Spain’s looming national election serves as a pivotal stage where contentious climate narratives collide. A harsh heatwave currently gripping the country provides a sensational backdrop to the political drama, with many dubbing the election as the ‘climate referendum’. Warm temperatures and water-use restrictions are being portrayed as dire warnings of global warming consequences.
However, amidst this landscape of escalating climate hysteria, the Vox party stands firm. Notoriously characterized as a “climate-change denial” party, Vox is poised to play a crucial role in the upcoming government. Yet, it is essential to scrutinize the term ‘climate-change denial’ – a catchphrase often used to suppress meaningful dialogue and debate surrounding the issue. Contrary to this misleading label, Vox isn’t denying climate change but contesting the exaggerated and often unfounded panic that surrounds it.
Challenging the prevailing climate orthodoxy, Vox boldly critiques the 2021 Spanish Climate Change law and the new European nature protection legislation. The party warns that such stringent regulations could thrust society back into a metaphorical cave-age, fostering impoverishment rather than advancement.
In the field of agriculture, Vox staunchly opposes the government’s water use regulations, supporting farmers who are crucial to Spain’s economy. Here, the party recognizes the need to balance both socio-economic and environmental factors, rather than blindly following alarmist environmental policies. Far from denying the existence of climatic changes, Vox appears to prioritize a comprehensive and pragmatic approach over alarmist narratives.
Far too often, climate change is painted as an impending doom, an unsolvable catastrophe looming over the horizon. However, this narrative simplifies a complex issue, reducing it to a binary of denial and acceptance, while ignoring the nuances in between.
As Spain prepares to lead the EU’s rotating presidency, its approach to this contentious issue will be under the global spotlight. Will the nation succumb to the fear-driven climate narrative, or will it chart a balanced path that considers wider perspectives? Is it possible to deviate from the alarmist script, recognizing the climate not as a ticking time-bomb, but as a natural phenomenon that requires measured understanding rather than panicked reaction?
The outcome of the July 23 elections might hold answers to these questions. Amid the clamor of climate alarmism, the hope is for rationality to triumph over fear, and for a comprehensive view of environmental policy to emerge that doesn’t sacrifice economic stability for green symbolism.
For more on Climate Politics, go to our ClimateTV page and select Climate Politics in the topics filter.
This will be the key debate politically the next ten years in the West. Will the population willingly accept a vastly lower standard of living to appease the climate Gods worshipped by the hysterical? I think at some point they say NO, I teeter totter over when that will be.
More likely one of several. Immigration both US and Europe is another.
in my view, despite Biden, the Alarmist green thing is losing momentum at an increasing rate. There are several indicators:
And the green alarmists likely know this, because they have amped their screechy 10 to silly 11 on the alarm scale. ESA confused land surface with land air 2 meters high just this week (see Gosslin’s guest post here). DoD says climate change is the biggest challenge when they cannot produce enough ammo to supply Ukraine against Russia in a smallish regional conflict. EPA wants to cancel gas stoves.
Unbelievable that they want to cancel the cleanest and most energy efficient means of cooking food, and make it so clean gas stoves are replaced with ones that are running on coal burned far away, in which only a fraction of the energy in the coal winds up where the food is, instead of clean gas, from which 100% of the energy contained in it winds up where the food is cooking.
And now we learn, officially this time, that no one in the administration that is forcing all these changes, has any idea how much electricity the country uses, let alone how much more we will need if everything including our cars is forced to switch.
They have not even done the math.
And they have no plan at all for how exactly to rebuild the grid, or upgrade it, or increase it’s capacity, let alone our combined electricity generating capability.
They are just tossing out these policies willy-nilly, with zero thoughts given to how to make it possible for them to be implemented.
I was reading about a lawsuit in New England, which involves a multi-year effort to merely add a new line, just string an additional set of cables, along an existing electric transmission corridor to bring in hydro power from Canada.
The people living where the lines will have to pass have been successful in keeping it from happening for years now, as the cases wends it’s way through the courts.
And this is just adding a line where they already exist, to bring in power from a source which is 100% carbon free, in a green as can be state.
It took over a hundred years to build out the infrastructure that brings us our various forms of energy, and for most of that time, when some infrastructure was needed, it was done, period.
But reading through the welter of issues and how they have evolved over more than 8 years, to simply add a new line to existing corridors (according to some reports at least, although other people seem to be saying that some forest will have to be cut through), it is so incredibly complicated. One big issue is that power from one place going to another place, will have to pass through locations that do not stand to benefit from the project.
A similar project that was planned all the way back in 2008 or earlier, was cancelled in 2015 after hundreds of millions were spent, because in that case, New Hampshire and various interests in that state objected.
I do not think there is any way to bring power thousands of miles and have no one object to it. Every single long-distance line will be blocked and tied up in courts several times over many years. In these cases I have mentioned, Democrat politicians and groups closely associated with Green energy advocacy and activism, opposed the projects, often citing hypothetical and/or provincial concerns: “They may try at some point to put some non green power through them lines”, “The dams up there are controversial and may have inundated some native lands, so we oppose having the power from those dams come through our state”, or “Hydropower from Quebec that supplies Massachusetts, is a bad deal for Maine. We stand to gain nothing from it, so we will not let it pass though our state”, etc. And dozens of oter such things.
Opposition to any new mines or mineral extraction proposals are even more fiercely contested. But lack of transmission capacity means that no matter what else happens or is done, it will not matter.
It is amazing anything ever gets built.
NextEra is blocking a major new clean power transmission project – BNN Bloomberg
Quebec – New England Transmission – Wikipedia
Central Maine Power could resume work on transmission line after winning 9-0 verdict in jury trial | New Hampshire Public Radio (nhpr.org)
Aha! So that’s what “net zero” means
In the UK National Grid has been saying for the last 6 months that all the unreliable generation already in the pipiline will have to wait 10 to 15 years to be connected to the Grid. Yet still new applications for installing solar and wind appear on a regular basis.
It’s getting harder and harder for the Catastrophe Club to ignore the bleeding obvious everywhere-
the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) found wholesale electricity prices rose in May due to higher demand in southern states, lower solar generation, and reduced cheap coal capacity in NSW and Queensland.
Eraring power plant’s 2025 closure ‘very unlikely’ amid delays to renewable projects, experts say (msn.com)
There’s a delicious irony for the dilute energy fans. The more successful they are at pushing the Gaia/sustainability panacea with mankind evil/nature good equals noble aboriginal hunter gatherers yada yada the more they push the NIMBY button. Hence the ever rising backlash against their large spatial energy demands for windmills solar farms and transmission lines and here’s a classic example of that-
$375m Derby tidal power project likely dead in the water after a decade-long delay – ABC News
Leftys simply don’t do irony or comprehend tradeoffs whatsoever so increasingly they’re hoisted on their own petard with their dilute energy fantasies.
News tip ?
https://leohohmann.substack.com/p/worldcoin-ceo-global-digital-currency
The control freaks do not give up .
And Spain is giving in .
We are not in a climate crisis, CO2 is not the control knob for our climate and we are not going to reach a tipping point and suffer irreversible global warming.
We are in a climate crisis. Earth is in an Ice Age and has been for the last 2.6 million years. For most of those 2.6 million years there would have been few or no trees growing in Canada. If that’s not a climate crisis what is ?
We are in a climate crisis. We are busy dismantling our technological society because peole think we are in a climate crisis
The “solutions” to climate change are the crisis.
Did a little research. This Spanish election will likely overturn the Socialist now in power and replace with a two party coalition of center-right PP plus Vox.
Vox has a lot of agendas beyond climate change; a win is not necessarily a vote against green lunacy. Vox is against Abortion (presently legal in a devoutly Catholic country), agricultural restrictions, immigration (from Africa, like Italy), excessive COVID restrictions (VOX has won three times at Spain’s Supreme Court striking excesses down), government spending… The speculation is that Spain will follow Italy in a turn to the right, and for similar reasons—what they have had under the Socialists isn’t working for the majority of Spaniards.
They tell us that VOX is a Fascist party. Mussolini the best know fascist was a communist and only started the fascist party because he was expelled from the PSI for his more nationalistic orientation opposed to the international view of the socialist party.
So if VOX are the right they can never be fascist.
For me there are just 2 options. Those who want big government and less/no freedom and those who want small government.
And the reservoirs were emptied to generate electricity. In a country known for long hot and dry summers that was waiting for problems. While they were making big bucks all that drinking water was wasted. And now we have restrictions because of climate change.
Luckily before summer really started we had a month of showers filling up most reservoirs to over half capacity or more. But they didn’t take restrictions away.
So everywhere trees are dying because you officially can’t water them.
“And the reservoirs were emptied to generate electricity.”
hmmm… interesting- I’d like to read more about that.
Here’s hoping reason prevails over leftist lunacy. Yes, the climate is changing, but read the hundreds of pages of supporting evidence provided by eminent climatologist Steven Koonin in his book “Unsettled”, and recognize that the change is primarily the result of natural forces, not human activities. And even as the climate slowly warms, are we truly experiencing catastrophes? Did you know that hurricanes and monsoons are, since 1900, decreasing in number (from Imprimis April/May, 2023)? And that 2022 served up the second lowest number of such storms? Did you know that the journals Science and Nature have verified that global wildfires have decreased in number and total area damaged over the last 25 years? Did you know that, during the 1920’s, about 500,000 people died every year from traumatic climatic events, and that the number has fallen consistently over the years, until by 2022, the number dropped to 11,000 (from Imprimis)? So what should be done? Regarding natural warming and natural CO2 enhancement, practically nothing – both of these changes will improve the human condition, and constitute our planet’s plan for itself. Regarding anthropomorphic climate changes, one thing NOT to do is implement most of the existing governmental plans. If all were implemented, the cost is estimated at $11,000 PER PERSON, PER YEAR (Imprimis), spelling an end to prosperity and the middle class, and creating an economic meltdown that could return us to feudalism. Because we cannot obtain environmental cooperation from most of the third and developing world, we should be proper stewards of the environment occupied by our citizens. On that score, the USA currently makes progress every year, without destroying lifestyles, creating impoverishment, denying access to dependable transit by enforcing expensive, undependable and dangerous electric vehicles, replacing all current appliances and more. Since we cannot enforce better environmental behavior on China and India, and China alone builds more coal-fired power plants than the rest of the world combined, we should properly restrict ourselves to reasonable improvements in the environment we utilize, and continued suasion toward China, India and the rest of the developing world. But because the green campaign has multiple purposes, including aggregation of power by certain wealthy and powerful elites, the current self-destructive lurch continues. Hopefully, a majority of the global citizenry will soon see the light.
Gentle correction. Koonin is a very famous physicist. He was tasked by APS (American Physics Society) to review their previous alarmist climate position paper, over which Nobel Physicist Givar resigned in disgust. Koonin held a fact finding ‘conference’ including Judith Curry. The full Koonin meeting transcript is available at her Climate Etc. Koonin wrote a report saying revise the APS position paper—it is indefensible. He was rejected by APS, so he wrote Unsettled in response.
I’ve watched many YouTube videos with Koonin. He comes across as extremely intelligent and a true gentleman. I’m impressed- got his book- and now recommend it to everyone. Not many takes yet- since most people either aren’t paying attention to this issue or are already members of the climate cult so they are incapable of considering that it might be wrong.
And here in the UK our July has been described as ‘autumnal’. Of course the BBC blames it on climate change as well.
Well sure! No matter what the weather it is always climate change, and like the one story headline read, when everything is climate change then nothing is. I think Rud is right, climate hysteria is falling down like the house of cards it is.
Joey should send John Kerry to Spain….so he can be rejected like he was in China….rejection is what Lurch deserves.
That is how Leftists are – they can’t help themselves, they slowly ratchet things up until they have all power money and control and others have NOTHING.
Leftists are the real Fascist and Nazis. Just listen how they talk during speeches. All the time you are waiting to shout ‘Heil’.
Just look how they blame capitalism when we didn’t have capitalism for a very long time. A federal reserve system is a centrally controlled economic system = socialism. That is why it doesn’t work and can only be kept alive with ‘money’ printing to pay big government debt destroying your savings.
Federal Reserve is not controlled by the State, it owns the State. It is privately owned by crony oligarchy that sets up the agenda, controls investment decisions and uses State as a tool. It is still capitalism, there are many varieties of it.
For sure this heatwave effect on the election in Spain will be interesting. This is because there are two seperate, but important, aspects of the heatwave. The Looney CAGW Burning Hell On Earth side will urge voters to elect greenies, you know, to save the planet. However, the other side will point to the poor prior handling of the electric grid in Spain, and this will likely be emphasized by local rolling brownouts or blackouts. Which to choose?
There is no heatwave in Spain. Just normal summer weather. The whole thing is a propaganda construct.
We have more and more people living and working in an air conditioned environment. Of course the moment they step out of it normal warm weather feels like hell. More people live in Big (warmer) cities and most young people now are brainwashed into Green Shirts and Climate Jugend.
And all parties in Spain ‘think’ the climate has a problem (because they all like power).
Maybe countries, like people, go mad in herds and only recover their senses slowly and one at a time – to paraphrase Charles Mackay.
Because they always follow the shepherd who promises the most free stuff. Sheep with opposite views will be pulled from the herd and eliminated (eaten) just like in real life.
In the land of wine grapes (extremely deep rooted) and olives (small leathery leaves) it sometimes gets hot and dry.
Who knew?
It is perfect weather for tomato plants .
It can also get really cold so don’t plant your orange trees to far inland where they no longer are protected by the warm Mediterranean sea.
Love the picture of the 2 climate clowns riding virtue signaling e-bikes (picture taken on July 10 in Valladolid according to reuters) to figth climate change while Spain was supposed to suffer a “monstruous heatwave”, so deadly that the eco minister wears a jacket and the vice president a sweater …
To be fair, Valladolid is in the northwest part of central Spain. The hottest weather is in the southwest, around Seville and North of Màlaga et al on the Costa del Sol.Up towards Granada.
All of which are forecast to reach about 36°C today (Friday) or just under 100°F for people stuck in the past…and which is approximately normal for the time of year.
Valladolid will peak out at a mere 27°C (80°F) with a small chance of showers.
Here in the UK, I will be lucky to see 17°C today.
The climate alarmists are getting desperate. Renewable energy, despite massive subsidies, simply isn’t profitable any more.
And at least one police car following them.
Story tip.
UK offshore windfarm cancelled over spiralling costs
Norwegian offshore wind farm cancelled over spiralling costs
Obviously you need too much expensive fossil fuel to build install and maintain renewable energy….
It will be interesting to see how spiralling costs of renewable energy and its increasing imoact on grid reliability will play out in the politics of the ever more turgid and virtue signalling ‘European Union’.
It will be denial to say that heat and drought is not a problem for Spain.
It is a very rational choice to use billions of euro to make fresh water from seawater.
I don`t think this is a new problem, but it has to be taken seriously, as they do.
Jumping Juan flash it’s a gas gas gas!
Spain activates all its gas plants to cope with heatwave (msn.com)
I like the image at the top- sort of a cubist version of Dilbert at work. 🙂
But, butt, … what about: https://www.google.com/maps/@36.7851184,-2.9399448,191396m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu ? ! ! !