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Increasing Cold, Snow Cast Doubt Over Claim Of Rapid Warming As North Freezes

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From NoTricksZone

By P Gosselin on 28. November 2023

EIKE Cold Report No. 33 (excerpts)

By Christian Freuer, Electroverse

Europe’s best start to a ski season in a long time

Contrary to mainstream groupthink, reality is once again smacking climate alarmism in the face.

Recently, ski resorts from the French Alps down to the Italian Dolomites reported almost a meter of fresh snow, resulting in a historically early start to the European ski season.

And the forecast sees much more through early December.

Absurd notions that Europe’s favorite winter sport is a thing of the past have suffered a setback after temperatures across the region fell off a cliff in November, back to a “crisp climate like in the 1990s,” reports goodnewsnetwork.org.

Fukuoka, Japan, sees earliest snowfall in 40 years

On Sunday, November 19, Fukuoka Prefecture on the northern coast of the Japanese island of Kyushu experienced early snowfall.

Record cold and snow in recent weeks in East Asia – namely in northeast China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia – has now crossed the Sea of Japan and brought exceptionally early snowfall to the north of the country.

According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, the earliest snowfall since November 1983 was recorded in the city of Fukuoka.

Two fatalities caused by a snowstorm in Bulgaria

A drop in temperature, strong winds and heavy rain/snow caused severe damage across much of Bulgaria on Sunday, disrupting power supplies and claiming at least two lives.

Eastern Bulgaria was the worst affected and residents said they had never experienced such extreme weather.

A state of emergency was declared in the Black Sea city of Varna as the torrential rain turned into heavy snowfall and blizzards.

30 cm of fresh snow in California

It snowed heavily at higher altitudes in California over the weekend, with over 30 cm of snow accumulating in the mountains.

Along the California/Nevada border, an early winter storm brought 30 inches of snow to Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe, another 18 inches to Mammoth Mountain Ski Base and 10 inches to Palisades. The NWS office in Reno also saw flakes fall to below 5,000 feet.

A winter weather warning was issued for the Ruby Mountains and the East Humboldt Range, where the total snowfall amounted to almost 50 cm.

Study: CO2 uptake, vegetation on the rise

Plants will have absorbed 20% more carbon dioxide by the end of the century than originally predicted, according to a new study, which even some mainstream media admits “climate models overestimate how fast the planet will warm”.

Trinity College Dublin said its study, published in the journal Science Advances, painted an “uncharacteristically positive picture for the planet” after finding that climate models had not accounted for all elements of photosynthesis.

Mainstream science had proclaimed that “climate change” was likely to weaken the process, but the new research shows that plants will continue to efficiently absorb carbon dioxide, produce extra nutrients and so continue to thrive.

Arctic sea ice is doing fine

From Antarctica to Greenland to the Arctic, global ice is doing well.

“There is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap could be completely ice-free during some summer months within the next five to seven years,” said Al Gore in 2009.

Let’s take a look at developments up to November 20, 2023:

Chart: NSIDC

It’s clear to see that the Arctic sea ice extent is currently above the average for the period 2011-2020 and is rapidly approaching the average for the period 2001-2010. In fact, today’s extent of 10.019 million km² is higher than at the same time in 2009 when Gore made his prediction:

Chart: NSIDC

From polar bears to hurricanes, snowfall and climate-related deaths – all the theories of the climate alarmists are ultimately disproved by reality.

Climate charlatans like Gore and Gates can’t be wrong on so many issues for so long and still retain the platform they have without dubious media manipulation. The only reason the reputations of these public figures have not yet been dragged through the mud is because they 1) dutifully push the agenda and 2) believe everything printed in the legacy media.

Polar outbreaks in America, Europe imminent

The models appear to be fairly confident here: cold air of Arctic origin will affect both North America and Europe.

It’s getting colder in Brazil

According to the latest GFS runs, it will remain anomalously cold in Brazil over the next few weeks:

Chart: GFS

This is indicative of the longer-term cooling trend recorded by the country’s temperature stations.

The only weather station in Brazil with continuous data going back to 1900 is located in the eastern city of Quixeramobim in the state of Ceará, explains Tony Heller on X. According to NASA data, the temperature station in Quixeramobim shows a cooling since 1960.

Australian heat exaggerated

There is a lot of reporting about the heat and forest fires in Perth.

The exaggerations and propaganda are as captivating as the licking flames and swirling embers. But, as always, a quick fact-check destroys the scaremongering. A thin red spot [indicating heat] is not proof of a “climate crisis”:

Chart: Tropical Tidbits

According to the satellite data, there’s been a cooling trend of -0.13 °C per decade since 2013.

Heavy snowfall in Eastern Europe, much more expected

After three days of snowfall, the Russian Volga region was buried under 30 cm of snow – an unusually high amount for November.

The November norm for the city of Ulyanovsk, for example, is 8 cm, but a week before the end of the month, 24 cm of snow had already been measured.

Winter a month early

In Izhevsk, the capital of the Republic of Udmurtia, the snow drifts are also “a month ahead of the calendar”, reports gismeteo.ru.

Further west, Belarus has declared the danger level “orange”, as heavy snowfall is forecast over the Norwegian Sea. On November 23, strong winds and snowstorms hit most of the country. Icy roads were reported in the western regions, as well as in the capital Minsk.

Northern hemisphere snow cover trends up 

These snow amounts will contribute to another above average snow season for the Northern Hemisphere:

Chart: Rutgers
Chart: Rutgers

Editorial deadline for this report: November 24, 2023. Compiled  by Christian Freuer for EIKE.

Main source: Electroverse. 

Watch: Morano on Fox News: ‘This is a good development’ that California can’t spend massive influx of ‘federal climate cash’ to ‘advance climate action’ – Plus Google’s EV bus crash

Report: California needs more staff to “capitalize on the historic influx of federal climate cash” – University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment report:

Morano: “They need more money because they don’t have enough people to spend the money. This is the actual report from Berkeley Center for Law and Environment, it actually calls it ‘federal climate cash’ — like get your hands on ‘climate cash’.

This reminded me of the TV show Breaking Bad. There was a scene when the drug dealer finally has so much money in his storage shed that he literally can’t spend it, and he doesn’t know what to do with it. It’s just piles of cash.

Scene from Breaking Bad TV show – Season 5 – ‘How Much is Enough?’
Morano: “We’ve reached peak insanity now in the United States with the climate agenda led by California. This federal climate cash is sitting in the state with nowhere to go, no one to spend it, and here’s the thing as weird as it is, this is a good thing, right? Because the last thing you want to do is spend the money because they’ve already said they’re going look for ways to reduce emissions to meet the governor’s ‘climate neutrality’ Net Zero rule. And if they do that, it’s going to make Californians even poorer and pay for more expensive energy. So this is a good development, you don’t want them to spend it. Let the money pile up just like in the TV show with nowhere to be spent because spending it impoverishes Californians.”

Rough Transcript: 

Many California cities are understaffed and unprepared to mobilize climate funds: report from the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment, – “The desire to advance climate action and sustainability goals is there, but the capacity and resources are not,” Erica Manuel, CEO and executive director of the Institute for Local Government, said in a statement.

Report: California needs more staff to “capitalize on historic influx of federal climate cash” – University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment report: “Many California cities need additional staffing and planning to capitalize on historic influx of federal climate cash. Even local governments with detailed blueprints for slashing greenhouse emissions often lack the dedicated resources needed to realize ambitious climate pledges.” … “California is at a critical point in its efforts to decarbonize the economy. In 2022, Governor Newsom signed AB 1279, enshrining the state’s carbon neutrality target into law. Meeting this goal will require planning and coordination across all levels of government.”

#

Executive editor of Climate Depot Marc Morano: “They need more money because they don’t have enough people to spend the money. This is the actual report from Berkeley Center for Law and Environment, it actually calls it ‘federal climate cash’ — like get your hands on ‘climate cash’.

This is like reminded me of the TV show Breaking Bad. There was a scene when the drug dealer finally has so much money in his storage shed, that he literally can’t spend it, and he doesn’t know what to do with it. It’s just piles of cash.

Scene from Breaking Bad TV show – Season 5 – ‘How Much is Enough?’

Morano: We’ve reached peak insanity now in the United States with the climate agenda led by California. This federal climate cash sitting in the state with nowhere to go, no one to spend it, and here’s the thing as weird as it is, this is a good thing, right? Because the last thing you want to do is spend the money because they’ve already said they’re going look for ways to reduce emissions to meet the governor’s ‘climate neutrality’ Net Zero rule. And if they do that, it’s going to make Californians’s even poorer and pay for more expensive energy. So this is a good development, you don’t want them to spend it. Let the money pile up just like in the TV show with nowhere to be spent because spending it impoverishes Californians.

Dagen: “I want my money back..”

Morano: California will find a way to spend it, spend it on reelection, buying votes. This is like something out of a university’s Soviet climate studies. They’re looking at all this money going into central planning, so decisions can be made by fewer and fewer people.

By the way, Berkeley also has a California-China Climate Institute of Climate Corps. The Climate Corps, China is involved in this as well, I’m sure they’ll find a way to funnel money to China. This is just peak California madness. When you look at this story from beginning to end.

Morano on Google electric bus crash: “Its failure on a grand scale. Evs are already failing. EV mandates —  all the CEOs of automakers don’t want them. But Google decided to double down on this giant EV bus and somehow nine vehicles were involved, smashed up because of this.

According to their website, there are six hydraulic disc brakes. Here’s the question. If the battery fails, do the brakes fail? There’s going to have to be an investigation here. But what a disaster! There have been protests against these buses going back a decade. A lot of the local residents in San Francisco don’t like the gentrification. They don’t like all the money being spent on these buses and not on all the other community needs that they need for affordable housing and other things. So the buses aren’t very popular on the street level. And this isn’t going to help when they’re smashing up nine cars and endangering human life.

Host: I bet you it was made in China.

Morano: All the materials certainly.

Host: Marc Morano. thank you so much. Great to see you.

#

Fox News – The Bottom Line – w/ Dagen & Duffy – Broadcast November 9, 2023 

Report: California needs more staff to “capitalize on the historic influx of federal climate cash” – University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment report:

Morano: “They need more money because they don’t have enough people to spend the money. This is the actual report from Berkeley Center for Law and Environment, it actually calls it ‘federal climate cash’ — like get your hands on ‘climate cash’.

This is like reminded me of the TV show Breaking Bad. There was a scene when the drug dealer finally has so much money in his storage shed that he literally can’t spend it, and he doesn’t know what to do with it. It’s just piles of cash.

Scene from Breaking Bad TV show – Season 5 – ‘How Much is Enough?’

Morano: “We’ve reached peak insanity now in the United States with the climate agenda led by California. This federal climate cash is sitting in the state with nowhere to go, no one to spend it, and here’s the thing as weird as it is, this is a good thing, right? Because the last thing you want to do is spend the money because they’ve already said they’re going look for ways to reduce emissions to meet the governor’s ‘climate neutrality’ Net Zero rule. And if they do that, it’s going to make Californians even poorer and pay for more expensive energy. So this is a good development, you don’t want them to spend it. Let the money pile up just like in the TV show with nowhere to be spent because spending it impoverishes Californians.”

The post Watch: Morano on Fox News: ‘This is a good development’ that California can’t spend massive influx of ‘federal climate cash’ to ‘advance climate action’ – Plus Google’s EV bus crash appeared first on CFACT.

CFACT blasts Fed’s “floating wind” fantasy

From  CFACT

CFACT President Craig Rucker has blown the whistle on Federal plans to put hundreds of floating wind generators off the Oregon coast. Floating wind is the latest green energy fantasy, taking its place along with hydrogen, EVs, battery storage, and net zero.

The idea is that where the water is too deep for conventional offshore wind generators, we will simply put these huge towers and turbines on floats. Pretty much all of the West Coast fits this bill, as does most of Maine.

Responding to a Federal request for comments on a big floating wind proposal for Oregon, Rucker explains clearly that the technology needed to do this does not exist and may never exist in an economically feasible form. The federal agency is the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The plan is to designate hundreds of thousands of ocean acres as Wind Energy Areas and then start auctioning them off to floating wind developers.

His succinct comments are here: http://www.cfact.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Comments-concerning-BOEMs-Draft-Wind-Energy-Areas.pdf

I want to dive into the technology a bit to show what a boondoggle floating wind really is.

First, let me say that, sure, we can put huge turbine towers on floats. Our fighter jets take off from and land on floats, right, floats called aircraft carriers. But they are really big, hence expensive. The same is true for floating wind, albeit at a somewhat smaller scale.

Look at it this way. Suppose you took a sailboat and put a 600′ tall mast on it. At the top, you put an 800-ton turbine with three 500′ long wind-catching blades. How big would that boat have to be not to blow over when hit by severe wind and waves?

The answer is very big indeed, in fact, huge. Now compare this huge float with the simple monopile that conventional offshore generators sit on. The monopile is a simple steel tube, maybe 30′ in diameter and a few hundred feet long, driven solidly into the ocean floor.

Compared to the huge float, the monopile is small and cheap. But simple monopile base offshore wind facilities are already tremendously expensive. Floating wind is projected to cost much more, from 2.5 to 3 times more, in fact.

In addition to the huge float holding up the turbine tower, there have to be a bunch of monster mooring chains anchored firmly to the ocean floor in all directions to keep the float from rocking too much in heavy seas or from capsizing. Then, too, the power lines taking off the electricity have to somehow get from these bobbing floats to the distant shore.

The highly specialized fabrication facilities and work boats required to make and install all this stuff in deep water do not exist. Given that over 50 vastly different floating wind designs have been proposed, we do not even know what to build.

I say projected because no utility-scale floating wind facility exists in the world today. BOEM is talking about quickly building thousands of Mega Watt (MW) of floating wind. Five leases pegged at 3,600 MW have already been sold off California. But as Rucker points out, the biggest facility in the world today is an experimental 88 MW and that just fired up a few months ago.

Those five California leases are, in effect, experimental. The developers are each going to try to produce an economically viable floating wind facility. As things stand, the odds are very long against them. I can hardly wait to see the Construction and Operations Plans, which are the first required step in the long road toward project approval.

But the ultimate crunch point is selling the juice via a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). If costs run three times regular offshore wind, which is already extremely expensive, then the required PPAs might simply be unobtainable.

However, California just passed a law allowing the State to directly buy offshore wind energy. Perhaps the plan is for the State to buy horrendously expensive electricity, sell it to the utilities at the much lower going wholesale rate, then let the taxpayers eat the losses. It is, after all, Crazy California.

Mind you, this silly game is being played around the world. Several countries have launched similarly speculative large-scale floating wind projects, and many more are talking about it. Of course, they are also talking about mass-scale hydrogen, EVs, and net zero. It is all part of the same green nonsense.

As for the American floating wind fantasy, stay tuned to CFACT as this engineering comedy unfolds.

California Continues to be a National Security Risk for America.

Governor Newsom directives increase California’s dependency on foreign crude oil to support the State’s international and military airports, and shipping terminals.

From Watts Up With That?

Governor Newsom directives increase California’s dependency on foreign crude oil to support the State’s international and military airports, and shipping terminals.

Published November 7, 2023 at the Heartland Institute  https://heartland.org/opinion/california-continues-to-be-a-national-security-risk-for-america/

Ronald Stein  is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for the Heartland Institute and CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”

Historically, California has been successfully reducing in-state oil production over the decades and has increased crude oil imports from foreign countries from 5 percent in 1992 to more than 75 percent today to meet the California consumption demand. 

Governor Gavin Newsom, by continually seeking further decreases of in-state oil production, Newsom’s emissions policies continue to force California, the 4th largest economy in the world, to be the only state in contiguous America that imports most of its crude oil feedstock to in-state refineries from foreign countries. That dependence, via maritime transportation from foreign nations for the state’s crude oil demands, has increased imported crude oil from 5 percent in 1992 to more than 75 percent today of total consumption.

California has more than 140 airports with huge fuel demands of more than 13 billion gallons of aviation fuel per year that includes these major airports:

  • 9 International airports
  • 41 Military airports

In addition, California has three of the largest shipping ports in America, with #1 Los Angeles. #2 Long Beach, and #7 Oakland. Ships arriving and departing from the shipping ports up and down the coast from San Diego to San Francisco require massive amounts of lower grade bunker fuels.

While California is pursuing the elimination of crude oil production, China has no intentions of abandoning its economic, military, or strategic ambitions – all of which rely on crude oil. Asia is the region with the greatest number of future petroleum refineries. As of 2021, there were 88 new facilities in planning or under construction in Asia.

The California Air Quality Management District (AQMD) policies have the potential to further reduce in-state refinery capacity, so the State can be more dependent on Asia for the fuels and petrochemical demands of the State.

Shockingly, Newsom has yet to inform the citizens of the State, and the citizens of America, as to how he expects the States’ airports, military, and shipping ports to continue operating without the fuels for planes and ships.

Without the feedstock of crude oil to the California refineries to be processed into fuels to meet the demands of the 9 International Airports, 41 Military Airports, and 3 of the largest shipping ports in America, what is Governor Newsom’s’ explanation to all Americans as to how the 4th largest economy in California is not a security risk for the entire country?

With Governor Newsom having high expectations of being the Democratic nominee for the Presidency of the United States, maybe he can explain to those at the Democratic National Convention in August 2024, how California, under his leadership for 8 years, is now a national security risk with the following two subjects that he has led and campaigned for:

  1. Importing more than 75 percent of the state’s demand for crude oil for current in-state refineries to refine into fuels for California’s 9 International airports, 41 Military airports, and 3 of the largest shipping terminals in America, and
  • Constantly reducing in-state refining capacity to refine fuels and petrochemicals for the materialistic demands of society.

Petrochemicals have been driving oil demand in recent years but that could all change if new restrictions come into place to curb the production of plastics and other products. With more than 6 billion on this planet making less than $10 a day that wish to join the industrial revolution, the global demand for petrochemicals has been gradually rising over the last two decades, as an increasing number of consumers spend on petrochemical-derived products.

With more in-state refinery closures imminent under Newsom’s watch, California can look toward Asia’s 88 new refineries for the manufactured fuels used by California’s 9 International airports, 41 Military airports, and 3 of the largest shipping terminals in America for manufactured oil derivatives that are the basis of most products in our materialistic society,

Even to the uneducated, such blatant dependency on foreign countries for crude oil and fuels to pass through three of the busiest shipping ports in America, all located on the coastline of the 4th largest economy in the world, California is a national security risk for the entire United States of America!

Ronald Stein, P.E
Author | Columnist | Energy Literacy Consultant
https://expertfile.com/experts/ronald.stein

Catching-up on Monarch Butterflies

The large and brilliantly-colored monarch butterfly is among the most easily recognizable of the butterfly species that call North America home. They have two sets of wings and a wingspan of three to four inches (7 to 10 centimeters). Their wings are a deep orange with black borders and veins, and white spots along the edges. The underside of the wings is pale orange. 

From Watts Up With That?

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen — 7 November 2023

It is time for the Great Journey South for the Monarch butterflies of North America.  The super-generation of monarchs, who are the great-great-grandchildren of the monarchs that left overwintering sanctuaries along the coast of California in the United States and the Monarch Biosphere Reserve in central Mexico last spring, are on the move and have almost completed their incredible journey.  The orange arrows on the continental map show the direction of travel in the fall of the year.  The yellow areas are where monarchs are traveling from, an area extending all the way north into Canada.  The majority of the monarch east of the Rocky Mountains travel south and west to arrive at the very geographically small area of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve in south-central Mexico.  Yet there is some small population that stays in southern Florida and along the Gulf Coast, breeding and living as they do throughout the year.

West of the continental divide, some, but not all, of the monarchs gather in roosts along the coast of California, from San Luis Obispo north to Big Sur country.   Some of the western population has been found traveling south to the Mexican Biosphere Reserve.  And some of the western population doesn’t migrate anywhere at all, but just keeps in living in southern-most California.

For those curious as to what exactly happens to signal monarchs to start the migration, it is reported that when  “the solar angle at solar noon (SASN) drops below 57 degrees, the date at each latitude” is “ when we can first expect to see directional flight indicative of the migration.” [ source ]

So, like many other things, it’s the Sun.

The Mexican agency that does the Monarch count in Mexico, in conjunction with the World Wildlife Federation, produces the data for this chart for monarch populations overwintering 2022-2023.  There are so many butterflies, all bunched together, that an actual count is impossible, so they produce a figure that is in hectares of trees covered with monarchs, “estimates range from 10 to 50 million monarchs per hectare”.

And for the winter just past (2022-2023)?  2.21 hectares (5.5 acres) or between 22 million to 110 million monarch butterflies. Far better than the worst year on record (2013-2014) which had only 0.67 hectares (1.6 acres).

The Master of All Things Monarch, Chip Taylor, founder of Monarch Watch recently published two blog posts on the “whys and wherefores” of the monarch butterfly:

Species Status Assessment and the three r’s

Why there will always be monarchs

If you are interested in monarchs and their story, the two blog posts above are required reading. 

This year’s southern migration is reporting good news, but it is truly too early to tell how many butterflies will make it to the monarch biosphere.  The dependencies are weather and feeding opportunities: includes storms, local droughts (which reduce nectar sources), high adverse winds, heavy rains, etc.  Texas reports seeing lots of monarchs:

The yellow circles show where the monarchs are bunching up….the Texas bunch really moves down through Mexico, but there are few reporting observers there.  The Southern California group (including some of those in Southern Arizona) will either 1) move a little more north along the coast until they are above San Luis Obispo and roost for the winter, or 2) move a bit south of Los Angeles and spend the winter breeding as normal.  We can also see the grouping in southern Florida, where monarchs can happily live all year long. 

In the west, there was good news this past spring:

While totals were down, it is reported that this was the result of winter storms in California (which, you will recall, ended California’s long-term drought). You should ignore the dim grey line, it is the number of sites monitored and not a trend line of monarch population. Still, the count reveals that the stunning, unbelievable recovery from 2020-2021’s feared near-extinction event was not just a fluke but a strong resurgence in overall population. The Xerces Society, for reasons I cannot fathom, reports the above chart as bad news.

There will be some more up-to-date news about monarchs in the western population in the Thanksgiving count, which will run from 11/11/23 – 12/3/23, and the New Year’s count will run from 12/23/23 – 1/7/24. Readers living out west can participate: https://westernmonarchcount.org/

We usually only see information coming out of Mexico well after the New Year.

I am looking forward to good news.

# # #

Authors Comment:

I have been following this topic for years and you can read my other essays here.

I write about monarchs just because I like them and am fascinated by their migration behavior as a species – the reasons for which remain a mystery.

If you are interested, there are ways in which you can help maintain and improve monarch populations such as planting native milkweeds in your garden and urging states, counties and cities not to mow roadsides where milkweeds flourish.

Thanks for reading.

Gavin Newsom scapegoats fossil fuels to cover his own failures

Green energy is not Green.- Renewables” are not “carbon free. – “Renewables” are the antithesis of fair, equitable, and just.- “Renewables” are intermittent and unreliable.

From  CFACT

By Craig Rucker

California recently joined other states in suing oil companies for purportedly misleading the public about alleged risks from fossil-fuel-driven climate change, extreme weather, and other dangers.

“Big Oil has been lying to us,” Governor Gavin Newsom asserted, “covering up” facts about “wildfires wiping out entire communities, toxic smoke clogging our air [and] deadly heat waves.”

This stuff belongs on Saturday Night Live. The references to “wildfires” have been debunked as, globally, wildfires have been declining. U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports America is currently undergoing its longest period in recorded history, with less than 40 percent of the country experiencing “very dry” conditions.  Analysts have likewise eviscerated the false hype about hurricanes and the endless, ridiculous attempts to link every calamity to “manmade climate change.”

No, what Newsom is doing has little to do with addressing an abbreviation labeled “CO2.” It’s more like “CYA”.  Sadly, it’s become the first and last resort for slick politicians who want to avoid accountability for their incompetence and abysmal failures to protect their constituents from natural disasters. Governor Newsom is a consummate practitioner of misdirection and deception.

But people are still being conned by politicians like him into believing that virtue-signaling actions in their home, city, state, or even country can somehow offset the monumental greenhouse gas emissions from China, India, and other rapidly modernizing nations – and that wind, solar, and battery power will somehow save Planet Earth.

Here are some cold, hard facts that activists and politicians have been hiding.

* Green energy is not Green. Replacing coal, gas, and nuclear power requires hundreds of thousands of wind turbines, millions of solar panels, millions of battery modules, and tens of thousands of miles of new transmission lines sprawling across wildlife habitats, croplands, scenic areas, and coastal vistas. Mining, ore processing, and manufacturing to build those systems are increasingly done overseas, employing zero to minimal environmental standards. Such operations are powered by fossil fuels and discharge mammoth amounts of toxic pollutants into local air and water. Most worn-out, damaged, and obsolete “green energy” equipment cannot be recycled. It will be dumped in enormous landfills, in somebody’s backyard, and could leach toxic chemicals into soil and water.

* “Renewables” are not “carbon free.” Solar panels, batteries, and wind turbines must be fabricated, and this requires enormous uses of fossil-fuel energy for mining, processing, and manufacturing.  While such emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases may be spewed far from California and America and thus out of the sight of virtue-signaling liberals, they still go into the global atmosphere.

* “Renewables” are the antithesis of fair, equitable, and just. Solar and wind energy tend to jack up rates wherever they’re widely implemented, and experts acknowledge their widescale use will cost 2-3 times what we’re paying today.  Such hikes, naturally, hit those on fixed and limited incomes much harder than they do on the rich. Further, the minerals and components of Green energy are typically garnered overseas, chiefly in China, Africa, and Latin America. What this means is that it will be on the backs of poor Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics to provide the low-cost, cheap labor that will drive a “Green revolution” – to include any potential child and slave labor.

* “Renewables” are intermittent and unreliable. Wind facilities only generate their stated output about 30-40 percent of the time.  Solar units typically only kick in 25% of their purported “capacity factor.” That means backup energy must be provided for the other 60-75% percent of the time they’re napping. Huge battery modules could help provide power during the lengthy gaps in wind and solar electricity generation, stabilize our increasingly complex, overstressed, and fragile grid, and reduce recurrent blackouts. But they would cost $23-293 trillion – before we are forced to go all-electric. Home, neighborhood, state, and national electric systems and grids will have to be upgraded to handle the massively increased loads. That will cost trillions more.

Climate activists like Gov. Newsom claim they’re devoted to transparency. They want oil companies and manufacturers to publicly disclose all greenhouse gas and other emissions associated with their products. But it is clear they’re simply blowing smoke.

If they were truly and sincerely interested in transparency and addressing a “climate crisis”, they would also insist that solar and wind “green” energy systems – and companies that make, install, or operate them – disclose all their emissions, environmental, and human rights impacts as well.

But they don’t. And when they’re confronted as to “why they don’t” by activists opposing renewable projects in communities across the nation … the only sound heard is crickets.

This article originally appeared in Human Events

Author

Craig Rucker

Craig Rucker is a co-founder of CFACT and currently serves as its president.

Widely heralded as a leader in the free market environmental, think tank community in Washington, D.C., Rucker is a frequent guest on radio talk shows, written extensively in numerous publications, and has appeared in such media outlets as Fox News, OANN, Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Hill, among many others.

Rucker is also the co-producer of the award-winning film “Climate Hustle,” which was the #1 box-office film in America during its one night showing in 2016, as well as the acclaimed “Climate Hustle 2” staring Hollywood actor Kevin Sorbo released in 2020.

As an accredited observer to the United Nations, Rucker has also led CFACT delegations to some 30 major UN conferences, including those in Copenhagen, Istanbul, Kyoto, Bonn, Marrakesh, Rio de Janeiro, and Warsaw, to name a few.

    California’s EV conundrums

    Without crude oil that is the basis for most of the products now in society, citizens of developing nations may never be able to enjoy the abundant lifestyles available to wealthier countries.

    From  CFACT

    Without crude oil that is the basis for most of the products now in society, citizens of developing nations may never be able to enjoy the abundant lifestyles available to wealthier countries.

    As California is attempting to lead the world toward zero crude oil production, worldwide efforts to meet the supply chain demands of extracting 4 billion gallons of crude oil every day from this planet, there may be shortages and inflation in perpetuity to continue to make all the products of our materialistic society, being enjoyed by the current residents in the wealthier countries on this planet.

    Meanwhile, the list of conundrums surrounding California’s EV mandate is growing:

    1. Lack of a sufficient number of buyers outside the elite profile of existing EV owners.
    2. The Government’s lack of ethical, moral, and social responsibilities, by encouraging the social injustice of subsidies for well-off people who can afford EVs, continues exploiting the human rights of workers with yellow, brown, and black skin in the supply chain that are mining for exotic minerals and metals in poorer developing countries to support the green movement in wealthy countries.
    3. Conditions have grown so dire for the supply chain of raw materials needed for EV batteries that Washington is cracking down on EV components that have links to Chinese Uyghur slave labor that are helping to build EVs.
    4. Due to EV battery fire potentials, questionable means of transporting EVs from foreign manufacturers to the USA consumers.
    5. Concerns about occasional electricity from wind and solar being able to charge EV batteries.
    6. The limited life of the EV battery compared with conventional vehicles, the limitations of EVs during emergencies such as fires, floods, and power blackouts.
    1. China restricting exports of graphite, a key mineral used for making EV batteries.
    2. Automakers will continue to face challenging supply chain issues to make all the parts and components of EVs as the supply of oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil will be in shorter supply. The typical car today is made with about 260 pounds of plastics.

    The crude oil industry’s time in California is limited, and the oil-refining industry is behaving as any industry would in comparable circumstances by transitioning its operations away from gasoline to activities that will prove to be more profitable in the long run. And as crude oil supply falls further, much higher gasoline prices will become a way of life for Californians, as the conundrums associated with EV mandates may be growing.

    Standard economic logic indicates that high California gas prices should encourage fuels supply to be shipped to California from other states. But this doesn’t happen because no other state formulates California’s unique gasoline blend.

    In addition, the West Coast fuels market is isolated from other supply/demand centers as California is an energy island. The Sierra Mountains are a natural barrier that prevents the state from pipeline access to any of that excess oil. As such, the West Coast is susceptible to unexpected outages from West Coast refineries as it is unable to refill an unexpected loss in supply by quickly supplying additional products from outside of the region.

    If gasoline is imported into California, which does occur when a California refinery goes offline for repair or maintenance, California typically imports gasoline via marine shipments, which usually take three to four weeks to deliver. To meet the demands of the fourth largest economy in the world, imports of gasoline into California come from sources that include India, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Russia, and New Brunswick, Canada. This process is expensive, and takes weeks for the fuel to arrive at California ports.

    California’s regulatory and tax landscape has led to a steady drop in the number of California refineries. In the early 1980s, when California’s population was 24 million, there were 40 operating refineries in the state, which refined over 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day. Forty years later, with a population of 39 million, the number of refineries dropped by 14, which refines less than 2 million barrels of crude oil per day currently. The reality is that gasoline and diesel supply is decreasing while demand is increasing; is fuel (no pun intended) for continuous price increases.

    Refineries are also shutting down because California has imposed a new regulation that bans the sale of gas-powered cars and light trucks by 2035, and the State requires 35 percent of new car sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2026. It makes no economic sense to invest in new capacity in a state that has de facto outlawed the industry’s existence in a few years.

    In addition, refineries are also shutting down because there are incredibly lucrative state and federal tax incentives to produce biofuels, totaling a whopping $1 per gallon, and cease the manufacturing of gasoline and diesel. A Marathon refinery that had a crude oil refining capacity of 166,000 barrels per day is being retrofitted to produce biodiesel and is expected to be producing biofuel next year. Similarly, Global Clean Energy is converting a 66,000-barrel-per-day-capacity refinery in Bakersfield to biodiesel, and World Energy has invested $350 million to convert a 50,000-barrel-per-day-capacity refinery to biodiesel.

    California regulators and legislators are getting what they want: less crude oil produced and consumed. And Californians, particularly low- and middle-income households, are paying a dear price for the preferences of those Tesla-driving legislators and regulators as fuel demand remains against a diminishing supply of gasoline and diesel.

    You cannot build something from nothing. Thus, California’s EV conundrums will most likely grow as everything that needs electricity, and every infrastructure, has parts and components that are made from oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil, from the light bulb to the iPhone, defibrillator, and all the parts of toilets, spacecraft, and EVs.

    Author

    Ronald Stein

    Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”

    Permanent California Drought Update

    One year ago, 99.77% of California was under drought conditions. Today, California is 100% drought free – and we’re entering into the rainiest part of the year.

    From Watts Up With That?

    A year ago

    Yesterday

    https://www.drought.gov/states/california

    0% of California in drought.

    Here are some articles on California’s new permanent extreme mega super dooper humongous drought.

    Rains helped, but drought is part of California’s ‘new normal’

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-drought-may-be-the-new-normal/

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/us/california-summer-drought-worst-on-record/index.html

    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56225862

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-01/california-drought-will-continue-after-dry-winter

    https://www.newsweek.com/california-extreme-weather-normal-1789458

    Growing up in California, after every major series of rainstorms since the 70’s, all articles and news stories always were ended with the suffix: But the drought’s not over!

    H/T Brian Lund on X, formerly Twitter

    Sacramento Bee Won’t Attribute Mild Wildfire Season to Climate Change, Falsely Claims the Inverse

    JUNIPER HILLS, CA – SEPTEMBER 20: The remains of a burned home as the Bobcat fire continues to burn in the Angeles National Forest in Juniper Hills Sunday, Sept. 20, 2020. Some houses and structures in the Juniper Hills area were lost in the Bobcat fire but most were saved. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

    Wildfires are not getting more severe or lasting amid climate change. Worldwide, the number of wildfires and acreage lost to them has actually declined over time.

    From ClimateREALISM

    By Linnea Lueken

    A recent article in the Sacramento Bee (The Bee) claims that this year’s mild wildfire season in California shouldn’t be attributed to climate change, and also that climate change has caused California wildfires to be more severe. The first point is partially true, a single season’s mild weather should not be attributed to climate change, but neither should extremes in the other direction. The second point is false, climate change has not in fact increased the severity of California’s wildfire seasons.

    The article, “California has had another calm wildfire season so far. Here’s why, according to experts,” discusses the last two years of relatively calm wildfire seasons. Although this is good news for fire-prone California, The Bee warns readers “don’t attribute this year’s mildness to climate change just yet.”

    The Bee explains:

    The number of acres burned so far this year is less than one third of the five-year average, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Experts attribute the drop to this year’s historic winter storms and a record snowpack that soaked the state.

    But those atmospheric river storms also created ample new vegetation growth that can act as fuel, state fire officials said. And with the help of gusty fall winds in the weeks ahead, wildfires could still ignite and grow through November or even into December.

    It is true that excess vegetation growth can add fuel to fires if and when the brush dries out, this is part of what happened in Maui this year that led to their devastating killer wildfire. Invasive Guinea grass grew lushly during a mild and wet spring, then dried out in the summer weather and created an abundance of extremely flammable material.

    It is interesting to note that while the winter weather and atmospheric river events were intense this year in California, it was not unusual or historically unprecedented, as discussed in Climate Realism posts here, here, and here. The Bee goes on to say that unless wildfires suddenly spike this fall and winter, the state “will be experiencing its second straight year of mild wildfire after having endured California’s worst wildfire seasons on record.”

    It’s almost as if an average is made up of higher-than-average years and lower-than-average years.

    The real kicker from The Bee is what follows, that scientists “are confident that warming temperatures have helped increase the severity and length of fire seasons,” but on the flip side, they are “reticent” to make similar claims when the fire seasons are mild.

    But they are wrong in the first point regardless, wildfires are not getting more severe or lasting amid climate change. Worldwide, the number of wildfires and acreage lost to them has actually declined over time. Climate Realism has pointed to the data in numerous posts. NASA satellite data show that carbon dioxide emissions have no impact whatsoever on wildfire occurrence. (See figure below)

    Figure 1: Graphically combined figures for CO2 and Wildfire burned area, with numerical values of yearly CO2 concentrations for 1982 and 2018 added at those years. Combination and scale matching by Anthony Watts, source for CO2 data is here: https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_annmean_mlo.txt

    The best explanations then for regional upticks in fires are differences in forest management practices, arson, as well as improper maintenance of power lines in the case of California, or combinations of factors that can lead to massive infernos.

    California is particularly prone to seasons of drought a deluge, and one of the people interviewed by The Bee, Hugh Safford, chief scientist of Vibrant Planet and faculty of the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy, admits as much when he says “California has the highest inter-annual variability and precipitation of any state[.]” Safford says it’s “normal to go from a record wet year to a record, or nearly record, dry year and that’s just the way it is.” This is completely true, and is in line with what Climate Realism has reported regarding California weather history, explained in detail in “Mega-droughts and Mega-floods in the West All Occurred Well Before ‘climate change’ Was Blamed for Every Weather Event,” by meteorologist Anthony Watts.

    The Sacramento Bee and the scientists they interviewed are probably right to hesitate to attribute two years of mild fire seasons to climate change, however they should practice the same caution when conditions are inevitably reversed at some point. The Bee does conclude its post by saying the state is doing better about fire prevention. They also quote California Fire’s assistant chief, who tells the public to maintain their properties to prevent the spread of potential fires. This is actually useful advice, and instead of blaming fires on human carbon dioxide emissions, they should pressure local governments to likewise take more initiative on clearing brush, logging dead trees, and other preventative measures.

    Linnea Lueken

    Linnea Lueken