The Week That Was: 2024 06-22 (June 22, 2024)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “…if we did not have a doubt or recognize ignorance, we would not get any new ideas. There would be nothing worth checking, because we would know what is true. So, what we call scientific knowledge today is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty. Some of them are most unsure; some of them are nearly sure; but none is absolutely certain. Scientists are used to this.” – Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist (1998)
Number of the Week: $195,000,000 for four hours (2021 dollars)
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: Discussed below is the presentation by Ole Humlum addressing the question: Are we currently in a climate crisis? Also discussed is Jim Steele’s essay on the changing ITCZ; Roger Pielke Jr’s questioning the science integrity of NOAA, a review of a book by a meteorologist on the climate cult and efforts to persuade journalists to join the climate cult. Briefly discussed are problems of destroying the oil and gas industry and relying on wind and solar power plus storage.
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A Climate Crisis? On June 19, Meteorologist Ole Humlum made a thought-provoking address to the Irish Climate Science Forum (ICSF) and CLINTEL addressing the principal question: Are we currently in a climate crisis? The Climate & Energy Realists of Australia provided a video of the event as well as a follow along transcript. As with John Clauser, the slides were unusually good, and thanks to Jim O’Brien of ICSF they are posted on the SEPP website. In discussing the presentation TWTW will reference the slides. Professor Ole Humlum is well qualified to discuss “The State of Earth’s Climate 2024 – No Evidence of a Planetary ‘Crisis’!” His qualifications are stated in the introduction of the video. They are:
“Prof Ole Humlum used meteorological and climatological data to objectively assess the state of earth’s climate. Global air temperatures in 2023/24 are reported to be the “highest on record” – how significant is that? Global temperature records do confirm that observed average global air temperature rise is about +0.15° C per decade – is that serious? Since 2004, the global oceans above 1900 m depth on average have warmed about 0.037° C – are the oceans “boiling”? Are recent variations between El Niño and La Niña episodes in any way unusual? To what extent is atmospheric CO2 concentration actually related to human contributions? Is rising sea level a threat? Are changes in sea ice extents in the Arctic and Antarctic in any way alarming? Are there significant trends in tropical storm and hurricane activity? Are there alarming trends in global precipitation? Ole provides all the hard facts – and will conclude that these observations reveal that there is no evidence of an “existential climate catastrophe.”
Professor Humlum bases his findings on observations from Nature, not speculative models. In physical science Nature Rules, it is the ultimate and final judge. Contrary to the assertions of the UN, IPCC, and many government collaborators, if theories, concepts, ideas are contrary to what nature reveals to us, the ideas and theories are simply wrong. And millions of dollars in supporting publicity or propaganda does not make them right.
Humlum analyzes the current state of the climate using ten subtopics:
- Atmospheric temperature
- Ocean temperature
- Sea level
- Sea ice
- Snow
- Wind and storms
- Global precipitation
- Global cloud cover
- Climate change: importance of oceans
- Final reflections and conclusions
For atmospheric temperature he uses the surface air temperature numbers from the Hadley Center Climate Research Unit (HadCRUT). [Unlike others such as NASA-GISS and NOAA, this dataset does not include “imputed” data.] Humlum shows his calculations of the Surface air temperature anomaly for 2023 vs last ten 10 years. Importantly, he also shows the entire dataset for the USH MSU global temperature anomaly, which is calculated from satellite data [the only true global dataset of temperature trends].
Humlum also shows the NASA-GISS global temperature anomaly and shows a slide clearly demonstrating how NASA-GISS changed the temperature values a number of times between May 2008 to May 2024. For the most part, NASA-GISS cooled the data from 1885 to 1970 (with a few warming spikes during this period) and warmed the temperatures after 1975. This reflects poorly on the standards of integrity in science demonstrated by NASA-GISS and agencies in Washington that use this dataset. Humlum shows how from May 2008 to May 2024 NASA-GISS changed reported January temperatures over the period from 1910 to 2000 increasing it from 0.45°C in 2008 to 0.67°C May 2024.
Humlum discusses the urban heat island effect, focusing on Oslo Norway, and concludes: Much is still to be learnt about urban heat islands!
Using the UAH-MSU data he shows the differences in changes in the Arctic and Antarctic. Then he shows the recorded temperatures for six locations in the Arctic and concludes: As to temperature, the Arctic is more complicated than is often communicated.
Humlum then discusses ocean temperature recorded by Argo drifting floats that measure the temperature, salinity, and velocity (speed of ocean currents) of the upper 2000 meters (6500 feet) of the oceans. He concludes: Much is still to be learnt about the oceans!
Humlum addresses the other subtopics mentioned above. With sea levels, Humlum shows that short term data can produce all sorts of trends. Long-term data must be the focus of any honest researcher. For example, for Korsor, Denmark, the trend from January 1897 to December 2017 is plus 0.83 mm/year, or 0.033 inches per year or slightly more than 3 inches per century. For Oslo, Norway, the entire data record shows sea levels are falling at a rate 3.39 mm/year or 13 inches per century.
With topics such as sea ice, Humlum concludes: Much is still to be learned about sea ice! For snow, Humlum concludes: Snow cover is rather stable! Humlum shows that claims of more extreme weather events are false. He then goes into cloud cover and reflects.
“If all clouds suddenly were removed, then planet Earth would gain about 17 W/m2 in net radiation and warm.”
Humlum then shows two graphs that TWTW has never seen paired on one slide: 1) Global cloud cover (%); Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) from January 1982 to June 2019, and 2) UAH MSU global temperature anomaly for the same period. This indicates that the warming of the atmosphere in UAH MSU data may come largely from a reduction in cloud cover. Since the reduction in cloud cover started about 1995 and has not continued to fall since about 2004, it is not from recent requirements to convert fuel used by ships to low sulfur fuels. Further, cloud cover is not the only explanation for increasing atmospheric temperatures, which are not uniform, but only one possible contributor. As Humlum states:
“Much is still to be learnt about global cloud cover!”
This statement supports what John Clauser asserts, as discussed in the previous four TWTWs. No one has successfully modeled clouds. William van Wijngaarden and William Happer are working on it. Without successful modeling of clouds, the science is not settled, regardless of what some scientists claim. Further, global climate models are hopelessly simplistic, no matter how complex they may appear. Any projections/forecasts from them are pure speculation, not science built on nature.
Humlum concludes his slides with Principal question: Are we currently in a climate crisis?
- Atmospheric temperatures: Ongoing corrections in data. Possible global increase of up to 1.5°C by 2100, and likely less. Antarctic temperatures remain stable.
- Ocean temperatures: Much still to be learnt. Oceans are definitely not “boiling.”
- Sea Level: 15-20 cm further global rise by 2100? [6 to 8 inches]
- Sea Ice: Much still to be learnt. Arctic sea ice is not disappearing.
- Snow: Snow cover is quasi-stable, and snow is not disappearing.
- Wind and Storms: Recurrent (periodic?) variations. No trend in hurricanes.
- Precipitation: Recurrent (periodic?) variations superimposed on upward trend since 1900.
- Cloud Cover: Cloud cover declines since about 1980. This development is probably contributing to observed atmospheric and ocean warming.
Why did I not speak anything about CO2?
This is because CO2, although being very important for life, in my opinion, is not overly important to understand meteorology and climate.
Humlum then presents a simple diagram of what matters for air temperature – the oceans.:
“The global temperature signal originates at the ocean surface!
What controls the ocean surface temperature, controls the global climate.
Two overall conclusions and one suggestion for what should be the main climate research focus:
- Observed data do not support the notion of a climate crisis, but reveals many and partly recurrent natural variations.
- Ocean surface temperature controls the atmospheric temperature.
PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT CLIMATE RESEARCH QUESTION:
What controls the ocean surface temperature?”
[Emphasis in original] See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy and http://www.sepp.org/science_papers/Ole%20Humlum%20Final%20PDF%20190624%20ICSF.pdf. for the slides.
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Changing ITCZ: In a WUWT post, ecologist Jim Steele has an essay explaining how important the changing position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone is for global weather patterns around the globe, particularly in the tropical regions. Steele begins the essay with [graphs are not shown here but are on the post, boldface in original]:
The Great Famine of the 1870s resulted in 50 million deaths from drought-induced mass starvation across South America, Africa, and Asia. It was an all-natural climate event during colder times with lower CO2 concentrations and those drought-causing climate dynamics are still in play today. To understand if the world could again suffer such a drought, it helps to view climate change from a 10,000-year perspective starting with the African Humid Period. During the Holocene Optimum the Sahara was covered with lakes and rivers and abundant wildlife as depicted by the rock art of the many African societies that thrived in the Sahara (graphics B & C). Then around 6,000 years ago it turned to desert.
In the tropics, rainy and dry seasons alternate depending on the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ- graphic D). The ITCZ is seen in satellites as a narrow band of clouds where world’s greatest amounts of precipitation fall. The ITCZ is very sensitive to solar heating. During the northern hemisphere’s summer when the sun’s strongest rays move northward, so does the ITCZ. As the sun migrates southward, so does the ITCZ and its band of rains.
A 40,000+ year cycle of the changing tilt of the earth’s axis, referred to as obliquity, also determines how far north and south the sun’s strongest rays will migrate. Ten thousand years ago the tilt was at a maximum and the ITCZ migrated further north than today, bringing more moisture to the Sahara (graphic F; ITCZ average northern location=yellow dashed line). As the tilt decreases to its minimum, the ITCZ moves southward (graphic G). Thus, as the ITCZ migrated southward, the rains decreased enough over the Humid Sahara to turn it to a desert. The axis tilt will continue to decline for another 10,000 years. Another orbital cycle, precession, contributed to the ITCZ southward migration by causing the southern hemisphere to slightly warm while the northern hemisphere slightly cooled.”
The last 150 years has witnessed the ITCZ migrating northward as sunspots exhibited a maximum, bringing a warm rebound from the LIA (graphic E). Small changes in solar irradiance are not enough to warm the climate directly. However small changes in solar irradiance affect the ITCZ which then has global impacts that can have bigger warming effects.
The ITCZ is the driver of the Hadley circulation that drives circulation changes from the equator to the poles (graphic H). A southward migration of the ITCZ causes a weakening of the polar vortex and the polar jet stream. In turn that allows cold air that is normally contained in the Arctic to flow southward and cool North America and Eurasia. A strong polar vortex that constrains cold air transport causes a warming global temperature. The decrease in sunspots during the Little Ice Age, as well as since 1990s coincides with a weaker vortex and winter cooling across sub-polar regions.
“The ITCZ is the driver of the Hadley circulation that drives circulation changes from the equator to the poles (graphic H). A southward migration of the ITCZ causes a weakening of the polar vortex and the polar jet stream. In turn that allows cold air that is normally contained in the Arctic to flow southward and cool North America and Eurasia. A strong polar vortex that constrains cold air transport causes a warming global temperature. The decrease in sunspots during the Little Ice Age, as well as since 1990s coincides with a weaker vortex and winter cooling across sub-polar regions.
Although Steele does not discuss it, the changing Intertropical Convergence Zone is discussed in “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate.” (NIPCC, 2008 pp 11-13). Data from a stalagmite in Oman covering 3000 years supports the Svensmark Hypothesis, which is that changes in the solar wind, driven by changing sunspot activity, change the intensity of high-energy cosmic rays hitting Earth, thus changing the cloudiness of Earth. The Oman data is supported by data from stalagmites on other continents. As seen in the Great Famine of the 1870s, this results in drastic consequences. Yet, the IPCC and its collaborators ignore such changes. Jim Steele concludes:
“People must understand, anomalous droughts and floods, anomalous cold and heat, are the natural consequence of the Earth’s natural circulation patterns and solar variations. Similar to El Nino effects, weather changes can bring both floods and droughts. Likewise, the ITCZ migration brings warmer tropics and colder sub-polar regions. These natural dynamics do not claim that there is no greenhouse effect. However, those dynamics simply reveal how much natural climate dynamics affect our lives, global temperatures, and weather extremes. Anyone arguing CO2 is driving all the climate changes and all the extreme weather events are either very ignorant of these weather dynamics, or dishonest grifters trying to manipulate your support for their political agenda! The greatest Climate Injustice of all will happen if the world’s under-served people are denied the inexpensive energy from fossil fuels that best allows them to deal with natural climate extremes!”
See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy – NIPCC and Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Science Integrity: Roger Pielke Jr. reports disturbing news about NOAA. He writes:
Shortly after my paper Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters” was accepted for publication, I was tipped off to a public but unnamed and well-hidden directory on the website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that contained 17 (now 18) of the most recent versions of the “billion-dollar disaster” (BDD) tabulation, dating to March 2020.
Today, I reveal the archive and what it tells us about the problematic methods underlying NOAA’s billion-dollar disaster tabulation.
Pielke analyzes NOAA’s current list and finds significant problems, then concludes:
“One lesson here is obvious: NOAA should not be in the business of keeping score and playing the game at the same time. If the federal government is to engage in disaster loss estimation, then that function should be performed by an independent agency, such as the Bureau of Economic Analysis, subject to independent peer review, and involving experts with economics and loss-estimation expertise, which falls outside of NOAA’s mission.
The billion-dollar disaster tally started out as clever clickbait marketing for NOAA — but somewhere along the way took on a life of its own and now poses risks to the agency. It is a case study in the social construction of ignorance. Fortunately, science is self-correcting, and NOAA is a leading science agency.
The 18 versions of the hidden-in-plain-sight billion-dollar disaster tabulation allow us to see how the tally changes from version to version. The changes across various versions show clearly that NOAA has implemented methodological choices that in each instance artificially boost the counts of billion-dollar disasters.
I’ll revisit this topic when NOAA responds to my request for correction. For today, I close this post with how I ended my recent paper:
“NOAA is a crucially important agency that sits at the intersection of science, policy, and politics. It has a long and distinguished history of providing weather, climate, water, ocean, and other data to the nation. These data have saved countless lives, supported the economy, and enabled significant scientific research. The agency is far too important to allow the shortfalls in scientific integrity documented in this paper to persist. Fortunately, science and policy are both self-correcting.”
See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Climate Cult: Meteorologist Anthony Sadar had a thought-provoking book review in the Washington Times. Sadar reviewed: Climate Cult: Exposing and Defeating Their War on Life, Liberty, and Property by Brian Sussman, a certified broadcast meteorologist and talk-radio host. Sadar wrote:
“The personal event Mr. Sussman describes early in ‘Climate Cult’ (and early in his broadcast career) that caught my attention the most, as a 40-plus-year veteran in atmospheric science and a science communicator, was when his boss advised him that when it came to reporting on the causes of climate change, you need to know ‘which facts to leave out.’”
That is exactly what is happening in climate science, critical facts are being systematically omitted to promote the view of the UN IPCC and its collaborators.
The efforts to stop independent, critical thinking are being intensified by the press. Paul Homewood draws attention to the Covering Climate Now website aimed at journalists. Its press release states:
“Covering Climate Now supports, convenes, and trains journalists and newsrooms to produce rigorous climate coverage that engages audiences.
Co-founded in 2019 by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation magazine in association with the Guardian and WNYC [New York Public Radio], CCNow invites journalists everywhere to transform how our profession covers the defining story of our time. Unless news outlets around the world dramatically improve and expand their climate coverage, there simply will not be the public awareness and political will needed to tackle the crisis. [Boldface in original]
The projects include:
The Climate Elections: “Our new initiative aims to empower journalists to integrate climate change into their campaign and elections reporting”
“The climate stakes at this perilous moment are undeniably high. ‘Countries around the world face critical questions about leaving fossil fuels behind, adapting our transportation infrastructure, housing stock, and farming practices to increasingly harsh weather, and protecting the people most at risk,’ write CCNow’s co-founders and veteran journalists Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope.”
And
“CCNow’s Special on the Climate Crisis: Burning Questions takes viewers on a journey across the country and around the world to the frontlines of the climate crisis.”
And
“Climate Crimes: A series by CCNow and the Guardian investigates Big Oil’s complicity in the climate crisis and examines attempts to hold the fossil-fuel industry accountable.”
Free newsletters include: “THE CLIMATE BEAT: Editorial guidance for covering climate, the week’s must-read stories, resources, events, jobs, and more. Weekly on Thursday.”
And
“CLIMATE ON THE BALLOT: A fresh reporting topic, plus story ideas and inspiration, to help make climate an integral part of your 2024 US elections coverage. Weekly on Monday.”
Homewood writes: “Expect the level of disinformation and climate propaganda to be stepped up as the US elections approach.”]
See links under Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
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Hitting the Wall: The elections in Germany forced the government to pull back on its absurd attempts to go all “all-renewable,” unreliable energy. In “Catching Up To Germany: The ‘Climate Leader’” Francis Menton quotes a January 3 article in Reuters which states:
“’The share of renewables on Germany’s power grids rose by 6.6 percentage points to 55% of the total last year, the sector’s regulator said on Wednesday, as Europe’s largest economy moves closer to its 2030 target. . . . [of] 80% of its [electricity generation].’”
After comparing German electricity prices with those in the US, Menton writes:
“That makes the German electricity price more than two and a half times the U.S. price.”
Not to be outdone, politicians in New York State have closed power plants producing reliable electricity, while favoring unreliable sources or imaginary ones such as Dispatchable Emissions-Free Resources (DEFRs) discussed in last week’s TWTW. With a heat wave coming up, nothing like that of the 1930s, Roger Caiazza reports on New York State electricity vulnerability:
“The Power Trends report highlights risks coming to New York. The NYISO figure indicates that over 5,000 MW of dispatchable generation that provided the New York State with reliability services for decades has been shut down. In its place are wind and solar projects that check all the environmental goals of the State but may not provide power when needed most.
Since 2019 the politicians have forced the premature shutdown of over 2,000 MW of nuclear generation just north of New York City. To respond to ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard non-attainment issues, the State was required to shut down or add controls at old peaking power plants in New York City. Political pressure halted proposals to replace those units with modern much cleaner units that we know could provide sufficient reliability resources.”
New York is in a danger zone, and the politicians have no idea of why or how to address the problem. For these and other articles see links under Questioning the Orthodoxy and Energy Issues – US.
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Destroying Economic Production: Perhaps accidentally, Doomberg has a post that reminds TWTW about the post-WW II writings by Albert Speer, Hitler’s Minister of Armaments and War Production during most of the war. Doomberg writes:
“On May 12, 1944, the Western allies began targeting key German oil infrastructure in an extensive bombing campaign that would persist until the end of the war. The primary target that fateful day was the massive IG Farben Leuna Works, one of the biggest synthetic oil factories in the country. Critical to the Nazi war machine, Leuna was among the most heavily defended industrial sites in Europe, and losses among US and British pilots were high. All told, more than 6,500 bomber sorties dropped over 18,300 tons of bombs on the facility during the campaign. Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany, described the devastating consequences of the raids in his book, Inside the Third Reich:
‘Until then we had managed to produce approximately as many weapons as the armed forces needed, in spite of their considerable losses. But with the attack of nine hundred and thirty-five daylight bombers of the American Eighth Air Force upon several fuel plants in central and eastern Germany, a new era in the air war began. It meant the end of German armaments production.
The next day, along with technicians of the bombed Leuna Works, we groped our way through a tangle of broken and twisted pipe systems. The chemical plants had proved to be extremely sensitive to bombing; even optimistic forecasts could not envisage production being resumed for weeks.’
Speer wrote: “It was on that day the technological war was decided.”
This is a sobering thought as politicians in Washington and other Western countries move to shut down the oil and gas industries without affordable replacements for the thousands of products and benefits produced from oil and natural gas, including medicines. See link under Seeking a Common Ground.
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How Big Is Your Battery? Professor emeritus G. Cornelis van Kooten of the University of Victoria sent a study he and two other economists did on what is required for Alberta to go to net zero. The result is not pretty. Van Kooten wrote his estimate to TWTW:
“the cost of a 100% renewable system for the Alberta grid (where wind regimes are very good) with ‘black box’ battery storage (round trip efficiency of 95%) amounts to $17,618 trillion (yes, trillion!).”
See link under Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy – Storage
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DDP 2024: The 42nd Annual Meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness is scheduled for July 5-7, 2024, in El Paso, Texas. The speakers include a number of outstanding scientists such as John Clauser, the 2022 Nobel Laureate in Physics for contribution to the foundations of quantum mechanics; Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick, recipients of the 2023 Fredrick Seitz award by SEPP for upholding integrity in using the scientific method; Willie Soon, Michael Connolly, and Ronan Connolly of the Center for Environmental Research & Earth Science (CERES); and Patrick Moore, former Greenpeace co-founder. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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April Fools Award: TWTW intends to announce the winner of the 2024 April Fools award at the July 5 meeting of the DDP. Please submit your nominee by June 30.
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Number of the Week: $195,000,000 for four hours (2021 dollars) The report by G. Cornelis van Kooten prompted TWTW to search for some cost estimates of US going Net Zero. The best baseline that TWTW found for solar power with battery backup is from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), September 2022.
It states: “Figure ES-5. Q1 2022 U.S. benchmark: utility-scale ac-coupled tracking PV-plus-storage system (4-hour duration) for Utility Photovoltaic plus standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) benchmarks is $195,000,000.” According to Dominion Electric, a typical datacenter in Northern Virginia starts with permitting a 100 MW substation. An average day of intense sunshine would last at most 8 hours. Thus, a datacenter would require four of these storage facilities to operate for 24 hours a day plus the facilities to capture the sunshine. Yet, politicians in Northern Virginia support plans to go all solar and wind and support datacenters as the new high-tech industries. Such politicians exhibit a complete lack of simple thinking, let alone critical thinking. See link under Energy Issues – US.
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
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
The State of Earth’s Climate 2024 – No Evidence of a Planetary ‘Crisis’!
By Professor Ole Humlum, Video, Irish Climate Science Forum, June 19, 2024
Slides http://www.sepp.org/science_papers/Ole%20Humlum%20Final%20PDF%20190624%20ICSF.pdf\
Short Summary of Observations Until May 2024
By Ole Humlum, Climate4you, June 22, 2024
Climate Change has Decimated Societies Around the World
By Jim Steele, WUWT, June 16, 2024
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Climate Cult’
Author examines the facts proponents exclude to perpetuate crisis narrative
By Anthony J. Sadar, Washington Times, June 20, 2024
The Energy Future Forum, presented by RealClear
June 26, 2024, Washington DC, 8am-5:15pm
Billion Dollar Disasters on Steroids
NOAA’s hidden archive and the problematic methods it reveals
By Roger Pielke Jr. His Blog, June 17, 2024
Link to Paper: Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters”
By Roger Pielke Jr., Nature, Natural Hazards, June 3, 2024
Net Zero Will Prevent Almost Zero Warming, Say Three Top Atmospheric Scientists
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, June 20, 2024
[SEPP Comment: A good review of the presentation by Richard Lindzen, William Happer and William van Wijngaarden.]
Climate Alarmism is the existential threat to humanity
By Chris Talgo, American Thinker, June 12, 2024
[SEPP Comment: What is an existential threat to humanity, other than a thermonuclear war or a massive asteroid hitting Earth? One can call the climate cult a threat to civilization.]
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
A stark divide in Texas shows what climate change looks like
Part of the state has received record-breaking rainfall. But in drought-stricken west Texas, parched soil is blowing away.
By Kait Parker, Yale Climate Connections, June 18, 2024
[SEPP Comment; Global warming/climate change is very selective where it occurs?]
Why Liquefied Natural Gas Expansion in Canada Is Not Worth the Risk
The Bottom Line: Unpacking the future of Canada’s oil & gas
Re-Energizing Canada is a multi-year IISD research project envisioning Canada’s future beyond oil and gas. This policy brief is a part of the The Bottom Line series, which digs into the complex questions that will shape Canada’s place in future energy markets. (Download PDF)
By Steven Haig, Nichole Dusyk, Zachary Rempel, International Institute for Sustainable Development, June 4, 2024
[SEPP Comment: More environmentalists opposed to CO2 which is essential for photosynthesis and causing a flourishing of the environment.]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
We have, can, and must continue to adjust to climate change – and not kill billions!
By Ronald Stein and Paul Driessen., America Out Loud, Jun 17, 2024
Catching Up To Germany, The “Climate Leader”
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, June 15, 2024
Larry Fink at WEF destroys net zero due to AI power demands: ‘The world is going to be short power. And to power these data companies you cannot have just this intermittent power like wind & solar. You need dispatchable power’
By Marc Morano. Climate Depot, June 21, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Has Mr. ESG (environmental, social, and governance) seen the light?]
#ShowYourStripes Day – But we have the real one
By Anthony Watts & Charles Rotter, WUWT, June 20, 2024
Link to paper: Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim?
By James Hansen, et al., NASA-GISS, Open Atmos. Sci. J., 2, 217-231, 2008, doi:10.2174/1874282300802010217 and https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2008/2008_Hansen_ha00410c.pdf
[SEPP Comment: The Hansen, et al. paper fails to account for continental drift changing locations of land masses, therefore ocean currents. The 65 million years of temperatures are similar to those presented in Science 2020 and used by Tom Gallagher in his presentation covered in TWTW on July 15, 2023. CO2 does not determine Earth’s temperatures.]
Climate activists are wrong about which energy source reduces air pollution
By Steve Goreham, Cornwall Alliance, June 19, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Good graphs showing the folly of state and local governments banning natural gas.]
The Battle of Climate Hypotheses: The Green-House Gas Forcer Vs. The Winter Gatekeeper Round 3: The Two Arctic Paradoxes
By Gabriel Oxenstierna, WUWT, June 18, 2024
For the first time, the IPCC’s doctrine of CO2 as a ‘control knob’ in our climate faces a serious challenger in the form of a comprehensive hypothesis about what drives climate and its shifts. This article is the third in a series evaluating this new hypothesis of natural climate variability.
[SEPP Comment: The UN CO2 hypothesis has been challenged for years with contradicting physical evidence.]
Oklahoma’s Anti-ESG Law Is Not Hurting Sooner State Taxpayers or Retirees
By Paul Tice, WUWT, June 18, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Recognizing their fiduciary responsibility.]
Mike Graham CLASHES With Weather Journalist Over Extreme Heat Warning For Paris Olympics
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 20, 2024
Video
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations: AD 800-2000
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 19, 2024
From the CO2Science archive:
This conclusion, however, may be challenged by the very same data that were used to obtain it; for whereas the primary trend of the Mann and Jones temperature data over the first 1100 years of their 1200-year record was decidedly downward, the concomitant primary trend of the new CO2 data was upward. Clearly, more data will be required to resolve this major dichotomy.
After Paris!
Ah Bonn eh bien
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 19, 2024
On mid-year meeting in Bonn: “Governments know what they need to pull out of the hat at COP29: a new climate finance goal that’s bigger, better and bolder than the infamous $100 billion a year agreed 15 years ago.”
[SEPP Comment: Bold, new, empty plans backed by empty science.]
Seeking a Common Ground
Reflections on K-12 science education
By Judith Curry, Climate Etc. June 18, 2024
The West’s War on Critical Thinking
By J.B. Shurk, American Thinker, June 20, 2024
Given that this is the case, a society interested in protecting its people from manipulation would be highly invested in educating citizens from a young age how to use reason, rationality, and logic to filter truth from falsehood. Aside from a smattering of classical and religious schools that focus on how to assess information and judge its credibility, it is evident that Western educational systems have been designed with no such purpose in mind. Students are taught what to think but not how to think.
Geopolitics and Demand Growth Underpin Need for Commonsense Energy Policies
By Guy Caruso, Real Clear Energy, June 20, 2024
Guy Caruso is a former administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration and a Center for Strategic and International Studies senior adviser in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program.
The Death of Environmentalism at 20
Looking back at the impactful Shellenberger/Nordhaus essay
By Roger Pielke Jr. The Honest Broker, June 20, 2024
[SEPP Comment: When “environmentalists” condemn carbon dioxide which is essential for photosynthesis, the food source for all complex life on Earth, environmentalism is no longer concerned with the environment.]
Roger Pielke Jr. on 30 Years in Climate Research
John Robson Interviewing Roger Pielke Jr. June 17, 2024
2-hour video
Doom Loop
Will the decimation of Ukraine’s grid escalate the war or end it?
By Doomberg, June 20, 2024
“It was on that day the technological war was decided.” – Albert Speer
Model Issues
Climate modelers quit rehab and start snorting alarmist lines again
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 19, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Using UN IPCC scenarios (stories), not real data.]
GCMs Cannot Predict Climate
By Michael Jonas, WUWT, June 15, 2024
Link to paper: General circulation models cannot predict climate
By Michael Jonas, World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, accepted, April 22, 2024
[SEPP Comment: The modelers test their models against other models, not physical evidence. The erroneous assumptions remain.]
The #CRE challenge Part 2: Temperature patterns in the troposphere and stratosphere
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 19, 2024
Measurement Issues — Surface
Hull East Tops The List Again
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 21, 2024
Class 4 Neatishead–Opened in Dec 2022
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 20, 2024
Ray Sanders discovered that it had only opened in December 2022 and asked the Met Office for its WMO classification.
They have now confirmed it is Class 4, which has an error margin of 2C.
This raised a very serious issue. Why is the Met Office introducing new weather stations into its network that are of such low quality?
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
NOAA’s Updated 2024 Global Average Temperature Anomaly Trend Continues to Decline Indicating a Weakening El Nino and No “Climate Emergency”
By Larry Hamlin, WUWT, June 17, 2024
Changing Weather
Fact Check: Is Climate Change Really Causing More Frequent or More Severe Hurricanes?
By Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal, June 17, 2024 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Interview with David Legates, Climatologist.
Rain without Clouds, the Upcoming Cooling, and Strong Leeside Winds: All in My New Podcast
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, June 21, 2024
Changing Climate
Reminder: Historical Natural Warming Rates Dwarf Modern Climate Change
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, June 20, 2024
Link to paper: On the representation of multiplicative noise in modeling Dansgaard–Oeschger events
By Kolja Kypke and Peter Ditlevsen, Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, October 2024
From paper: One of the most famous examples of abrupt climate changes observed in the paleoclimatic record are the Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) events. The climate record of the Last Glacial Period (LGP), which spanned approximately 120 to 11 kiloyears before year 2000 (kyr b2k), is measured in the ice-cores of the Greenland ice sheet and marked by distinct and abrupt transitions between colder stadial and warmer interstadial periods [1]. These climatic changes are known as D–O events and occurred about 24 times in the LGP. The D–O events correspond to approximately 10–15 Kelvin of warming in Greenland over the course of a few decades, with subsequently incremental cooling to the fully glacial conditions of the stadial. While there is only direct evidence of D–O events in the LGP because the ice-core record of Greenland only extends to the end of the last interglacial period, they may not be unique to this time period. Coupling with Antarctic ice-cores, evidence in marine sediment cores and speleothems (see also references therein) suggest they may have occurred in previous glacial periods as well. [Emphasis added]
[SEPP Comment: The CO2 hypothesis cannot explain D-O events, and neither cthe global climate models.]
Central Italy Was 3-4°C Warmer Than Today About 10,000 to 12,000 Years Ago
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, June 17, 2024
Link to paper: Temperature and hydrological variations during the late-glacial in the Central Mediterranean: Application of the novel ostracod-clumped isotope thermometer
By Marta Marchegiano, et al., Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Jan 1, 2024
Changing Seas
Anemones Push Through Collapsed Corals
By Jennifer Marohasy, Her Blog, June 22, 2024
Many of the hard corals fringing the Keppel Islands bleached stark white last summer. Specifically, the fields of branching Acropora spp. went stark white. This was likely caused by a combination of high-water temperatures, low tides and no wind. I had never seen anything quite like it before.
The water has cooled down now, by about 10 degrees Celsius (50F) since January, and by about 5 degrees C since April (two months ago) when I last dived these coral reefs. The color is coming back into the branching Acropora spp., but it is not obvious what percentage of this hard coral is going to survive.
[SEPP Comment: Anemonesare a form of jellyfish.]
Lowering Standards
Daily Temperature Highs
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 18, 2024
Each day the Met Office publishes the weather extremes for the day before.
Yesterday’s top temperature in the UK was at Heathrow (surprise, surprise!!).
Heathrow is a Class 3 station, which indicates just how bad the Class 4s and 5s are!
Inadvertently, of course, they admitted that the runways and aircraft at Heathrow must be inflating temperatures there as much as the urban heat island does in the middle of London!
Extraordinary, Unexpected, Unnoticeable – Climate Scientists Panic about 1.5C Breach
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 16, 2024
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
On a sticky wicket
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 19, 2024
As far as we can see, nobody is saying this spring was unusually hot, let alone the hottest they’d ever seen. Yet the press keeps insisting on it. Which brings us to this dangerous stress point in a political and social system when the smart set claim that the people are ignorant fools who don’t even know it’s raining.
BBC Worried About Kenyan Farmer’s Climate Scepticism
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 17, 2024
Link to article: How a Kenyan farmer became a champion of climate change denial
By Marco Silva, Climate disinformation reporter, BBC, June 15, 2024
Homewood: It is hard to describe just how low the BBC has sunk.
Quite why Africans should be denied just a few of the benefits we in the West do is something only the BBC can answer.
BBC’s “Unprecedented” Heatwave in India
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 20, 2024
“There is no evidence that the current heatwave is not a normal, natural event that often happens in New Delhi.”
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 19, 2024
Mainstream journalists never even ask him [Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate] which [weather] events he thinks have increased; let alone why he thinks it. It’s just rant, rinse and repeat. As for the thing he cited, from that impeccably neutral source his own ministry that “Investing in #ClimateChange #adaptation makes financial sense – every $1 spent can save up to $15 in costs”, doesn’t someone wonder where that math came from? [Boldface added]
BBC Pushes U.S. Heatwave Story But Buries ‘January’ Winter Storm Story
By Sallust, The Daily Sceptic, June 20, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Discussing more questionable claims by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group.
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Texas, California cities threatened by worsening fires amid oil wells
By Saul Elbein, The Hill, June 21, 2024
Link to paper: Wildfires increasingly threaten oil and gas wells in the western United States with disproportionate impacts on marginalized populations
By David J.X. González, et al., 50 OneEarth, June 21, 2024
•From 1984 to 2019, we identified 102,882 oil and gas wells sited in wildfire burn areas
•5-Fold increase in wells in wildfire burn areas, doubling of nearby population
•Currently 2.9 million people reside within 1 km of wildfire-threatened wells
•Disproportionate exposure among Black, Hispanic, and Native American people
[SEPP Comment: Why not use fire control measures, such as fire breaks that have worked for years? Do abandoned wells represent a real fire threat?]
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
DESNZ’s latest deception
By Andrew Montford, Net Zero Watch, June 18, 2024
In other words, the case that gas-fired power is more expensive than wind, as presented by DESNZ, relies on assuming a carbon price that is large enough to make gas-fired power look more expensive than wind.
To describe this as “a deception” is probably far too polite.
[SEPP Comment: DESNZ is the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.]
No, ScienceNews, Your “Ocean’s Record-Breaking Hot Streak” Claims Are False
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, June 13, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Nature was doing what it has naturally done throughout history.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Covering Climate Now
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 21, 2024
Link to Covering Climate Now
Press Release, Covering Climate Now, Accessed, June 21, 2024
Heat Wave Sets Off New Round Of ‘Climate Crisis’ Lies
By I & I Editorial Board, June 19, 2024
[SEPP Comment; The heat waves of the 1930s are omitted from today’s broadcasts.]
Olympics 2024: how extreme weather could impact Paris games
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 19, 2024
There is a very good reason why the Olympics are held in the summer – because that is when it is hot! Previous Olympics have been held in much hotter places than Paris – Mexico, Athens and Los Angeles for instance.
As for Sebastian Coe, it is sad to see such an intelligent man spout such nonsense. An existential threat to sport? Really?
It is hardly beyond the wit of man to shift the Olympics back a few weeks if summers are too hot.
And how does he think they manage to play cricket at the Gabba in the heat of the Australian summer? Or cycle the Tour de France in mid-summer?
Bloomberg: Europe Must Double Down on Net Zero
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 21, 2024
Climate Propaganda Cabals Ramp Up the Heat for Summer
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, June 18, 2024
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
Climate protesters arrested over spraying orange paint on Stonehenge monument
By Brian Melley, AP, June 19, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Protesting the building of a 4,500-year-old stone circle?]
Questioning European Green
EU’s NetZero Gets “Greenlashed” – A Reckoning in the Making – The Climate Realism Show #115
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, June 21, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Video interview with Benny Peiser of GWPF.]
Questioning Green Elsewhere
ESG and Stakeholder Capitalism: A Necessary Deconstruction
By Rupert Darwall, Real Clear Energy, June 21, 2024
Financial markets speak in prices. Tice points out that in 2022, the S&P 500 Energy subindex rose by 59.05%, while the broader equity market sank by 19.44%. As McLean demonstrates, if there is any free lunch in investment, it is diversification by lowering risk but not returns. By restricting their universe of investment possibilities, ESG investors increase risk without improving their chances of return. Investors have noticed. The battle to save shareholder capitalism can be won. These three books help bring that victory closer.
[SEPP Comment: A long review of three books.]
Funding Issues
Biden administration announces $850 million in grants to cut methane emissions
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, June 21, 2024
The Biden administration announced Friday the availability of $850 million in Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) grants aimed at reducing methane emissions.
The Political Games Continue
Federal agencies update plans for adapting to climate impacts
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, June 20, 2024
Two dozen government agencies are unveiling updated plans for adapting to the changing climate from 2024 through 2027.
[SEPP Comment: We don’t understand what causes climate change, but we are adapting to it.]
Reform manifesto offers up the chance to vote against Net Zero
By Andrew Montford, Net Zero Watch, June 18, 2024
How Keir Starmer plans to rule through the courts
By Ross Clark, The Spectator, June 22, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Probable UK PM after July 4 elections.]
On fire! Australian opposition throws down the nuclear gauntlet in the Energy Wars: “No more large-scale renewables”
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 19, 2024
Litigation Issues
Hawaii settles kids’ climate lawsuit, agrees to cut emissions
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, June 21, 2024
The state of Hawaii reached a settlement with young people who sued the state over climate change, and it agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its transportation sector.
[SEPP Comment: Does this include tourist flights into and out of Hawaii? Shouldn’t the state government abandon the use of fossil fuels?]
Supreme Court brews up trouble for Starmer
By John Constable, Net Zero Watch, June 21, 2024
In the short-term, environmentalists will celebrate this result, and the Labour Party environmental lobby will doubtless imagine that it has a firmer legal basis for proceeding with its aggressive renewables policy. Both would be mistaken, since this decision in reality brings the crisis-driven termination of the green agenda one step closer. Without the support of a fossil-fueled economy it is impossible to maintain the pretense that the toy policies of wind and solar are compatible with growing public wellbeing.
[SEPP Comment: Starmer is the likely UK PM after the July 4 elections.]
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
Despite spending $1.8 Trillion on “clean energy” last year, the world is still 81% fossil fueled — burning more than ever!
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 21, 2024
Biden administration announces tax breaks to push higher pay for green energy workers
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, June 18, 2024
The Treasury Department on Tuesday announced final rules for prevailing wage and registered apprenticeships (PWA) under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), saying that qualifying employers in the renewable energy sector will be eligible for a fivefold increase in the available tax credit.
[SEPP Comment: Tax subsidies only for the privileged.]
EV startup Fisker files for bankruptcy, aims to sell assets
By Akash Sriram, Reuters, June 18, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Time for a third round of government grants and loans before bankruptcy # 3?]
Latest CfD Subsidies
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 18, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Rising again?]
EPA and other Regulators on the March
Unnecessary PFA Panic Across the Nation
By Susan Goldhaber MPH, ACSH, Jun 17, 2024
Link to independent study: The Dilemma of Perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) Human Half-life
By Michael Dourson and Bernard Gadagbui, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA), To by published by the Journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 2024
From the independent study: PFOA half-life of ~1.5 years by Xu et al. (2020) appears to be most reliable estimate since background exposures were subtracted.
According to the EPA: EPA is committed to providing meaningful, understandable, and actionable information on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – known as PFAS – to the American public.
PFAS are widely used, long lasting chemicals, components of which break down very slowly over time.
Nearly 500 years ago, Swiss physician and chemist Paracelsus expressed the basic principle of toxicology: “All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing, not a poison.” This means a substance can cause harm only if it occurs in a high enough concentration, and any chemical, including water and oxygen, can be toxic if too much is taken into the body.
[SEPP Comment: EPA’s “forever chemicals” are not forever. When will EPA declare oxygen, a long-lasting gas, is a pollutant? It is far more corrosive than carbon dioxide which the EPA calls a pollutant.]
Energy Issues – Non-US
BP (Energy Institute) Energy Review 2023
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 20, 2024
Link to: Statistical Review of World Energy
By Staff, Energy Institute, 2024
“The Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy™ analyses data on world energy markets from the prior year. Previously produced by bp, the Review has been providing timely, comprehensive and objective data to the energy community since 1952.”
[SEPP Comment: We hope that, after the change, this publication will remain one of the most reliable reports of energy use world-wide.]
Catching Up To Germany, The “Climate Leader”
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, June 15, 2024
“The share of renewables on Germany’s power grids rose by 6.6 percentage points to 55% of the total last year, the sector’s regulator said on Wednesday, as Europe’s largest economy moves closer to its 2030 target. . . . [of] 80% of its [electricity generation].” – Reuters (Jan 3, 2024)
Menton after comparing consumer electricity prices: That makes the German electricity price more than two and a half times the U.S. price.
European Newspaper Says Citizens Better Get Used To Not Having Electricity All The Time
By Nick Pope, Daily Caller, June 20, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Netherlands, welcome to the third world.]
The obesity of the energy department [Part 1]
By Andrew Montford, Net Zero Watch, June 18, 2024
The obesity of the energy department, Part 2
By Andrew Montford, Net Zero Watch, June 19, 2024
Added to the salary savings identified in Part 1 of this two-part series of posts, we have a total of £2.75 billion per year.
Energy Issues – Australia
On a bad day $20 billion in wind power across Australia can only guarantee as much power as two diesel generators
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 15, 2024
How much back-up do we need for our 11.5-gigawatt wind system? About 11.4 gigawatts.
Wind energy failed on Thursday at what must be close to a record low — with barely 88MW of production from 11,500MW of wind turbines. That’s about 0.7% of total nameplate capacity.
[SEPP Comment: Scientifically and numerically illiterate policy makers do not realize that you cannot cannibalize reliable energy to feed unreliable energy.]
Coal power could have saved these trees: Clearing forest for Snowy Hydro transmission lines
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 20, 2024
I received an email from a well-informed commentator who noted that the Lobs Hole approval notice is allowed to kill and displace all sorts of things:
The question is, why can’t farmers within the Great Barrier Reef catchment area have the same option when managing their land? At the moment, bureaucrats scan satellite images and if any bare ground the size of a kitchen table is found on their land, they turn up and carry out an audit essentially accusing the farmer of environmental degradation of the Great Barrier Reef.
Former Aussie Chief Scientist Demands Governments Go Full Fascist on Renewable Energy Approvals
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 20, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Good old leadership from the top: Authoritarian government by whatever label.]
The U.S. Could Take a Page from Australia’s Natural Gas Playbook
By Paul Everingham, Real Clear Energy, June 17, 2024
Energy Issues — US
U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks, With Minimum Sustainable Price Analysis: Q1 2022
By Vignesh Ramasamy, et al. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), September 2022
NVIDIA CEO: AI Will Impact the Future of Energy
By Darrell Proctor, Power Mag, June 18, 2024
The future of energy may depend on technology with roots in the video game industry, by a company founded more than 30 years ago that wanted to use accelerated computing to improve the look and feel of the gaming experience.
[SEPP Comment: Talk about the tail wagging the dog: Data centers are massive users of reliable, affordable electricity. Gaming and AI applications intensively increase this use.]
Get Out the Popcorn – NYS Heat Wave Might Affect the Grid
By Roger Caiazza, WUWT, June 16, 2024
In Case You Think Someone Has The Answer To New York’s Looming Energy Disaster
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, June 20, 2024
Link to more detailed comments: Personal Comments Submitted on the NYS DEFR Proceeding
By Roger Caaiaza, Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York, June 18, 2024
Con Edison Launches Campaign To Deflect Blame For The Coming Energy Disaster
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, June 17, 2024
My normal instinct would be to feel some sympathy for the President of Con Edison, who is caught in a difficult to impossible position. He and his company will likely get a big share of the blame for the coming disaster. But between the genuflection to the [climate] cult and the profiteering off useless new transmission lines, he completely loses me. Con Ed, if you don’t have the courage to say the obvious truth here, you deserve whatever is coming to you.
Our Coming Energy Famine
By Mario Loyola, National Review, August 2024
Restoring Sanity, Reliability, and Affordability to the Texas Electric Grid
By Bill Peacock, Master Resource, June 20, 2024
“Texas politicians have added at least $38 billion to the cost of electricity through higher bills or higher taxes since 2019…. Retail rates haven’t reached the level of New York ($0.24 per KWh) or California ($0.32), but Texas’s rising $0.15 rate is disconcerting.”
Washington’s Control of Energy
Biden Ready To Dump Millions Of Barrels Of Oil Into Market
By Douglas McIntyre, Climate Crisis 247, June 17, 2024
America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) is the largest emergency oil reserve in the world. Stored in several places, it has a maximum capacity of 714 million barrels. The Administration appears to think that, even with gas at a moderately priced $3,50, the current global crude situation has all the hallmarks of an emergency.
[SEPP Comment: Like everything else in Washington today, the emergency is political not factual.]
Massive Gas Pipeline Gets Final Green Light From Feds After Years Of Activist Pressure, Delays
By Nick Pope, Daily Caller, June 12, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Finally. Washington no longer cares about the prosperity of the public, only to satisfy green zealots.]
US acknowledges harm to tribes from Pacific Northwest dams
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, June 16, 2024
Link to Department of the Interior report: Historic and Ongoing Impacts of Federal Dams on the Columbia River Basin Tribes
By Staff, Department of Interior, June 2024
[SEPP Comment: Will it result in the administration to insist on removal of the dams in the basin destroying reliable, affordable electricity in the Northwest and irrigation of many farms?]
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
OPEC’s Trillion-Dollar Bet Against U.S. Shale
By Robert Papier, Oil Price.com, June 14, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Washington’s policies on control of oil and gas production and pipelines are defending OPEC.]
3 Reasons Why Natural Gas Prices Will Go Up, 3 Stocks To Buy If They Do, And 3 Reasons Why Natty Could Stay “Perpetually Cheap”
Will AI, LNG exports, and increased power burn mean higher prices?
By Robert Bryce, His Blog, June 17, 2024
Why are Permian gas producers paying to get rid of their gas? They are being overwhelmed by “associated gas” — the term for methane that comes out of wells with oil — and there aren’t enough pipelines to handle all that gas.
In fact, today, the Permian produces about 18 billion cubic feet of gas per day, and it produces that staggering quantity of fuel even though not a single driller in the region is drilling for gas. [Emphasis in original.]
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Blue State Dems Throw Wrench In Plan To Extend Life Of Zero Emission Power Plant
By Robert Schmad, Daily Caller, June 14, 2024
[SEPP Comment: With great sunshine there is no reason for California to worry about reliable electricity, except when the sun goes down.]
The ADVANCE Act—Legislation Crucial for a U.S. Nuclear Renaissance—Clears Congress. Here’s a Detailed Breakdown
By Sonal Patel, Power Mag, June 20, 2024
According to think tank the Breakthrough Institute, the ADVANCE bill’s most notable effort is perhaps to require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to update its mission statement so the regulatory body does not “unnecessarily limit” the use of nuclear energy or the benefits it could provide for society. The bill also gives the NRC more flexibility to hire staff to ready for a ramp-up in license applications, reduce fees for some applicants, and require more timely processing of applications, including for coal-to-nuclear repowers.
[SEPP Comment: Despite the words, changing mission statement and increasing staff are meaningless when the NCR keeps changing regulations as facilities are built.]
Senate Passes Major Pro-Nuclear Bill, Sends To Biden’s Desk
By Nike Pope, Daily Caller, June 18, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Markey (MA) and Sanders (VT) voted against.]
How US military bases became proving grounds for clean energy technology
By Saul Elbein, The Hill, June 20, 2024
For nuclear in particular, he {Michael Wu, co-founder of consultancy Converge Strategies] argued, the business problem is compounded by the problem of getting the public comfortable “with those things in their, you know, closer to their backyard, and not in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,” powering an aircraft carrier or submarine.
[SEPP Comment: Show me you can build it on land in the US!]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Windless nights make net zero impossible
By David Wojick, CFACT, June 10, 2024
Highway funds illegally used for floating wind factories
By Davi Wojick, CFACT, June 21, 2024
The Biden Administration is illegally redirecting hundreds of millions of dollars in highway grant money to fund construction of floating wind manufacturing facilities.
The funding mechanism is the INFRA Grant Program in Biden’s Transportation Department. To begin with, here is how the website describes the Program:
And yet INFRA recently awarded a whopping $426,719,810 for the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind MVP (Minimum Viable Port) in Northern California. This is not a port in the transportation sense where freight and people get on and off ships. It is where they are going to build a bunch of floating wind turbines, which then get towed out to sea and anchored in a big federal offshore wind lease area. In short, it is a big boatyard.
[SEPP Comment: Misuse of funds, more government agency corruption.]
Floating wind madness in Maine
By David Wojick, CFACT, June 17th, 2024
[SEPP Comment: How will the noise and vibrations effect the endangered Atlantic salmon, which Maine is trying to bring back?]
Renewables vs. Environment: Hans Wolkers humbles Climate Reality Project, Kahli Burke
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, June 18, 2024
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
Marine Vessels Have the Opportunity to Cruise Towards a Greener Future
By Michael McAdams, Real Clear Energy, June 19, 2024
It has become increasingly clear that low carbon liquid transportation fuels like advanced biofuels are the future of cruise ship travel and marine shipping.
[SEPP Comment: Time for return of wood burning ships?]
Net Zero Aviation Targets Driving “Mass Scale” Fraud and Deforestation
By Will Jones, The Daily Sceptic, June 18, 2024
Exporters in China and Malaysia are using virgin palm oil instead of recycled cooking fat to make sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), research from lobby group Transport & Environment (T&E) suggests.
This means that rather than reducing CO2 emissions, the drive to adopt SAF may instead be driving deforestation.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
How big a battery?
By G. Cornelis van Kooten, Patrick Withey, Jon Duan, Renewable Energy, February 2020
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Not the Transition they expected: People paying thousands more for secondhand petrol cars rather than equivalent used EVs
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 18, 2024
Demand Power Charges Are the Achilles Heel of a Nationwide EV Fast Charging Network
By Geoffrey Pohanka, Real Clear Energy, June 18, 2024
Germany May Sales Of Electric Cars Plummet 30.6% Compared To Year Earlier
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, June 16, 2024
Carbon Schemes
The Waiting – As EPA Bottleneck Grows, CCS Approvals Pick Up Steam In States With Well Primacy
By Jason Lindquist, RBN Energy LLC, June 18, 2024
Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022 was intended to unleash a wave of clean-energy initiatives, from hydrogen and renewable fuels to electric vehicles and large-scale carbon-capture projects, all part of the Biden administration’s plans to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and move the U.S. closer to a net-zero economy.
California Dreaming
Energy notes from the edge: Coal trains vs. high-speed rail – guess which is faster (into service); Here’s how big oil can sleep at night
By Terry Etam, BOE Repot, June 12, 2024
Link to his book: The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity: Clearing the Air Before Cleaning the Air Paperback
By Terry Etam, on Amazon, Jan 17, 2019
Hydrocarbon production enables life, and it will do so for decades until a suitable replacement arrives on the scene that cannot just match, but beat hydrocarbons for energy density, reliability, and cost. That will most likely happen someday. But to attempt to strangle today’s fuel system without a replacement is a clearer path to willfully causing human death than is the production of the fuel that keeps us alive.
Salmon Restoration Must Address Bass Predators
By Edward Ring, What’s Current, June 19, 2024
To begin with, there shouldn’t be a deficit. California’s general fund budget in 2013 was $96.3 billion, and by 2023 it expanded to $226.0 billion. Even adjusting for population growth and inflation, per-capita state spending increased 79 percent in one decade. That’s a topic for another time, but surely there’s room to cut spending without depriving rural households of their sole source of water.
[SEPP Comment: Despite years of “restoration projects” including removal of dams, Atlantic salmon are still an endangered species, with all fishing banned.]
Environmental Industry
Please Explain – Why Green Activists Have No Sense of Humour
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 18, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Because they seriously believe they are saving the world?]
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Science-Free Journalism
By Tony Heller, His Blog, June 18, 2024
“CLIMATEWIRE | In November 2022, the United Nations resolved that Russia should pay reparations for the losses, damages and injuries caused by its invasion of Ukraine. Now, some scientists say those payments should include compensation for climate damage, too.
That’s the equivalent of about $32 billion in damages, they say.
[SEPP Comment: Will the Scientific American force Russia to pay?]
The no-scenario scenario
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 19, 2024
In our view both the climate and the economy are “transcomputable”. They are just too complex, with intricate interlinked feedback mechanisms, to use linear algebra as in some Isaac Asimov fantasy about mathematically rigorous “psychohistory”. And certainly you’d look a bit of a fool trying to program a computer to predict late 19th-century American populism or the 1930s New Deal, or see World War I coming or any number of other things. (For that matter, try to model how close the Germans came to winning in the fall of 1914 and what the impact would have been on the global economy in the 20th century. We’ll wait.)
Wealthy Liberals Barrel Ahead With Plans To Block The Sun
By Owen Klinksy, Daily Caller, June 19, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Another reason to ignore the opinions of the rich and the famous.]
Government agency thinks government plan a great idea
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 19, 2024
No, BBC, It Was Not An Extreme Heatwave In Phoenix
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 21, 2024
As for the length of the heatwave, Phoenix has had four days over 110F so far in June. In June 1974 they had eighteen!
As usual the BBC relies on Weather Attribution models which are clearly fraudulent and designed for propaganda purposes only. Given that this heatwave was not even extreme, the rest of the claim is plainly a con-trick.
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No, we are being lied to. A century ago a very well known German Politician described what he called “The Big Lie” in a book he wrote while in prison. He defined it as follows:
The Big Lie is a lie so colossal that
no one would believe that someone
could have the impudence to distort
the truth so infamously.
The so called Climate Crisis fits that definition perfectly.
We’re quoting Hitler now, are we?
That’s right, the Climate Nazis are using “The Big Lie” technique to push their agenda which really has nothing to do with climate. If they manage to turn the corner for their goal of world domination, the news media aka Winston Smith will chuck the Climate Crisis right into George Orwell’s memory hole. This November we will get a better idea about out how close we are to that event.
Even a clock that has altogether stopped working is right 2 times a day.
Even the most evil person in history is capable of espousing wisdom, on occasion.
Shows where the “climate crisis” idiotology originated.
Some idiots still follow and “believe” the Big Lie. !
The milk of self-loathing gets funding.
“New taxpayer-funded research is aiming to unearth the links between “milk and colonialism”. Academic professors, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, will look at the “political nature of this everyday substance”.
https://www.gbnews.com/news/woke-academics-taxpayers-money-milk-colonialism-investigation-history-of-science-museum-oxford
And the title of this august undertaking?
“Milking it: colonialism, heritage & everyday engagement with dairy”.
Anthropology and archaeology have followed climate science; … anything as long as the funding comes in…
“”Zetterstrom-Sharp, who has previously discussed Northern Europe’s historical fixation on milk and its implications, asserts that the mass production and consumption of milk outside Europe can be seen as a form of ‘white supremacy.’””
https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/world/uk-taxpayer-to-fund-woke-study-into-link-between-milk-and-colonialism/
The trouble is this is an American thing. I guess it’s no thickie academic left behind?
“Although research debunks white supremacists’ claims about lactose intolerance, race has long played a role in American milk-drinking.”
https://psmag.com/news/why-is-milk-being-called-a-white-supremacist-symbol
Full marks to the woke loons for importing yet another alien race concept to cause ‘schism’.
Milk from animals has been drunk by humans around the planet since, well… forever. !!
Cleopatra reputedly bathed in it !
These loons need to get a real job that helps them be a functional member of society instead of being a pariah and a parasite.
And then there are mammals…
The Left might be on to something re. the milk and colonialism thing. I vaguely recall from my childhood obsession with conquerors like Genghis Khan that the Mongol hordes were partial to drinking fermented mares milk.
/sarc (if needed)
Story Tip
Yet another lithium battery fire. At least 16 dead.
Exploding batteries spark deadly S Korea factory fire | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT (wordpress.com)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgggmeyjj7o
Here’s the first page of results from a very short
Google (news) (past year) search on “lithium battery fires“:
Mass.gov
After Six Months, New Tracking Tool Identifies 50 Lithium-Ion Battery Fires
Rhode Island Current
Lithium battery fires are spreading. This bill would help prepare R.I. firefighters to fight them.
USA Today
Lithium-ion battery fires continue to kill New Yorkers
CBS News
Fatal fires serve as cautionary tale of dangers of lithium-ion batteries
WSJ
Lithium-Ion Batteries Are Everywhere. Fires Caused by Shoddy Ones Are on the Rise.
The Conversation
What causes lithium-ion battery fires? Why are they so intense? And how should they be fought? An expert explains
NBC News
Hot topic: Researchers push to reduce fire risk from lithium-ion batteries
The lithium-ion battery is a near-ubiquitous technology with a serious flaw: They sometimes catch on fire.
Oregon Public Broadcasting – OPB
Exploding lithium batteries are causing fires in Oregon’s landfills
Bergen Record
Fire officials raise alarm on dangers in EV battery fires
NBC 6 South Florida
Why lithium batteries are a growing problem for trash and recycling services
IAFF
ICC Compliance Center Inc
Lithium Battery Incidents on Airplanes are Increasing | ICC
Spectrum News NY1
FDNY chief fire marshal urges Congress to act on lithium-ion batteries
FireRescue1
Lithium-ion battery fires: Understanding PPE contamination hazards
Insurance Journal
Deadly Lithium Battery Fires Force Lawmakers to Play Catch-Up on Safety
Montclair State University
Fire Safety Conducts Lithium Ion Battery Training for Greek Life Students
WCJB TV20
Florida developing standards for battling lithium-ion battery fires
Mass.gov
DFS Launches Tool to Track Lithium-Ion Battery Fires
CBS News
Lithium-ion battery fires from electric cars, bikes and scooters are on the rise. Are firefighters ready?
Boston.com
Lithium-ion batteries caused 50 fires in 6 months. How can you protect your home?
Mass.gov
Sprinklers Control Lithium-Ion Battery Fire in Leominster
Coldwater Daily Reporter
Safe handling key to preventing lithium-ion battery fire danger
WKMG
‘It scares the daylights out of me:’ Florida’s top firefighter fears more lithium-ion battery fires
NBC4 Washington
Push for new product safety regulations on lithium-ion batteries as fire concerns grow
WCVB
Mass. investigators count 50 fires involving lithium-ion batteries
In Compliance Magazine
Deadly Lithium Battery Fires Spur House to Pass Safety Rules
In HadCRUT that looks like this:
The text doesn’t make it clear where Humlum was going with these charts. They certainly wouldn’t support a “nothing to see here” narrative.
Assuming “USH MSU” is a misprint of “UAH MSU”, then, as with HadCRUT and every other global average temperature data set in existence, 2023 was also the warmest year in UAH.
There is definitely something to see, and much more to come.
If you paste a copy of that graph into your favorite image software and make a negative of it, you will actually be able to read what it says (-:
So, the black background is not the optimum visual experience?
How about this.
You love EL NINO events, don’t you petal.
Now.. where’s the evidence of human causation?
Devoid as usual !
bnice2000:
There have been many El Ninos that have been caused by human activities.
For evidence of human causation, see: “The definitive cause of La Nina and El Nino events:
https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2023.17.1.0124
You owe TheFinalNail an apology!.
It takes about 15 seconds to load
Still yapping about a very strong El Nino event….
and surface data .. roflmao..
And still totally incapable of showing any human causation
.
Poor headless chicken-little !
Ocean surface temperatures should be directly controlled by the amount of phytoplankton. This is measured by satellites.
Phytoplankton release cloud condensation nuclei and concentrate heat in the surface of the ocean rather than letting the rays penetrate deeper – which should enhance evaporation.
If you are looking for clouds, satellite data on chlorophyll should be interesting.
Big parts of the ocean are dead because of insufficient nutrients, mainly iron. A little iron dust can fix the cloud shortage, if you prefer cold weather.
That may be a contributing factor. On the other hand, you may be spouting absolute bumkum! Why do you think the article repeated Humlum’s bold-print suggestion to conduct research in this area? Because at present we know virtually nothing about it!
“Humlum then shows two graphs that TWTW has never seen paired on one slide: 1) Global cloud cover (%) [] and 2) [] global temperature []”. Humlum should read WUWT:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/05/31/clouds-havent-behaved-the-way-the-ipcc-or-the-models-say/
starts with the chart of global cloud% and global temperature.
There’s been yet another cloud reduction seen after the Hunga-Tonga eruption bringing the number of significant changes up to 3.
1995-19972014-20162022-All of these can be tied to natural events.
??? Please, enlighten us. You mentioned the Hunga-Tonga eruption as the 3rd, what were the first two?
The first cloud reduction occurred during the 1995-97 AMO phase change (into its warm phase). The Bardarbunga eruption was the second one. Both eruptions injected lots of chlorine into the stratosphere which reacts with ozone.
Richard M:
You said “both eruptions”. Which was the other one?
Regarding the Bardarbunga eruption, it erupted on Aug 3i, 2014, and had a VE! of “0”. It takes a VE1 of “”4 to inject ANYTHING into the stratosphere, therefore there was no chlorine injected into the stratosphere to react with the chlorine.
You are spouting nonsense!
Nearly half of American owners of electric cars want to switch back to traditional cars powered by internal combustion engines, according to a consumer survey released by McKinsey and Co. earlier this month.
The consulting firm surveyed consumers in multiple countries: the U.S., China, Germany, Norway, Australia, France, Italy, Japan and Brazil. Between all of those countries, 29% of electric car owners want to return to driving internal combustion cars, with 46% of surveyed American electric car owners wanting to do so.
This surprised the consulting firm, cutting against received wisdom about people’s switch to electric.
This is McKinsey, so …
This is apparently a talent I have not mastered. I work in the field of Building Energy Efficiency. I have been searching for a job and have been so far unsuccessful. Because almost every interview process has sooner or later reached the question, “What do you know about carbon accounting?”. Since I know in my heart that CO2 especially, and even less carbon, has zilch to do with any changes in weather, currently or in the past, then to claim that I will Save the World™ by some carbon accounting hocus-pocus is, to me, blatant fraud, and I will not cannot do it. Yet even if I shrug it off by trying to say “Let someone else count carbon, I’m all about optimizing energy efficiency.” the hiring process comes to a screeching halt and I either receive the …we have decided to proceed with other candidates (for which I have proof in several instances that no such other candidates exist)… email, or I’m utterly ghosted stopping just short of blocking my phone number. How can I find a job and still sleep with myself at night?