“Politicians and ENGOs gaslight the public into believing Alaska has a magic thermostat that can stop erosion, reverse damage to fisheries, and fix every other contestable issue—as long as they scream ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’!”
Climate alarmism is a tired way to get what you want—not unlike a kid throwing a tantrum in the cereal aisle. Except begging for Froot Loops, the panicking alarmists—backed by ENGOs desperate to push their mandates through—demand more bureaucracy, heavier regulations, and political energy “solutions” that serve their agenda, not the public.
Never mind that these schemes do little to actually “save the planet.” They’re really about forcing costly policies, expanding government control, and driving up energy prices, all while making people poorer for their warped vision of the future.
Here in Alaska, the opportunity is to ‘read the room’ and dial back climate exaggeration and forced energy transformation. Not so looking at Senate Bill 120, introduced this month by Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson, beginning with its 25-word title:
An Act establishing the Alaska Climate Change Emergency Response Commission; and relating to the powers and duties of the Alaska Climate Change Emergency Response Commission.
This bill begins by first adding a section of uncodified law proclaiming that the legislature finds that “a state of emergency exists because of the threat climate change poses on communities in the state, the state economy, traditional ways of life, fish and game populations, and natural ecosystems.”
While legislators do have the power to shape policy, they do not have the authority to declare an emergency—but that hasn’t stopped them from making dramatic proclamations they lack the legal power to enforce, hoping the theatrics will be enough to push their agenda forward.
The bill establishes a new 15-member commission under the governor, ensuring representation from municipal leaders across the state. The commission consists of six state departmental representatives serving by virtue of office and nine municipal representatives.
Per the sponsor statement:
It will be the goal of the commission to advance diverse energy options, adaptive infrastructure, and CO₂ reduction strategies; as well as monitoring climate impacts. The commission will work in harmony with rural and tribal organizations through grant writing and assistance programs.
Trying to regulate CO₂ in a state that contributes less than 0.1% globally is like banning spoons to stop obesity—completely missing the point, utterly ineffective, and guaranteed to impress only the most clueless. Yet, politicians and ENGOs gaslight the public into believing Alaska has a magic thermostat that can stop erosion, reverse damage to fisheries caused by destructive fishing practices (such as trawl), and fix every other issue happening outside—as long as they hit the easy button and scream “CLIMATE CHANGE!”
It’s the ultimate political cheat code: slap the label on any complex issue, ignore the real causes (or solutions), and pretend that more regulations, more bureaucracy, and more taxpayer money will magically control nature itself.
The Real Problem
The real unprecedented threat facing Alaskans isn’t climate change. It’s a rogue, unchecked legislature that is acting like squirrels on crack, scrambling to codify every last remnant of the Green New Deal before the political winds shift. Even with the Trump administration working overtime to dismantle the bureaucratic insanity, the Democrats, all Independents and even some Republicans legislators in Alaska are in full-blown panic mode, rushing to lock in radical climate policies while they still can.
To make matters worse, rabid climate alarmist groups such as the Alaska Venture Fund, Earthjustice, and the Alaska Center will be given a clear advantage in shaping new climate policies going forward. This is an especially troubling prospect given that Earthjustice’s stated goal is to “end the extraction and burning of fossil fuels”.
Senate Bill 120 gives the commission the power to “consult and cooperate with” “public or private persons, organizations, and groups” that are “interested in, affected by, or concerned with climate change effects and response.” That’s insane. It’s the green lobby’s dream come true—an unelected commission with the power to rubber-stamp whatever radical policies special interest groups demand, all under the guise of an “emergency.”
This isn’t policymaking, it’s outsourcing Alaska’s future to the loudest, most politically connected voices in the climate-industrial complex. It is as if Harris/Waltz beat Trump/Vance, and John Podesta’s shock troops were ensconced in Fairbanks.
Governor Dunleavy Must Reject
After two rounds of public testimony and overwhelming written testimony in opposition, the fate of SB 120 hangs in the balance. With continuing evidence of climate exaggeration (here), and the rest of the country (if not world) going in the opposite direction, will Alaska’s legislature respect the people or a climate elite?
And if the bill does pass, will Governor Dunleavy veto this blatant attempt to enshrine climate hysteria into state law? Such would be a far more rational choice than cementing his legacy as part of the climate cult, allowing bureaucrats to seize even more power under the guise of an “emergency” they have no authority to declare.
Conclusion
“It does not take a majority to prevail,” wrote the father of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams, in 1775, “but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” These words define the opportunity to repel energy statism in Alaska today.
As an Australian who finds 30C comfortable, I am in awe of people who survive in Alaska in temperature often below 0C. They live on the fringe of habitable land and should be given every encouragement to carry on in whatever way they can.
I read earlier today that Fairbanks averaged minus 14C in January AND that was a few degrees up on previous years. If that could become a trend then you may actually find sane people moving there. For now, no one should be surprised if Alaskans act in a strange way. They deserve respect just for living in such formidable conditions. I have the same respect for Siberians. How could a sane person survive in those conditions.
“They deserve respect just for living in such formidable conditions.”
Rick, I’ll have to let some people I see in Fairbanks next week know that a friend from down-under thinks very highly of them for their perserverance and fortitude against the elements. Next week in Fairbanks is the 2025 Sun-Climate Symposium, where I will show Arctic sea ice is controlled by the sun, not CO2. I’m very excited about making my first trip to Alaska and my only wish is I wish had more time to be there.
In preparing I watched a lot of You-tube videos from people from Fairbanks who gave reasons not to move there, as it’s apparently not everybody’s cup of tea. Then there’s the whole mystery thing about the Alaskan Burmuda Triangle, centered on Fairbanks, from where supposedly 20,000 people have disappeared in the last 40+ years.
As luck would have it this Symposium was postponed today until September.
I’ve always said that it isn’t cold until the water gets hard. When operating the snow blower to clear the driveway, I rarely wore a coat. I would wear gloves, because the metal would suck the heat out of my hands too fast.
When not exercising, 0C was light coat weather.
The US Army conducted cold weather studies many moons ago and came to the conclusion that active (male) troops working at 0 F needed ZERO insulation (other than the normal uniform) to survive and operate. At -40 F they needed 1 inch of insulation.
Everyone has different comfort levels – used to be I’d wear only a t-shirt down into the 40 F range. Even now at 0 C/32 F I generally need only a light jacket over a wicking t-shirt.
There is no such thing as too cold or too hot, it’s either inadecuate clothing/insulation or the individual’s unwillingness to adapt (of course if you bitch about it you attract people’s attention – a questionable method to deal with the inevitable)
My personal temperature experience ranges from -50°C to +48°C, I adapt certainly easier to a cold enviroment than a hot one but I adapt. More comfortably I live around +24°C…getting old I guess lol.
Varg,
I can see no attraction whatsoever in going to live in a part of the world where you need to adapt and wear so many layers, endure difficult driving conditions etc.
I live in the U.K and that’s bad enough, from choice I would be in the Mediterranean but that’s not possible for me.
“… no attraction…” Gold was the really big attractor for thousands hoping to strike it rich in Alaska and in the Yukon. The Yukon Gold Rush occurred in 1898.
You should check out reruns of “Bering Sea Gold” on the TV. Use Wikipedia to get all the info on the TV series.
Growing up in Northern Minnesota in the ’60s, my coldest experience was a 3 block walk to school when the radio was reporting -52 degrees F. We experienced -40 degree mornings there many times. My farthest north visit on land has been Winnipeg at 50 degrees North Latitude. I have zero desire to ever exceed that. I am now living in south Texas and can assure you that the 107 F days I have experienced here have been clearly more comfortable than the days spent where the temperature was 160 degrees F colder, though air conditioning has helped considerably.
I grew up in Minnesota my coldest walk to school in in the -30s and it was ten blocks. The walk home on cold windy snowy days were brutal. The coldest I was in was -50 that was in Western North Dakota as to the real temperature where I live at the time God only knows since I was nowhere near a weather station. I was in Fargo ND in 1997 we when for over 72 hours of nothing warmer than -22, when that stretch of cold broke I unzipped my coat at -19 and windy. I was snow blow the driveway. I now live on Arizona and can’t wait for the hundreds to show up again. It was a lovely 93 F yesterday, just absolutely wonderful, nice to be able to wear shorts again. My old bones and joints will like that heat, cold not so much.
Correct, it’s mainly a question where you earn your income. Sorry I should have been a little bit more specific: I do easily adapt to a cold & dry enviroment, wet damp & cold is pure misery (had enough of that in BC / Vancouver).
AB and SK on the other hand are way nicer places (well at least to my liking), can’t compare them with southern Spain but workwise you make way better money with oilsand than with olive oil.
Sea level is falling at Anchorage! How can that be?
See, just by the threat of their Klimate Kommission, the tides are turning.
Some of the land near Anchorage went down as much as 1.9 meters in the massive 1964 earthquake.
There was a lot of continuous uplift subsequent to the quake, that is starting to wane over the last few decades.
Yep, but it splashed a small amount of water over the Galveston seawall. Fisherman told me that he got his feet wet. Seiches in Houston swimming pools. Three inches now a flood watch.
Why anyone in Alaska would be worried about a degree or so of pretend CO2 warming is beyond me. Total loony !
These people are certifiable.. Bring back Arkham Asylum !
It’s like United Airlines pushing bamboo eating utensils on international flights when everything else is contained in or wrapped in plastic.
“Rogue, unchecked legislation” is what this author calls proposed legislation he doesn’t like. This is like standing at the gates of hell and complaining that the thermostat needs to be turned down … and is just as useless.
There are always legislative proposals being put forth that will never go anywhere. This sounds like one of them. Come talk to us after the Alaska legislature deals with this proposal.
We have vastly bigger fish to fry in dealing with existing law in the US and in most of the blue states.
We also have to recognize that there is most definitely already blowback against Trumpian actions, if not policy, that is already hurting Republicans and should be taken as a warning against moving too fast and too radically, which is something most voters don’t like. Change – sure. But you don’t have to conduct a revolution to bring about change.
Just this week, for instance, a local government race in Pennsylvania that voted for Trump over Harris by 16 points in November just elected their first Dem commissioner in over 40 some years. The race to replace former GOP Rep. Waltz in Florida, a GOP stronghold, according to the polls is now a tossup.
Every time party control flips from GOP to DEM and back to GOP, etc. etc., the winning party leaders seem to believe in their own bullshit, ie that they have unlimited mandate and control to force vast changes on the American people whether they like it or not. Good politicking is a process that gets people to like what you want. Ordering someone to do something is the best way to minimize their enthusiasm and cooperation, if not compliance.
At the moment, Trump is on the same trajectory that he was in 2017, except more so. The result of that performance was blowback from voters such that the Dems won both the House and Senate in 2018, leading to the two Trump impeachments in the House, the horrendous Biden victory in 2020 and the infamous “Inflation Reduction Act” that accelerated green policies, and endless investigations that lasted as long as the Dems controlled the house.
“Be careful what you wish for” is a lesson endlessly repeated and apparently never learned.
If the economy is doing great and America is not in another war the GOP will retain power, IMHO.
The economy is slowing according to the Fed, and the risk of recession is now significantly elevated. The Trump tariffs are going to worsen inflation which in all polls in the last year up through this week indicate is the biggest issue for most voters. Inflation actually increased slightly since Trump came into office, and that is even before any of the tariffs start hitting consumers. A tariff is a tax on consumption that makes everything more expensive. Even worse than a recession is “stagflation”, where a lot of people are out of a job yet everything continues to inflate. That’s what we had in the late 70s and first year of Reagan’s first term. The voters did not like it at all.
The voters do in fact consider economic issues to be determinative, but also consider all the other stuff too.
Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Responding to a trade war with reciprocal tariffs will have an effect the Left is assuming the US will automatically lose..
Right— more car companies will move factories to America- including, maybe some Chinese. Same for some other products.
You need to quite watch the ABC networks and get some decent information. You ramblings are just like the useful idiots in the early 80 talking about Reagan
“A tariff is a tax on consumption that makes everything more expensive.”
Tell us about corporate taxes and how taxes on corporations are too low… tell us how corporations need to pay their fair share (without it being “a tax on consumption”).
Duties (tariffs) can be targeted, and can be used intelligently. So far, the proposed assessments have been reasonable.
The district Trump won by 14 points was the whole county, not the blue subset the Democrats just won. More partisan spin.
Its not just the winning party leaders that believe their own bullshit.
I remember one guy that repeatedly stated that the president doesn’t have the ability to influence oil prices (he seemed to be trying to protect biden & biden’s policies). I didn’t know if he was ignorant and actually believed it, or if he was some sort of a shill. I don’t know if he ever crawled out from under his own pile of bullshit.
Notwithstanding the downvotes, Duane is absolutely correct in pointing out that there are risks to the Trump agenda:
The first is simply that people on the Left live to advance their political causes, while most others are much more involved in the non-political aspects of their lives. So while Trump and the Republicans managed to motivate turnout in the last ‘major’ election, we can already see that factor ebbing away in recent ‘special elections’, particularly when extended voting allows the Left to mobilize their entire base. To be blunt, this is also why so many school boards and most off-year elections always seem to go the Left’s way – they show up / we don’t.
The second point is that GDP is certain to decline this year or next, not only because the Left has seriously hobbled the economy with its regulatory action, but also because the GDP statistic itself includes government spending. So while cutting back on the most egregious aspects of Federal spending, e.g., the IRA, is definitely a good thing, there’s no way that the Left’s media partners are not going to harp on any down-tick in the statistics.
If you’re implying that 4 years of Trump will not fix climate/political activists, you are over the target. There will always be numbers of people who are cowed by “a state of emergency” that they can entrance.
The headline and article keep saying Harris/Waltz, but it was Harris/Walz.
Can anyone help me understand why Alaska seems to be so left-leaning? I would expect the opposite.
libertarian … freedom at all costs … fight the man.
Those types are easy to nudge left.
Then there are also the welfare leaches & those that make a living managing the welfare leaches.
Didn’t Alaska vote Republican in November ?
bnice: 41% Harris and the Dem congress candidate lost by only 2%. And Murkowski isn’t much of a republican.
That’s more left leaning than I would expect.
The referenced link:
http://scienceofclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/SCC-Grok-3-Review-V5-1.pdf
Is well worth the read.
I recall in the early days, the effort was to understand climate, both natural and anthropogenic causes and effects. It was quickly turned to determine the effects of CO2 on climate. This means all of the models have a common assumption that CO2 is the “control knob” and ignores all possible alternatives.
The referenced paper goes through all of this.
To my mind, and I have experience in most of the related areas of study, this is proof that the whole climate apocalypse thing is a lie.
ENGO? Environmental Non Government Organization?
“Alaska Climate Change Emergency Response Commission“
Two of my pet peeves, government committees, councils, study groups and claiming CO2 is a threat with no evidence to back it up. The last thing we need is another gaggle of government do gooders screwing things up. We need to force these guys into publicly laying out the case for CAGW. They can’t but if we could force them to publicly fail we can put this nonsense behind us.
Hey Alaskans, as your legislature codifies the green new deal guess who will fund it when President Trump stop the funding? YOU WILL!