 28, 2024
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Electric car fiasco “on the brink of collapse”
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 30, 2024
It’s hard to keep up with the great EV unravelling
[SEPP Comment: Will we see authoritarian government — denying consumers what they wish to purchase so they will be forced to purchase what the government dictates?]
Heads should roll over the electric car fiasco
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 27, 2024
Carbon Schemes
AEP’s Carbon Capture Fantasy
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 2, 2024
AEP is Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a commentator in The Telegraph newspaper business section.
Homewood: Will the Telegraph please replace him with a journalist who knows what he is talking about.
California Dreaming
California Regulators Propose Gov’t Takeover Of Oil Refineries To Stave Off Energy Crisis
By Owen Klinsky, Daily Caller, Aug 2, 2024
https://dailycaller.com/2024/08/02/california-regulators-propose-govt-takeover-of-oil-refineries-stave-off-energy-crisis/#google_vignette
[SEPP Comment: According to the California Constitution, the Legislature is ultimately responsible for all utilities. It has done such a great job in insuring safety of all power lines, including maintenance and vegetation pruning, now it wants to use these skills on oil refining?]
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
All Companies Should Report They will be Destroyed by Climate Change in the Next Decade
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 27, 2024
California’s housing crisis could be raising risk of climate disasters, researchers fear
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, July 30, 2024
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4800232-californias-housing-crisis-development-climate-disasters
Link to paper: Relational geographies of urban unsustainability: The entanglement of California’s housing crisis with WUI growth and climate change
By Miriam Greenberg, et. al., PNAS, July 29, 2024
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2310080121
From abstract: One of California’s most pressing social and environmental challenges is the rapid expansion of the wildlands–urban interface (WUI). Multiple issues associated with WUI growth compared to more dense and compact urban form are of concern—including greatly increased fire risk, greenhouse gas emissions, and fragmentation of habitat.
[SEPP Comment: Swamps produce swamp grass – which emit methane, a greenhouse gas.]
Hikers are infecting Virginia wildlife with COVID-19, study finds
By Saul Elbein, The Hill, July 29, 2024
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4798487-covid-19-virginia-wildlife-hikers
Link to paper: Widespread exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife communities
By Amanda R. Goldberg, et al., Nature Communications, July 29, 2024
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49891-w
From the abstract: We sampled 23 species of wildlife for SARS-CoV-2 and examined the effects of urbanization and human use on seropositivity. Here, we document positive detections of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in six species, including the deer mouse, Virginia opossum, raccoon, groundhog, Eastern cottontail, and Eastern red bat between May 2022–September 2023 across Virginia and Washington, D.C., USA.
[SEPP Comment: Will the Sierra Club launch a “Beyond Hiking” campaign?]
ARTICLES
1. Why Chevron Is Fleeing California
The oil company moves to Texas as Sacramento regulators may take over the refining industry.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ, Aug 2, 2024
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chevron-leaves-california-energy-oil-gas-refineries-regulation-434d7a38?mod=hp_opin_pos_2#cxrecs_s
TWTW Summary: The editorial begins with:
“Chevron on Friday joined the growing club of California corporations moving to Texas, and the wonder is it took so long. The company has been in the state for more than 140 years, but Democrats in Sacramento want to put it out of business. Why would anyone stay?
The list of anti-Chevron state policies include a low-carbon fuel standard, cap-and-trade fees, drilling restrictions and a penalty on ‘excessive’ refinery margins. To add injury to insult, the Richmond City Council has put on the November ballot a $1 a barrel tax on Chevron’s refinery, one of the largest in the state.
The war on the industry has caused production to fall by more than half in the last decade and several refineries have shut down. Gasoline prices have surged $1.16 a gallon above the national average. Whenever a refinery has problems, prices rise even more owing to lack of supply—sometimes above $6 a gallon.
Enter Mr. Newsom’s energy commission, which is charged with investigating the causes of California’s high gas prices. A commission staff report this week failed to find wrongdoing but nonetheless floats state control of the refining industry.
One idea is to ‘purchase and own refineries in the State to manage the supply and price of gasoline.’ At least the commission concedes there are ‘significant legal issues’ to address and ‘there are complex industrial processes that the State has no experience in managing.’ That’s for sure.
Sacramento can’t currently provide basic public services such as reliable power. How would it run an industry it wants to shut down? The report wonders too: ‘As demand for fossil fuel declines, will the presence of State-owned refineries inhibit an orderly phase out of refinery capacity?’”
After further discussion, the editorial ends with:
“To sum up, California’s regulators want to take over an industry in the name of mitigating the costs of their own destructive policies. No wonder Chevron is fleeing for its life.”
*************
2. Polar Bears, Dead Coral and Other Climate Fictions
Activists’ tales of doom never pan out, but they leave us poorly informed and feed bad policy.
By Bjorn Lomborg, WSJ, July 31, 2024
https://www.wsj.com/articles/polar-bears-dead-coral-and-other-climate-fictions-528b18ea?mod=opinion_lead_pos6
TWTW Summary: The environmentalist begins with:
“Whatever happened to polar bears? They used to be all climate campaigners could talk about, but now they’re essentially absent from headlines. Over the past 20 years, climate activists have elevated various stories of climate catastrophe, then quietly dropped them without apology when the opposing evidence becomes overwhelming. The only constant is the scare tactics.
Protesters used to dress up as polar bears. Al Gore’s 2006 film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ depicted a sad cartoon polar bear floating away to its death. The Washington Post warned in 2004 that the species could face extinction, and the World Wildlife Fund’s chief scientist claimed some polar bear populations would be unable to reproduce by 2012.
Then in the 2010s, campaigners stopped talking about them. After years of misrepresentation, it finally became impossible to ignore the mountain of evidence showing that the global polar-bear population has increased substantially. Whatever negative effect climate change had was swamped by the reduction in hunting of polar bears. The population has risen from around 12,000 in the 1960s to about 26,000.
The same thing has happened with activists’ outcry about Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. For years, they shouted that the reef was being killed off by rising sea temperatures. After a hurricane extensively damaged the reef in 2009, official Australian estimates of the percent of reef covered in coral reached a record low in 2012. The media overflowed with stories about the great reef catastrophe, and scientists predicted the coral cover would be reduced by another half by 2022. The Guardian even published an obituary in 2014.
The latest official statistics show a completely different picture. For the past three years the Great Barrier Reef has had more coral cover than at any point since records began in 1986, with 2024 setting a new record. This good news gets a fraction of the coverage that the panicked predictions did.”
After discussing other popular green myths such as islands disappearing and killer heat waves, Lomborg concludes with:
“Scare tactics leave everyone—especially young people—distressed and despondent. Fear leads to poor policy choices that further frustrate the public. And the ever-changing narrative of disasters erodes public trust.
Telling half-truths while piously pretending to ‘follow the science’ benefits activists with their fundraising, generates clicks for media outlets, and helps climate-concerned politicians rally their bases. But it leaves all of us poorly informed and worse off.”
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