The Week That Was: 2026-08-01 (August 1, 2026)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.” — George Orwell
Number of the Week: Up 240% v. up 32%
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: This TWTW begins with the views of Richard Lindzen on the folly of using global average temperature as the exclusive measure of climate change. TWTW continues with the views of Angela Wheeler about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kegan’s endorsing the US Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. TWTW discusses an interview of Henrik Svensmark by Willie Soon and Ronan Connolly covering the Svensmark hypothesis. TWTW discusses a new dashboard by Roger Pielke Jr., then Willis Eschenbach’s criticism of global climate models. TWTW discusses a possible explanation for the end of the Bronze Age and closes with a decline in worldwide hunger.
*********************
Folly of Global Temperature: John Robson summarizes some of key points in Richard Lindzen’s chapter in Canary in a Climate World: Climate Realism vs. the Net Zero Myth. The chapter is titled “The Absurdity of the Conventional Global Warming Narrative.” Simply put, the use of a single global temperature to describe climate is ridiculous. To talk about changes in global temperature at one or two degrees or fractions of a degree is even more ridiculous, considering Earth’s historic climate change. In the book, but not in Robson’s summary, there is a map showing the Köppen climate classification for 1901-2010:
Here we see how tremendously varied Earth’s climate is and reducing it to a single standard of measurement is absurd. Further, Lindzen writes that:
“Heat is transported poleward by atmospheric circulation. When the temperature difference grows too large, the system generates storms that restore balance. The meridional gradient [rate of change with latitude] is central to climate behavior.” [Boldface added]
Robson writes in part:
“He [Lindzen] says ‘The conventional global warming narrative reduces an extraordinarily complex, dynamically regulated system to a small statistical anomaly attributed primarily to a trace gas that alters the radiative budget by only a few percent…. the prevailing narrative is not merely incomplete. It is profoundly misleading.’ In his chapter he offers a few pointers to why the narrative reflects, in his words, ‘a failure to respect the complexity of the system itself.’ Complexity? Is that thing still around?
Oh yes indeed. But it lurks behind one thing that is straightforward and that climate alarmists cite and then lazily rest their case. Thus, Lindzen starts by explaining the basic ‘greenhouse’ mechanism, with which he has no dispute.
Solar radiation enters the atmosphere and warms the surface. The energy needs to be radiated back to space, but the atmosphere absorbs the outgoing radiation in its lower layers, up to the ‘effective emission altitude’, [(EEA)] the height at which the greenhouse effect is left behind and all outgoing radiation that makes it to that point then escapes freely to space. And yes, adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere makes the absorbing layers thicker, so the effective emission altitude rises.
Moreover, since the EEA is in the thermosphere, where temperature decreases with height, this outgoing radiation is now emerging from a cooler layer of air.”
Here it appears that Robson makes an error. The Effective Emission Altitude (EEA, where infrared radiation readily escapes to space) is in the stratosphere, about 15 to 50 km (9 to 31 miles). The stratosphere is below the thermosphere which is about 85 to 600 km (53 to 375 miles) above the surface. The thermosphere is heated by high-energy solar radiation. Also, TWTW adds that the atmosphere thins with latitude (is colder, hence denser), thus the EEA is lower in altitude at the poles than at the equator.
“It is via this mechanism that doubling CO2 appears to lead to about one degree C of average warming. And on its own, a degree of warming is hardly noticeable; without modern thermometers we wouldn’t be aware of it at all. But Lindzen shows how with a few graphing tricks it can be made to look catastrophic. For instance, if instead of having the Y axis cover say 80˚C, which would be reasonable given that it’s roughly the span between the warmest and coldest points on the Earth’s surface at any one time, you have it only cover two degrees, it looks as if temperatures are soaring.”
After the discussion of game-playing with graphs, amplification using highly exaggerated water vapor for which there is no physical evidence, and Lindzen’s “Iris effect”; Robson’s essay concludes with:
“Lindzen also points out that natural processes have produced much larger climate changes over history than anything humans are doing with greenhouse gases. For instance, he notes that the big driver of the Earth’s weather system is not the average global temperature but the temperature difference between the equator and the poles. In all the past major geological epochs, the phenomenon of ‘global warming’ or ‘global cooling’ wasn’t global in the sense that you might expect. Instead, the temperature of the tropics stayed about the same, whereas the polar regions warmed or cooled relative to the present by as much as 20 degrees. So, what really changed with ‘climate change’ wasn’t some misleading global average but the temperature difference across latitudes:
‘large climate transitions are driven primarily by changes in temperature gradients rather than by uniform shifts in global temperatures.’
As we have noted before, unless you assume some kind of malevolent magic has been operating of late, it is not rational to believe that climate processes that operated for hundreds of millions of years suddenly stopped around the time disco died.
In the end Lindzen disputes that CO2 is the control knob of a simple one-dimensional system. The deep history of the planet, and the ongoing failure of models to capture important changes happening right now, vindicate his call for humility in the face of real complexity. And, we might add, a little more knowledge on the part of people who claim it’s all so simple.”
See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy and https://archive.org/download/1555961572229-0/1555961572229-0.png for the graph of the Köppen climate classification.
*********************
Bogus Science: In “[Supreme Court Justice] Elena Kagan Gave Bogus Science a Blind Endorsement” Angela Wheeler, executive director of the CO2 Coalition, wrote in part:
“Kagan confirmed she had written the foreword for the Federal Judicial Center’s Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence [4th Edition] without reading a chapter on climate change that was eventually removed because of objectionable biases – and has yet to read it.
Her foreword vouches for the manual as an objective resource for judges handling cases involving complex science, ranging from epidemiology to emerging technologies. Yet her high-profile endorsement of material that later required major corrections jeopardizes the judiciary’s credibility.
The fourth edition of the influential reference manual, used by thousands of federal judges, faced immediate pushback. The climate chapter was withdrawn in February following objections from state attorneys general citing imbalances and potential conflicts.
Sadly, remaining in the manual is a chapter that drifts into pseudoscience in describing the nature of science. Regrettably, also still intact is Kagan’s foreword attesting to the volume as a reliable aid grounded in impartiality.
The retained material with its skewed explanation of the scientific method is a noticeable pivot from earlier editions of the manual. They featured physicist David Goodstein’s concise discussion of empirical testing, falsifiable predictions, the primacy of reliable data, and other tenets of scientific inquiry.
In contrast to the Goodstein presentation, the new science chapter disregards traditional scientific rigor as it embraces social considerations and stresses achieving a consensus within expert groups. While scientific collaboration matters, elevating ‘widespread agreement’ as a top indicator of reliability risks sidelining disciplined scrutiny that defines reliable evidence under the Supreme Court’s Daubert standard.
Daubert requires judges to assess whether expert testimony rests on testable methods, peer review, error rates, and general acceptance – always tethered to observable reality. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman captured the spirit plainly: ‘It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.’”
See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
*********************
An Important Component: Astrophysicist Willie Soon and Ronan Connolly of the private Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences (CERES) project interviewed Henrik Svensmark. In late July Svensmark was dismissed from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The post of the interview states:
“Joined by Dr. Willie Soon and Dr. Ronan Connolly (CERES), Svensmark discusses:
• The physical mechanism linking cosmic rays → ionization → aerosols → cloud condensation nuclei
• Laboratory experiments and natural experiments (Forbush decreases)
• Why IPCC climate models struggle with clouds (grid size & parameterization)
• The CERN CLOUD experiment and the challenges of independent research
• Longer-term galactic drivers as the Solar System passes through the Milky Way’s spiral arms
• Svensmark’s personal reflections on the challenges of independent research, including his recent firing from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
This is a rare, candid and in-depth conversation with one of the leading researchers in solar-climate science.”
From the first half of the video TWTW noted the following: [This is not a transcript]
IPCC considers only the TSI, Total Solar Irradiance.
The biggest change in the solar cycle is cosmic rays.
In 1996, the initial comment by head of IPCC Bert Bolin was that it was naive and irresponsible to assert that the sun might be important in climate change.
According to the IPCC, a changing sun is not even a relevant factor.
According to Svensmark, cosmic rays modulate (alter) cloudiness, thus how much solar radiation reaches Earth’s surface. The process is:
- High energy particles penetrate Earth’s upper atmosphere (Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR)).
- GCRs cause atmospheric ionization.
- Atmospheric Ions promote formation and growth of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) – tiny particles that water vapor can condense into to form cloud droplets.
- More CCN implies more numerous & brighter low clouds (increased albedo, a cooling effect.)
More Galactic Cosmic Rays (during low solar activity) hitting Earth atmosphere results in planetary cooling.
Fewer Galactic Cosmic Rays (during high solar activity) hitting Earth atmosphere results in planetary warming.
By 2006 the concept was tested in laboratory experiments.
Svensmark agreed that solar modulation (alteration) of Galactic Cosmic Rays hitting Earth’s atmosphere is one of many contributing factors to cloud formation.
He further stated that Forbush decreases in observed cosmic ray intensity following a coronal mass ejection may be up to a 30% decrease in ionization of the atmosphere. This is a natural experiment of the Svensmark hypothesis.
Satellites show a nice response to these events in clouds and aerosols. It looks like this process is working in the atmosphere in spite of other processes that may also be working. It is mainly in low liquid clouds and in remote areas over the oceans, which is exactly what you would expect.
Forbush decreases last about a week. They give a good indication of a decline in cloud formation. The solar cycles of about eleven years are not stable, so the stability of a Forbush decrease is exceptional and not persistent.
The IPCC models cannot resolve clouds or aerosols. The models use parametrization which may be a cloud covering an area 100 km by 100km (60 mi by 60 mi). However, to understand clouds you need to know the physics in detail, which we do not.
Further comments on this interview and the findings of the CERN experiment will be discussed next week. See link under Science: Is the Sun Rising?
*********************
New Dashboard: Roger Pielke Jr. has created a new Dashboard to track significant weather events. The Home button states:
“The THB US Extreme Weather and Climate Change Dashboard follows the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) framework for detecting a change in climate in the context of internal variability. This dashboard tracks 32 variables associated with 7 types of extremes: heat waves, tornadoes, flooding, drought, winter storms, wildfire, and hurricanes. The site presents data for the full range of data judged to be of sufficient quality for trend analysis, and on each page for each phenomenon, users can choose the time frame over which to observe the data. This is ongoing work in progress – Suggestions welcome!”
As of July 29, 2026, the dashboard contained the following: Heat Waves, Tornadoes; Flooding; Drought; Winter Storms; Wildfire; Wildfire Area Burnt; and Hurricanes. The dashboard also gave detection of long-term changes in these events. The dashboard states:
“Detecting a change in climate is not the same as spotting a trend in a time series — it’s demonstrating that a trend is unlikely to have arisen from natural internal variability by chance alone. Here that means two things: First, detecting a trend at IPCC’s stated example threshold of below 10% (via the nonparametric Mann-Kendall test). Second, because a long, low-noise record can show a statistically significant trend as a result of internal variability, this dashboard adds another check before identifying a detected change: the trend’s magnitude must also be a meaningful share (this site’s threshold: at least 25%) of the variable’s historical variability. A trend can be identified in a time series and still not count as a detected change here for that reason: flooding’s trend, for example, is statistically real (p=0.011) but is only about 4% of its typical week-to-week range, and not at all unexpected. This combined standard — IPCC’s likelihood criterion plus this site’s magnitude check on trends — is what “detected change” means.
Each tile above [non shown here] shows a variable’s reliable-trend-window data at a glance and its detected-change verdict — click through to that variable’s phenomenon page for the full interactive chart, an adjustable time window, PNG/CSV downloads, and alternative metrics. Full definitions and caveats are documented on the Methodology page. A side-by-side comparison of how IPCC AR6 has characterized each hazard, and how it compares to this site’s findings, can be found on the Detection & Attribution page.”
This effort may become a valuable tool for double-checking claims about “unusual” weather events particularly those who claim unusual events are caused by increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. For further information see link under Seeking a Common Ground.
*********************
Issues With Climate Models: In WUWT, Willis Eschenbach brings up a major problem with global climate models. Eschenbach writes:
“When I put on my hip boots and started wading through this digital disaster, I was planning to compare the model results to reality. But upon consideration, I realized that it would only get me embroiled in arguments about how models can’t be compared to reality because models are showing purely surface air temperatures, but historical reconstructions like Berkeley Earth or HadCRUT use ocean surface temperatures as a proxy for air temperatures, and the like.
I also realized that wasn’t really the issue. The real issue is the following:
If all of these wonderful models are ‘based on established physical laws, such as conservation of mass, energy and momentum, along with a wealth of observations’, then why do their results differ so greatly?
And of course, the corollary to that:
Why does anybody pay the slightest attention to this inaccurate, ludicrously unfit-for-purpose climate model farrago?”
In an earlier TWTW, Cork Hayden displayed the inconsistencies of the IPCC models with actual physics, where their own conflicting claims demanded that 3.7 = 16 “…for large values of 3.7.” See link under Model Issues.
*********************
Bronze Age: Changes in climate of even a few hundred years have resulted in the collapse of past civilizations. Anthony Watts discusses one such change that may have resulted in the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean. The press release of “Holocene ocean-atmosphere coupling and Mediterranean sensitivity to Atlantic circulation: Lessons from the Late Bronze Age collapse” states:
“The most severe droughts in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean arose when multiple natural climate cycles coincided, according to a new study from Stockholm University published in Science Advances. The findings shed new light on the climate conditions surrounding the Late Bronze Age collapse and may help improve understanding of future drought risks in a warming world. [Boldface added]
‘Rather than being caused by a single climatic event, we found that the most extreme droughts emerged when natural climate cycles operating over different timescales coincided. This helps explain why the droughts associated with the Late Bronze Age collapse were so severe’, says Katherine Power, PhD student, Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, and first author of the study.
‘Our results show that the region underwent a gradual drying trend over thousands of years, driven by slow changes in Earth’s orbit. Superimposed on this long-term trend we also found shorter-term fluctuations in the Atlantic Ocean and atmosphere’, says Katherine Power.”
The conclusion of the abstract states, in part:
“These results provide model-based evidence of how evolving amplitude and phase structure of Atlantic internal variability reshaped Eastern Mediterranean hydroclimate through the mid-to-late Holocene. We demonstrate that oceanic variability can manifest as abrupt regional crises when ecological and societal thresholds are crossed.” [Boldface added]
The Late Bronze Age was between 1550 to 1200 BCE. The collapse occurred from about 1200 to 1150 BCE resulting in the Greek Dark Ages extending to 800 BCE. Invasion by different tribes may have contributed to these declines. See links under Changing Climate – Cultures & Civilizations.
*********************
Decline in Hunger: In “Global Hunger Falls From 35% in 1970 to 7.8%” Ronald Bailey in Reason.com identifies that “Armed conflict and violence remain the primary drivers of acute food insecurity.” He links to “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026” by a host of UN organizations: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); UNICEF; World Food Programme (WFP); and World Health Organization (WHO).
The abstract of the report states, in part:
“This report reveals that the high prices of nutrient-dense items – specifically animal source foods, fruits and vegetables – account for nearly 70 percent of the cost of a healthy diet.”
Though not discussed, the shift in emphasis is important. No longer is the major issue the lack of food – starvation. The major issue is now a “healthy” diet of meat, fruits, and vegetables, a luxury, which was not available in the past except to the very wealthy. In the US fresh fruits and vegetables were not generally available year-round for most Americans until the 1950s, if not later. An important component in contributing to a healthy diet worldwide is the use of fossil fuels and artificial fertilizers. Apparently, these UN organizations are not frightened by the forecasts of the UN IPCC that adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is causing dangerous global warming, resulting in starvation. See links under Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine.
*********************
Number of the Week: Up 240% v. up 32%. In 1970 the estimated world population was 3.7 billion, and an estimated 35% were facing starvation while 65%, or 2.1 billion people, had adequate food.
In 2025, the estimate world population was 8.2 billion, and an estimated 7.8% were facing starvation while 92.2%, or 7.5 billion people, had adequate food.
Thus, from 1970 to 2025 the number of people with adequate food grew by 5.1 billion or 240%
In 1970 the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was about 325 ppmv (parts per million volume)
In 2025 the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was about 430 ppmv.
Thus, from 1970 to 2025 the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide grew by 105 ppmv or 32%.
And humanity is to fear increasing non-toxic carbon dioxide that is essential for photosynthesis the process for making food for all complex life? See links under Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine, https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/, and https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/mlo.html
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Science: Is the Sun Rising?
Dr. Henrik Svensmark: Cosmic Rays, Clouds & Climate
Interview w/ Drs. Willie Soon & Ronan Connolly, EIKE Conference, July 24, 2026
Link to one paper by the interviewers: Multiple New or Updated Satellite Tolar Irradiance (TSI) Composites (1978-2023)
By Ronan Connolly, Willie Soon, et al., The Astrophysical Journal, Nov 1, 2024
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
#Canary In A Climate World: Lindzen on the absurd
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2026
Elena Kagan Gave Bogus Science a Blind Endorsement
By Angela Wheeler, CO2 Coalition, July 27, 2026
If All You Have Is a ‘Wet Bulb,’ Everything Looks Like Greenhouse Warming
By David Legates, Cornwall Alliance, July 23, 2026
The [CNN] article asserts that “the heat wave was triggered by the strong heat dome parked over the Northeast—a stagnant area of high pressure that traps and enhances hot, humid air.”
It does not ‘trap and enhance hot, humid air,’ as this system originated over the tropical ocean and thus was created with air that was already hot and humid. Had it originated over the northern Canada ice fields, it would have been cold and dry. This is the difference between maritime tropical air masses and continental polar air masses, both of which are high-pressure systems.
To figure out where the proof for the ‘virtually impossible’ claim originates, you must do a bit of sleuthing. CNN simply concludes with “the finding was published early Friday from World Weather Attribution, a scientific network which analyzes the role of climate change in driving extreme weather events.”
Climate Sceptics Are Not the Problem
It’s academia that’s anti-science
By John Ridgway, Climate Scepticism, July 28, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
It is often said that those who question the imperative for hurriedly attaining Net Zero do so because they are anti-science. The logic offered is very simple: scientists claim it is essential, and nothing says anti-science quite like disagreeing with a scientist.
But what exactly is involved in decolonizing something as objectively verifiable as physics? Well, perhaps the good folk of Concordia University can help me explain. In their project ‘Decolonizing Light — Tracing and Countering Colonialism in Contemporary Physics’, they say:
For our purpose, it is important to understand physics as a social field rather than as “pure knowledge” independent from social values and decisions. Physics is more than the laws that describe and predict natural phenomena: it is the overarching field of work with its societal dimension, its history, and the circumstances and purposes of physical knowledge production.
Yes, just put your postmodernist hat on and all will become clear: lenses only work in telescopes because a dominant western culture is obsessed with a colonial concept called optics. But none of this is necessary when you have other ways of knowing and other ways of seeing.
COP proceedings are dominated by negotiations aimed at reparations designed to address perceived historical social injustices.
And, as I have already mentioned, the IPCC is actively looking at ‘other ways of knowing’ to augment the western scientific approach. So, I would have to say that all of the evidence points towards climate science being no stranger to ideologically-driven anti-scientific leanings. Indeed, from my climate sceptical position it would appear to be very much at the forefront.
Euroheat Part II: Let the sun shine in
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2026
Link to paper: An overview of surface solar radiation data products at the German meteorological service
By U. Pfeifroth, J. Trentmann, S. Brinckmann, and R. Hollmann, Journal of the European Meteorological Society, June 2026
Defending the Orthodoxy
EU Methane Rules Can Benefit U.S. Industry and Cut Emissions
By Paul Bledsoe, Real Clear Energy, July 29, 2026
In fact, as limiting methane increasingly becomes the sine qua non of near-term global temperature reductions and limiting extreme weather disasters, other gas importing nations like Japan and South Korea will likely follow the EU’s lead.
[SEPP Comment: The myth that methane is causing dangerous global warming is based on misleading laboratory experiments using artificial “dry air” that are falsified by observations. The real atmosphere has water vapor; laboratory air does not. Water vapor absorbs at the same wavelengths as methane, so methane actually has negligible greenhouse effect.]
Andy Burnham Supported the Climate & Environment Bill, Which Demanded a 90% Cut in Hydrocarbon Use Within 10 Years
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 28, 2026
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Science For Sale (In Defense of Climate Change – Episode 6)
By Bryce Nickels interviews Roger Pilke Jr. Science From the Fringe, Via WUWT, July 28, 2026
Video with text summary
Three Hard Truths About France’s Wildfires
Worse fire weather, less fire on the ground, and mitigation benefits detectable only in models
By Roger Pielke Jr., The Hoenes Broker, July 31, 2026
The Great “Hot Drought” Humbug: Why Lake Powell Is Really Drying Up
By Steve Oregon, WUWT, July 30, 2026
The Legal Mistake: In 1922, the Colorado River Compact legally allocated 17.5 million acre-feet (MAF) of water per year based on an unusually wet 20-year streak.
The True Yield: Tree-ring records covering 1,200 years prove the river’s long-term natural yield is only ~14.5 MAF.
The Collapse: During the 1950s drought, cities were smaller, agriculture was less intensive, and the basin wasn’t drawing its full share. By 2000, human usage and evaporation hit 15+ MAF annually—exceeding what the river produces even in an average year.
The Wet Year Illusion: Critics argue that wet years (like 2023) should have refilled reservoirs if heat wasn’t the problem. The reality is simple math: withdrawing 15+ MAF annually from near-empty reservoirs prevents recovery regardless of temperature. A single wet year cannot refill 50 million acre-feet of depleted storage when human diversions swallow the surplus.
The Climate Crazy, It’s Still With Us
By I & I Editorial Board, July 27, 2026
One year ago, the International Court of Justice in The Hague declared that all nations are obligated to protect the sky from greenhouse gas emissions. It’s unfortunate, but climate zealotry stubbornly hangs on.
“The average number of days per year in the U.S. reaching 95” degrees was about “18% lower during the 60-year period 1961 to 2020 compared to 1901 to 1960,” says Martz, also known as the “anti-Greta Thunberg.” He further points out the number of days the temperature reached 100 degrees and 105 degrees “have also declined since 1895.”
If the global warming tale were true, those data would be reversed.
The Latest Wildfire Panic is Refuted by Data
By Kit Knightly, Off-Guardian, July 28, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Climate Change Weekly # 586— Wind Trash Is a Problem on and Offshore
By Staff, The Heartland Institute, July 31, 2026
Smoke gets in their eyes
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2026
Not that climate alarmists are prone to trendy groupthink. But does anyone remember atmospheric rivers? They came out of nowhere (as a problem, not as a phenomenon) and it got so you could hardly read a climate story without one. Then it was all heat domes all the time again as if nobody ever had a heat wave that wouldn’t go away until six years ago or whenever, whereas old atmospheric river was long gone. And now it’s this weird stuff that comes out of fires and gets in your eyes.
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2026
The Great Forgetting: An AI arms race is consuming thousands of rare books which are sliced, scanned and pulped
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 29, 2026
Africa not on fire, humans get no credit
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2026
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Big Tech On The Path To Net Zero — 2026 Edition
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, July 30, 2026
And as they censored and de-monetized anyone who deviated from the climate religion, each of those tech giants published their own annual “environment” or “sustainability” reports proclaiming their own strict adherence to the official orthodoxy.
I understand that a little hypocrisy is inevitable in this world. But after the level of sanctimony that these guys have engaged in, let alone censorship of others, nobody should forget that it was all a scam from the outset.
Winning: “Fossil Fuels” are now so popular, environmentalists urge UN to say “decarbonization” instead
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 25, 2026
What’s the opposite of skeptical? — Gullible.
UK Telegraph: We lost the war on climate change: Hubris has ruined us, lets learn to enjoy warmer weather!
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 1, 2026
The UK Telegraph abandons Net Zero: “we were fooled”
This feels like a major step forward in the newspaper debate.
Allister Heath is Editor of The Sunday Telegraph, and he unleashes beautifully on the whole vainglorious, pointless self-sabotage that is Net Zero. Perhaps his most deadly question is “what good has it done” — or perhaps it’s the answer to “how bad can it be” — fergoodnessake, it might make Britain “more Mediterranean”.
But perhaps the most groundbreaking thing is that he spends a few paragraphs imagining how warm weather might be nice for the UK:
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
The effect of CO2 on Hedera helix
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2026
From the CO2Science.org archive.
Seeking a Common Ground
US Extreme Weather and Climate Change Dashboard
BY Roger Pielke, Jr., New Dashboard, Accessed July 30, 2026
Science, Policy, and Evidence
CEI releases a broad-based permitting reform blueprint to remove unnecessary and unreasonable obstacles for projects across the economy.
News Release By Daren Bakst, CEI, July 29, 2026
Wildfires & Natura2000
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 28, 2026
As in California and Australia, the answer to controlling wildfires begins and ends with proper forestry management.
Blame Canada’s Terrible Regulations For Wildfires Ruining America’s Summer
By Dr. Joseph Fournier, CO2 Coalition, July 31, 2026
Eighty‑nine percent of Canada is Crown land, owned by federal or provincial governments. Yet only about 10–12% of that land receives detailed ecological monitoring.
[Spraying with] Roundup creates monoculture conifer stands, which are more resin‑rich and significantly more flammable than mixed‑species forests. Instead of diverse, moisture‑retaining ecosystems, Canada is producing vast tracts of single‑age, single‑species pine and spruce – exactly the kind of forests that burn explosively under extreme fire weather.
The Bordeaux fires: a little context: Into the Prometheus Zone
By Jit, Climate Scepticism, July 29, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Models v. Observations
ECMWF Models Throwing Cold Water On Extreme Germany Heat Wave Forecast Next Week
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 25, 2026
[SEPP Comment: the WSMWF models are the World Climate and Meteorological Forecasting Models used by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).]
Model Issues
Climate Oddel Modities
By Willis Eschenbach, WUWT, July 26, 2026
Measurement Issues — Surface
The Era of Decentralized Observation
By John Pabst, WUWT, July 30, 2026
To turn that chaotic journal into a clean, global trend line, modern climate agencies have to perform a massive act of translation. The original thermometer reading goes in one side of the process; the final temperature record comes out the other. Between the two sits what most people never see: a black box of adjustments, reconciliations, and statistical corrections designed to account for station moves, changing instruments, urban growth, and missing data.
Changing Weather
US Climate Trend Maps
By Tony Heller, Real Climate Science, July 30, 2026
US trends since 1930, taken from Index of /pub/data/ghcn/daily/hcn/
[SEPP Comment: The U.S. Historical Climatology Network – Annual Mean Daily Maximum Temperature (TMAX) from 1930 shows that most of the 48 states have been cooling.]
Fifty Years Ago Today
By Tony Heller, Real Climate Science, July 31, 2026
The disaster [in Colorado] struck with minimal warning:
- Casualties: 144 people lost their lives, and 5 victims were never found.
- Destruction: More than 400 homes and cabins were destroyed, alongside 250 commercial structures.
- Infrastructure: Over 23 miles of U.S. Highway 34 were completely washed away, trapping survivors on isolated rock ledges overnight.
El Niño Means Fewer Atlantic Hurricanes — But More Activity Worldwide
A strong El Niño is emerging in 2026. History tells us what we might expect.
By Roger Pielke Jr., The Honest Broker, July 27, 2026
[SEPP Comment: Discussing the difference between where hurricanes (tropical cyclones) come ashore during La Niña vs. El Niño.]
Europe is burning: How bad could this wildfire crisis get?
By Marta Pacheco, Euro News, July 28, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
While the extreme weather conditions driving the fires are strongly linked to climate change, many individual wildfires are still started by human activity.
According to the Commission, around 96% of wildfires in Europe are caused by human activity, either accidentally or deliberately. Causes could range from discarded cigarettes, barbecues and campfires to sparks from machinery, power lines or arson.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated recently that nine out of ten wildfires are caused by human activity, with over 110 suspected arsonists arrested nationwide amid severe summer blazes. [Boldface added]
Madrid got hot?
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2026
“…it is also the case that the Spanish invented the “siesta”, where you do some of your sleeping in the early afternoon because it’s way too hot for serious work, and to have invented it long ago.”
Declining Spring Snow Cover In Northern New Mexico
By Tony Heller, Real Climate Science, July 28, 2026
Truth Or Consequences
By Tony Heller, Real Climate Science, July 31, 2026
The Rio Grande has been dry in Albuquerque for most of the past two months.
Changing Climate – Cultures & Civilizations
CLAIM: Climate change reached into the past and collapsed Bronze Age civilizations
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, July 27, 2026
Link to paper: Holocene ocean-atmosphere coupling and Mediterranean sensitivity to Atlantic circulation: Lessons from the Late Bronze Age collapse
By Katherine Power and Qiong Zhang, AAAS Science Advances, July 24, 2026
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Global Hunger Falls From 35% in 1970 to 7.8%
Armed conflict and violence remain the primary drivers of acute food insecurity.
By Ronald Bailey, Reason.com, July 22, 2026
Link to report: The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026
Understanding and addressing the high cost of a healthy diet
By Staff, FAO; IFAD; UNICEF; WFP; WHO, 2026
Lowering Standards
Met Office Say Class 5 Lingwood [UK] Meets International Standards!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 30, 2026
Not good enough for the WMO, but OK for Met Office propaganda!
Met Office Confirm Lingwood Is A Junk Site–But Declare Record Temperature Anyway!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31, 2026
They have got their “38C Record Temperature” headline, which is all that matters to them,
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
“What did we miss?” — Open Letter to the Editor of The New York Times
By Russell Cook, GelbspanFiles.com, July 23, 2026
Or perhaps it’s akin to how Titanic [builder chief designer] Thomas Andrews must have felt upon fully comprehending the situation in front of him in the remaining minutes of April 14, 1912 – things are still nearly level at the moment, but it’s purely a matter of time when the existing damage starts bringing in fatal amounts of accumulation that cannot be stopped.
It isn’t the climate crisis that needs to be fixed, it’s the epic level journalism malfeasance that’s been happening for upwards of 30 years in this issue.
Can’t tell fanatics nothing
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2026
Be Honest, Popular Mechanics, Air Conditioning Saves Lives With No Threat of Doom
By H. Sterling Burnett, Climate Realism, July 28, 2026
Badenoch must reverse course on net zero before she destroys the Tories–AEP
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31, 2026
AEP [columnist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard] is off on one of his Net Zero rants again!
It is not conservative to interfere in the free market, via bans, taxes, subsidies and mandates. It is not conservative for the State to determine what our economy, energy system and, indeed, our very lifestyles should look like in thirty years time.
That is Soviet style socialism.
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Wildfires in France
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 27, 2026
The worst fire year in France since 1980 was 1989.
Wildfire Date Pre-2012
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31, 2026
In short, modern satellite technology allows us to spot smaller fires nowadays, which would have been missed prior to 2012.
But even allowing for this, the EU’s official Forest Fire Technical Report for 2020 confirmed that wildfires in France were much worse in the 1980s:
Communicating Better to the Public – Do a Poll?
Do Reusable Cups Make Eco-Zealots Less Likely to Attend Protests?
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 25, 2026
Link to paper: Personal climate actions do not crowd out collective action and policy support: longitudinal evidence
By Omid Ghasem. Nature, NPJ Climate Action, July 23, 2026
From Worrall: But the study authors are saying it doesn’t really make a difference.
Of course, recycling does serve one purpose – it allows hypocrite politicians to claim they’re helping the environment. So given we’re never going to run short of political hypocrisy, I’m guessing recycling will stick around for a long time, at least until it stops swinging votes towards politicians who support it.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Climate Change Catastrophism is a Leftist Weapon
By Sallust, The Daily Sceptic, July 31, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Is “I don’t feel any emotion about climate change” a Symptom of Emotional Distress? Or do People Just Not Care?
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 28, 2026
Climate concern is a luxury cause for bored rich people who know where their next meal is coming from. A luxury many people in Britain can no longer afford, thanks to Mad Miliband’s expensive green energy crusade – especially in once industrialized energy intensive regions like Liverpool and Lancashire.
Questioning European Green
EU’s Pretense of ‘Transition’ Leadership Is an Economic Loser
By Samuel Furfari, CO2 Coalition, July 24, 2026
Compared with previous editions, the language of the latest Energy Institute analysis is markedly more favorable to renewables. One explanation may the publisher’s collaboration with Ember, a self-identified “energy think tank that aims to accelerate the clean energy transition with data and policy.” The Energy Institute itself seeks “to accelerate a just, secure, and low carbon energy transition.”
Litigation Issues
The International Court of Justice Climate Liability Ruling Sets a Worrying Precedent for Pandemics and Public Health
The International Court of Justice climate liability ruling sets a worrying precedent for pandemics and public health, says Professor Ramesh Thakur. These new ‘legally binding’ duties are quickly going to multiply.
By Ramesh Thankur The Daily Sceptic, July 26, 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the US will dismantle the International Criminal Court and restore the rights of “sovereign states over globalism”. The think tank Policy Exchange, in a new report that contradicts much of its earlier approach to climate policy, warns that a 2025 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling requires the UK to “arrest” the “trend of abuse of the ICJ’s advisory jurisdiction”.
Unfortunately, that ruling can easily be extrapolated to the domain of global health.
[SEPP Comment: The U.S. is formally part of the ICJ as a UN member but rejects compulsory jurisdiction. It is not a member of the International Criminal Court.]
ICJ Opinion and UN Resolution Turbocharge Climate Litigation
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, July 27, 2026
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its advisory proceedings on climate change, did not address or give consideration to scientists or groups—such as Clintel—who dispute the findings of the IPCC. Instead, the ICJ relied heavily and explicitly on the IPCC as the authoritative source on climate science throughout the process.
Now on May 20, 2026 the UN General Assembly passed a resolution affirming the ICJ and suggesting implementation.
CFACT working for you: Shutting the two back doors to Net Zero expenses
By Frank Lasee, CFACT July 29, 2026
Our bill ends the game. It sets liability for lawful emissions at zero dollars unless a plaintiff can prove an actual violation of the federal Clean Air Act; it bars local governments from filing or funding these suits; and it prohibits the retroactive climate superfund schemes that states like New York and Vermont have used to hand energy producers enormous bills for products sold legally years ago.
The second bill, the Local Government Net Zero Policy Prohibition Act, led by Rep. Thomas Peterson (Utah), shuts the city hall door. Counties, school districts, and public universities have quietly become some of the most aggressive climate regulators in the country.
Maryland’s Climate Lawsuits Quietly Hit a Dead End
By Mandi Risko, Energy in Depth, July 10, 2026 [H/t Ron Clutz]
Bottom Line: Despite activist promises, Maryland’s climate lawsuits have quietly joined the growing list of failed attempts to bankrupt the U.S. energy industry. The Maryland Supreme Court’s ruling also came at the perfect time, as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in Boulder’s similar climate lawsuit.
ESG and the Financial Risk: The Black Nuclear Cloud Hanging Over The World Economy
By Stephen Heins, WUWT, July 31, 2026
The tension between the absolute demand for precision in financial markets and the inherent epistemic uncertainty of carbon accounting has created a major regulatory blind spot. When an IFRS S1/S2 or EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) filing goes public, the legal risk shifts squarely onto the reporting entity—and by extension, the corporate officers and legal teams who sign off on them.
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
Read the Small Print: Endless subsidies
By Mark Hodgson, Climate Scepticism, July 30, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Link to paper: Offshore wind competitiveness in mature markets without subsidy
By Malte Jansen, et al., Nature Energy, July 27, 2020
EPA and other Regulators on the March
Federal government proposes Colorado River water use cuts for California, Arizona and Nevada
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, July 31, 2026
Comments on golden eagle errors in Wyoming’s wildlife action plan
By David Wojick, CFACT, July 27, 2026
Energy Issues – Europe
Germany’s Industrial Suicide… Grid Agency Prepares Secret Power Rationing Plans Amid Electric Power Bottlenecks
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 31, 2026
Forced shutdowns, no financial compensation!
According to documents obtained by Apollo News, the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) has been quietly developing emergency protocols over the past two years. Under these plans, the agency could order industrial plants consuming over 10 GWh per year to limit or completely shut off electricity usage with just 24 hours’ notice—and crucially, without any financial compensation.
Have the events of 23 June exposed failures in Ofgem’s approach to regulation?
By Kathryn Porter, Watt-Logic, July 27, 2026
Permitting NESO to self-report on energy security, particularly when it’s accused of hiding and manipulating data, is unlikely to deliver the outcomes expected either by Parliament or the public. In no other sector where public safety is at risk does the regulator take such a laissez-faire approach. Ofgem is not simply an economic regulator, it has a duty to act in the best interests of consumers having regard to security of supply.
Allowing consumers to be exposed to the risk of blackouts or critical equipment failures is not consistent with those duties. If the alleged constraint breaches involved transmission assets being operated beyond safe thermal or other operational limits, that would raise an obvious public-safety concern.
[SEPP Comment: NESO is the National Energy System Operator in Great Britain. The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) regulates monopoly companies that operate gas and electricity networks.]
“There should be no turning away from net-zero”–Andy Burnham
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 28, 2026
New UK PM Andy Burnham Has Supported a 90% Cut in Hydrocarbon Use Within 10 Years
As Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham wanted to slash hydrocarbon use by 90% in 10 years. Now the new Energy Minister is making similar noises. Chris Morrison wonders if destroying modern society is still the plan.
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, July 28, 2026
Is Britain’s New Energy Secretary Even Crazier than Mad Ed?
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 25, 2026
Open Letter to Kemi Badenoch
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31, 2026
[SEPP Comment: Kemi Badenoch is the leader of the Conservative Party (Tories).]
One Trick Pony: Riding for a fall
By Mark Hodgson, Climate Scepticism, July 27, 2026
I don’t know about you, but I was quite pleased when the UK’s new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, moved Ed Miliband from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to the Foreign Office.
Now, however, I’m having second thoughts.
Does Mr Burnham think that in sending Mr Miliband to the Foreign Office he has dispatched him to a cul-de-sac, or is Mr Miliband doing Mr Burnham’s bidding there? Only time will tell. But I think I would prefer it if someone else had been appointed as Foreign Secretary – someone who thinks there is more to life and to politics than a never-ending climate crisis.
Energy Issues – Australia
Oops – Another Aussie State Just Forgot to Enforce Prime Minister Albanese’s Green Data Center Mandate
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 27, 2026
The economics driving this rebellion are simple – whoever breaks ranks with the federal green mandate gets to pull hundreds of billions of dollars of high-tech investment, secure well paid jobs for university graduates, a construction industry boom, and a deluge of state tax revenue.
Renewable freeze in Australia — investors have only put the money down on 6% of wind projects
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 28, 2026
Claim: Renewables are Too Risky for Aussie Retirement Savings – But Rule Changes Could Fix That
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 26, 2026
[SEPP Comment: No bet is too risky if you are saving the planet?]
Energy Issues — US
EPA exempts data center power plants from pollution limits seeking to prevent acid rain
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, July 27, 2026
[SEPP Comment: A false concern if coal is not used. Acid rain is primarily caused by sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Natural gas containing sulfur is corrosive and must be processed to remove the sulfur before it is shipped via pipelines. If burnt at very high temperatures (above 1500 ℃), natural gas can cause nitrogen oxides.]
President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge Shows How America Can Win the AI Race
By Brad Viator, Real Clear Energy, July 28, 2026
NextEra’s Dominion Deal Deserves More Than a Rubber Stamp
By Wes Martin, Real Clear Energy, July 27, 2026
When decisions affect millions of people who have no practical ability to opt out, public officials have a duty to slow down, ask hard questions, and protect the public interest.
That is why the proposed combination of NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy deserves far more scrutiny than it appears poised to receive.
In Florida, NextEra’s subsidiary, Florida Power & Light, has been tied through extensive reporting and litigation to a series of political controversies that should trouble anyone who cares about democratic governance. The allegations include the use of “ghost candidates” to influence elections, opaque political spending through nonprofit entities, efforts to shape media coverage, and surveillance of a journalist who reported critically on the company’s activities.
Washington’s Control of Energy
Vehicle Freedom from Big Climate Brother (Presidential Memo to the EPA)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, July 27, 2026
You can fix your vehicle and not be presumed guilty until proven innocent. As simple as that sounds in a free society, a politicized U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has done the opposite–and might change course soon by instruction from President Trump.
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
A Matter of Trust – Variations in Crude Oil Quality Make On-Spec Delivery Critical for Global Refiners
By Liz Dicken, RBN Energy, July 30, 2026
Crude oil — often mistakenly described as a single, standardized commodity — is anything but uniform. Every stream has its own chemical fingerprint, including differences in density, sulfur content and a host of other qualities. Those variations can have real consequences for refiners, traders and the folks who move the stuff around. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll dig into why crude quality matters and how it can make a real difference to the bottom line.
How Infrastructure Can Unleash Ohio’s Energy Dominance
By Zach Kent, Real Clear Energy, July 27, 2026
For Ohio families, energy infrastructure is about more than economic development. Pipelines help deliver energy for consumers to heat their homes and power their businesses. When energy can move efficiently to where it is needed, consumers benefit from greater reliability and more stable prices.
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Five States Emerge as Finalists for DOE’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses
By Sonal C. Patel, Power Mag, July 28, 2026
The Department of Energy (DOE) has selected Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho as initial contenders to host Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses—voluntary federal–state partnerships designed to co-locate fuel fabrication, enrichment, spent fuel reprocessing, and waste disposition within integrated, full‑cycle nuclear ecosystems.
[Under A Path Around Yucca Mountain’s Failure]
…Executive Order 14299, signed in May 2025, directed the DOE to identify recyclable uranium and plutonium in its own inventories and use available authorities to site privately funded reprocessing facilities on federal land. A companion order, Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base, directed the agency to redirect its surplus plutonium disposal program toward producing usable reactor fuel. The DOE moved on that mandate in April 2026, when its Office of Nuclear Energy and Office of Environmental Management jointly issued two Requests for Applications seeking private-sector partners to advance the nation’s used-nuclear-fuel recycling capabilities. Industry trade group Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) has suggested the Innovation Campus concept could build on recycling but cautioned it would not replace the need for disposal in a geologic repository, because some byproducts will still require permanent disposal.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Climate change is real, but it is an unfortunate fact that renewables are useless
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 29, 2026
Cheap Renewables? Reuters Recycles the Myth
By Lisa Linowes, Master Resource, July 28, 2026
“Wind and solar developers naturally want the public to equate nameplate megawatts with reliable supply, subsidized bids with total costs, and rapid deployment with technical necessity. They are selling projects. Reuters should be doing something different. The press should test industry claims, not launder them into economic commonsense.”
AI won’t run on talking points
By Patrick Ruffini, CFACT, July 24, 2026
In fast-growing states, solar is already helping utilities and grid operators keep pace with rising load, while batteries are increasingly shifting that power into the evening hours, when families come home, air conditioners are running, and solar output begins to fall.
[SEPP Comment: Will solar trip the system leading to a blackout? Will the batteries provide power from dusk to dawn?]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
Anatomy of a State Blunder: Quebec’s “Green” Gas Fiasco
By Robert Girouard, WUWT, July 30, 2026
First published in French on Association des climato-réalistes site. Translated by Google Gemini.
In the fight against climate change, the only rigorous metric remains the cost per ton of avoided carbon dioxide. Where direct energy efficiency—such as building insulation or conversion to electricity—eliminates a ton of carbon for $50 to $100, replacing fossil gas with green gas in the general grid regularly costs between $200 and $400 [per ton of avoided CO2?]. It is one of the most inefficient uses of public funds imaginable.
Winning: Green Hydrogen is a dirty word and No one wants to go to the Fiji Climate Conference
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 30, 2026
The Australian Hydrogen Council is changing its name to the (catchy) Australian Industrial Decarbonization Council
That’s one way to back out of the Green Hydrogen disaster while pretending not to. They are not even trying to give a sensible explanation.
The Australian
World leaders are set to snub an Australian-organized UN climate change meeting in Fiji this year, despite months of planning by Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and more than $150m in government investment.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
The Battery Bubble
Batteries won’t save the grid
By Mitch Rolling and Isaac Orr, Energy Bad Boys, July 25, 2026
Link to report: Batteries and the Grid: Hype, Hope, and Economic Reality
By Jonathan Lesser and Mitchell Roaling, National Center for Energy Analytics, July 9, 2026
From executive summary of report: The study also estimated the total ratepayer electricity costs. For the RO scenario, the total costs paid by PJM ratepayers over the next 20 years would exceed $4 trillion—even after accounting for savings on fossil fuels
From article: Batteries may have their place on the energy grid, but that role certainly isn’t firming wind and solar as a means of replacing dispatchable generation.
Wind and solar droughts are too frequent, battery storage duration is too limited, and the cost is too prohibitive to achieve the capacity buildout required. Unfortunately, these facts haven’t stopped organizations from advocating for it and states from passing legislation to enforce it.
Britain’s battery boom ‘risks overwhelming the grid’
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 26, 2026
I am not going to let the Telegraph get away with this howler:
UK power grids have about 7GW of batteries in place with a collective output slightly greater than all five of Britain’s nuclear power stations.
As so often, they are confusing CAPACITY with OUTPUT.
Battery storage is typically no more than an hour’s worth. You cannot compare their output with that of our nuclear fleet, which runs 24/7.
Whereas nuclear provides around 12% of UK power, one hour’s storage is enough for 10 minutes, after which it would need recharging.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
The Case for EVs Has Failed
The case for EVs has failed, says Professor Gautam Kalghatgi. With lifetime emissions scarcely better and net health impacts three-fold worse than combustion vehicles, destroying our car industry cannot be worth it.
By Gautam Kalghatgi, The Daily Sceptic, July 29, 2026
If air pollution is actually the concern, running ICE (Internal Combustion Engines) on LPG [Liquefied petroleum gas] is a much superior solution: super-clean with zero tail-pipe particulate. But empirically there seems to be a sly conspiracy by the regulatory bureaucrats to kill the LPG fueling network because it competes with EVs – though these are inferior in efficiency and create more environmental harms.
Don’t Ministers know that setting production targets in the former USSR didn’t end well? Maybe they don’t. Worse. Maybe they do.
Electric buses being charged by diesel generators
By Emma Petrie, BBC, July 25, 2025
East Yorkshire Buses said the £16.5m investment in the vehicles and their charging infrastructure was part of its commitment to cleaner, greener transport.
[SEPP Comment: In the fantasy world where every expenditure is an investment even though it earns zero or even negative returns.]
Hydrogen plane pioneer seeks lifeline funding
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 28, 2026
Carbon Schemes
Is this Labour’s maddest net zero project yet?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 28, 2026
The Telegraph notes that a trial conducted by Norwegian energy giant Equinor and Rolls-Royce was a technical success, capturing 4.4 tonnes of airborne CO2. But the cost came in at around £1,100 a tonne. A study has suggested that this cost could drop to £500/tonne, as technology develops.
According to the report, hard to decarbonize sectors, farming and aviation, emit 40 million tonnes of CO2 a year in the UK. At £500/tonne, that works out at £20 billion a year – just for 0.1% of the world’s emissions.
But the cost is only part of the problem. DACCS [direct air carbon capture and storage] is an extremely energy intensive process. So where is this energy supposed to come from?
California Dreaming
The impending collapse of California’s transportation fuel infrastructure
By Ronald Stein and Mike Ariza, America Out Loud News, July 27, 2026
If just two more of the seven operating refineries shut down, California will face a complete logistical collapse.
Health, Energy, and Climate
UK National Health Service restricts air conditioning, and has to cancel blood tests due to heatwave
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 31, 2026
Other News that May Be of Interest
Mining the Oceans for Fresh Water – and Uranium
By Duggan Flanakin, Real Clear Energy, July 29, 2026
Traditional desalination has involved reverse osmosis, in which salty water is pressed against a membrane hard enough that fresh water squeezes through and the salt stays behind. On land, this requires a bank of high-pressure pumps – and running those pumps runs up the cost of delivery.
To get around that problem, a Bay Area company called OceanWell has already pilot-tested a scheme that involves putting the membrane filters into a sealed pod and placing it 1,300 feet below the surface so that the weight of the water overhead eliminates the need for pumps, potentially cutting costs by up to 40%.
By drawing water in slowly, OceanWell is minimizing damage to sea life. During the trial, cameras showed fish swimming around the screens and a diving bird hunting a school of fish right next to the equipment. The internal prefilters and automated backwash enabled live algae, diatoms, and copepods to avoid being swept into the pod.
[SEPP Comment: According to the company’s website, the brine concentration of the discharge is a fraction of the brine concentration of a conventional desalination plant. But it is not clear how the system prevents algae buildup from quickly clogging the filters.]
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Dimming the Sun (DimSun) Using Controllable Dust Cloud to Reduce Solar Insolation
Press Release by Loura Hall, Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, July 21, 2026 [H/t Clare Goldsberry]
Link to paper: Dimming the Sun (DimSun) using Controllable Swarm of Smallbody Regolith Particles
By Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, et al., 2025 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Jan 19, 2026
[LINK PAYWALLED]
“Extreme heat in the US could make World Cup matches unsafe” – BBC
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 25, 2026
That was the BBC headline the day before England played their World Cup last 16 game against the Congo in Atlanta three weeks ago.
America gets hot every summer. If you don’t want footballers to play in these conditions, try holding the competition in a cooler climate.
It’s about time Football Came Home!
Squid ate my dinosaur
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 29, 2026
ARTICLES
1. U.S. Environmentalists Go Easy on China
A group that seeks to ruin American energy firms with litigation takes a far softer approach to Beijing.
By Michael Toth, WSJ, July 27, 2026
TWTW summary: The article begins with:
“A senior judge of China’s Supreme People’s Court participated in a March 2023 online seminar sponsored by a U.S. environmental-law group and used the platform to talk up Xi Jinping’s climate-change policies. It was a strange presentation for an American legal nonprofit to support, especially one that is supposedly politically neutral and has received millions of dollars in federal grants. But it was on brand for the Environmental Law Institute, a Washington group that says it has trained thousands of American judges on climate-change issues and the law.
Issues central to ELI’s judicial-education campaign have come before the American judiciary at many levels—from state trial courts in California and Hawaii to the U.S. Supreme Court in Suncor v. Boulder, which the justices will hear in their fall term. What’s become clearer is the machinery driving this litigation campaign. A new report, “ELI and Communist China,” from the national-security organization State Armor shows how a group that presents itself as a neutral environmental organization has promoted a pro-China agenda.
Earlier this month, an ELI spokesman told the Daily Signal that its work with China concluded in 2024 and “was no different than our typical work in the United States—sharing evidence-based best practices on environmental regulation, not advancing the interests of the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party.”
Yet the organization’s Chinese ties persist. In the past two months, it hosted an event featuring a Chinese legal scholar who has worked with government officials there on environmental legislation, and it published an article by academics from two Chinese universities touting the country’s “progress in environmental protection.”
The claim that ELI has taken the same approach in China and the U.S. is even harder to credit. In the U.S., ELI advances legal theories aimed at punishing domestic energy production through private lawsuits. In China, however, ELI hasn’t been training litigators and judges to pursue comparable strategies against the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The asymmetry is a win-win for Beijing: While the U.S. energy industry faces legal pressure supported by ELI, China expands its industrial base unencumbered by comparable litigation.
Behind the litigation effort to decarbonize U.S. industry is ELI’s Climate Judiciary Project, which instructs American judges on topics such as “attribution science,” a controversial methodology that tries to link specific weather events to emissions from targeted companies. More troubling, a climate manual for judges published by the Federal Judicial Center was developed with input from activists and litigators involved in cases those judges may later hear. It was contained in a since-withdrawn chapter on climate science co-written by ELI “expert” Jessica A. Wentz, a senior fellow at Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Such efforts have drawn an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee, which is examining whether ELI has worked behind the scenes to sway judges presiding over climate cases.
In its Chinese programming, ELI has adopted a more deferential approach to Beijing’s industrial policies. According to the State Armor report, ELI has adhered to internal guidelines that prohibit it from actively engaging in private litigation in China. Rather than feed Chinese jurists bench books written by the climate plaintiffs’ bar, the group has run programs on using regulatory frameworks to address emissions.
China hasn’t adopted the emissions-reducing policies ELI pursues in the U.S.”
TWTW Comment: According to Our World in Data, in 2006 emissions from China (6.49 billion tonnes) exceed those from the US (6.08 billion tonnes). Since then, emissions from China have increased to 12.3 billion tonnes (2024) while emissions from the US have fallen to 4.9 billion tonnes (2024).
