The Week That Was: 2025-09-27 (September 27, 2025)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “Experiment is the only means of knowledge at our disposal. Everything else is poetry, imagination.”— Max Planck
Number of the Week: Less than 10%
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: This TWTW begins with comments on the EPA Endangerment Finding by Richard Lindzen and William Happer. TWTW continues with a geological paper by Leszek Mark who asserts that the current warming is largely part of a natural cycle. Then TWTW discusses an assertion in the Wall Street Journal that human emissions of carbon dioxide have made the oceans too acidic to be considered healthy.
*********************
EPA Endangerment Finding: On September 22, Richard Lindzen, Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Emeritus, MIT, and William Happer, Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Princeton University, submitted their comments to Administrator Lee Zeldin of the US EPA on the reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards. The highly accomplished forty-plus-page document is full of scientific evidence contradicting the Endangerment Finding. TWTW cannot adequately summarize it here but will cite some sections that may be of particular interest with the footnotes omitted. After thanking Administrator Zeldin for the opportunity to comment, the opening page states:
We are career physicists with a special expertise in radiation physics, which describes how carbon dioxide and other GHGs affect heat flow in Earth’s atmosphere. We are both members of the National Academy of Sciences. Our CVs are attached.
Our comment focuses on your request for comments as to, “The scientific underpinnings of the Endangerment Finding are weaker than previously believed and contradicted by empirical data, peer-reviewed studies, and scientific developments since 2009 (C-2).”
In our scientific opinion, the scientific underpinnings of the Endangerment Finding (“EF”) are fatally flawed science, for two key reasons.
• It fails to consider contradictory science.
• It is not based on science; it is based on unscientific evidence.
Thus, there is no scientific basis for the Endangerment Finding that greenhouse gases (“GHGs”) will endanger the public health and welfare. Furthermore, it endangers the public health and welfare itself.
Accordingly, it should be repealed ASAP.
Scientific details follow.”
After giving a table of contents, the Introduction states:
“The EPA Endangerment Finding is:
‘[T]he Administrator finds that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may reasonably be anticipated both to endanger public health and to endanger public welfare. Specifically, the Administrator is defining the ‘air pollution’ referred to in CAA section 202(a) to be the mix of six long-lived and directly-emitted greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).’ * * * ‘The Administrator has considered how elevated concentrations of the well-mixed greenhouse gases and associated climate change affect public health by evaluating the risks associated with changes in air quality, increases in temperatures, changes in extreme weather events, increases in food- and waterborne pathogens, and changes in aeroallergens.’ 74 FR 66,497.
At the outset it is important to understand that carbon dioxide has two relevant properties, as a creator of food and oxygen, and as a greenhouse gas (GHG).
As to food and oxygen, carbon dioxide is essential to nearly all life on earth by creating food and oxygen by photosynthesis. Further, it creates more food as its level in the atmosphere increases. For example, doubling carbon dioxide from today’s approximately 420 ppm to 840 ppm would increase the amount of food available to people worldwide by roughly 40%, and doing so would have a negligible effect on temperature.
As to carbon dioxide as a GHG, the Endangerment Finding is premised on the Net Zero Theory that carbon dioxide and other GHG emissions must be reduced to Net Zero and the use of fossil fuels must be eliminated by 2050 to avoid catastrophic global warming and more extreme weather.
A key premise the EPA has asserted is, ‘The increased concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere and the resulting warming have led to more frequent and more intense heat waves and extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and retreating snow and ice.’
Further, a foundational premise of everything the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) does is that the ‘evidence is clear that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main driver of climate change,’ where ‘main driver means responsible for more than 50% of the change.’
We demonstrate that the scientific underpinnings of the Endangerment Finding and of both the EPA and IPCC premises are fatally flawed science, for two key separate and combined reasons:
First, both fail to consider contradictory science, including:
- the physics demonstrates increasing carbon dioxide and other GHGs can only cause negligible warming and cannot, have not and will not cause catastrophic warming.
- as a result, increasing GHGs cannot cause increased extreme weather.
- that doubling carbon dioxide from today’s level will have a trivial effect on temperature but increase the world’s food supply by 40%.
- that eliminating carbon dioxide and fossil fuels will have disastrous effects for Americans, America, the poor and people worldwide.
Second, both are not based on science, and are based on unscientific evidence.
Thus, there is no scientific basis for the Endangerment Finding that GHGs will endanger the public health and, furthermore, it endangers the public health and welfare itself. Accordingly, it should be repealed ASAP.
Frankly, we also demonstrate that the Endangerment Finding is a classic example of what Peter Drucker described as government subordinating science to ‘value-judgments that are the reverse of, and largely incompatible with, any criteria one could possibly call scientific.’
Further, our opinion is that science requires urgent action to repeal the Endangerment Finding and other government actions based on it because they are policies that will destroy western economies, impoverish the working middle class, condemn billions of the world’s poorest to continued poverty and increased starvation, leave our children despairing over the alleged absence of a future, and will enrich the enemies of the West who are enjoying the spectacle of our suicide march.
Scientific details follow.”
The comment then goes into a discussion of what is and what is not, science, which TWTW has presented in previous comments by Lindzen and Happer. Section III “The Endangerment Finding Failed to Consider Contradictory Science” begins with:
- “The Physics of Carbon Dioxide and GHGs Demonstrates They Cannot and Will Not Cause Catastrophic Warming and Extreme Weather
The Endangerment Finding states:
‘The scientific evidence is compelling that elevated concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are the root cause of recently observed climate change. The IPCC conclusion from 2007 has been re-confirmed by the June 2009 USGCRP assessment that most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.’ 74 FR 66,518 (footnote deleted).
As a matter of physics, the scientific evidence cited by the Endangerment Finding from two government organizations, the IPCC and USGCRP, is false science. (Elaborated in section III.B and D).” [These sections are not presented in this TWTW.]
“The five most abundant GHGs are water vapor (H2O), nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone (O3), and methane (CH4). Water vapor and clouds account “for more than 90% of the atmosphere’s ability to intercept heat.’ Thus, CO2 and all the other GHGs account for less than 10% of the atmosphere’s ability to intercept heat and warm the planet.
The Endangerment Finding cites six GHGs: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. 74 FR 66,516. The warming effects of methane and nitrous oxide are also so small that they are irrelevant to climate, as are the latter three.
The physics of carbon dioxide and other GHGs is that they lose their capacity to warm the planet as their concentration in the atmosphere increases because of what is called “saturation,” and according to logarithmic equations. Every doubling of CO2 causes a warming of less than 1° C, to first approximation, 0.75° C (1.4° F). The other GHGs cause only a small fraction of the warming from CO2.
Focusing on the physics of CO2, it becomes a less effective greenhouse gas at higher concentrations.”
Then the comment gives a chart which may be confusing without more explanation and then continues with:
“Most importantly, at today’s CO2 concentration in the atmosphere of approximately 425 parts per million and higher, saturation means that CO2 has little ability to absorb heat and warm the planet. Because of saturation, doubling carbon dioxide from today’s approximately 420 ppm to 840 ppm would increase the amount of food available to people worldwide by roughly 40%, and doing so would have a negligible effect on temperature, 0.75° C (1.4° F).
Saturation means that from now on, CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and other sources will have little impact on global warming. Since CO2 at today’s level is “saturated,” for this reason alone there is no risk that the continued use of fossil fuels will cause catastrophic global warming and more extreme weather.
Moreover, the mathematics of logarithms can also be applied to temperature increases since the beginning of the Industrial Age in 1750 when carbon dioxide levels were about 280 ppm. Doubling it to 560 ppm would also only cause a trivial increase in temperature, 0.75° C (1.4° F). The increase in temperature would be even less, and trivial, if carbon dioxide increased from the beginning of the Industrial Age at 280 ppm to today’s 425 ppm, a much smaller increase of 145 ppm than doubling it to 560 ppm.
Saturation also explains why temperatures were not catastrophically high over the hundreds of millions of years when CO2 levels were 10 to nearly 20 times higher than they are today, shown in the chart in Part III.C covering 600 million years.” [Part II C is not discussed in this TWTW.]
“More specifically, the physics of how changes in atmospheric GHGs affect radiation transfer are described by precise physical equations that have never failed to describe observations. We and Prof. van Wijngaarden applied these formulas to the enormous efforts by the U. S. and worldwide to reduce CO2 emissions to Net Zero by 2050 in a paper that we recommend to those with a technical background.”
The comment then discusses US going to net zero carbon dioxide emissions will have a miniscule effect on temperatures. It discusses the difference between the smooth Planck Curve of Earth’s blackbody radiation and the jagged curve of Earth’s radiation to space. The jagged curve identifies the frequencies associated with specific greenhouse gases. This section then concludes with:
“Finally, note that CO2 is not nearly as potent a greenhouse gas as water vapor and clouds (especially cirrus clouds). A radiation-blocking effect of only about 3 W/m2 could easily also be produced by changes in the size or height of cloud cover on any given day. This is a complex system, and the idea that one variable, globally average temperature, is changed primarily by one thing, manmade CO2, is baseless. As one of us (Lindzen) has explained:
‘The climate system consists of two turbulent fluids interacting with each other, [ocean and atmosphere]. They are on a rotating planet that is differentially heated by the sun. A vital constituent of the atmospheric component is water in the liquid, solid, and vapor phases, and the changes in phase have vast energetic ramifications. The energy budget of this system involves the absorption and remission of about 200 watts per square meter. Doubling CO2 involves a two percent perturbation to this budget. So do minor changes in clouds, ocean circulations, and other features, and such changes are common. In this complex multifactor system, what is the likelihood that the climate (which itself consists of many variables and not just globally averaged temperature anomalies) is controlled by a two percent perturbation in the energy budget due to just one of the numerous variables, namely CO2? Believing this is pretty close to believing in magic.’
In conclusion, since CO2 at today’s level is ‘saturated,’ and the warming effects of the other GHGs are so small they are irrelevant to climate, physics demonstrates:
- increasing carbon dioxide and other GHGs can only cause negligible warming.
- there is no risk that the continued use of fossil fuels and even a doubling of atmospheric CO2 will cause catastrophic global warming.
- with no major warming, increasing GHGs cannot and will not cause increased extreme weather.
Physics demonstrates there is no scientific basis for the Endangerment Finding. For this reason alone, the Endangerment Finding should be repealed.”
In the interests of brevity, this TWTW skips over a great deal of important scientific and other arguments to go to the last section citing an important Supreme Court decision and the Conclusion which state [Individual words in boldface were in italics in original]:
“V. The Endangerment Finding Is Arbitrary, Capricious, and thus Invalided Under the Supreme Court’s State Farm Decision.
As a legal matter, we understand State Farm is a key Supreme Court case that ruled that an agency regulation is arbitrary, capricious, and thus invalid where, inter alia:
- ‘the agency has relied on factors which Congress has not intended it to consider.’
- ‘the agency has … entirely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem.’
The Endangerment Finding fails each of these State Farm mandates:
First, Unscientific Evidence. Unscientific evidence, misrepresented as science, is all the EPA provided underlying the Endangerment Finding, demonstrated in Part IV. Congress never intended for the EPA to consider and rely on unscientific evidence in making its Endangerment Finding, as it did.
Second, Contradictory Scientific Evidence Ignored. The Endangerment Finding ignored and “entirely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem,” the robust and reliable contradictory scientific evidence detailed above in Part III.
Therefore, the Endangerment Finding is arbitrary, capricious, and thus invalid for either or both reasons under State Farm.
CONCLUSION
Accordingly, we demonstrated the Endangerment Finding is based on fatally flawed science, for two reasons:
First, it fails to consider contradictory science, including:.
- The physics demonstrates increasing carbon dioxide and other GHGs can only cause negligible increased warming.
- There is no risk that the continued use of fossil fuels and even a doubling of atmospheric CO2 will cause catastrophic global warming.
- With no major warming, increasing GHGs cannot cause increased extreme weather.
- Doubling carbon dioxide from today’s level will increase the world’s food supply by 40% and have a trivial effect on temperature.
- that eliminating carbon dioxide and fossil fuels will have disastrous effects for Americans, America, the poor and people worldwide.
Second, it is not based on science, it is based on unscientific sources.
Thus, there is no scientific basis for the Endangerment Finding that GHGs will endanger the public health and welfare. Furthermore, it endangers the public health and welfare itself.
Accordingly, it should be repealed ASAP.
Finally, we repeat, urgent action to repeal the Endangerment Finding and other government actions based on it is required because they are policies that will destroy western economies, impoverish the working middle class, condemn billions of the world’s poorest to continued poverty and increased starvation, leave our children despairing over the alleged absence of a future, and will enrich the enemies of the West who are enjoying the spectacle of our suicide march.”
TWTW comment: It will be very interesting to see how the lower courts treat scientific argument, based on physical evidence, given the Supreme Court’s State Farm decision in 1983 “Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of the United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 463 U.S. 29, 43 (1983).
For the comments see links under Challenging the Orthodoxy, for the paper by Lindzen, Happer, and van Wijngaarden see link under Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer.
*********************
Part of a Natural Cycle?: Kenneth Richard of No Tricks Zone discussed a paper by Leszek Mark, “Contemporary global warming versus climate change in the Holocene,” published by the Polish Geological Institutes. It states that the current warming is part of a natural cycle that has been going on throughout the Holocene (starting about 11,700 years ago). The present warm interglacial epoch in the Quaternary period (starting about 2.6 million years ago) features prolonged glacial periods (Ice Ages). The abstract of the paper states:
“Cyclical climate change is characteristic of the Holocene, with successive warmings and coolings. A solar forcing mechanism has steered Holocene climate change, expressed by 9 cooling phases known as Bond events. There is reliable geological evidence that the temperatures of most warming phases in the Holocene were globally higher or similar to that of the current warming period, Arctic sea ice was less extensive and most mountain glaciers in the northern hemisphere either disappeared or were smaller. During the African Humid Period in the Early and Middle Holocene, much stronger summer monsoons made the Sahara green with growth of savanna vegetation, huge lakes, and extensive peat bogs. The modern warming is part of a climatic cycle with a progressive warming after the Little Ice Age, the last cold episode of which occurred at the beginning of the 19th century. Successive climate projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are based on the assumption that the modern temperature rise is steered exclusively by the increasing content of human-induced CO2 in the atmosphere. If compared with the observational data, these projected temperatures have been highly overestimated.”
As climate fluctuations, Bond events are similar to Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events, except Bond events are noted in the current warm period (the Holocene), and DO events are noted in glacial periods. The UN IPCC and its colleagues largely ignore all climate history prior to about 1850 when the Earth came out of the Little Ice Age (one of the coldest periods, if not the coldest period, in the Holocene). They have abandoned the scientific method in favor of politics. The Mark paper concludes with:
“The Holocene climate change was characterized by cyclical warmings (such as: Holocene Thermal Maximum, Late Bronze Age, Roman Warm Period, MWP) and coolings (Bond Events: including Iron Age Cold Period, Dark Ages Cold Period and LIA). The IPCC claims that current warming is unprecedented in the last 2000 or even the last 125,000 years; this statement is very unconvincing, and it is not supported by the geological data. There is good evidence that both in the last 2000 years as well during the Holocene Thermal Maximum, temperatures were higher or broadly similar to the ones in the current warming period, the Arctic sea ice was less extensive and most mountain glaciers (especially in the northern hemisphere) either disappeared or were smaller. Much stronger summer monsoons in the Early and Middle Holocene made the Sahara green with savanna vegetation, huge lakes, and extensive peat bogs. The terms ‘the Holocene Thermal Maximum’ and ‘the Holocene Climatic Optimum’ are avoided by the IPCC (2021), and its popularized statements making the current warming look ‘unprecedented’ and therefore ‘unique’ are false and flatten the climate history (cf. Marcott et al., 2013).
The climate is a product of complicated interdependence of many factors that have not been yet sufficiently recognized qualitatively and quantitatively. It is a great scientific challenge that requires an extensive interdisciplinary research. There is a crucial need to make climate science less political and climate policy more scientific.”
See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
*********************
Acid Oceans? The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “The Ocean Is Now Too Acidic to Be Considered Healthy, Planetary Scientist Says.” Apparently, the reporter did not bother to double check for contrary evidence, particularly with those who understand chemistry. A 2015 paper by Roger Cohen and William Happer “Fundamentals of Ocean pH” begins with [Footnotes omitted here]:
“We are often told that the CO2 released from burning fossil fuels will cause dangerous ocean acidification. Actually, the oceans will remain comfortably alkaline and hospitable to life for the foreseeable future. This brief note is a quantitative review of the physical chemistry of ocean pH. High school chemistry and algebra should provide enough background to follow the discussion. An excellent introduction to the chemistry of the oceans can be found in the book: Seawater: Its Composition, Properties and Behavior, by Wright and Colling. More details on ocean pH can be found in a recent review by Tans.
2 Alkalinity of the Unbuffered Ocean
Ocean water is salty because of the weathering of the earth’s rocks by rainwater, and because of salts dissolved from the ocean floor, especially near plate-spreading boundaries. The salt water contains positive ions (cations), mainly sodium Na+, magnesium Mg2+, calcium Ca2+ and potassium K+. For clarity, we can think of the ions as coming from the strong bases NaOH, and potassium hydroxide, KOH (lye) and much less soluble magnesium hydroxide, Mg (OH)2, and calcium hydroxide Ca (OH)2 (slaked lime). The ocean also contains negative ions (anions), mainly chloride Cl− and sulfate SO4(^-2), which we can think of the anions as coming from the strong acids, hydrochloric acid, HCl and sulfuric acid, H2SO4. For want of a better word, we will refer to the cations of strong bases, and anions of strong acids as pH-independent ions. The concentration of pH-independent ions is unaffected by normal changes in the pH of water.”
The paper then goes into some mathematics and chemistry and shows that the oceans will remain alkaline with a pH slightly less than 8, even if rainwater (carbonic acid, H2CO3) becomes more acidic with an atmosphere with a carbon dioxide concentration of 1000 parts per million in volume, more than twice the current level of CO2. The paper concludes with [Figures not shown here]:
“This minimalist discussion already shows how hard it is to scare informed people with ocean acidification, but, alas, many people are not informed. For example:
- The oceans would be highly alkaline with a pH of about 11.4, similar to that of household ammonia, if there were no weak acids to buffer the alkalinity. Almost all of the buffering is provided by dissolved CO2, with very minor additional buffering from boric acid, silicic acid, and other even less important species.
- As shown in Fig. 1, doubling atmospheric CO2 from the current level of 400 ppm to 800 ppm only decreases the pH of ocean water from about 8.2 to 7.9. This is well within the day-night fluctuations that already occur because of photosynthesis by plankton and less than the pH decreases with depth that occur because of the biological pump and the dissolution of calcium carbonate precipitates below the lysocline.
- As shown in Fig. 2, doubling atmospheric CO2 from the current level of 400 ppm to 800 ppm only decreases the carbonate-ion concentration, [CO2−3], by about 30%. Ocean surface waters are already supersaturated by several hundred per cent for formation of CaCO3 crystals from Ca2+ and CO2−3. So, scare stories about dissolving carbonate shells are nonsense.
- As shown in Fig. 7, the ocean has only absorbed 1/3 or less of the CO2 that it would eventually absorb when the concentrations of CO2 in the deep oceans came to equilibrium with surface concentrations. Effects like that of the biological pump and calcium carbonate dissolution below the lysocline allow the ocean to absorb substantially more than the amount that would be in chemical-equilibrium with the atmosphere.
- Over most of the Phanerozoic, the past 550 million years, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have been measured in thousands of parts per million, and life flourished in both the oceans and on land. This is hardly surprising, given the relative insensitivity of ocean pH to large changes in CO2 concentrations that we have discussed above and given the fact that the pH changes that do occur are small compared to the natural variations of ocean pH in space and time.”
For the Cohen and Happer paper see link under Challenging the Orthodoxy, for the Wall Street Journal article see Article # 1
*********************
Letter to UN Food and Agriculture Organization: The Non-science notions of the UN IPPC are infecting other UN organizations. The CO2 Coalition wrote an “Open Letter to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Concerning Sustainable Livestock Development.” In part, it states:
“At no point has science been a matter of majority opinion or even top-down decisions by legal authorities. We see that the FAO is running the risk of finding itself on the wrong side of history if it unethically suppresses free scientific discourse.
We therefore strongly recommend that FAO returns to its original mandate of eradicating hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, eliminating poverty and driving forward economic progress for all, based on the latest objective climate research.
Appendix. Five points of criticism of the greenhouse gas-based climate narrative and the idea that livestock could be a major culprit:
- Climate history shows that carbon dioxide is not the main driver of climate change.
- The global warming potential of GHGs has been generally overestimated.
- The dynamics of GHGs are often disregarded.
- There are beneficial effects of additional CO2 for nature and global food security.
- There are systematic overestimations of man-made GHG-emissions from managed agro-ecosystems and omissions of ecosystemic relationships, committed by FAO and IPCC.”
See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
*********************
Additions and Corrections: Christopher Game pointed out an error in last week’s TWTW. It stated: “Arrhenius used the term carbolic acid, a mixture of water and carbon dioxide that exists in liquid form but does not exist as a gas in the atmosphere.” TWTW should have stated: “carbonic acid, a compound of water and carbon dioxide.” TWTW appreciates such corrections.
*********************
Number of the Week: Less than 10% [H/t Lindzen and Happer] In his book, Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, Steven Koonin writes:
“Water vapor is the most important of the greenhouse gases. Of course, the amount in the atmosphere at any given place and time varies greatly (the humidity changes a lot with the weather). But on average, water vapor amounts to only about 0.4 percent of the molecules in the atmosphere. Even so, it accounts for more than 90 percent of the atmosphere’s ability to intercept heat. John Tyndall, the Irish physicist who was the first to study the infrared properties of gases, eloquently expressed its importance in an 1863 public lecture:
‘Aqueous [water] vapor is a blanket, more necessary to the vegetable life of England than clothing is to man. Remove for a single summer-night the aqueous vapor from the air which overspreads this country, and you would assuredly destroy every plant capable of being destroyed by a freezing temperature. The warmth of our fields and gardens would pour itself unrequited into space, and the sun would rise upon an island held fast in the iron grip of frost.’
“The next most significant greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), is different from water vapor in that its concentration in the atmosphere is much the same all over the globe. CO2 currently accounts for about 7 percent of the atmosphere’s ability to intercept heat.” [Boldface added] (pp 50, 51) [This estimate assumes cloudiness, not clear skies.]
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Censorship
Human Rights Commission’s call to regulate debate around climate change under fire
Sky News host Paul Murray has fired up over the Australian Human Rights Commission’s call for regulation to climate change debate.
By Callum Sayer, Sky News, AU, Sep 25, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
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
Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Preprint, December 22, 2020
Net Zero Averted Temperature Increase
By Richard Lindzen, William Happer, and William A. van Wijngaarden, CO2 Coalition, June 2024
Radiation Transport in Clouds
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Klimarealistene, Science of Climate Change, January 2025
Challenging the Orthodoxy
CO2 Coalition Comment #2 on EPA Endangerment Finding
By Richard Lindzen and William Happer, CO2 Coalition, Sep 22, 2025
Complete Statement: https://co2coalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Lindzen-Happer-Comment-EPA-Endangerment-Finding-2025-09-22.pdf
New Study: Modern Warmth Is Merely Part Of A Natural Cycle
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Sep 22, 2025
Link to paper: Contemporary global warming versus climate change in the Holocene
By Leszek Mark, Polish Geological Institute,
No Right to Stable Climate in Our Holocene Epoch
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Sep 23, 2025
Link to paper: Contemporary global warming versus climate change in the Holocene
By Leszek Mark, Polish Geological Institute,
[SEPP Comment: Clutz provides detail backing up the Leszek Mark paper.]
Natural Selection of Bad Science. Part II
By John Ridgway, Climate Etc., Sep 23, 2025
In an earlier essay I explained how positive feedbacks can lead to potentially problematic scientific monocultures. I also acknowledged that poor research design and data analysis had become commonplace within the behavioral sciences, largely as a result of a ‘natural selection’, driven by the career enhancement that comes with publication. However, I did not question whether there were any reward structures within climate science that may also have led to a natural selection for bad statistical practice.
Fundamentals of Ocean pH
By R. Cohen and W. Happer, CO2 Coalition, September 18, 2015 (republished November 21, 2021)
Entire paper: https://co2coalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2015-Cohen-Happer-Fundamentals-of-Ocean-pH.pdf
Open Letter to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Concerning Sustainable Livestock Development
By Gregory Wrightstone, et al., CO2 Coalition, Aug 21, 2025
Are we going to die from climate change?
More summer heat deaths in 854 European cities, screams a recent ‘study’. Greek hydrologist Demetris Koutsoyiannis debunks this most recent lie of what he calls the climalarmists. “Why did the authors not wait for the “actual 2025 death counts” before studying these?”
By Demetris Koutsoyiannis, CLINTEL, Sep 22, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Challenging the Orthodoxy — RIP
RIP Dr. Michael Connolly (1949-2025)
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Sep 26, 2025
In particular, in 2015, they began a very fruitful collaboration with Dr. Willie Soon – then working at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In 2018, Michael, Ronan and Willie decided to start a new international research group, the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences (CERES-Science.com). Since then, CERES have published 41 peer-reviewed scientific papers, of which Michael co-authored 15, with many more in the pipeline – see here for the current list.
Defending the Orthodoxy
Every Democratic senator opposes EPA plan to axe endangerment finding
By Lee Ann Anderson, The Hill, Sep 22, 2025
The administration used studies authored and published by scientists who deny the existence of climate change to justify the decision. The scientists behind the studies have been trying to plant seeds of doubt about climate change among the scientific community for years, according to CNN.
[SEPP Comment: And CNN understands AMO Physics, Molecular Spectroscopy, Radiative Transfer, etc.?]
Carbon cycle flaw could push Earth into an ice age as planet overcorrects for warming
Press Release by University of California – Riverside, Sep 25, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Link to paper: Instability in the geological regulation of Earth’s climate
By Dominik Hülse and Andy Ridgwell, AAAS Science, Sep 25, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Wild speculation assumes Earth’s temperature is highly dependent on CO2 concentration. It is not. The paper is a follow-up on the discredited Westerhold et al. and Judd et al. studies published by AAAS Science.]
California’s Attorney General Screeches on EPA’s Climate Plan
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Sep 26, 2025
Combatting the EPA’s Ongoing Assault on Climate Science: Attorney General Bonta Slams EPA’s Proposed Rescission of Endangerment Finding
Attorney General Bonta co-led this letter alongside attorneys general of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. The coalition includes the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin; the Cities of Chicago, New York, and Oakland; the City and County of Denver; and the Counties of Martin Luther King Jr., the City and County of San Francisco, California; and the County of Santa Clara, California.
On August 29, Attorney General Bonta joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general and the City of New York in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Environmental Defense Fund v. Wright, supporting the plaintiffs in their effort to declare the Climate Working Group’s report unlawful.
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Unmasking Climate Action at UN
By Durwood Zaelke , Paul Bledsoe, Real Clear Energy, Sep 23, 2025
Already expensive and deadly climate impacts are increasingly undermining health and public safety, even as agricultural yields are under threat, water supplies are dwindling, and outdoor work is becoming untenable in many regions due to unbearable heat.
Yet most concerning is that fast-rising global temperatures, which have rocketed past 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, a key Paris Climate Agreement goal, are now risking tipping points in natural systems that would yield a hot house planet with even more destructive climate impacts.
[SEPP Comment: As with medieval sailors going too far from land, we are about to sail off the edge of the earth?]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Why the Met Office cannot compare the summers of 1976 and 2025
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 24, 2025
Ray Sanders exposes just why the Met Office’s temperatures comparisons with the past are not just meaningless but deliberately misleading:
Duh what is plant?
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Sep 24, 2025
Also, on a far more dramatic scale, the “oxygen catastrophe” somewhere over two billion years ago when the appearance of photosynthesis, initially a great triumph for plants, led to so much green stuff devouring CO2 and belching forth oxygen (that, believe it or not, is highly and disastrously reactive) and began wreaking havoc on simple organisms and their environment.
China Promises Tiny Cuts In GHG Emissions
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 26, 2025
From the Telegraph:
Under the new plan, the Chinese president said his country will reduce economy-wide emissions by 7-10 per cent by 2035 relative to the year of the country’s peak emissions, believed to be 2025.
From Homewood: Whatever Xi promises now can be overturned in the twinkle of an eye when he is replaced as leader. They are not worth the paper they are written on. This is how Chinese politics works.
[SEPP Comment: Will China’s emissions continue rising?]
The only disaster losses in Australia due to climate change, are to CSIRO’s reputation
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Sep 26, 2025
Experts are wrong: After 58 years of emissions — disaster losses in Australia stay the same
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Sep 24, 2025
Meanwhile from the “Canada pivots but doesn’t” file, the National Post’s Tristin Hopper takes a look at “all the times the Liberals said they would build an oil pipeline”. And then didn’t. As he adds, despite declaring that by his various magic powers he will make Canada an energy superpower, conventional and alternative, and repeatedly suggesting that a pipeline could well be among them, Prime Minister Mark Carney finally unveiled his first five megamassive “nation building” mighty projects and… no pipeline. But fear not. We are a rhetorical superpower.
Is National Academy of Sciences Squeezing Private Endowments to Fund Climate Alarmism?
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 20, 2025
Link to press release: National Academies Publish New Report Reviewing Evidence for Greenhouse Gas Emissions and U.S. Climate, Health, and Welfare
By Staff, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Sep 17, 2025
After Paris!
Trump tells UN General Assembly climate change ‘greatest con job’ on world
By Brett Samuels, The Hill, Sep 23, 2025
UN Climate Week reveals elites’ scorn for the world’s poor
By Bjorn Lomborg, New York Post, Sep 22, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
The global choice is a stark one: Whether to focus first on tackling the world’s most urgent problems of disease, hunger and poverty, or on the climate concerns of the world’s rich.
Advance Briefing for COP30 Belém 2025
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Sep 26, 2025
Link to: Why COP30 in Brazil could be a turning point for global climate action
By Riccardo Magini, E Co. Accessed Sep 27, 2025 [H/t Ron Clutz]
UNFCCC Chief Wants Artificial Intelligence AND the Paris Agreement
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 24, 2025
Below are remarks delivered by UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell at New York Climate Week on 22 September 2025, during a flagship event hosted by Mission 2025, focused on the rise of the new economy, and launching the new Inside COP30 podcast series, by Outrage & Optimism.
Leaders promised to cut climate pollution, then doubled down on fossil fuels
By Jeff Brady, NPR, WAMU 88.5, Sep 22, 2025
Link to The Production Gap: Executive Summary, 2025
By Staff, Stockholm Environment Institute IISD, Climate Analytics, 2025
From report: Yet 10 years on from the Paris Agreement, the situation remains stark: countries are in aggregate planning even more fossil fuel production than before, putting global climate ambitions at increasing risk.
[SEPP Comment: To understand real ambitions, don’t look at what they say, but at what they do.]
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
Claim: Climate Change is Making Amazon Rainforest Trees Fatter
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 26, 2025
Link to paper: Increasing tree size across Amazonia
By Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, et al., Nature, Plants, Sep 25, 2025
From abstract: We assessed recent changes in the structure of Earth’s largest tropical forest by analyzing 30 years of Amazonian tree records across 188 mature forest plots. We find that, at a stand level, trees have become larger over time, with mean tree basal area increasing by 3.3% per decade (95% CI 2.4; 4.1). Larger trees have increased in both number and size, yet we observed similar rates of relative size gain in large and small trees. This evidence is consistent with a resource-driven boost for larger trees but also a reduction in suppression among smaller trees. These results, especially the persistence and consistency of tree size increases across Amazonian forest plots, communities and regions, indicate that any negative impacts of climate change on forests and large trees here have so far been mitigated by the positive effects of increased resources.
The effect of additional CO2 on Narrowheart Lovegrass
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Sep 24, 2025
From the CO2Science archive
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Big Advertising Joins Banks and Asset Managers in Ditching Sustainability
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 20, 2025
Study: “… high costs and risks …” Collapsed the Net Zero Banking Alliance
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 26, 2025
Link to paper: The Rise of Investor-Driven Climate Governance: From Myth to Institution?
By Rami Kaplan, David L. Levy, Regulation & Governance, Feb 25, 2025
From abstract: However, ICG [Investor-driven climate governance] practices of disclosure and emission commitments became increasingly decoupled from actions to reduce emissions due to the weak business case for decarbonizing investors’ portfolios and corporate operations; the core economic mechanism was largely a myth.
Some Greens finally admit they should be protesting against renewables, but are afraid of being called climate deniers
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Sep 23, 2025
Turns out National Policy is set by Namecalling
Seeking a Common Ground
Some Minimum Requirements for a Proper WOTUS Rule
By Daren Bakst, Cornwall Alliance, Sep 17, 2025
Link to: Final Clarifying Definition of “Waters of the United States”
By Staff, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Spring 2025
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of the Army are undertaking a rulemaking to revise key topics of the waters of the United States” definition in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, 598 U.S. 651 (2023), including continuous surface connection,” relatively permanent,” and jurisdictional versus non-jurisdictional ditches. These revisions focus on clarity, simplicity and improvements that will stand the test of time.
[SEPP Comment: After over 50 years of confusion following the passage of the “Clean Water Act” in 1972, clear, simple rules defining Waters of the United States are much needed. It is ridiculous to have the courts decide.]
Measurement Issues — Surface
Sensational New Measurements of Uncorrupted Air Temperatures Destroy UK Met Office Constant Claims of ‘Records’
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Sep 22, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Link to: A Datum for Assessing ‘Spikes’ in PRT Data from Meteorological Office Sites
By Eric Huxter, Frayed Ends Blog, Aug 29, 2025
Changing Weather
Hurricane Bloating Discovery – No Global Warming Needed
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Sep 21, 2025
Link to paper: Tropical cyclones expand faster at warmer relative sea surface temperature
By Danyang Wang, et al., PNAS, Sep 15, 2025
From Watts: Before this work, scientists knew that some hurricanes expanded significantly during their lifetimes while others stayed compact. But the factors behind that difference were not well understood. Wang and Chavas showed that the rapid growth of storms is tied to “hot spots” in the ocean. These are localized areas where the water is significantly warmer than the surrounding tropical waters.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season gave a striking example of why storm size matters. Hurricane Helene expanded rapidly before making landfall, ballooning into one of the largest storms in U.S. history at an estimated width of over 400 miles and causing unprecedented damage.
Germany Sees Bumper 2025 Harvest As Earlier Climate Forecasts Of A “Hellish Summer” Fail
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Sep 20, 2025
“In many places, the fruit trees across the country are laden with fruit. In some cases, they are so heavily laden that individual branches are breaking under the enormous weight,” the DWD reports.
How Unusual Was This Summer?
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Sep 21, 2025
So, about those non-hurricanes…
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Sep 24, 2025
Aces low
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Sep 24, 2025
Changing Seas
#HaveItBothWays: Atlantic cod stocks
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Sep 24, 2025
If you are a Canadian of a certain vintage you will remember the 1992 cod moratorium in which a 500-year-old Newfoundland fishery was brought to a sudden halt as the cod population crashed, and the government had to take drastic steps to prevent complete extinction of the species. What was supposed to be a two-year suspension became permanent, although a small cod fishery was reopened in 2024. This being the 1990s, no one thought to blame climate change for the disappearance of the fish, instead pointing to the massive fishing fleets that had been emptying the oceans of everything that moved for decades. But never ones to pass up a chance, a group of climate scientists published a paper in 2003 based on, of course, climate models not real-world data, and it warned that ocean warming would speed up the decline of North Sea cod which were already almost all gone. Unfortunately for them, though maybe fortunately for the fish, the #HaveItBothWays rule soon kicked into gear.
Latest Science Further Exposes Lies About Rising Seas
By Vijay Jayaraj, WUWT, Sep 22, 2025
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
Arctic Sea Ice Refuses To Disappear (Again!)
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 25, 2025
For sheer persistence in getting it wrong, however, the prize must go to Professor Peter Wadhams, Professor of Ocean Physics, and Head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge:
- In 2012, he predicted that the Arctic would be ice free by 2015/16.
- In 2014, he thought it might last till 2020
- In 2016, he confidently predicted the Arctic would be ice free that summer (though curiously he now defined “ice free” as less than 1 million square kilometers!)
Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 2025: Another Year, Another Non-Event
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Sep 21, 2025
Solar cycles, ocean oscillations (such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation), and shifting wind patterns all play into the distribution and persistence of Arctic ice. Pretending this is purely about CO₂ levels is simplistic at best and misleading at worst.
As NSIDC itself admits, the flattening trend is still a subject of “active debate” among scientists. Perhaps it’s time for policymakers and journalists to debate it as well — instead of pretending the science is “settled.”
So, about that rebounding ice
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Sep 24, 2025
As we’ve mentioned, there are several ways to draw a trend line through complicated data including the one for Arctic ice. But they are not all equally valid. Even statistics involves some art as well as science. But it should not include hocus-pocus.
In this regard we continue to insist, in the face of alarmists saying it’s long-term trends that matter, that it is in fact long-term trends that matter. And we also continue to insist, in this regard, that it is the dreaded cherry-picking to lean too hard on the fact that the modern satellite record coincides with a cyclical peak in Arctic ice around 1979 that cannot rationally be ascribed to human influence, since there is no plausible argument that we were cooling the planet from the 1940s through the 1970s, though at the time it was blamed on, yes, our burning fossil fuels by people who seem to start with the verdict that our civilization is evil, rapacious and self-destructive and work backwards to an indictment that fits the short-run evidence.
Changing Earth
Earth’s natural CO2 vacuum cleaners
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Sep 20, 2025
Link to paper: Earth’s silicate weathering continuum
By Gerrit Trapp-Müller, et al., Nature Geoscience, Aug 7, 2025
From the abstract: Chemical weathering of silicate rocks redistributes major, minor and trace elements through coupled dissolution–precipitation reactions. These weathering processes drive shifts in ocean acid–base chemistry, modulating atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and providing a stabilizing feedback in the carbon cycle. Silicate weathering occurs in both terrestrial and marine environments, releasing (‘forward’) or consuming alkalinity (‘reverse’), but these have largely been perceived as independent and studied in isolation.
Earthquake jolts San Francisco Bay Area
By Ryan Mense and Alex Baker, The Hill, Sep 22, 2025
Initially, the USGS deemed the quake a 4.6 before revising it down to 4.3.
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
World Cereal Output Set For all-Time High
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 25, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Apparently the UN IPCC ignores the reports of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.]
Lowering Standards
National Academies go preposterous on CO2
By David Wojick, CFACT, Sep 23, 2025
You would think the National Academy of Sciences understands science, but you would be wrong. Their president just approved a report whose conclusion is scientifically impossible!
The report is jointly from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). Titled “Effects of Human-Caused Greenhouse Gas Emissions on U.S. Climate, Health, and Welfare,” this squirrelly tome is a formal comment on EPA’s proposed repeal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding.
Clearly NASEM is no longer fit for purpose. Ideally, Congress should revoke its charter. At the least the President should issue an executive order instructing the federal agencies not to use NASEM. It has long been standard practice for agencies launching new programs to run them by NASEM for approval. This practice should stop.
STEVE MILLOY: Rigged Report By National Academies Aims To Thwart Trump Energy Agenda
By Steve Milloy, Daily Caller, Sep 21, 2025
There is not enough room in this column for a comprehensive critique of the NAS report, but here is just one other egregious example. Citing an EPA graph, the report asserts that heat waves have increased since the 1960s. But the report studiously avoids another more complete EPA graph showing that heatwaves have dramatically decreased since the 1930s.
The Rocky Mountain Institute’s Climate & DEI Colonialism in Africa
By Ken Braun, Real Clear Energy, Sep 23, 2025
According to Our World in Data, there are 677.4 million people living without “an electricity source that can provide very basic lighting and charge a phone or power a radio for 4 hours per day.” Most of them are in sub-Saharan Africa, and 156 million of these desperate souls—23% of the world total—reside in those three nations set to receive RMI’s “women energy practitioners.”
But rather than bringing genuine and desperately needed energy to Africa, the Rocky Mountain Institute and its deeply deluded donors are offering unreliable renewables delivered by a women-only DEI initiative.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Beware How the Climate Crusade ‘Partners’ With the Media and ‘Educates’ the Courts
By Gary Abernathy, Real Clear Energy, Sep 24, 2025
The Climate Crisis Anti Baby Movement
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 21, 2025
The Aussie ABC thinks Zoomers are staging a baby strike until their elders fix the climate crisis.
Claim: Aussie Climate Refugees are Moving to Tasmania
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 24, 2025
So, despite the ABC’s attempt to make it look like climate change is driving a demographic shift to colder states, this is no more happening in Australia than it is in the USA. Warm lifestyle states like Queensland and Florida both enjoy strong population growth and will continue to be a favorite destination for the foreseeable future.
False, New York Times, Climate Change Isn’t Causing More European Heat Deaths
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, Sep 19, 2025
You Can’t Get the Extinguisher without Breaking Glass
By Geoff Chambers, Climate Scepticism, Sep 24, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Recent Dust Storm Panic Is Just More Hot Air From Climate Alarmists
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Sep 21, 2025
Communicating Better to the Public – Go Personal.
Al Gore: Trump’s ‘Jihad Against Sustainability Transition’ Creates U.S. ‘Distortion Field’
By Jasmyn Jordan, Breitbart, Sep 18, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Corals Won’t Disappear, Contrary to What the New York Times Claims
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, Sep 23, 2025
The Media’s Psyop Against Skeptical Climate Scientists
By Vijay Jayara, WUWT, Sep 22, 2025
Predicting catastrophe is a media business model. NPR warned of “irreversible” sea-level rise in 2023, ignoring tide gauge records that show no acceleration beyond historical norms. News outlets regularly report on “unprecedented” floods, yet data indicate no uptick in floods due to climate change.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda on Children
Waves of conformism
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Sep 24, 2025
Speaking of long-term trends and data, the cool kids or at this point the hot kids are all independently stampeding to attribution science, a form of hocus-pocus that bypasses evidence to get the verdict in question. For instance “Recent Canadian heat waves made much more likely by human-caused climate change” from Environment and Climate Change Canada. Which you might think means they have data proving they are happening more often. Pfft. This is attribution science, where all you only need models, not data.
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
A picturesque Yorkshire village is battling an ugly net-zero facility
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 21, 2025
Questioning European Green
The greenlash is here: Britain cannot afford Net Zero and democracy at the same time
By Maurice Cousins, Net Zero Watch, Sep 26, 2025
Link to report: Britons’ attitudes to high energy bills: the permacrisis that keeps burning
By Chris Annous & Archie Herrick, More in Common, September 2025, Funded by Octopus Energy, UK energy supplier.
The survey and focus groups referenced in this report and the writing of this report has been funded by Octopus Energy.
More in Common has maintained, as is the case for all of our partnership work, full editorial independence when conducting this research and writing this report. The views expressed within this report are therefore the views of More in Common.
From Cousins: Contrary to what critics claim, opposition to renewables is not an anti-climate science or ideological position. Green energy is capital-intensive, infrastructure-heavy, and drives extraordinary system inefficiency. Even if turbines and panels fall in price, the total bill to consumers will remain higher than the legacy model of baseload generation.
Britain’s industrial disaster
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 20, 2025
Questioning Green Elsewhere
Admitting the obvious
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Sep 24, 2025
We also like advocates of wind and solar thinking and talking about the physics and engineering of grid stability. If they really can make it work, if they can overcome problems of scale and distribution and battery technology leaps forward and so on, we could be persuaded that wind and solar have a bright future. But we really do need to see the practicalities acknowledged and analyzed. Including the very basic point that, when you get down to such things, it’s complicated, especially given the ways in which subsidies distort the picture. And that one thing that’s certainly complicated, for them anyway, is that the “green energy transition” at least coincided with, if it did not cause, a vast surge in the cost of power.
Funding Issues
Energy Department plans to claw back $13B in green funds
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Sep 24, 2025
Why Are Green Activists Suddenly Outraged at the Billions Wasted Paying Wind Farms to Switch Off When it’s Too Windy?
By Ben Pile, The Daily Sceptic, Sep 23, 2025
The Political Games Continue
Jenrick backs overhaul of UK CfDs
Press Release, Net Zero Watch, Sep 25, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Jenrick is a Shadow Justice Secretary and former Cabinet minister.]
Litigation Issues
Climate Lawsuits in Montana
By Edwin X Berry, Ph.D. Theoretical Physics, His Blog, Sep 20, 2025 [H/t Ron Clutz]
The fundamental science issue in all climate lawsuits is whether these unstated hypotheses are true or false:
(1) Human CO2 causes all the CO2 increase above 280 ppm.
(2) This CO2 increase causes global warming.
(3) This global warming causes the plaintiffs claimed damages.
Judicial Limits on Glyphosate and Climate ‘Jackpot Justice’ Litigation
Narrowly defined decision provides guidance on ‘evidence’ for alleged cause of harm
By Paul Driessen, WUWT, Sep 23, 2025
Although the US Supreme Court frequently overrules it, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (covering California, eight other western states and two US territories) deserves applause for its recent Engilis v. Monsanto decision.
The Fallacy of ‘Exxon Knew” (Part II)
By Robert Bradley Jr. Master Resource, Sep 24, 2025
Part I, Sep 23, 2025
Bradley: This memo from certain employees never made it to a company position for cause. Global cooling was the bigger concern back then, and the above memo did not investigate the SO2 offset, much less the benefits from CO2 fertilization and incremental warming. Peak Oil and Peak Gas was the intellectual/practical concern of this era.
[SEPP Comment: The memo is dated October 16, 1979. The administration of President Carter (1977 to 1981) and Congress passed laws advocating the use of coal to replace oil and natural gas, which, based on faulty models, Washington feared would soon be exhausted.]
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
Congressional testimony reveals the hidden causes behind America’s looming $38 billion energy rate hikes: ‘If things keep going like this, [bills] are gonna be higher next year’
“The U.S. is falling far behind global competitors.”
By Kristen Lawrence, The Cool Down, Sep 16, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
On top of all these reasons for soaring energy rates, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is making electricity more expensive by phasing out tax credits for clean energy, such as solar and wind power, resulting in slower construction of renewable projects and restricting the supply of affordable power.
[SEPP Comment: If wind and solar are low cost, why are subsidies needed?]
Offshore windfarm receives £2bn subsidies in just six years
Press release, Net Zero Watch, Sep 26, 2025
As a result, Hornsea 1 is currently receiving a guaranteed £200 per megawatt hour for its power, nearly three times current market prices.
Energy Issues – Non-US
New LCCC Dashboards
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 23, 2025
They cover CfDs [Contracts for Difference] and Capacity Market stuff amongst other things.
I’ll have a play around, but it seems they avoid an awful lot of legwork and analysis which I have been doing on spreadsheets.
I’ve shown below a typical CfD graph, which shows subsidy costs by quarter, and the quarterly market price. I would recommend using it to convince doubters, as it is the official source.
London Array Subsidies Hit £300 Million Last Year
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 25, 2025
At current prices, London Array has been paid £3.6 billion in subsidies since it opened in 2013.
And all for just 2 TWh a year, less than 1% of the electricity supplied in the UK.
Energy Issues – Australia
CCA: Artificial Intelligence is a Challenge to Climate Goals
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 23, 2025
Link to: 2035 Targets Advice
By the Climate Change Authority, Commonwealth of Australia, 2025
Senate inquiry into climate and energy seeks truth, allegedly
An attempt by the Greens to silence climate change dissent
By Alan Moran, Spectator.com AU, Sep 12, 2025
It is my belief that the target is to identify presumptive funding for and to prevent the dissemination of information that is contrary to the belief of dangerous human-induced climate change. It is directed at those who dispute claims that the ‘science is settled’ and that harmful global outcomes will ensue unless urgent action is taken. The aim is to combat and suppress contrary views.
Energy Issues — US
New England Facing Energy Crisis, Worries About Bugs
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Sep 22, 2025
Link to: Climate Change Is Not Causing New England’s ‘Creepy’ Bacteria and Bugs, Boston Globe
By Linnea Lueken, Climate Realism, Sep 22, 2025
Link to report: The Looming American Electricity Affordability Crisis: How decades of energy decisions are hitting American families, and what must change now.
By Staff, Power The Future, August 2025
Don’t Blame Data Centers for Rising Electric Bills
By Andrew Fanara, Real Clear Energy, Sep 23, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Instead blame big tech companies for signing deals for unreliable electricity, promoting a costly expansion of unreliability?]
Governor Healey’s Energy Crisis: Outrage Theater for the Freeze-and-Pay Crowd
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Sep 233, 2025
Yes, the governor who strangled natural gas pipelines in their crib is now shocked — shocked! — to find there isn’t enough gas to keep the state warm without paying European-import prices. This is like smashing your car with a baseball bat, then screaming at the mechanic when it won’t start.
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
North Sea ‘has three times more oil and gas’ than Government claims
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 20, 2025
The Fracking Truth
Video featuring Linnea Lueken, Prager University, Transcript and images by Ron Clutz, Via Science Matters, Sep 22, 2025
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Nuclear in your backyard? Tiny reactors could one day power towns and campuses – but community input will be key
By Aditi Verma, The Conversation, Sep 19, 2025 [H/t Jim Buell]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
$2.2 billion solar plant in California scheduled to be turned off after years of wasted money: ‘Never lived up to its promises’
By Michael Kaplan, New York Post, Sep 23, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Energy experts break down what really happens when destructive storms hit rooftop solar panels: ‘The proof is in the pudding’
In fact, companies test the panels vigorously.
By Catherine Wilkins, The Cool Down, Sep 18, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Transportation Dept. takes more wind out of offshore wind
By Craig Rucker, CFACT, Sep 25, 2025
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
India’s Ethanol Gambit: A Muddled Climate Policy
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Sep 29, 2025
Jilted Aussie Green Hydrogen Investor Accuses President Trump of Lying
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 26, 2025
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
The Billion Pound Battery
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 24, 2025
BTW – Fidra’s claim that it “will have the potential to export over 2 million MWh annually, enough to supply about 785,000 homes each year”, is grossly dishonest. Batteries cannot supply any power, as power is generated somewhere else first. That electricity still has to be paid for in addition to the costs of the battery storage.
The “BESS” DELUSION: Why battery storage is a FANTASY
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 22, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Video about Eastern Australia going wind and solar – 12 million MWh of battery storage needed? At what cost?]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Porsche delays new electric car after demand slump
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 20, 2025
Carbon Schemes
Pouring Money Down The CO2 Drain
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Sep 25, 2025
The Government has just announced two more carbon capture projects:
It goes without saying that spending taxpayer money on non-jobs, that create no added value for the economy, will act as a brake on economic growth in the long run.
I cannot think of anything more stupid than to dig a big hole and bury money in it!
California Dreaming
California’s Latest Climate Theater: Newsom Signs Another Expensive Illusion
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Sep 21, 2025
The core of the package is an extension of the cap-and-trade program—rebranded “cap-and-invest”—all the way to 2045. That rebranding glosses over that the structure is largely the same: companies must either reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, buy emission allowances, or invest in offsets. The revenues from auctioning allowances are then redistributed (some), invested (many), or spent (often). In recent years, those auctions have raised between $3 billion and $4.3 billion annually. These revenues fund programs ranging from wildfire prevention to transportation, housing, and utility credits.
California Dems Scramble To Boost Oil Production After Running Refiners Out Of Town
By Audrey Streb, Daily Caller, Sep 19, 2025
“After years of pushing radical climate policies that punished working families, Governor Newsom is finally waking up to what Californians need, he’s now scrambling to secure the very fossil fuels he tried to eliminate,” CEO of the American Energy Institute Jason Isaac told the Daily Caller News Foundation previously. “This sudden embrace of petroleum isn’t leadership, it’s survival. California’s energy future depends on realism, not green delusions.”
The Cost and the Upside of the “Big Gulp”
By Edward Ring, What’s Current, Accessed Sep 25, 2025
Link to study: A New Approach to Accounting for Environmental Water: Insights from the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta
By Greg Gartrell, Public Policy Institute of California, November 2017
Other Scientific News
NASA, NOAA Launch Three Spacecraft to Map Sun’s Influence Across Space
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Sep 25, 2025
Over the next few months, the spacecraft will make their way to their destination — a location between Earth and the Sun, about a million miles from Earth, called Lagrange point 1 (L1). They should arrive by January and, once their instrument checkouts and calibrations are complete, begin their missions to better understand space weather and protect humanity.
Forest Composition and Fire History In Light of New Evidence
By Don Healy, WUWT, Sep 25, 2025
Link to paper: The North American tree-ring fire-scar network
By Ellis Q. Margolis, et al., Ecosphere, 2022
From the abstract: The historical influence of Indigenous and non-Indigenous human land use on fire regimes varies in space and time. A 20th century fire deficit associated with human activities is evident in many regions, yet fire regimes characterized by frequent surface fires are still active in some areas (e.g., Mexico and the southeastern United States).
From Healy: Implications for Fire Management
– The paper likely argues for integrating Indigenous fire stewardship into contemporary land management—not just as a cultural restoration, but as an ecological necessity.
– It challenges dominant narratives that treat fire as inherently destructive, instead reframing it as a regenerative force when guided by traditional ecological knowledge.
Other News that May Be of Interest
Could a fully AI driven weather prediction system start a revolution in forecasting?
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Sep 20, 2025
Link to paper: End-to-end data-driven weather prediction
By Anna Allen, et al., Nature, Mar 20, 2025
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Burning Battery Ejectors: The Latest Chinese EV Safety Innovation
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 23, 2025
“At an event earlier this month, new technology was demonstrated on Chery’s iCar 03 that can see a vehicle’s high-voltage battery ejected 3-6 metres away within a second of thermal runaway being detected.’
Finally, a burning battery ejector to save EVs (but kill pedestrians)
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Sep 25, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Neat videos.]
Forced Meat Allergies: An Unethical ‘Thought Experiment’ from the Bowels of Bioethics
By Cameron English, ACSH, Sep 23, 2025
Link to paper: Beneficial Bloodsucking
By Parker Crutchfield, Blake Hereth, Bioethics, July 22, 2025
From abstract: The bite of the lone star tick spreads alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a condition whose only effect is the creation of a severe but nonfatal red meat allergy. Public health departments warn against lone star ticks and AGS, and scientists are working to develop an inoculation to AGS. Herein, we argue that if eating meat is morally impermissible, then efforts to prevent the spread of tickborne AGS are also morally impermissible.
Quit Promoting Mad Schemes, New York Times, Blocking the Sun is a Dangerous Climate Gamble
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, Sep 25, 2025
In The New York Times’ (NYT) op-ed, “Turns Out Air Pollution Was Good for Something,” Zeke Hausfather and David Keith argue that because sulfur particles from past industrial pollution once cooled the planet by reflecting sunlight, policymakers should now consider a deliberate version of that process. They suggest aircraft could inject sulfur into the upper atmosphere to mimic the cooling once provided by dirty smokestacks, pointing to volcanic eruptions such as Mount Pinatubo in 1991 as evidence the method would work.
Are Climate Change Cafes Helping People Process Their Anxieties?
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Sep 22, 2205
ARTICLES
1. The Ocean Is Now Too Acidic to Be Considered Healthy, Planetary Scientist Says
Johan Rockström says tropical coral reefs and Arctic marine life are at risk—the fallout could threaten businesses and devastate the economy
By Clara Hudson, WSJ, Updated Sept. 24, 2025
TWTW Summary: The key point discussed above in Acid Oceans?
The Monday Funny – on video
EVERYONE IGNORES ED MILIBAND AT LABOUR CONFERENCE EVENT
http://order-order.com/2025/09/29/watch-everyone-ignores-ed-miliband-at-labour-conference-event/
lol lol Labour
After laughing at it I listened as best I could to what the Mad monk was saying: Put it this way, we are fnucked.
Reading a new biography of Mark Twain. When he was 60 (I think in 1995) he started a world tour where he’d give talks on stage. It started with a train ride across the northern states of America with some stops in Canada. Along the entire trip- everyone was complaining about the smoke from Canadian forest fires- and the “extreme” heat.
But… but… I thought bad weather and huge forest fires only started after WWII! /s
nit pick: NaOH (sodium hydroxide) is commonly known as Lye, not KOH as stated above.
Its been a year since I stopped paying for the stupidity published in WSJ.