An email I received this morning included in its thread one from someone saying this: This morning I got out my little toy telescope and watched Mercury transiting the Sun. The striking fact was not the little black image of Mercury but the total absence of sunspots. I have seen many transits before this one, but never without sunspots. It seems the sun has gone to sleep as it did in the Maunder Minimum in the seventeenth century. In the seventeenth century we had the Little Ice Age and now … [Read more...]
Climate Litigation in a Topsy-Turvy World
Last month federal magistrate judge Thomas M. Coffin ruled that a lawsuit filed on behalf of 21 children and teenagers seeking damages from the federal government for its failure to fight climate change (enough) could go forward. His decision surprises many legal scholars, but Michael B. Gerrard, Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (I can't resist the temptation to refer to King Canute!) commented, It is the first time a federal court has suggested that government may have a … [Read more...]
Why Do Taxpayer-Subsidized Businesses So Often Fail?
Subsidize renewable energy? What a great idea! If you like wasting money. SunEdison, which once described itself as the "largest global renewable energy development company" and was America's fastest-growing renewable energy company, filed for bankruptcy April 21. It seems that $1.5 billion combined subsidies and loan guarantees (including $650 million in grants and tax credits---i.e., outright handouts) wasn't enough to make up for the combination of hubris-driven over-expansion, … [Read more...]
Finding Nemo Suffocated?
One hardly knows where to begin in assessing the sanity of the recent claim that "climate change" (aka dangerous manmade global warming renamed to hide the fact that far less warming is happening than predicted) could suffocate---yes, suffocate!---sea creatures by reducing ocean oxygen levels. The scary story comes mainly from popular reports. Take, for example, how blogger Cat DiStasio ("a writer, storyteller, and community architect" who "holds a B.A. in Ethnic, Gender, and Labor … [Read more...]
How Economically Competitive is “Renewable Energy”?
Condemnation's always most credible when issued by a supporter. That's what the renewable energy sector got from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's U.S. Renewable Portfolio Standards 2016 Annual Status Report, which states right in its highlights: "More than half of all growth in renewable electricity (RE) generation (60%) and capacity (57%) since 2000 is associated with state RPS requirements." In short, non-hydro renewable energy---wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass---cannot … [Read more...]
Can We Defend Liberty against a Militarized EPA?
Did you know that the federal Environmental Protection Agency spends millions of dollars on guns, body armor, camouflage equipment, unmanned aircraft, amphibious assault ships, radar and night-vision gear, and other military-style weaponry and surveillance activities? You read that right—EPA, not the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. Why? Because EPA regulations are so ubiquitous, so onerous, and so contrary to the spirit of our freedom-loving nation that ordinary Americans find … [Read more...]
Modern mavens and maxims of meteorological mayhem
Here’s a bit of earthy mirth for Earth Day 2016. Inspired by the atmospheric angst of the November-December 2015 Paris climate change conference, late last year, we proposed new weather wonkery c our versions of popular meteorological anecdotes like the witticisms of old that folks frequently used to stay ahead of storms. For example, one of the most familiar traditional axioms is “red sky in morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailors delight.” We proffered alternative, … [Read more...]
Does Demonizing the Other Side Promote Constructive Debate Over Climate Change?
Who are “climate skeptics”? Greg Garrard, Associate Professor of Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, thinks he knows. In fact, he believes “environmentalists” generally “know who climate skeptics are: oil company shills, religious fundamentalists and neoliberal cheerleaders.” With that courteous and respectful opening, Garrard issued a call for papers for the symposium “Who Do They Think They Are? Cultures of Climate Skepticism, Anti-Environmentalism, and … [Read more...]
Attorney Generals Attack First Amendment Rights of Climate Skeptics
It’s hardball time, and things are going to get rough. That’s the current state of the desperate attempt of climate alarmists and their allies in the Obama Administration and sympathetic state pols. Failing to motivate significant public concern about manmade global warming, failing to get even those who express concern to be willing to make significant sacrifices to mitigate it, these political operatives and politicized scientists are resorting to brute force—the very opposite of … [Read more...]
Interfaith Climate Change Statement—An Exercise in Absurdity?
In preparation for the signing of the Paris climate treaty Friday (Earth Day), 16 religious organizations presented an "Interfaith Climate Change Statement" to the United Nations in New York today. The 724-word statement urges heads of state to sign and ratify (Do they know the difference? In the U.S., the "head of state" can only propose, not ratify, a treaty. Without Senate ratification, President Obama's signature won't bind the United States.) the Paris climate treaty, claiming "Humanity … [Read more...]
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