Examining ESG

For one year we have been writing to a Canadian mutual fund company executive, exchanging ideas. We hope the exec has been finding a little time to compare how the scientific and economic literature contrast sharply with the most common issue associated with ESG: the idea of a dangerous, man-made, carbon-dioxide induced global warming. Last year in the fund company's corporate ESG report almost all the shareholder proposals and engagements the company was involved with related to carbon dioxide and its consequences - astonishing considering it is the gas of life on Earth...  Our contention from the start has been that it appears no one at the company has done a proper, full-context due diligence on the facts underlying the ideas of dangerous man-made climate change, net zero, energy transition, sustainability, and similar terms. Thus, the company has, in marketing materials, product launches, and internal policies, adopted provably false ideas that in the long run can only harm the...

  Welcome to another weekly collection of Examining ESG. This week features: SCIENCE • Extreme Weather and Climate Change • Saving Climate From the Greens INVESTMENT/ECONOMICS • The Earth and Civilization Have Been Saved By Fossil Fuels • A Wealth-Creating Way of Reducing Global CO2 Emissions • New Study Identifies Big Reductions In US Natural Gas Emissions • New York Shows Off Its Expertise In Central Planning: The Buffalo Billion • Why you shouldn’t be alarmed about unusually warm temperatures • Ronald Stein: Environmentalists’ silence on humanity and environmental atrocities • Trillions in taxpayer subsidies haven’t made wind and solar power cheaper or better for Americans • Abolish DEI Statements - Assessing a debate about a controversial hiring practice • Sustainable investments lagging interest: Mackenzie Investments survey ABSURDITIES • Melting ice both speeds up and slows down time • 'Net-Zero' a Problem? Just Change the Name! SCIENCE Extreme W...

Once again we bring you a collection of news that does not bode well for ESG/DEI etc. The second science piece is especially important. Science • Unusual cold at both poles • Challenging net zero with science Investment/Economics • What should government do about carbon capture? • Blackrock energy pragmatism and legal warning • CSA guidance on ESG-related fund disclosure • The backlash is real: behind DEI’s rise and fall • America’s Top Public Companies De-Emphasize the ‘E’ in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Communications • Canadian fossil fuel subsidies hit $18.6 billion in 2023, says report • Bad News for Tesla Highlights the Looming Bloodbath for the US Auto Industry Absurdities • Industrial wind turbines are destroying rural wells! • Real COP 28 Learning Session: 'Responsible Yachting, Today and Tomorrow' SCIENCE Unusual Cold Plagues Both Northern, Southern Hemispheres….Arctic Sea Ice Strengthens  "The Australian continent saw tempera...

  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...

 This week in science we start with an academic study of how research reports in ecology have become so distorted and exaggerate their findings, followed by an article that explains how the growth of assets in risky areas explains greater economic damages, even as human damage has plummeted. Next comes a debunking of the infamous stripes graphic, an explanation that climate models are hugely biased upwards when compared to measurements, and last up we see falling flood risks. In Investment/Economics we kick off with what government should (not) do about climate change, then an article explaining how bank research on net zero is near zero, followed by how climate change is not detected in insurance losses. Next we see how DEI is filled with fraud, ESG debt is bleeding clients, and Blackrock is turning down climate proposals. We continue with the injustice of "clean energy" minerals, the impossibility of electrifying all vehicles, and the dumping of a business leader who dared ...