Examining ESG

 This week features: SCIENCE • HadCRUT Has Fully Removed 0.15°C From 1940s Warmth ‘Blip’ As Proposed In Climategate E-mails • Halfway Between Kyoto and 2050: Zero Carbon Is a Highly Unlikely Outcome • Annual GWPF lecture: Climate Uncertainty and Risk INVESTMENT/ECONOMICS • The amount of copper needed to build EVs is ‘impossible for mining companies to produce’ • Hertz's EV bet goes bust • Gwyn Morgan: Ottawa's EV mandate is in trouble and that's a good thing • Efforts To Oust ExxonMobil Chairman, Board Members Run Aground ABSURDITIES • New 'Godfather' Sequel Features Big Oil in the Lead Role HadCRUT Has Fully Removed 0.15°C From 1940s Warmth ‘Blip’ As Proposed In Climategate E-mails  "The amplitude of the recorded warmth in the 1940s was always a problem for purveyors of the human-caused global warming narrative. So the 1940s temperatures have been artificially cooled to make this less of a problem. In 2009, overseers of the HadCRUT global tempe...

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 the Science category we have a new peer-reviewed study examining the backup needed for intermittent renewables, and it’s enormous and thus enormously expensive. A second link shows how CO2 intensity has been declining in a straight line for sixty years and all the climate policies have made zero difference.  In the Investment/Economics category we have “green” energy reversals, impossible mining, nuclear promises and Net Zero hampering UN Social Development Goals. Finally, filed under Absurdities, Canada’s cow burp credit trading system. You just can’t this stuff up… Intermittent Renewables Can't Work On Their Own A peer-reviewed study published in September 2023 with the title “ Storage requirements to mitigate intermittent renewable energy sources: analysis for the US Northeast ” finds that a system running on wind and solar would need storage equal to 25% of annual energy production to be reliable. The lead author elaborates on the research in a blog post .  Respond...

This week in Science features a 2023 review of extreme weather in the United States and (shock) 80% of them are average or below average and the two that are above average show no trend since 2020. In Investment/Economics I bring you an article about the Chinese coal boom, four about ESG troubles, one about Canada’s climate policy fantasy, and one about a conflict of interest  in ESG ratings.  In the theatre of the absurd, some people are worried about the faster rate of grass growth with rising CO2 fertilization leading to fatter horses.  25 holiday Power Facts about energy and climate  "As you sit down at the dinner table this holiday season, I expect many of you will find yourselves in conversations about energy and climate with friends and family who may have come to inaccurate conclusions, in part because they are missing a lot of the relevant facts. So, I’ve compiled 25 true, succinct, powerful facts about energy and climate. Each “Power Fact” has significant i...

  As you know, my purpose in this project is to help investment managers recognize the ethical, scientific, investment, and economic errors in the ESG movement and thus the risks to reputation, regulation, and business that companies have adopted. I believe that when the public and regulators eventually get around to identifying the truth, some investment managers will have a great price to pay and with the investment management portion of my business entrusted to mutual fund managers this damage can spill over onto me even though I don’t use any products with an overt ESG slant. In my weekly clippings I almost completely focus on issues related to the dominant aspect of ESG – climate and energy – but I have similar concerns in the Social and Governance areas that receive far less attention by ESG investment products and I believe do less damage to investors and humanity. This week in the Science category I have two articles that reference the IPCC: in the first case it is an exa...