On Wednesday in Denver, we had the pleasure of joining Dr. Roger Pielke Jr. (UC Boulder) and Chris Wright, CEO and Chairman of Liberty Energy for a live discussion as part of Liberty Energy’s “Liberty and Energy” Presentation Series. Roger is a Professor in the Environmental Studies department at the University of Colorado Boulder and the author of “The Honest Broker” substack (linked here). Roger’s work focuses on the intersection of policy and governance issues related to science, technology, environment, innovation, and sports. It was exciting to bring the Denver area community together and have a live, studio audience to discuss the current state of climate, energy and the environment broadly.
To kick off the discussion, Roger walked us through a presentation with key background on the current state of science around energy and climate (slides linked here). We then dove into how the broader population might get better data and discussion around energy and climate, issues with the IPCC’s summary for policy makers, how priorities in the environmental world have shifted to focusing primarily on climate, the impact of climate alarmism on children and young adults, and how Roger approaches teaching his students to appreciate the scale and complexity of energy and electricity in the world. Roger shares examples of the “scenario wars” that are taking place, his experience being investigated by Congress, and the overwhelming need for solid data on climate from a trusted, authoritative organization that allows for open discussion.
We also discuss the role of oil and gas companies in the energy world of tomorrow, the math of getting to net zero 2050, the desperate need for more energy in the developing world, the glaring opportunity for America to help power the world, and conclude with some inside scoop on Roger’s chances of joining the team with Coach Prime. As you will hear, Roger is a great explainer and wonderful thinker. We can’t thank the Liberty team enough for allowing us to be a part of it. The world needs more “Liberty and Energy” town hall gatherings!
As you will hear, Roger very positively mentions a podcast with Michael Liebreich and Jim Skea (the new head) of the IPCC. The episode is linked here.
As we head into the weekend, we wish you well and hope your team wins! If you do get out for a walk or otherwise have some time, we hope very much you can tune in to this Special Edition COBT. We learned a lot!
I see the whole thing as a cleverly designed debt entrapment of our society. One makes a lot of money selling an energy system that doesn’t work to governments who spend enormous amounts of money, ruining their own energy and production infrastructure while blowing up social spending via welfare and immigration at the same time, to say it short: on a direct path to financial ruin. Then these huge financial institutions will own everything.
Correct – the globalist elites are enacting their policies through western nation Govts – only a disruptor can save the western masses from the planned regression of living standards
Extreme Lukewarmer, left of Bjorn.
Pielke gives too much credence to scientific consensus. Michael Crichton explained it very well.
“The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus.”
I think what we need is a Star wars scenario with Luke Skywarmer ,but he has to be the other side kicking the crap out of the funny little green blobby Jedi. Daft Ada can play the role of any number of eejit politicos like BIden Sunac and Abalone from Oz. Princess Greta can wrap her pigtails round her ears. May the Farce be with them!
positively mentions a podcast with Michael Liebreich and Jim Skea
Skea? He must be joking.
Yeah, I hear you. I admire Pielke’s willingness to stick his neck out for what he believes because my ex-boss and his boss did everything they could do to get him out of the university. They couldn’t fire him but they did everything they could to make him miserable.
Pielke is not strong scientifically and he’s more wrong than right around that.
Story tip:
“‘The quotes were £5,000 or more’: electric vehicle owners face soaring insurance costs”
Cor blimey! Eye watering or what? [Try to ignore that EVs pay no road taxes etc…]
“Driving an electric car should be a win-win, saving money and the planet. So David* was shocked when the insurance on his Tesla Model Y came up for renewal, and Aviva refused to cover him again, while several other brands turned him away.
When David did secure a new deal, the annual cost rocketed from £1,200 to more than £5,000.”
…
“John Lewis Financial Services told us: “Our underwriter has temporarily paused offering new policies and renewals on fully electric vehicles while they analyse the risks and costs entailed.”
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/30/the-quotes-were-5000-or-more-electric-vehicle-owners-face-soaring-insurance-costs
Lets be quite clear. If you can afford at least £10k more for an EV equivalent model, you can afford a bit more for the insurance…
“-1″
Scorchio.
Many sites (UG car parks, hotel car parks etc) are banning battery cars because of the fire risk and insurance uplifts
I like to mention this error whenever I see it. The correct acronym for the University of Colorado is CU, as in CU Boulder.
Not to be confused with CU Next Tuesday.
Supposedly, the origin of this naming convention was to avoid the confusion between “University of California” and “University of Colorado.”
That might have been prescient, as Colorado is becoming more like California politically, unfortunately.
You must remember climate policy is not about climate, it’s about stealth tax and transfer of billions from the masses to the globalist elites – the whole grubby, deceitful sham is about money, greed and personal power
I’m sorry, but the notion of America “powering the world” is nonsense.
American oil production is basically the same as consumption; it isn’t going to double barring full societal mobilization.
American natural gas – there’s enough for export but it is far from clear there is enough to replace even a small fraction of the international demand for energy. The total LNG market worldwide around 500 bcm whereas US natural gas consumption alone is 827 bcm.
I’m sorry, but the notion of America “powering the world” is nonsense.
I think he was intimating the US should be at the forefront of nuclear power development rather than leaving it to Russia and China. That largely impacts coal use but as for oil and gas he didn’t believe that would be off the global menu anytime soon.
Bloomberg’s green-energy research team estimated it would cost $US 200 Trillion to stop Global Warming by 2050.
There are about 2 billion households in the world, that is $US 100,000 per household.
Around 90 percent of the world’s households can’t afford anything additional. That means about $US 1 million per household in developed countries or about $US 33,000 per year for 30 years. The working people can’t afford anything near that.
The millionaires and billionaires have about $US 208 billion. That would cover it.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-07-05/-200-trillion-is-needed-to-stop-global-warming-that-s-a-bargain#xj4y7vzkg
Climate scientists have redefined climate so it is only around 30 years now. That means that climate like the weather is always changing.
I guess if you want to discuss long-term climate you have to say geological climate.
90% of all wildfires are caused by humans being careless with their fire.
https://ktla.com/news/california/humans-to-blame-for-about-90-of-wildfire-ignitions-report-finds/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIn%20the%20state%20of%20California,the%20paper's%20lead%20author%2C%20said.&text=%E2%80%9CIt%20could%20be%20from%20anything,machinery%20that%20causes%20a%20spark.
They didn’t mention what the long-term climate of the Earth is. The long-term geological climate of the Earth is a 2.56 million-year ice age named the Quaternary Glaciation(fourth ice age) with 20% of the land covered by cold glaciers and cold permafrost. The Earth is in a warmer, but not warm, 11,700-year interglacial period that alternates with cold glacial periods. The interglacial periods usually last around 10,000 years while the glacial periods usually last around 90,000 years. The ice age won’t end until all natural ice melts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_glaciation
They didn’t mention that around 10 times as many people die from cold weather as from hot weather because of increased strokes and heart attacks caused by blood vessels constricting to save heat. About 4.6 million die from cold-related causes compared with about 500,000 people dying from heat-related causes.
‘Mortality risk attributable to high and low ambient temperature: a multi-country observational study’ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62114-0/fulltext
‘Global, regional and national burden of mortality associated with nonoptimal ambient temperatures from 2000 to 2019: a three-stage modeling study
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00081-4/fulltext
They didn’t mention that the Sun has entered a Grand Solar Minimum which was a large part of the Little Ice Age which ended in 1850. The Grand Solar Minimum will have lower solar output and a lower magnetic field which will lead to more cosmic rays and more cloud cover further cooling the planet.
‘Modern Grand Solar Minimum will lead to terrestrial cooling’
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7575229/
NOAA agrees, forecasting that the Sunspot Number, currently around 100, will start dropping starting in 2025 and will continue dropping until it reaches single digits in 2031 and zero in 2040 when their forecast ends. The cooler sunspots are associated with hotter regions and more solar output. Fewer sunspots mean less solar output and colder weather for the Earth.
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/predicted-sunspot-number-and-radio-flux
Pielke wrongly condemns coal. He shows a photo of a Chinese city, where emissions from coal-fired power plants and transportation are poorly controlled. Plus, without checking, I suspect that the photo was from a particularly bad air quality day, taken at a distance and at a camera setting that gives the greatest visual impact. (The same way NASA sends out fake images and artistic conceptions of earth and the planets instead of showing the real images, unaltered. They think reality is too boring for the masses.)
To the point, all the emissions from coal-fired power plants are controllable to whatever level is deemed sufficient, except for CO2, a vital and non-polluting gas. While Pielke says there is not a climate crisis, he then contradicts himself by calling for elimination of coal-fired generation.
On the plus side, his key messages: (1) Climate bedwetters are wrong, whether in academia, government or popular culture, (2) Mankind’s energy mix eventually needs to shift, with emphasis on nuclear power, and (3) The shift should be economical and sensible over many decades or even centuries, with emphasis on minimizing pain and maximizing benefits and prosperity to all.