The Week That Was: 2025 02-15 (February 15, 2025)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.” — Carl Sagan (1934-1996) [H/t William Readdy]
Number of the Week: 15%
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: TWTW will continue with questioning whether climate science is a physical science. It begins with the Greenhouse Effect. Then continues with The Blue Marble, issues of forecasting rain with climate models, and a discussion on cloudy skies. Discussions also include topics such as the Texas blackout four years ago, the Paris Agreement, and the IEA politicizing its standards. Findings about USAID funding other organizations are discussed.
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The Greenhouse Effect: In discussing whether climate science is a physical science, TWTW stated:
“Satellite observations using spectroscopy instruments have verified ideas suggested by Karl Schwarzschild during WW I: different atmospheric gases, called greenhouse gases, interfere with (block) the emission of infrared radiation (IR) from the surface of Earth to space. This was first revealed by the Nimbus satellite flying near Guam in 1970. When intensity is plotted against frequency (wave numbers, the number, or wavelengths per centimeter), the Schwarzschild calculations produce a jagged curve which was observed. The Planck curve on the emission of IR from the surface produces a smooth curve. The difference between the two is the Greenhouse Effect.”
Reader Christopher Game objected, stating that the part in boldface is a poor definition of the greenhouse effect. Although UN IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report uses that definition and assigns the symbol G to it, TWTW fully agrees, and that the sentence should include the phrase “a measurement of” to read: The difference between the two is a measurement of the Greenhouse Effect.”
The particular observations were taken on a clear sky near Guam in 1970. In their papers AMO physicists William van Wijngaarden and William Happer have used the differences in other locations to test their model of calculations using the HITRAN database. For example, their paper published in the Science of Climate Change, Figure 9 (p.5) compares their model calculations with observations taken over the Sahara, the Mediterranean, and Antarctica.
“The right column of Fig. 9 shows spectra of long wave thermal infrared radiation that reaches the satellite from a cloud-free area of the Earth. On the left are theoretically modelled spectra. One can hardly tell the difference between the modelled and observed spectra.”
The vertical axis of each graph shows that the intensity of the radiation varies significantly by locations. The caption under the Figure states:
“Figure 9: Comparison of modeled for a clear sky with data observed by a Michelson interferometer in a satellite over the Saharan desert, the Mediterranean and Antarctica. … Radiative forcing is negative over wintertime Antarctica since the relatively warm greenhouse gases in the troposphere, mostly CO2, O3 and H2O radiate more to space than the cold ice surface at a temperature of T = 190 K [minus 83 C, minus 117 F], could radiate through a transparent atmosphere.”
Further, both the calculations and the observations show that the intensity of the radiation is significantly greater over the Sahara than over the Mediterranean. Thus, on Earth the greenhouse effect varies significantly with the latitude and with the atmospheric conditions of the location. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer.
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The Blue Marble: Writing for the CO2 Coalition, Vijay Jayaraj authored an easy-to-understand essay explaining key parts of the above-mentioned paper. Jayaraj states:
“Carbon dioxide (CO₂) has been predominantly portrayed as the chief culprit driving global warming. For decades, this misconception has guided international policies, prompted ambitious targets for reducing CO2 emissions and driven a shift from reliable and affordable energy resources like coal, oil, and natural gas toward problematic wind and solar sources.
However, this theory overlooks important factors that influence Earth’s climate system, including a critical variable in the climate system – the role of clouds, which remains woefully underestimated.
Recent work by physicists W. A. van Wijngaarden and William Happer challenges this prevailing paradigm: Their new paper, “Radiation Transport in Clouds,” suggests clouds affect atmospheric temperature more than CO2 because they have a greater impact on the comparative amounts of solar energy entering Earth’s atmosphere and escaping to outer space. [Boldface added.]
The Overshadowed Influence of Clouds
Clouds simultaneously reflect incoming sunlight back to space (cooling the Earth) and trap outgoing heat (warming the Earth). This dual nature makes clouds both powerful and perplexing players in our climate system. The net effect of clouds on climate is a balance between these opposing influences, thus a central component of the Earth’s energy budget.
A recent study by van Wijngaarden and Happer, titled “Radiation Transport in Clouds,” delves into this complexity. The 2025 paper says the radiation effects of clouds can easily negate or amplify the impact of CO2. The researchers highlight that clouds have a more pronounced effect on Earth’s radiation budget than greenhouse gases like CO₂.
For instance, their research reveals that a modest decrease in low cloud cover could significantly increase solar heating of the Earth’s surface. In comparison, a doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentrations reduces radiation to space by a mere 1%: “Instantaneously doubling CO₂ concentrations, a 100% increase, only decreases radiation to space by about 1%. To increase solar heating of the Earth by a few percent, low cloud cover only needs to decrease by a few percent.” [Boldface italics in original]
This stark contrast highlights the disproportionate influence of cloud dynamics compared to CO2 fluctuations. Most state-of-the-art climate models are still in their infancy. We need more accurate measurements of clouds’ properties and their influence on the electromagnetic components of solar radiation if they are to be useful inputs for climate models.”
Last week, TWTW cited work by Tim Palmer, a pioneer in the development of operational ensemble weather and climate forecasting who stated:
“The direct warming due to a doubling of carbon dioxide is a little over 1°C. However, if we add this water vapor feedback, the warming doubles to just over 2°C (3.6°F).”
Yet, TWTW has not been able to find any effort by modelers to understand how this increase in water vapor influences clouds which have a significant cooling effect. In Climate, History, and the Modern World, climate research pioneer H.H. Lamb discusses how cloudiness was a characteristic in Europe of the Little Ice Age, with severe periods of starvation and strange diseases when crops did not ripen. It is sad that the IPCC and its collaborators totally ignore these glaring faults in their work. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer and Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Forecasting Rain: Writing in the journal “Water,” Demetris Koutsoyiannis asks “When are [Global Climate] Models Useful? In his presentation with significant mathematics, Koutsoyiannis uses data from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project. However, apparently the program has been discontinued, and the dataset runs from 1983 to 2018. Why this valuable program was discontinued is hard to say. Yet based on the data available from this and other sources, Koutsoyiannis concludes:
“The real-world application presented is a large-scale comparison of climatic model outputs for precipitation with reality over the last 84 years. It turns out that the precipitation simulated by the climate models does not agree with reality on the annual scale, but there is some improvement on larger time scales on a hemispheric basis. However, when the areal scale is decreased from hemispheric to continental, i.e., when Europe is examined, the model performance is poor even at large time scales. Therefore, the usefulness of climate model results for hydrological purposes is doubtful.” [Boldface added]
In short, after-the-fact claims that global climate models predict floods, droughts, etc., are of no specific value. The models are of no use (in forecasting specific events) years, or even months ahead. See links under Model Issues.
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Cloudy Skies: Also, NASA has apparently stopped researching Earth’s cloudiness. A 2015 article states: [The image is omitted here but is in the article, Boldface added.]
“Decades of satellite observations and astronaut photographs show that clouds dominate space-based views of Earth. One study based on nearly a decade of satellite data estimated that about 67 percent of Earth’s surface is typically covered by clouds. This is especially the case over the oceans, where other research shows less than 10 percent of the sky is completely clear of clouds at any one time. Over land, 30 percent of skies are completely cloud free.
Earth’s cloudy nature is unmistakable in this global cloud fraction map, based on data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. While MODIS collects enough data to make a new global map of cloudiness every day, this version of the map shows an average of all of the satellite’s cloud observations between July 2002 and April 2015. Colors range from dark blue (no clouds) to light blue (some clouds) to white (frequent clouds).
There are three broad bands where Earth’s skies are most likely to be cloudy: a narrow strip near the equator and two wider strips in the mid-latitudes. The band near the equator is a function of the large-scale circulation patterns—or Hadley cells—present in the tropics. Hadley cells are defined by cool air sinking near the 30-degree latitude line north and south of the equator and warm air rising near the equator where winds from separate Hadley cells converge. (The diagram here illustrates where Hadley cells are located and how they behave.) As warm, moist air converges at lower altitudes near the equator, it rises and cools and therefore can hold less moisture. This causes water vapor to condense into cloud particles and produces a dependable band of thunderstorms in an area known as the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).
Clouds also tend to form in abundance in the middle latitudes 60 degrees north and south of the equator. This is where the edges of polar and mid-latitude (or Ferrel) circulation cells collide and push air upward, fueling the formation of the large-scale frontal systems that dominate weather patterns in the mid-latitudes. While clouds tend to form where air rises as part of atmospheric circulation patterns, descending air inhibits cloud formation. Since air descends between about 15 and 30 degrees north and south of the equator, clouds are rare, and deserts are common at this latitude.”
As stated by Nobel Laureate John Clauser, and by AMO physicist Howard Hayden in his essays on Basic Climate Physics, clouds are vital to understanding Earth’s energy balance and Earth’s climate. Why such work which is of scientific and practical value has been stopped is not clear. See links under Measurement Issues – Atmosphere and Scientific Papers posted by SEPP in 2022 https://www.sepp.org/science_papers.cfm?whichyear=2022; 2023 https://www.sepp.org/science_papers.cfm?whichyear=2023; and 2024 https://www.sepp.org/science_papers.cfm?whichyear=2024
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Not a Market Failure: Writing in Master Resource Robert Bradley Jr. revisits the Texas blackout from winter storm Uri, which caused the wholesale electricity market of the Independent Systems Operator ERCOT to buckle and almost fail. The mainstream media misrepresented the event as a failure of natural gas. Indeed, the just in time delivery of natural gas failed when crucial electric pumps needed for just-in-time delivery failed, when the grid went down. This underscores the need for reliable storage at or near natural gas plants and for back-up power for pumps to deliver the gas. Solar, wind, and battery storage cannot deliver the necessary electricity during such a storm. Yet, government officials claim they will solve the issue by adding more wind, solar, and batteries.
Bradley cites the late American economist Donald Lavoie on market economies:
“If the guiding agency is less knowledgeable than the system it is trying to guide—and even worse, if its actions necessarily result in further undesired consequences in the working of that system—then what is going on is not planning at all but, rather, blind interference by some agents with the plans of others.”
As a whole, politicians know less about the electricity delivery industry than electrical utilities and their regulators; and should stay out, other than assuring the delivery is safe, reliable, and affordable. This applies to other states as well; especially California, New York, and the New England states. Some years ago, New England rejected new natural gas pipelines and now New York has banned them. Recent cold snaps have reduced natural gas storage inventory for these states. It will be interesting to see how these states fare after the current snow and ice storm and the severe cold that is forecast to occur later in the week. See links under Questioning Green Elsewhere and Energy Issues – US.
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Paris Agreement: The Website of the Paris Agreement states:
“The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on 12 December 2015. It entered into force on 4 November 2016.
Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
However, in recent years, world leaders have stressed the need to limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of this century.
That’s because the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves, and rainfall.
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030.
The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations together to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.” [Boldface in original]
The claim that it is a legally binding international treaty is false. In the US, it is not a treaty nor legally binding because President Obama, whose administration signed it, did not submit it to the US Senate for concurrence. He knew he would not get a two-thirds majority vote of the Senators present.
The Paris agreement called for the parties of the agreement to submit their “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs), to the UN by February 10. Less than 7% did. According to Carbon Brief:
“Only two of the group of seven (G7) nations – the US and the UK – have come forward with new climate plans. However, the US submitted its NDC before the inauguration last month of Donald Trump, who has already begun the process of delivering his campaign promise to withdraw the nation from the Paris Agreement.
These countries, along with the [following] nations met the deadline – Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Switzerland, Uruguay, Andorra, Ecuador and Saint Lucia, the Marshall Islands, Singapore, and Zimbabwe.”
Further:
“Analysis by climate research group Climate Action Tracker has found that the new 2035 NDCs of Brazil, the UAE, the US, and Switzerland are ‘not compatible’ with a pathway for limiting global warming to 1.5C.
It also found that the UK’s new NDC is ‘1.5C compatible’ but noted that the nation would need to increase its spending on helping other countries tackle their emissions in order to do its ‘fair share’ towards reaching the Paris goals.
The group has not yet analyzed New Zealand’s NDC, but a climate expert within the country described it as ‘shockingly unambitious’.”
It appears that the upcoming Conference of Parties (COP30) in Brazil will be less than a joyous affair for those who wish to control world prosperity by calling carbon dioxide a pollutant. See link under After Paris! and https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:~:text=The%20Paris%20Agreement%20is%20a,force%20on%204%20November%202016.
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Politicizing Standards: After the Arab Oil Embargo (1973) the International Energy Agency (IEA) was formed to provide members states with accurate information on global oil production and consumption and to make accurate projections. Since the Paris Agreement, the IEA appears to be doing the bidding of the UN IPCC, rather than making accurate projections. In “Energy Delusions: Peak Oil Forecasts,” Mark P. Mills and Neil Atkinson of National Center for Energy Analytics write:
“Executive Summary: Flawed Assumptions Lead to Dangerous ‘Forecasts’
For decades, the International Energy Agency (IEA) was the world’s gold standard for energy information and credible analyses. Following the commitment of its member governments to the 2015 Paris Agreement climate accords, the agency radically changed its mission to become a promoter of an energy transition. In 2022, the IEA’s governing board reinforced its mission to ‘guide countries as they build net-zero emission energy systems to comply with internationally agreed climate goals.’”
This explains why TWTW no longer considers the forecasts by IEA credible. See link under Energy Issues – Non-US.
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USAID: Last week, TWTW had a link to a post by Jo Nova that it found so surprising that TWTW delayed commenting on it until the assertion was verified. According to the post, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) gave tens of millions of dollars in grants to the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF conducts highly publicized winter annual meetings a Davos, Switzerland, which are attended by very wealthy people who fly in on private jets to listen to wealthy people talk about shaping global, regional, and industrial issues. The January 20-24, 2025, meeting had a theme of “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age” and a focus of “Reimagining growth, investing in people, safeguarding the planet, and rebuilding trust.” Jo Nova termed the WEF as “the billionaires ski club.”
On Monday, TWTW confirmed one of the grants posted on USASPENDING.gov. The website stated that the grant of $52,198,366 started on September 21, 2015, under the Obama Administration and will end on September 30, 2026. The total outlays have been $35,132,000.
According to its archived website, USAID was formed under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and President John Kennedy said:
“There is no escaping our obligations: our moral obligations as a wise leader and good neighbor in the interdependent community of free nations – our economic obligations as the wealthiest people in a world of largely poor people, as a nation no longer dependent upon the loans from abroad that once helped us develop our own economy – and our political obligations as the single largest counter to the adversaries of freedom.”
Why USAID should give grants to the wealthy who promote policies that oppose providing the poor with reliable and affordable electricity and the use of fossil fuels for cooking is a mystery. To improve general prosperity, poor nations are better off following the China example than listening to the WEF or USAID that funds it. See links under Funding Issues for the USAID grant and other criticisms of USAID and https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/who-we-are/usaid-history.
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Number of the Week: 15%: As atmospheric physicist Richard Lindzen has stated, the administrations of major universities have grown enormously, in part from taking a large share of research grant money for indirect expenses. Some universities take up to 60% to 70% for such unquantified “expenses.” William Briggs brings attention to a February 7 press release by the US National Institutes of Health that may change this practice. The press release states:
“For any new grant issued, and for all existing grants to IHEs retroactive to the date of issuance of this Supplemental Guidance, award recipients are subject to a 15 percent indirect cost rate. This rate will allow grant recipients a reasonable and realistic recovery of indirect costs while helping NIH ensure that grant funds are, to the maximum extent possible, spent on furthering its mission. This policy shall be applied to all current grants for [to go forward,] go forward expenses from February 10, 2025, forward as well as for all new grants issued. We will not be applying this cap retroactively back to the initial date of issuance of current grants to IHEs, although we believe we would have the authority to do so under 45 CFR 75.414(c).” [Boldface added]
If this 15% indirect cost rate is widely implemented, it may have great bearing on academic publications on climate change.
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
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
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
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
https://wvanwijngaarden.info.yorku.ca/files/2020/12/WThermal-Radiationf.pdf?x45936
Radiation Transport in Clouds
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Klimarealistene, Science of Climate Change, January 2025
Challenging the Orthodoxy
Underestimating Clouds: A Climate Mistake We Cannot Afford
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Feb 11, 2025
Year 2024 NOAA Measured Sea level Rise Data Show [That] Climate Alarmists CO2 Driven Sea Level Rise Acceleration Claims Have Spectacularly Failed
By Larry Hamlin, WUWT, Feb 9, 2025
Link to report: U.S. Sea Level Trend Map (2017), Data 2024
By Staff, NOAA, Accessed, Feb 13, 2025
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/mslUSTrendsTable.html
The end is nigh… for alarmism
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 12, 2025
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
The United States Can Beat China on Solar
By Alexander Joyce, Real Clear Energy, Feb 10, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/02/10/the_united_states_can_beat_china_on_solar_1090423.html
[SEPP Comment: Why bother to be dominant in unreliable electricity?]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Children aren’t going to know what spring is
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 12, 2025
But why would anyone want an early spring, harbinger of climate breakdown? Oh right. Because warmth is good.
After Paris!
It’s a global catastrophe but nearly every nation in Earth missed the UN deadline for new climate targets
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 12, 2025
UN Climate Talks, 10 February 2025
Analysis: 95% of countries miss UN deadline to submit 2035 climate pledges
By Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief, Feb 10, 2025
Trump rescinds $4b of outstanding pledges to the UN Green Climate Fund, and hardly anyone noticed
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 11, 2025
Change in US Administrations
Climate Change Weekly # 533 —Trump’s Energy and Climate EOs Thus Far: Pt. 2
By H. Sterling Burnett, The Heartland Institute, Feb 7, 2025
Hurricane DOGE Sweeps into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA tried to dodge the Trump DEI Executive Order, so now it is being audited by Elon Musk’s team…and their quest is upsetting social justice warriors and climate cultists.
By Leslie Eastman, Legal Insurrection, Feb 7, 2025
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/02/hurricane-doge-sweeps-into-the-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
Percent dry weight (biomass) increase for chickpea from extra atmospheric CO2
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 12, 2025
From the CO2Science Archive
Problems in the Orthodoxy
China Still Building Coal Power Plants
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 14, 2025
From the article:
“But according to a report from the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) in the United States, China began construction on 94.5 gigawatts of coal power projects in 2024 — 93 percent of the global total.”
Seeking a Common Ground
The North American Fire Deficit
A fascinating new study with incredible findings
By Roger Pielke Jr. His Blog, Feb 12, 2025
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/the-north-american-fire-deficit?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=119454&post_id=156992923&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=f7h7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Link to paper: A fire deficit persists across diverse North American forests despite recent increases in area burned
By Sean A. Parks, et al., Nature Communications, Feb 10, 2025
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56333-8
Science, Policy, and Evidence
In Dealing With China, Trump May Have a Trick Up His Sleeve
By Bonner Russell Cohen, Real Clear Energy, Feb 14, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/02/14/in_dealing_with_china_trump_may_have_a_trick_up_his_sleeve_1091550.html
Model Issues
New Study: Today’s Climate Models ‘Do Not Agree With Reality’ And Thus Their Usefulness Is ‘Doubtful’
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Feb 11, 2025
Link to paper: When Are Models Useful? Revisiting the Quantification of Reality Checks
By Demetris Koutsoyiannis, Water, Jan 18, 2025
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/17/2/264
Link to: International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project
By Staff, NASA-GISS,
https://isccp.giss.nasa.gov/role.html#COMP_MODS
Link to: Cloud Properties – ISCCP H-Series CDR
Principal Investigator William Rossow, CCNY, for
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/climate-data-records/cloud-properties-isccp
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
Cloudy Earth
By Adam Voiland, NASA, May 8, 2015
Changing Weather
The 2024 Hurricane Season
Press Release, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, Jan 28, 2025
Full report: The 2024 Hurricane Season
By Paul Homewood, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2025
Very Favorable Water Situation in California
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Feb 10, 2025
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2025/02/very-favorable-water-situation-in.html
Attribution of a record-breaking cold event in the historically warmest year of 2023 and assessing future risks
By Yangbo Ye, et al., NPJ, Climate and Atmospheric Science, Jan 13, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-024-00886-w
Changing Climate – Cultures & Civilizations
Another New Study Finds Warming Has Missed China For Centuries
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Feb 14, 2025
Link to paper: Non-Negligible Factors Influence Tree-Ring-Based Temperature Reconstruction and Comparison over Mid-Latitude China
By Zeyu Zheng, et al., Atmosphere, Jan 27, 2025
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/2/137
From the abstract: These inconsistent changes can be attributed to the regional differences in the May–July mean maximum temperature change, the influence of different precipitation signals on the maximum temperature, and the El Niño–Southern Oscillations.
Changing Seas
Disappearing New York
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Feb 14, 2025
A climate change signal in the tropical Pacific emerges from decadal variability
By Feng Jiang, et al., Nature Communications, Sep 27, 2024 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52731-6
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
#LookItUp: Arctic sea ice volume
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 12, 2025
Link to data: Modelled Arctic Sea Ice
By Staff, Danish Meteorological Institute, Accessed Feb 12, 2025
https://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icethickness/thk.uk.php
From Robson: We are in an ice age, a geological epoch in which there is persistent year-round ice at the poles and have been for 2.58 million years. (Or 34, if you use the definition of ice at one pole.) What is often colloquially called an “ice age”, when the ice sheets spread south and cover large parts of the continents, is properly a “glaciation” and the relatively balmy and livable interval we are currently enjoying, the Holocene, is called an “interglacial”.
We fearlessly predict that by the end of the winter (April) Arctic sea ice will be well over 20,000 cubic km. And we wouldn’t be surprised if it begins edging up towards 25,000 again, but we’ll have to wait and see. And when the time comes, we’ll #Lookitup.
Reuters “Fact Checks” Antarctic Sea Ice Climate Claims
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Feb 12, 2025
One thing seems clear. Regardless of what you read, hear or see in the media, nobody truly understands the global climate system, especially when it comes to the behavior of polar sea ice.
Changing Earth
EXCLUSIVE: Sensational Findings Point to Hunga Tonga Eruption as Prime Suspect Behind Recent Temperature Spike
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Feb 8, 2025 [H/t Paul Homewood]
Link to paper: Long-Term Temperature Impacts of the Hunga Volcanic Eruption in the Stratosphere and Above
By William J. Randel, Geophysical Research Letters, Nov 4, 2024
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL111500
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Modern Scientific Controversies: The War on Food: Part 4
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, Feb 14, 2025
Lowering Standards
Teardrops at the National Science Foundation
By David Middleton, WUWT, Feb 11, 2025
The Vibe comes for Academic Publishing
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, Feb 10, 2025
Why Don’t The Met Office Tell The Truth About UK Storms?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 13, 2025
Cooling Australia’s Past
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Feb 12, 2025
Marble Bar, West Australia set the world record of 160 consecutive days over 100F (38C) during the summer of 1923-1924. This inconvenient history has since been deleted from the BOM website.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
BBC Verify Why Energy Bills Are Not Coming Down
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 8, 2025
If BBC Verify was doing its job properly, it would have looked at NESO’s Clean Power 2030 report, which makes clear that grid upgrades, curtailment costs, storage will INCREASE electricity costs by £25/MWh by 2030 – another £8 billion on our energy bills.
No, BBC, a Small Panamanian Island is Not Drowning Due to Climate Change
By Anthoy Watts, WUWT, Feb 11, 2025
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
New report uncovers surprising potential for out-of-commission wind turbines: ‘Innovation is key’
These new techniques are being applied by researchers and leaders across the industry.
By Margaret Wong. TCD, Feb 11, 2025
Link to article: USA Can Recycle 90% of Wind Turbine Mass
By Staff, US Department of Energy, Jan 7, 2025
Link to report: Recycling Wind Energy Systems in the United States Wind
Part 1: Providing a Baseline for America’s Wind Energy Recycling Infrastructure for Wind Turbines and Systems: Research, Development, and Demonstration Needs, Gaps, and Opportunities
By Multiple authors from NREL and Oak Ridge Nation Laboratory, January 2025
[SEPP Comment: Bureaucratic fluff. A plan to explore what to do. They don’t know what to do with the main problem: Fiber-Reinforced Composites. The massive concrete and steel foundations are not mentioned.]
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
New York To Drown Soon
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Feb 14, 2025
Link to; New York State Climate Impacts Assessment: Understanding and Preparing for Our Changing Climate
A scientific investigation into how climate change is affecting the communities, ecosystems, infrastructure, and industries of the Empire State.
By Staff, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
From Heller:
“On January 13, 2024, the day that the photographs above were taken, it measured water levels three feet higher than predicted.”
“the team predicts that in the next decade, water levels at the coastline of the Battery could rise nearly as much as they did in the previous 100 years, increasing seven to 11 inches by the 2030s.”
[SEPP Comment: On January 13, 2024, the NYC Battery experienced a Spring Tide (tides higher than normal). Incoming storms drive tides even higher.]
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/noaatidepredictions.html?id=8518750&units=standard&bdate=20240113&edate=20240115&timezone=LST/LDT&clock=12hour&datum=MLLW&interval=hilo&action=dailychart
Data versus slogans
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 12, 2025
The Canadian government puts out an endless barrage of press releases starting with some variant of “Across the country, the impacts of climate change are becoming more severe and more frequent with extreme events like floods, wildfires and heatwaves on the rise. Gradual changes, like thawing permafrost in the north and rising sea levels in coastal regions, are also affecting the safety of our communities and quality of life.” What they never provide is any data showing that these things really are on the rise, or that they are “affecting the safety of our community” or their “quality of life”.
Mercury falling
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 12, 2025
And another thing. We’re repeatedly told that a warming of 1.5C would be worse than the worst catastrophe ever except 2C and we need to consign ourselves to the poor house to prevent it. So surely, it’s remarkable to think that the world’s troposphere cooled by a third of that amount over the past year and no one noticed or, if they did notice, thought it worth mentioning at all, let alone celebrating.
Questioning European Green
Clean Power 2030 Plan Will Cost £242 Billion
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 14, 2025
The current fleet of CCGTs won’t last forever, of course, but Miliband will still need to pay to replace these anyway, whether like for like, or with CCS gas power or hydrogen. And in twenty years’ time, we would be facing another £200 billion to replace the worn out wind turbines and solar panels.
It does not take a genius to work out that these numbers don’t stack up! Even if gas prices were to double, the equation would not alter.
Net Zero Dreams Meet Energy Affordability Reality
By Tsvetana Paraskova, Oil Price.com, Feb 10, 2025
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Net-Zero-Dreams-Meet-Energy-Affordability-Reality.html
Energy producers are also acknowledging that clean energy will need more time to become a profitable business than initially expected. Since the energy crisis of 2022, the big European oil and gas firms have reduced investments in low-carbon energy and pledged to boost oil and gas production, in yet another U-turn of strategic priorities.
Net Zero Cure Worse Than Climate Change Disease
My talk for Sacred Cows, slaying the Net Zero myths and Government approach to climate change.
By David Turver, Eigen Values, Feb 9, 2025
https://davidturver.substack.com/p/net-zero-cure-worse-than-climate-change-disease
Mitigation Can Never Work
The trouble with this approach is that it can only work if two conditions are met. First, mitigation can only work if CO2 is the only climate control knob. But we know this to be wrong, because the IPCC’s first report showed marked temperature fluctuations over thousand-, ten thousand- and million-year timescales when CO2 levels in the atmosphere were pretty constant. Second, mitigation can only work if everyone else follows the same strategy. But we know that global emissions of greenhouse gases are rising sharply even though ours have fallen into insignificance. Global consumption of coal, oil and gas are at record levels.
Questioning Green Elsewhere
The Great Texas Blackout Revisited: Market Failure Not
By Robert Bradley Jr. Master Resource, Feb 14, 2025
Five Things to Know About Power Supply to Data Centers
By Cliff Vrielink, Sidley Austin LLP, et al., Via Power Mag, Jan 30, 2025
https://www.powermag.com/five-things-to-know-about-power-supply-to-data-centers/?utm_source=omeda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pwrtddirect+eletter&oly_enc_id=7809H6412578J0B
Data Centers Have High Around-the-Clock Energy Demand.
It still isn’t easy being green
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 12, 2025
Why Overturning Net Zero Hurts China
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Feb 13, 2025
Green Jobs
The Great Green Rebranding: Climate Policies Shift from “Saving the Planet” to “Creating Jobs”
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Feb 8, 2025
Funding Issues
Trump Slashing The Cancerous “The Science” Bloat: Cut Cut Cut!
By William Briggs, His Blog, Feb 12, 2025 [H/t Ron Clutz]
https://wmbriggs.substack.com/p/trump-slashing-the-cancerous-the
Link to announcement: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates
Press Release, Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health, Feb 7, 2025
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-068.html
USAID Grant to World Economic Forum
By Staff, USASPENDING.gov, Accessed Feb 10, 2025
https://www.usaspending.gov/search/?hash=df6e1268a8670647f1bd05cf42ff0beb
Specific questions must be addressed
USAID bonfire keeps growing: US government helps terrorist states, and gave $270m to “independent” media every year
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 8, 2025
The newest addition to the grift, graft and fraud list are terrorist organizations. — USAID sent $310 million US dollars to Hamas to build a cement factory in Gaza which would have helped make the tunnels of terror. Senator John Kennedy said Mr Musk discovered the American taxpayer was also giving money to Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, and even $10 million to an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group called the Nusra Front. So far, Musk and co, with his team of hot young tech-coders, have found that USAID spent $164 million to support radical organizations around the world.
USAID RIP
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 12, 2025
Sounds like a swamp thing to us. Though thanks to the Office of Inspector General of USAID we were able to learn that:
“…. Weaknesses in the Agency’s processes for awarding funds, managing performance, and communicating climate change information could impede successful implementation of its strategy. While USAID reported $2.6 billion in funding for climate change mitigation from fiscal year 2011 to 2021, the Agency lacked complete information to effectively identify and support decisions regarding its resource needs. We also found that USAID’s performance management process did not produce useful information for assessing its mitigation results. Finally, the Agency lacked efficient processes for communicating comprehensive, consolidated information on its mitigation efforts to stakeholders….”
The EPA’s Titanic Blunder: A $20 Billion Betrayal of Public Trust
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Feb 13, 2025
Zeldin seeks to recoup billions issued by Biden under ‘green bank’ program
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Feb 13, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5142943-epa-zeldin-green-bank-program
Under the program, the Biden administration gave a total of $20 billion to eight institutions that are in charge of doling out the cash to projects aimed at mitigating climate change.
The program was funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, which made $20 billion available for institutions that can provide financial assistance to help deploy climate-friendly products.
Trump effect spreads: The first Australian bank abandons the Climate Banker Club sending “shockwaves”
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 13, 2025
The Political Games Continue
Erasing the IRA’s “greenhouse gas pollution” words
By David Wojick, WUWT, Feb 10, 2025
https://www.cfact.org/2025/02/10/erasing-the-iras-greenhouse-gas-pollution-words
[SEPP Comment: Politicians asserting gases essential for life on Earth are pollutants.]
Reform plans are ‘major threat’ to renewables auction
Press Release, Net Zero Watch, Feb 12, 2025
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/reform-threat-to-renewables-auction
…the announcement will be a major blow to a renewables industry already beset by problems, from soaring capital costs to collapsing demand [elsewhere]. In particular, it threatens the next annual round of the Contracts for Difference renewables auction (AR7).
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
As Last Measure, Biden Administration Unveils $23B in Utility Loan Commitments to Modernize Grid, Boost Clean Energy
By Sonal Patel, Power Mag, Jan 16, 2025
https://www.powermag.com/as-last-measure-biden-administration-unveils-23b-in-utility-loan-commitments-to-modernize-grid-boost-clean-energy/?utm_source=omeda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pwrtddirect+eletter&oly_enc_id=7809H6412578J0B
The financing is provided through the Loan Programs Office’s (LPO’s) Title 17 Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program created by the 2022-enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
How Much Of This Has Been Paid For By The U.S. Taxpayer?
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Feb 14, 2025
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-2-14-how-much-of-this-has-been-paid-for-by-the-us-taxpayer
Another £2 Billion Hand Out To Drax
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 10, 2025
Ed Miliband has extended subsidies for Drax’s tree burners for another four years, to 2031.
EPA and other Regulators on the March
Decriminalizing carbon dioxide: The unraveling of EPA’s flawed Endangerment Finding
By Willow Tohi, Natural News, Feb 9, 2025 [H/t SJ Cvrk]
https://www.naturalnews.com/2025-02-09-the-unraveling-of-epas-flawed-endangerment-finding.html
EPA fires nearly 400 workers after OPM order
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Feb 14, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5146618-epa-fires-employees-500-probationary
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fired nearly 400 employees after a directive from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
The EPA has more than 15,000 total staffers, meaning the latest firings impacted around 3 percent of its total workforce.
Trump administration delays implementation of Biden-era appliance efficiency rules
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Feb 14, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5146587-trump-administration-delays-appliance-efficiency-rules
The Energy Department on Friday afternoon announced it would “postpone” Biden’s efficiency rules for lightbulbs, clothes washers and dryers, air conditioners, air compressors and gas-powered water heaters.
“A top priority for President Trump is lowering costs for American families,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a written statement.
“Today’s announcement will foster consumer choice and lower prices — it is a win for all Americans. The people, not the government, should be choosing the home appliances and products they want at prices they can afford,” he added.
SEC announces it will not defend climate disclosure rule
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Feb 11, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5138697-sec-rejects-climate-disclosure-rule
[SEPP Comment: Doubt the SEC required disclosure of the risks of another major glaciation hitting Manhattan and what damage it will do. Glaciation is more likely than “runaway global warming.”]
Energy Issues – Non-US
Energy Delusions: Peak Oil Forecasts
By Mark P. Mills and Neil Atkinson National Center for Energy Analytics, Jan 29, 2025
The UK’s shaky ‘firm’ capacity
By Andrew Montford, Net Zero Watch, Feb 10, 2025
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/the-coming-capacity-crunch
As many readers know, the GB electricity grid narrowly missed a blackout at the start of January. As was widely reported that the time, it looks as though we were down to our last half a gigawatt of spare capacity. After that, the only option available to grid managers is to switch people off, either through voluntary arrangements (so-called ‘demand-side response’) or through compulsion – rolling blackouts, in other words.
How much longer it can be kept from sinking remains to be seen.
[SEPP Comment: Batteries are counted as “firm capacity?” How long will they last?]
Green Britain has 400GW of Stalled Data Center Requests, 60 – 70% will “Never Happen”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Feb 11, 2025
KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON IN 2030 – Modelling The Neso Clean Power 2030 Plan
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 10, 2025
New CCGT Plant At Eggborough Cancelled
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 9, 2025
Energy Issues – Australia
Abandon net zero, rescue the economy
By Alan Moran, His Blog, Feb 9, 2025
https://amoran.substack.com/p/abandon-net-zero-rescue-the-economy?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1824724&post_id=156827915&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=f7h7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
[SEPP Comment: The graph shows electricity prices in Germany and the UK are more than three times those of India and China. Prices in Australia are below France but above Spain.]
Energy Issues — US
Honey, I Shrunk the Power Plant!
By Kevin Kilty, WUWT, Feb 10, 2025
Slowly, too slowly I’d say, it is dawning on people that a reliable network supplying adequate supplies of affordable energy is one of the few things that separates, Massachusetts say, from becoming the equivalent of Albania; or more to the point of this essay preventing Wyoming from becoming like Afghanistan. This is not a made-up crisis.
A Pragmatic Response to the Energy Crisis
By Danny Ervin, Real Clear Energy, Feb 13, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/02/13/a_pragmatic_response_to_the_energy_crisis_1091295.html
Today’s economy relies on a stable, affordable electricity supply available around the clock, regardless of weather conditions. However, baseload power plants are closing prematurely, and if this trend continues, disruptions in electricity supply may occur. Many industries depend on a constant flow of power, and without a reliable energy source, they may relocate to countries with more practical energy policies, taking jobs overseas.
Trump formally establishes new energy council
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Feb 14, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5146202-trump-american-energy-council-burgum
Trump’s Energy Orders Will Help Secure American Dominance
By Patrice Douglas, Real Clear Energy, Feb 10, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/02/10/trumps_energy_orders_will_help_secure_american_dominance_1090430.html
How Alaska Can Seize the Opportunity of a Trump Presidency
By Dan Brouillette, Real Clear Energy, Feb 13, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/02/13/how_alaska_can_seize_the_opportunity_of_a_trump_presidency_1091301.html
During my tenure as U.S. Secretary of Energy in President Trump’s first term, I witnessed firsthand an unwavering commitment to advancing Alaska’s prosperity. Alaska’s success is a linchpin for national energy independence, and if decisive action is taken now, the impact could be transformative.
[SEPP Comment: Does not mention increasing production in the North Slope to keep the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) pipeline operating.]
Fossil Fuels Save New England From Freezing in the Dark… Again
By David Middleton, WUWT, Feb 12, 2025
Link to: Recent cold snap results in fourth-largest withdrawal from underground natural gas storage
By Staff, EIA, Feb 10, 2025
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64524
“Sustainable Development” vs. Alaska
By Kassie Andrews, Master Resource, Feb 11, 2025
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Energy literacy: Understanding crude oil’s vital role
By Ronald Stein, America Outloud News, Feb 5, 2025
Tariffs or no tariffs, the world wants and needs America’s natural gas
By Gordon Chang, The Hill, Feb 12, 2025
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/5138106-china-tariff-american-lng
Giant Gas Field Discovered Under Lincolnshire
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 14, 2025
I never take these stories seriously, as previous such claims never seem to materialize.
Return of King Coal?
China’s 15% Tariff on American Coal: Why the Impact Will Likely Be Minimal
By Terence L. Headley, Real Clear Energy, Feb 12, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/02/12/chinas_15_tariff_on_american_coal_why_the_impact_will_be_likely_be_minimal_1091052.html
One of the key reasons why the tariff increase is unlikely to severely impact U.S. coal exports is the inelasticity of demand for thermal and steam coal. Demand elasticity refers to the degree to which the quantity demanded of a product changes in response to price fluctuations. In the case of energy commodities like coal, demand tends to be relatively inelastic because there are limited immediate substitutes, and coal remains an essential input for electricity generation and industrial processes, particularly in China.
Nuclear Energy and Fears
France attracts global AI industry with nuclear power — Renewables-nations attract … nothing much
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 14, 2025
Nobody tempts anyone with solar panels, voltage surges, price rises and unreliable power.
Fifty years ago, France built 56 nuclear plants in just 15 years, and they’re still reaping rewards and opportunities from them.
Our Energy Crisis Has a Nuclear Solution
By Jack Spencer, Real Clear Energy, Feb 11, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/02/11/our_energy_crisis_has_a_nuclear_solution_1090736.html
But Trump can accomplish four goals immediately: 1) make energy permitting more efficient, 2) enforce the Russian uranium import ban, 3) reform America’s nuclear waste management program, and 4) improve coordination with allies. Combined, these steps will unleash the potential of American nuclear power as a solution to our energy crisis.
[SEPP Comment: If uranium from Russia is less expensive, why ban it? What about Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository? The US spent about $13.5 billion, and the new cost estimate is $96.2 billion.]
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Yucca-Mountain-cost-estimate-rises-to-$96-billion#:~:text=The%20new%20estimated%20cost%20of,billion%20for%20other%20program%20activities.
Texas Takes Giant Steps Toward Nuclear Energy Dominance
By Duggan Flanakin, Real Clea Energy, Feb 11, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/02/11/texas_takes_giant_steps_toward_nuclear_energy_dominance_1090774.html
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Here’s The Real Hockey Stick
New Treasury Department numbers show that soaring federal handouts for wind & solar dwarf all other energy-related provisions in the tax code will cost taxpayers $421 billion by 2034.
By Robert Bryce, His Blog, Jan 5, 2025
https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/heres-the-real-hockey-stick
Wind, Solar, Batteries: The High Cost of Duplicative Energy
By Bill Peacock, Master Resource, Feb 10, 2025
Wind Blowing Somewhere Does Not Solve the Intermittency Problem
By Roger Caiazza, WUWT, Feb 9, 2025
The Devastating Ecological Carnage Wrought by Wind Turbines
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Feb 11, 2025
Evidence continues to grow that onshore wind turbines are causing heavy ecological carnage, with increasing concern focused on the removal of a vast tonnage of insect life. For obvious political, Net Zero reasons, insect decimation is not a well-funded research area, but work in Germany in 2016 put the loss across the country at 1,200 tonnes a year.
Why Solar Power Does Not Work In Britain
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 12, 2025
Yesterday the combined 18 GW of solar capacity which we already have produced the princely total 3.1 GWh, having peaked at 0.7 GW at midday. That meant they were running on average at just 0.7% of their capacity.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
Green Hydrogen’ Runs out of Gas
By John Mikkelsen, Quadrant, Feb 10, 2025
German Rail Operator Switches Back To Diesel Locomotives, Hopes Measure Will Be Temporary
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Feb 12, 2025
According to the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), the hydrogen trains on the Taunusbahn have been temporarily taken out of service and diesel locomotives are being used again. The hydrogen locomotives are manufactured by Alstom and are reported to have been “fault-prone” and are currently being improved.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
Exposing The Battery Backup Con
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 14, 2025
Paul Burgess always produces excellent videos. Here he debunks the battery storage myth.
Ed Miliband’s Battery Blitz
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 9, 2025
Carrington will actually store 1360 MWh, i.e. two hours storage. As batteries cannot be totally drained, the realistic amount of storage is less still.
The idea that plants like this will keep the grid running during “dunkelflautes” is dangerous nonsense.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
EPA facing monumental battery cleanup after LA wildfires
By Nancy Loo, The Hill, Feb 8, 2024
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5133535-epa-california-wildfires-battery-cleanup
Southern California is the nation’s biggest market for electric vehicles EV and hybrid cars. Each EV contains about 7 to 10,000 small batteries [cells].
NYSERDA Electric Vehicle Propaganda
By Roger Caiazza, WUWT, Feb 14, 2025
The New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) has an important role in the Climate Act implementation.
New York electric vehicle sales are not meeting the projections necessary to meet the Climate Act mandates. NYSERDA’s reports describing “record sales” don’t bother to mention that fact. The lack of evidence that the electric vehicle transportation sector emission reduction plan will work is one more reason that New York State needs to pause the process and determine if the plans are feasible before more money is squandered.
Biden’s EV Bus Disaster: Another Green Energy Scam Collapses
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Feb 8, 2025
Carbon Schemes
Climate Change Weekly # 534 — Carbon Capture and Storage Is a Bad Climate Policy
By H. Sterling Burnett, The Heartland Institute, Feb 14, 2025
PAC Slam Miliband’s Carbon Capture Plans
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 11, 2025
The Committee of Public Accounts has slammed Miliband’s decision to waste £22 billion on unproven carbon capture:
Environmental Industry
RMI Led The Push To Ban Gas Stoves. Why Is It Getting Millions In Federal Funding?
Rocky Mountain Institute wants to ban gas stoves. And yet, it’s getting funding from NSF, DOE, State, Transportation, GSA, & USTDA. WTF?
By Robert Bryce, His Blog, Feb 10, 2025
https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/rmi-led-the-push-to-ban-gas-stoves?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=630873&post_id=156824058&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=f7h7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
[SEPP Comment: More lobbyists getting funding from US government agencies such as DOE, NSF, State, Transportation, General Services Administration, plus foreign interests.]
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Vance: If US survived Greta Thunberg, Europe ‘can survive a few months of Elon Musk’
By Brett Samuels, The Hill, Feb 14, 2025
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5145304-elon-musk-jd-vance-european-leaders
“LARGE PART OF NORTHERN CALIF ABLAZE”
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Feb 14, 2025
On September 17, 1923, Berkeley, California was largely destroyed by a fire which blew out of the hills and was fanned by 60 MPH winds.
Scientists sound alarm over troubling phenomena forcing them to ‘rethink’ everything: ‘Predictability has become more challenging’
Researchers are struggling to adjust their models.
By Chelsea Cook, The Cool Down (TCD), Feb 14, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
[SEPP Comment: Were global climate models ever useful for prediction even before the emphasis on ‘extreme weather’?]
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 12, 2025
Still, with alarmism you know how the story goes. Climate Cosmos, via MSN, explains that actually the reason they can’t predict is… climate change. Yup: “How Climate Change Is Making Weather Forecasts Less Reliable/ Weather forecasting is becoming more of a guessing game as climate change shifts the patterns we once relied on.
ARTICLES
1. So, You Want Proof of Government Fraud
The press says Elon Musk has no evidence. Well, here’s some.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ, Feb. 13, 2025
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/elon-musk-doge-government-fraud-improper-payments-gao-5af937ac?mod=hp_opin_pos_4#cxrecs_s
TWTW Summary: The editorial begins with:
“Remember when eliminating government waste, fraud and abuse was a bipartisan goal? Well, now that Elon Musk is trying to do that, Democrats and their friends in the press say his Department of Government Efficiency is tilting at windmills.
‘At Oval Office, Musk Makes Broad Claims of Federal Fraud Without Proof,’ said a New York Times headline this week. The White House retorted: ‘Apparently, the Times and other like-minded outlets lack access to a newfangled research tool called Google.’
No proof of fraud? How much do you want?
A Government Accountability Office report last spring estimated the ‘federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.’ The federal auditor said, ‘a government-wide approach is required to address it,’ and recommended that the Treasury ‘leverage data-analytics capabilities’ to stop questionable payments. That’s what DOGE is trying to do.
GAO earlier estimated that 11% to 15% of unemployment benefits during the pandemic were fraudulent, totaling between $100 billion and $135 billion. Some went to transnational gangs, prisoners and state-sponsored hackers. The Labor Department inspector general estimated at least $191 billion in improper pandemic unemployment payments.
The Secret Service found hackers linked to the Chinese government stole at least $20 million in Covid benefits. The pandemic employee retention tax credit (ERTC) has been another ripe target. According to the Internal Revenue Service, a California prisoner claimed more than $550 million from the ERTC.
The IRS paused processing of new ERTC claims in 2023 because of rampant fraud. Initially estimated at $55 billion, the program’s costs have ballooned to $230 billion and counting. One culprit is outdated government IT systems that lack fraud controls such as identity verification. Agencies also don’t internally share data that could identify red flags.
Congress in 2021 authorized a pilot program that gave the Treasury access to the Social Security Administration’s Full Death Master File to prevent payments to dead people. The Biden Treasury last month said this prevented and recovered $31 million in improper payments and fraud over five months, which it called ‘just the tip of the iceberg.’”
The editorial discusses other exposures of fraud in government outlays, then concludes with:
“It’s ironic (to say the least) that Democrats have lambasted the peer-to-peer payment app Zelle for not doing enough to prevent fraud on its network. Zelle’s estimated fraud rate (0.1%) is 99% lower than the goal for government programs [10%], which many agencies don’t achieve. Maybe they need a ‘know your customer’ rule so they don’t send money to criminals.
The political left’s hostility to Mr. Musk’s anti-fraud campaign is hard to understand. But the partisan times are such that if Mr. Musk said the sky is blue, liberals would probably also say he has no proof.”
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