Weekly clippings #44 - cause and effect, temperature measurements, climate disclosure fraud, no due diligence, racist hiring, windmills vs trees
A whole lot of science this week:
- Temperature
and CO2: cause and effect
- The
IPCC’s new hockey stick
- Holocene
temperature variations
- Iceland’s
ice not melting
- Greenland
near lowest temp of last 10,000 years
- The
end of el-Nino brings cold for the coming years
- No
trend in Rainfall
Also a bunch of Investment/Economic articles:
- The
regulatory climate disclosure fraud
- Flawed
ESG statistics
- Canadian
fund disclosures required, but complete lack of due diligence by
regulators
- ESG
series in Invesmtent Executive, again no due diligence
- Exxon
on the offensive
- Banks
shoot themselves in the foot by adopting ESG
- Nearly
useless battery energy storage
- Diversity
hiring is racist
And then Absurdities:
- Chopping
down 120,000 to place industrial wind turbines to save the environment
- A
true ban on fossil fuels would quickly force a reality check. Will any
jurisdiction dare such a destructive act?
SCIENCE
On Hens, Eggs, Temperatures and CO2: Causal Links in Earth’s Atmosphere "The scientific and wider interest in the relationship between atmospheric temperature (T) and concentration of carbon dioxide ([CO2]) has been enormous. According to the commonly assumed causality link, increased [CO2] causes a rise in T. However, recent developments cast doubts on this assumption by showing that this relationship is of the hen-or-egg type, or even unidirectional but opposite in direction to the commonly assumed one. These developments include an advanced theoretical framework for testing causality based on the stochastic evaluation of a potentially causal link between two processes via the notion of the impulse response function. Using, on the one hand, this framework and further expanding it and, on the other hand, the longest available modern time series of globally averaged T and [CO2], we shed light on the potential causality between these two processes. All evidence resulting from the analyses suggests a unidirectional, potentially causal link with T as the cause and [CO2] as the effect. That link is not represented in climate models, whose outputs are also examined using the same framework, resulting in a link opposite the one found when the real measurements are used." [emphasis added]
Our take: Here is yet another study showing that the relationship between atmospheric temperature and CO2 is causally linked - in the opposite way claimed by alarmists. Temperature always leads CO2 and this makes sense because high school chemistry tells us the solubility of gas in water decreases as temperature rises.
IPCC’s New “Hockey Stick” Temperature Graph "A “hockey stick” temperature graph has made a comeback in the latest IPCC report from 2021 (AR6), after being absent in the fourth and fifth reports. Unlike the previous two reports which included multiple temperature estimates, AR6 relies on just one temperature estimate for the past 1000-2000 years, sparking criticism. Moreover, this single estimate has itself been criticized. The perhaps most important issue relates to a method that incorrectly generates hockey stick temperature graphs from non-hockey stick data. In general, the quality and amount of data that can tell us something about past temperatures quickly decline when we go further back in time. Based on the currently available data, it might therefore be impossible to know whether the global temperature of the past 1000-2000 years has a hockey stick shape or not."
Our take: The infamous hockey stick graph is perhaps the best-known un-scientific publication of the last 25 years. Not only did its procedures violate most of the guidelines for the proper use of statistics, but it was immediately trumpeted by the IPCC as something that overrode all prior scientific and historical data.
A frequency-optimised temperature record for the Holocene "Furthermore, we remain critical of the interpretation of the smooth trajectories of existing Holocene temperature reconstructions [10–13], which have influenced policy debate. For instance, the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [1], and its 'Summary for Policy Makers' and 'Technical Summary' compared recent annual extremes against past centennial averages [1]. Such unequal comparison has the potential to mislead portrayal of the threat of global warming as low- and high-frequency records reflect different aspects and amplitudes of the Earth's climate system (figure 2)."
Note that in this study the recent warming since the little ice age is unremarkable and is similar to other fluctuations of the last twelve thousand years.
INVESTMENT/ECONOMICS
The “climate disclosure” fraud "In the name of “climate disclosure," Biden's SEC is coercing companies into spouting anti-fossil-fuel propaganda and committing to anti-fossil-fuel plans."
"Congress won't support Biden's anti-fossil-fuel agenda. So he's circumventing the legislative process by having the SEC coerce companies into spouting anti-fossil-fuel propaganda and committing to anti-fossil-fuel plans in the name of “climate disclosure.” The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new rules have gotten many valid criticisms. E.g., they'll force companies to do endless, costly paperwork, which discourages private companies from going public and thus contradicts the SEC's goal of increasing the range of companies we can invest in.
"Sadly, most critics of the SEC’s rules are missing the biggest, most dangerous problem: they're not actually “climate disclosure rules”—those already existed—they are anti-fossil-fuel propagandizing and planning rules that violate freedom of speech and endanger our economy."
"Government dictating business plans in an anti-fossil-fuel direction under the fraudulent pretense of “climate disclosure,” is both deeply anti-American and deeply dangerous."
"The SEC tries to make its rules around “transition plans” look non-coercive by saying they “do not mandate that registrants adopt a transition plan.” But if companies express catastrophist views—which the SEC coerces them into doing—it's illogical not to have a “transition plan.” The very idea of a “transition plan” is itself a catastrophist idea—that rising CO2 will cause such catastrophic climate and economic changes that we must all undergo a rapid “energy transition” or else be destroyed. (Even though empirically we're safer from climate than ever.) Given that companies are being compelled by a catastrophist administration to present a “transition plan,” what kind of plan will they feel compelled to present?"
Our take: coercing companies to make public statements that agree with politically correct speech is about as un-American as it gets. Nothing new, however, just more brazen and unapologetic for mass rights violations.
Academics Question ESG Studies That Helped Fuel Investing Boom "King, a professor of business strategy at Boston University, questioned the studies’ conclusions. In decades of analyzing whether companies could profitably reduce their harm to the environment, King had found the financial gains were often too small to affect the bottom line. Digging into the latest research, scrutinizing complex mathematical formulas and parsing tens of thousands of data points, he discovered what he says are flaws that skewed the results. “The evidence supporting ESG just wasn’t solid,” King says."
"King and Berchicci replicated the analysis, running the data through more than 400 statistical models and using artificial intelligence to check the results. In the vast majority of cases, there was no evidence linking a company’s ESG ratings and its stock performance, they wrote in a 2022 paper published in the Journal of Financial Reporting. “Their analysis is meaningless,” King says."
"Excluding SolarCity, the researchers said the stock market reaction to companies selling green bonds was insignificant, and they have little impact on a company’s emissions output."
Our take: what? The use of bad statistical processes to make the data say what you want? Shades of climate models and hockey sticks!
CSA Staff Notice 81-334 - ESG-Related Investment Fund Disclosure
Our take: The document goes to considerable length discussing the state of the industry sector, but appears to have no reference to due diligence on the underlying ideas. Rather, the regulator appears to accept at face value, unchallenged, ideas that contradict known scientific facts, the scientific method, basic principles of reasoning, and invoke the widespread violation of human rights, all causing harm to human prosperity on a global scale. You would hope regulators would at least document their investigation into ESG before adopting it as worthy of consideration. In fact, one could hope their investigation would censure and condemn such irrational and immoral ideas. Who will regulate the regulators as they embrace systemic risks?
Our take: I await the regulators' initiation of any due diligence on the scientific validity of any of the claims made by the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board’s (CSSB) regarding supposed climate risks, man-made climate change, the impact of carbon dioxide-related policies on Canadian lives and freedoms, and the secondary harms imposed on developing countries who desperately need a huge increase in affordable energy. Don't hold your breath since challenging climate change orthodoxy can land you in court for years.
Investment Executive publishes a series on ESG
Our take: but no mention of any due diligence relating to any of the false claims made by ESG proponent, the misleading marketing of ESG products or the harms done to Canadians and the human race by carbon-dioxide emissions reductions policies. Regulators are busily making rules for the language that must be used while ignoring that the very subject matter is riddled with flawed thinking and anti-human ideology. Almost all ESG activities are focused on the "E" and almost all the "E" is driven by global warming alarmist propaganda that is easily disproven by real-world measurements that abound in the scientific literature. Who will hold the advocates, marketers and regulators of such products accountable, when they have voluntarily placed themselves in an echo chamber?
Investing in an ESG fund? Look for greenwashing risks in its disclosures "There have been many instances of confusing, ambiguous, and incomplete disclosures related to green fund names, their goals, screening criteria, and impact claims."
Our take: this is interesting. We just looked into the prospectus of the ESG funds of one of Canada's largest mutual fund companies, and no mention of how ESG itself may be a risk to the fund's unitholders.
Exxon Chief Goes on the Offensive as Wall Street Sours on ESG "Woods is also becoming much more strident about climate goals in speeches and interviews, arguing that fossil fuels will still be needed for years to come to meet energy demand and the world is not on a path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 because people are unwilling to pay for cleaner alternatives. The message may be controversial, but it’s resonating on Wall Street, where “ESG” is fast becoming a loathed moniker as ambitious environmental, social and governance pledges are rubbing against the need for secure and affordable energy. Exxon is up 89%, more than four times that of the S&P 500, since losing a climate-fueled proxy battle with Engine No. 1. in 2021.
"Woods is also learning from his own experience with activist shareholders. In January, the company filed a lawsuit against US and Dutch climate investors who buy stock to push for lower emissions. The process by which they get votes on the ballot at company meetings “has become ripe for abuse by activists with minimal shares and no interest in growing long-term shareholder value,” Exxon said in the suit."
Our take: good for Exxon for finally taking a stand about the morality and life promoting value of their products. If only they will adopt the ideas of Alex Epstein, they will find a full-strength case for their amazing value to humanity.
Shareholder advocacy group alleges misleading disclosures on sustainable finance from Canada’s big five banks "A shareholder advocacy group that seeks to hold companies to account on climate action is calling on securities regulators to crack down on Canada’s Big Five banks, accusing them of misleading investors and the public with their sustainability claims."
Our take: This highlights the self-harm done by financial institutions when they adopt irrational ideas such as ESG. By attempting to placate their attackers, institutions virtue signal something that is not virtuous, opening themselves to attack from all sides, especially those they try to placate. Financial institutions need to learn how to rationally and morally defend themselves for all the good they do in the world, and defend their financing of the energy companies that empower human civilization and foster human flourishing.
New York And California Getting Totally Lost With Energy Storage "What has actually occurred since December 2022 is that our “climate leader” jurisdictions — in the U.S., that would be New York and California — have moved forward with energy storage proposals that any moron can easily see will not work. Both states are in the process of spending huge sums of money on storage capacity that is so small as to be meaningless to address the problem, and at the same time not technically capable of meeting the challenge no matter the cost. Naturally, the federal government is also involved to pick up a big chunk of the wasted cost from its infinite pile of money."
Our take: governments interfering in the economy and causing expensive problems and chaos for citizens? You must be kidding. Surely they know better than you do how to run your life and your business, because all those politicians and bureaucrats are such successful entrepreneurs, financiers and business leaders, right?
Philosophical Detection: Diversity Demands for Hiring and Public Attacks on Minorities "Some simply hate people who look different than them. Others are jealous of people who fare better than them economically, especially Asians and Jews. What these last two cultures have in common is a virtually fanatical focus on education, which gives Asian and Jewish individuals a head start in life—and many people hate them for it."
Our take: DEI, DIE, DIBE, call it what you like - it embraces racism.
ABSURDITY
Hey, Remember When Environmentalists Cared About the Environment? “conservationists” are up in arms as a Big Wind development company begins the process of taking down no less than 120,000 trees in a legendary forest surrounding Sababurg, Reinhardswald, in the German state of Hesse to make way for yet another wasteful, inefficient and destructive (obviously) wind industrial site."
Our take: trees? What trees? We don't see no stinkin' trees here, only beautiful bird choppers industrial wind turbines.
The Mystery Of The Uncontrolled Hatred Of Fossil Fuels And Those Who Produce Them "Here’s my proposal for the next phase of this game. The fossil fuel producers, either individually or through trade associations, should pick a state, logically a relatively small one (Vermont might be a good place to start), and go to the legislature with this proposition: Ban us! Make the sale or use of fossil fuels in your state illegal, starting at some early date, like for example tomorrow. We will then withdraw. And your citizens will then find out whether they prefer life with fossil fuels, or without them. In other words, stop being such pansies. It’s time to call their bluff."
Our take: it's not a mystery to some of us. There are people who hate progress, hate economic growth, hate energy, hate industry, and in truth they hate humanity, reality, and reason. They have wishes, wants and whims that their feelings tell them should override the rights of everyone.
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