Weekly clippings #37 - unlimited renewable fossil fuels, AGW rejection, stable cyclone data, low fires, climate safety denial, reality, just stop batteries, sick days, extinction clock, boiling testicles

This week in the Science category I bring you the tantalizing possibility that hydrocarbons may have not only a biogenic origin, but an abiogenic one, where hydrocarbons are created at high temperature and pressure deep in the Earth, followed by a review of research purporting that the vast majority of scientific papers support the man-made global warming hypothesis, then data on cyclone and burned area trends.

Under Investment/Economics we have articles on climate safety denial, alternative energy reality checks, ESG fund trends, wind and solar sick days and opposition to a battery plant.

For Absurdities this week I bring you the Extinction clock, rapid-wearing EV tires and boiling testicles. 

Check it out.

SCIENCE

Abiogenic Deep Origin of Hydrocarbons and Oil and Gas Deposits Formation This chapter from the peer-reviewed book "Hydrocarbon" examines the rationale for the creation of hydrocarbons deep in the earth by a combination of high temperatures and pressures. This is in contrast to the organic decay theory of hydrocarbon formation and explains a large variety of the known geological aspects of hydrocarbon formations and exploitation by humanity. In this way, hydrocarbon formation is a renewable, continuous and ongoing process that means our hydrocarbon supply is functionally unlimited. It seems that not only are so many closely held ideas about climate change wrong, but so is the idea that we could ever run out of fossil fuels, when we know there are centuries upon centuries of known resources. 

Ninety-Nine Percent? Re-Examining the Consensus on the Anthropogenic Contribution to Climate Change and commentary at New Study: 67% Of Scientific Papers Can Be Said To Reject The AGW Hypothesis  "Of the 3,000 papers analyzed in Lynas et al., 282 were deemed not sufficiently “climate-related.” Another 2,104 papers were placed in Category 4, which meant either the paper’s authors took “no position” or the position on AGW was deemed “uncertain”…in the abstract. So, exploiting the “if you are not against, you are for” classification bias, Lynas and colleagues decided that the authors of these 2,104 scientific papers in Category 4 do indeed agree with AGW, as what is written in the abstract does not explicitly state they do not agree.

"Interestingly, if this classification bias had not been utilized and the thousands of Category 4 (“no position” or “uncertain”) papers were not counted as supporting AGW, only 892 of the 2,718 (climate-related) papers, or 32%, could be said to have affirmatively stated they support AGW. So, simply by assuming one cannot divine the AGW opinions of authors of scientific papers by reading abstracts, it could just as facilely be said that 67% (1,826 of 2,718) of climate-related papers reject AGW."

Met Office Cannot Provide Evidence For “More Intense Storms” Claim On 22nd January, the day after Storm Isha, a senior meteorologist from the Met Office stated on BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast that “when we see these storms they are more intense and that’s down to climate change”. However, after being challenged through a FOI request to provide evidence for the claim that storms have become more intense, the Met Office was forced to admit they have no such evidence.  In its response, the Met Office also referred to its own UK Storm activity report which clearly states that “there is no compelling trend in maximum gust speeds recorded in the UK since 1969.”

Global Tropical Cyclones - Data and figures that you won't find on the climate beat "Finally, from the excellent data maintained by Phil Klotzbach at Colorado State University, we can look at yet another set of metrics — Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE, which combines frequency and intensity) and ACE per hurricane. These figures are shown below, and you can clearly see no trends in these metrics since 1980. Over this time period and according to these metrics, hurricanes have not become more intense."

The US burned area last year was the lowest this century. It was less than 7% of the 1930s.

INVESTMENT/ECONOMICS

The climate safety denial movement "I and others have documented that we're safer than ever from climate. Catastrophists can’t refute us, so they’re now saying that disaster deaths don't matter!"

Alternative Energy’s Era of Reality Checks

"Pretending that inefficient power production is an unalloyed good only leads to disappointment. Taxpayers and utility customers naturally expect to pay heavily for wind and solar power. After all, if such projects made economic sense, there would be no need for governments to subsidize and mandate them. But even beyond the costs of inefficient power production, there’s a question of whether alternative-energy cheerleaders yet have a handle on the environmental impact of their projects. It seems that there is still no free lunch and that every method of producing electricity carries costs and benefits."

Goldman, JPMorgan Weigh In as ESG Funds Suffer Historic Blow "After the worst quarter in its roughly two-decade history, ESG’s future is once again a subject of intense debate."

Environmental group files injunction to stop work at Northvolt battery project in Quebec "In a press release issued on Thursday, CQDE called for "the suspension of this disturbing work" on biodiversity." This is yet another example of how the standard of value for environmentalists is not human flourishing, but un-impacted nature. Even the construction of a battery plant that is supposedly part of the plan to save the planet from man-made climate change is unacceptable to them, because it is not human life they value most, but the un-human, un-impacted nature without humans.

Sick days for wind and solar  "When you have a growing number of employees who do the same work as what could have been done by just a few efficient employees in the past; when an increasing number of your employees show up unannounced for work while there is no work to be done, or worse, when employees simply don’t show up for work while there is a lot to be done - what do you do?  

"This is the conundrum facing the electrical grid. The capacity factor - the % of time a source powers the grid effectively - for wind and solar are low. While Texas is sunny, sun only works 23% of the time. In the Mid-West, that's only 16% of the time.  Wind is a little better at 35% and 41%, respectively. But using yearly averages makes even these low numbers look reasonable.

"The real issue is with their attitude any given day, and their attitude during each day, as the grid needs to be balanced every second. If you consider working less than 3 hours a day a "sick day", Texas wind clocks 21 sick days and solar 57 days per year. For the Mid-West, wind is also sick 21 days out of the year, but solar does not show up for 125 days out of the year! "

Visualized: Global CO2 Emissions Through Time (1950–2022) In Canada and the rest of the mostly free world, we are constantly told we need to be forced to reduce then eliminate carbon dioxide emissions, which have growth in the last century as countries have industrialized. But which countries have contributed the most to this growth? As you can see visually, then again in the table below, the dominant sources of emissions and emissions growth are now China, India and Asia. The US, Canada, the EU, and Japan have all seen decreased emissions this century. Do China and India have any intention of reducing their emissions? Absolutely not, they are building coal and gas plants as fast as they are able. 

ABSURDITIES

Welcome to the Extinction Clock, the Internet's authoritative source for end-of-world climate and extinction predictions. All predictions have been made by notable individuals, academics, politicians, institutes, and the press. With predictions starting in 1970 cataloged, this site shows the status of the predictions. If there was some validity to them, an objective observer would expect some of them to be earlier and some later than the date predicted. I was not surprised to see that 100% of the predictions that had a due date before today have failed to materialize. Do you think there might be a fundamental and consistent bias in the thinking of these people? Two of the predictions are due in 2024 and one of them claims that by November 27, 2026, we will be dealing with an extinction-level crisis and another claims the world will end in just seven years. 

NDP bill would prescribe jail terms for speaking well of fossil fuels "An NDP bill is seeking to criminalize the “promotion” of fossil fuels, and prescribe jail time even for Canadians who say scientifically true things such as how burning natural gas is cleaner than burning coal."

That Time When You Discover Your EV's Tires Are Only Good For 7,000 Miles... "Tire mileage can vary widely of course, but he said he frequently changes EV tires at just 8,000 to 10,000 miles — a fourth or even fifth of typical tire wear on a gas-burning car."

Global warming is boiling our testicles, suggesting a new animal fertility crisis looms

Scientists say overheating could render animals — including humans — increasingly infertile