Examining ESG

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...

COP28 and the scourge of eco-imperialism  It’s the ideology of environmentalism that should be ‘phased out’.  "The luxuriant doom-mongering of privileged eco-warriors who insist the world will end if we don’t phase out fossil fuels was confronted by a truth no reasonable person can deny: that fossil fuels remain vital to human life. In the gleaming oasis of Dubai it became clear that oil, gas and even coal are not going away anytime soon, however much the Gretas of the West might want them to. Why? Because – brace yourselves – India, China, Brazil and other nations are not prepared to sacrifice their economic health at the altar of our deranged anti-modernism."   The COP28 charade   "In fact, COP 28 was a spectacular failure, as measured against the goals that the UN had set for it from the beginning. It did not achieve a single one of the objectives that climate activists sought. Even more important, in spite of the voluntary commitments that various governments mad...

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...

In Science, a 90% drop in US flood damage since the 1940s. In Investment/Economics, struggling California solar, ESG viewed as grift, short selling solar, Canadians care less about climate. In Absurdities, cars saving forests and EVs losing value fastest.  SCIENCE Unbelievable: U.S. Flood Damage  Not only is the conventional wisdom on flooding wrong, data show that flood impacts as measured by direct economic losses have actually decreased by about 90% since 1940 as a proportion of U.S. GDP. The United States is in fact more resilient to flooding than it has ever been. The reduction in flood impacts is an incredible story of success sitting out in plain sight that is completely ignored, in favor of stories that instead tell us that down is up. INVESTMENT/ECONOMICS California rooftop solar policy struggles serve as warning to nation  Residential solar has been navigating difficult waters over the past year, as high interest rates squeeze the savings made available to homeo...

  Can we trust projections of AMOC weakening based on climate models that cannot reproduce the past? Last July, both the Guardian and the BBC reported that the Gulf Stream could collapse by 2025, bringing catastrophic climate impacts. All of this fearmongering relies on models, and these have also led the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to forecast it is “very likely” that the entire system of North Atlantic currents will weaken in the near future. Needless to say, these models have an impressively poor track record, and this has been revealed in a recent paper published by the Royal Society. "We finish with a pessimistic statement: if it is not possible to reconcile climate models and observations of the AMOC in the historical period, then we believe the statements about future confidence about AMOC evolution should be revised. Low confidence in the past should mean lower confidence for the future! The IPCC AR6 report ranks it as very likely that the AMOC w...

The 28th Conference of the Parties is taking place right now, with an incredible 70,000 attendees feeling it necessary to jet across the globe to Dubai to stay in fine hotels, eat expensive food and spend government or employer money. The conference thus perfectly symbolizes the entire modern climate movement: wealthy out-of-touch busybodies wandering about in a miraculous world made possible by affordable fossil energy feasting on fine food and wine while they discuss how everyone else should be forced to do without. And then wondering why no one is listening. In-person, not via webinar. There is a great deal to be cynical about regarding net-zero, climate alarmism, and the massive associated consumption of capital. Here is a collection of COP-related commentary for your perusal. COP28 should be the last COP  COPs are immoral because they deprive billions of the energy they need to prosper. They should be replaced by energy freedom conferences. Every report you hear about fos...

This week I published a special focus piece The problems with "These haunting underwater photos portray climate change in a new way"  to illustrate the gullibility of some artists and how no due diligence is done on apocalyptic climate claims. Significant West Antarctic Cooling in the Past Two Decades Driven by Tropical Pacific Forcing . Most Of Antarctica Has Cooled By Over 1°C Since 1999, W. Antarctica Cooled 1.8°C. Of 28 CMIP6 models, none captured a cooling trend – especially of this amplitude – for this region. This modeling failure “implies substantial uncertainties in future temperature projections of CMIP6 models.” The 1999-2018 mean annual surface temperature cooling of the Antarctic continent and nearly half of the Southern Hemisphere’s SSTs do not support the claims that surface warming is driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). An Assessment of ERA5 Reanalysis for Antarctic Near-Surface Air Temperature   Scientists Find ‘Statistically S...

 Some people can be gullible. All artists are people. Some artists can be gullible.  A tidy little syllogism, but real-world examples abound. Consider the recent article  These haunting underwater photos portray climate change in a new way  Photographer Nick Brandt did a series of photos underwater to draw attention to the supposed dangers of climate change, one photo essay in a series he is doing. Here is a sample photo. From the article (bold is added): The stunning portrait is one in a series of images in “SINK / RISE,” the latest project from fine art photographer Nick Brandt. The photos feature South Pacific islanders representing people who are on the brink of losing their homes, lands and livelihoods due to climate change. And despite the difficulty of photographing them on the ocean floor, Brandt knew that’s what he had to do. The dramatic and devastating impact sea level rise will have on the lives of millions of people can be difficult to see and grasp in...

 This week in science we have the contrast between the infamous island of Tuvalu which is supposedly at risk of being flooded by rising seas, yet is actually growing in size (as are most similar islands), an article examining the enormous bias that comes when you only examine one side of a story, and a fascinating study finding that ocean microplastics are created around volcanic ocean vents. In the category of Investment/Economics we have articles discussing the need to choose between costly and ineffective climate policies and helping actual people suffering from poverty, then news of ESG-linked debt coming under pressure. In Absurdities, read about how if you want a study to show how EVs are cleaner than previous research, you simply make unjustified assumptions about carbon intensity. Climate Change: A Curious Crisis    The fundamental problem with the climate crisis narrative is that it is simplistic and gives us only one side of the story. It largely expunges all th...