The Week’s Worst Climate Stories (Who Would Win, An EV Bus or San Francisco Hills?)

It just goes on and on, my friends…

Last week, one could have been forgiven for thinking we hit rock bottom, so to speak, with the story about drinking water shifting Earth’s poles. This week, though, we’re going even rock bottomer! We plumb the very bedrock and discover how climate change has made the earth shake more, seismically speaking.

In other news, an electric bus takes on San Francisco’s famously steep hills—guess how that turns out?

We also learn that poor businesses are harder hit by climate change, consumers need warnings on meat, and the Biden administration thinks nonprofit organizations need subsidies to weatherize their buildings and vanquish global boiling.

Catch last week’s Worst Climate Stories here

We also have one bit of good news, as the Biden administration has approved an oil-drilling project in Alaska, getting the greenie knickers all in a twist.

But first, the Cult of Scientism has cooked up some doozies this week.

1. Global Warming Turns Up the Heat On Business

An academic study that actually got published, authored by professors in “climate finance” and “corporate governance” (i.e. ESG radicals), supposedly proves that debt-mired companies are more severely affected by global warming.

In an article at the Conversation, the professors say, “climate change delivers a one-two punch” to businesses deeply in debt, by intensifying the costs “stakeholders” impose on them.

(As an aside, “stakeholders” is one of those ESG buzzwords that indicates you’re being fed a line of BS.)

“Consider consumers,” the authors write. “Researchers know that climate change can push people to mix up their purchasing patterns – by buying greener products, for example, or by engaging in boycotts. And while evolving consumer preferences pose a challenge to all businesses, it’s harder for a company that’s deep in debt to adapt.”

So, cancel culture exists, and it works? Sorry, momentary digression.

They also say investors don’t invest in heavily leveraged companies with outsized debt. Climate risk, whatever that is, causes operational disruptions and makes lenders shy away from an otherwise bad investment, or something.

2. Goodbye Wind Turbines, I Hardly Knew Ye

In an item that we easily could have included in the Good News segment, Just the News reported this week that over half of the contracted projects for offshore wind capacity have been canceled or are at risk of being canceled. Recently canceled projects include two big projects off the Jersey coast, four offshore wind projects New York declined to renegotiate, and a dozen other projects that contractors have attempted to renegotiate with various other states.

Meanwhile, somehow China allowed competition to creep in to the renewable manufacturing sector of its command economy, causing profits at Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co.—China’s top wind turbine maker—to drop 98 percent.

The absurd part? The Biden administration thinks it will somehow still achieve its goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind as part of the Green New Deal Inflation Reduction Act.

3. Climate Change, You Move the Earth Under My Feet

Maybe Danny Glover was right that one time, when he said climate change was responsible for the earthquake in Haiti. (Yes, really.)

According to a new study, “global warming shakes the earth.” Seismic data, they say, show ocean waves gaining strength “as the planet warms.” Seismic waves have gradually increased in intensity over a period of 40 years, so the authors conclude it shows definitively that ocean waves, and therefore storms and wind and the climate in general have gotten more severe. Thanks, global boiling.

Measurement of seismic waves by long-running global seismographic networks reveals a gradual increase in wave energy in the earth’s crust. The authors claim a correlation with temperature rise over the same time period, concluding climate change has made the earth under your feet wavier and shakier. Another conclusion in the never-ending series of false equations between correlation and causation—one of the most prevalent logical fallacies in our world today.

The science of seisism isn’t in question, nor is the effect of ocean waves exerting pressure on the near-shore sea floor. One wonders at the massive leap, however, to link even seismic activity to global warming, especially since the claimed warming has stubbornly refused to be proven.

4. Warning: Your Steak May Cause Climate Weirding

Aren’t you getting tired of news stories that lead with the phrase, “Experts say …”? We’ve had about our fill of that over the last three years.

A couple of weeks ago, we reported on the proposed cheeseburger tax by a radical activist: “Anyway, the only way to stop gluttonous Americans from eating too many Big Macs is to tax the bejeezus out of them . . . Of course, the author blames evil Republicans for not being able to tax cheeseburgers out of existence.”

Now, “researchers say,” slapping meat with warnings like cigarette packs could stop global warming by getting people to stop eating it. That would, therefore, stop all the farts and plant eating by those horrid bovines.

As reported by the Daily Mail:

Slapping cigarette-style warning labels on food would drive down how much meat people eat, experts say.

Durham University academics tested similar alerts on 1,000 people and found they persuaded up to a tenth of participants to choose a fish or veggie option instead.

Warnings that eating meat ‘contributes to climate change’ or ‘poor health’ were the most effective messages, results showed.

We’re still searching for the researchers who proved cow flatulence drives global warming in the first place.

5. Night of the Living Weatherization Scam

The Department of Energy released this statement, somehow keeping a straight face in the process:

As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, a key component of Bidenomics, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced selectees for the Renew America’s Nonprofits grant, a competitive award that will support projects to reduce energy use and costs in buildings owned and operated by 501(c)(3)s. Behind salaries, energy costs are the second-highest operational expense for nonprofits, so reducing energy use can free up a meaningful percentage of funds in both the short and long-term, leading to savings that can be redirected to mission-critical work.

The Renew America’s Nonprofits grant will provide $45 million in awards to nine Prime Selectees who will collaborate with nearly 40 partners to deliver energy improvements in approximately 300 facilities across 28 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands [emphasis added].

This, of course, will be nothing but a slush fund for waste and fraud, and a payoff to Biden’s eco-activist buddies in the nonprofit sector. How do we know? That’s exactly how it went down when his former boss, President Obama, blew $5 billion on weatherization in the 2009 stimulus package. Still waiting to hear how much that lowered global temperatures…

6.  Video of the Week: EV Bus fails on the Streets of San Francisco

What happens when Google’s “100% Battery Electric” bus tries to go up a hill in San Francisco? Why, it creates must-see video, that’s what!

Now, let’s contemplate what happens when, say, the EV charging station conveniently placed on your long road trip blows up. Because that apparently happens with some regularity, too.

Our net-zero future is going off without a hitch.

Now for some good news!

TikTok vs. Big Oil: Who Ya Got?

The cultists came out in force for this one. Led by EarthJustice, a radical climate cultist legal firm that specializes in suing the government, they opposed a large oil-drilling project on Alaska’s north slope, on environmental grounds. They argued that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) failed to consider the effects of “greenhouse gases” on “ice-reliant species,” such as the polar bear, Arctic ringed seals and bearded seals, “which already are experiencing disruptions due to climate change.”

Evidently, the project’s federal designation as a “National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska” failed to deter our mighty warrior friends. According to the AP:

The project has widespread political support in Alaska. But climate activists said allowing it to go forward marked a major breach of President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to stop new oil drilling on federal lands. The administration’s action alienated and outraged some supporters, particularly young activists who launched a TikTok campaign to oppose the project ahead of its approval in March.

ConocoPhillips Alaska had proposed five drilling sites, but the Bureau of Land Management approved three, which it said would include up to 199 total wells. The project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day at its peak. Using that oil would produce the equivalent of at least 263 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions over Willow’s projected 30-year life.

Big Oil failed to knuckle under to a TikTok campaign, which actually counts as surprising, good news in 2023.