Climate Hypocrisy

[GURPS]

California wildfires cancel out nearly two decades of emissions reductions​

The record-breaking wildfire season, which resulted in more than 4 million acres burned, emitted twice as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as the state’s total reductions over 18 years, a new study published in the journal of Environmental Pollution.

“Wildfire emissions in 2020 essentially negate 18 years of reductions in GHG emissions from other sectors,” the study’s authors concluded.

The study highlights that between 2003 and 2019, California’s greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 13%, “largely driven by reductions from the electric power generation sector.” But the 2020 fire season alone is “two times higher than California’s total GHG emissions reductions,” researchers found.

Researchers also discovered that wildfire greenhouse gas emissions are the second “most important source in the state” after transportation and one that “appears likely to grow with future climate change.” Between 2000 and 2019, the California Air Resources Board that 41% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory was from transportation.

A spokesperson for CARB told the Los Angeles Times that the agency does not consider wildfire emissions in assessing progress toward greenhouse gas targets because “the targets are specific to human-caused emissions.” He told the Times that this could soon change, however, because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said all emissions must be considered to achieve carbon neutrality.

 

[Sneakers]

Mother Nature's a biatch, eh?

 

[Sneakers]

I was watching a show this morning, "How the Earth was Formed". Death Valley used to be a lake, 450 foot deep and many miles long, as short a time as 2000 years ago. Once covered in ice, it's now the hottest place in the world.

Man did that, right?

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

I was watching a show this morning, "How the Earth was Formed". Death Valley used to be a lake, 450 foot deep and many miles long, as short a time as 2000 years ago. Once covered in ice, it's now the hottest place in the world.

Man did that, right?

A remnant of the glacial ice melt from over 10,000 years ago. And yeah, it takes quite a long long long time for miles thick glacial ice that covered the continent to melt. The period of when theses glaciers formed was during the last magnetic pole shift and earth exertion tilt which placed our Continent as the north pole. Which happens to happen around every 12,000 year ago, and also which, we are about due for another flip.

 

[GURPS]

Presentation Paradox – UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

• It might be good news, but we cannot have good news, so it might be bad news as soon as we determine what type of news it is.

There could be encouraging news on the environmental front, but then that would be bad news for the climate hysterics who want to control our lives, so it has to be mitigated with some attached dire content. But…even the supplied data is screwed up. We are given the uplifting notion that CO2 emissions appear on the decline. Until we are served the details stating the opposite is in effect.

- "The Paris-based IEA estimated that global CO2 emissions are on pace to reach 33.8 billion tons this year, an increase of nearly 300 million tons should forecasts prove accurate."

What is happening is that – much like when a federal budget proposal is to have a lower amount of spending growth and have that declared to be a “cut in spending” – while the 300 million tons is an annual increase, it is a lower increase than seen last year, so it is…a decrease in the growth of emissions. The other flaw is that this is measured against the 2021 CO2 measurement, which grew by 2 billion tons. That is because during the global pandemic shutdown there was far less travel, automobile use, and other decreased output factors, so 2021 was a growth back to normal levels.

Basically, like most environmental reporting, this is a complete mess.

In a surprise, global greenhouse gas emissions seem to be on the decline - UPI.com

 

[GURPS]

Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – CNN

• I like this idea of offsetting the blame for environmental catastrophes onto animals.

Even when there might be good news on the environmental front (who can tell with that prior entry), we need to maintain the anxiety – and the guilt. So, whenever anything even approaching good news or a solution might be on the horizon, we have to find a way to extend and broaden the threats to our existence.

Now the newest scourge to impact the planet negatively has been spotted, and it might be among the worst yet – your pets are killing the planet!






But of course, they are. Now, since I am not one on the hysteric earth-doom bandwagon, I have to speak as an outsider. But it strikes me as a dicey proposition when you obviously want to appeal to those who love the planet and animals to blame their own animals for the promised calamity ahead.

 

[GURPS]

UPI hiding the decline in order to promote climate change agenda​

Last week, I ran across a UPI story that left me scratching my head. Titled “In a surprise, global greenhouse gas emissions seem to be on the decline” by Daniel J. Graeber, it’s purportedly evidence that there’s good news on the climate change front. The Joe Biden Inflation Reduction Act has caused a bunch of people to buy electric cars, and that, along with wind farms and increased solar capacity, shows we may have turned the corner on climate change, according to data. Except here’s the problem. The data suggests no such thing.

Full disclosure, I’m what you would call a climate change skeptic. Could the planet be warming? Sure. Our fault? I’m sure we contribute to it in some part. Is climate change cyclical? Almost certainly. CO2? It’s plant food, and I’m pretty hooked on oxygen. So if plants and trees are fed and happy and keep making that O2, I’m happy. Now back to Graeber’s UPI piece.

The headline alone is misleading and is contradicted by the 2nd paragraph into the story.

The Paris-based IEA estimated that global CO2 emissions are on pace to reach 33.8 billion tons this year, an increase of nearly 300 million tons should forecasts prove accurate. That’s substantially lower than the 2-billion-ton increase from 2020 levels last year.

 

[GURPS]

Who's to Blame for the Damaged Adult Children Staging Sad 'Milk Pour Protests'?​

Whatever it is these confused liberal arts students are achieving, it’s definitively not “raising awareness” — unless, of course, the term is taken to mean raising awareness of their narcissism, amazing unearned sense of entitlement, and lack of creativity.

The adult children in these videos are literally mentally irregular, or “neurodivergent,” as the trendy self-identity is termed.

(“Neurodivergence” is yet another category of oppressed identity for which group members are persecuted by “neurotypicals.” They all have Pride flags in their bios, signaling their alliance with the identity-obsessed left. It’s an innovative way to be special and rebellious without making any effort at actually doing anything special or rebellious.)

There’s no way anyone with basic social insight would believe these displays of neurotic, insular, detached-from-reality, self-indulgent “protest” produce any tangential strategic benefit for the proponents of the ideology, which is ostensibly the entire point of a protest.

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

 

[stgislander]

For your consideration ...

Larry... is that you?

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Europe Is Transitioning - To Coal!​

In Germany, they are tearing down a wind farm to make room for the expansion of an open pit lignite coal mine. Dismantling of wind turbines has already begun. Lignite is brown coal. It has been mined at the mine in question for well over a hundred years.

RWE, the German company that owns the mine has also announced that it is returning lignite-fired coal units that were previously on standby to service. Those plants came back online this month.

“The three lignite units each have a capacity of 300 megawatts (MW). With their deployment, they contribute to strengthening the security of supply in Germany during the energy crisis and to saving natural gas in electricity generation,” RWE said last month.

 

[GURPS]

Greta Thunberg: COP27 an opportunity for "greenwashing, lying and cheating"​

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has said she will skip next month’s Cop27 talks in Egypt, criticising the global summit as a forum for “greenwashing”.

 

[GURPS]

European Union adopts ban on gas-powered cars beginning in 2035​

Negotiators from the European Union reached a deal that would effectively ban sales of gas-powered cars beginning in 2035.

The deal was reached on Thursday by negotiators from EU member countries, European Parliament, and the European commission.

By 2035, the new law states that carmakers must cut their CO2 emissions by 100%, rendering it impossible to sell cars that are gas-powered.

Jan Huitema, a lead negotiator for the European Parliament, said that the deal is "good news."

"This deal is good news for car drivers... new zero-emission cars will become cheaper, making them more affordable and more accessible to everyone," Huitema said.

Additionally, by 2030, carmakers must achieve a 55% cut in CO2 emissions from 2021 levels. The automobile industry was previously operating off of a target of a 37.5% cut in emissions by 2030.

 

[GURPS]

Biden celebrates first $1 billion for electric school buses, but bus drivers aren’t cheering​

Among the concerns is the logistics of rolling out electric fleets with limited range and charging capabilities, particularly in rural areas. Nearly all of the chosen school districts receiving the first tranche of money — 99% — serve primarily low-income, rural, and/or Tribal students.

Electric school buses made by Blue Bird, a leading school bus manufacturer, have a maximum range of 120 miles before needing to be recharged, which can take anywhere from 3 to 8 hours. The administration is kicking in an extra $20,000 for each bus purchased to put toward charging infrastructure.

Another major challenge is that roughly 40% of the country’s 480,000 school buses are owned and operated by private companies that are contracted by schools. That means they don’t have direct access to the grant money and must work with the districts to secure it, adding another layer of bureaucracy that could slow progress.

“That causes logistical problems for us,” Mr. Macysyn said. “It’s creating something that’s more complicated than it needs to be.”

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Greenpeace gives up on recycling plastic​

Recycling almost everything is an uneconomic scamhttps://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/10/greenpeace_gives_up_on_recycling_plastic.html#_edn1, but that hasn’t stopped many localities from enforcing recycling mandates, and employing lots of people to sort through garbage and spend large sums on trying to find another use for the materials. At great expense to taxpayers.

But finally, Greenpeace has realized that recycling plastic makes no sense. In City Journal, John Tierney writes:

Greenpeace has seen the light, or at least a glimmer of rationality. The group has issued a report accompanied by a press release headlined, “Plastic Recycling Is A Dead-End Street—Year After Year, Plastic Recycling Declines Even as Plastic Waste Increases.” The group’s overall policy remains delusional—the report proposes a far more harmful alternative to recycling—but it’s nonetheless encouraging to see environmentalists put aside their obsessions long enough to contemplate reality.
The Greenpeace report offers a wealth of statistics and an admirably succinct diagnosis: “Mechanical and chemical recycling of plastic waste has largely failed and will always fail because plastic waste is: (1) extremely difficult to collect, (2) virtually impossible to sort for recycling, (3) environmentally harmful to reprocess, (4) often made of and contaminated by toxic materials, and (5) not economical to recycle.” Greenpeace could have added a sixth reason: forcing people to sort and rinse their plastic garbage is a waste of everyone’s time. But then, making life more pleasant for humans has never been high on the green agenda.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]