Environmentalism
News and opinions about environmental activism, especially that which is taken to the extreme by anti-capitalist troublemakers.

Environmental activism in America is based on unrealistic idealism which - in the real world - does more harm than good.  Often these are people who have the best intentions, but some of them will go to any lengths, whether illegal, unethical, dishonest or otherwise, to accomplish their goals.

Many environmental activists rely on propaganda, half-truths and one-dimensional statistics to convince others that the environment is fragile and the earth needs to be "saved" from humans.  This inevitably results in friction between the environmentalists — some of whom believe that man is just another animal — and the people who believe the earth was created for man's use and stewardship.

The environmentalist is more of an enemy to capitalism than a defender of nature.  The poorest countries in the world (for example, Nigeria) are the worst polluters, yet the environmentalists concentrate their efforts in the United States, Canada and England.

The Bible clearly states that God has made the heavens, with all their host, and the earth, and all things that are in it, and the seas, and all that is in them, and He preserves them all. (Nehemiah 9:6)  God himself preserves the earth (and the oceans and the atmosphere), not governments, not environmentalists, not anybody else.

Even so, we are to be good stewards of our natural resources.  No sane person would intentionally poison the atmosphere and the lakes and rivers, but that's not what this page is about.  Here we're talking about people who generate unnecessary strife and raise the cost of nearly everything by demanding infeasible solutions to problems that aren't really problems.



Subsections:

Leftist politics and bad ideas which often lead to bad laws
Anti-capitalism motivates environmentalists
The most radical environmentalists want to wipe out the human race
The Endangered Species Act
    The high cost of protecting the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which is probably extinct.
    The Polar Bear is used for emotional leverage.
Environmentalists vs. Military Preparedness
President Obama and the rabid environmentalists
    GE appears to be Obama's Halliburton
Lies, propaganda, distortion and exaggeration
Environmentalists Oppose Every Practical Source of Energy
Especially coal
Environmentalism is a religion
Earth Day
Lies about energy production
Environmental Propaganda Movie Reviews
Eco-terrorism
Environmentalism in public schools
Environmental False Alarms about Alar, arsenic, mercury, freon, radon, etc.
Other environmental false alarms:
    Coral Reefs
    Polar bears
    Polar ice
    Melting glaciers
    Rising sea levels
    Hurricane numbers and intensity
DDT and Other Pesticide Scares
  ...  including a subsection at the bottom about Rachel Carson.
Low-level environmental terrorism ... keeping people alarmed helps retain political clout.
Supposedly good ideas that may not be good at all, such as
  ...  mass transit part 1mass transit part 2, and more specifically Amtrak,
  ...  ethanol,
  ...  wind and solar power,
  ...  green jobs,
  ...  electric cars,
  ...  and fluorescent light bulbs.
ANWR — The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
CAFE — Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards
The Environmental Protection Agency
Media bias related to environmental issues
    ... including the media campaign against bottled water.
Global Warming
    Global warming overviews
    Greenhouse Gases -- especially carbon dioxide, which, by the way,
       is produced in great quantities by volcanos and cows and termites.
    The Kyoto Protocol
    Environmental Propaganda Movie Reviews
    The United Nations IPCC Report on Global Warming
    Silencing the Skeptics in the Global Warming Debate
    Global Warming Subtopics and Sidetracks:  hurricane intensity, polar bears, and rising sea levels.
    Global cooling -- That's right, there hasn't been any warming lately.
    Cap and Trade
    Global Warming is Blamed for Everything
Property rights issues related to environmentalism
Animal Rights vs. Human Rights
The Hypocrisy of Eco-Celebrities
The UN Earth Summit of 2002
The UN Climate Change Conference, Bali, December 2007.
The Copenhagen climate conference, 2009.
The Cancun climate conference, 2010.
A list of troublesome organizations
Other Environmental Topics

The discussion of 1.6-gallon toilets has moved to the top of this page.



Let's start with the basics...
Leftist utopian politics – the roots of environmentalism:

Biden Suddenly Uninterested in Environment When Uranium is Involved.  I'm old enough to remember when Democrats lectured everyone about protecting the environment and how evil Republicans wanted to lynch Mother Nature and roast all of the California condors.  One other thing they were definitely against was drilling and mining.  Digging vast holes in the ground is dangerous and releases all sorts of toxins.  Do any of you remember those days?  Well, put away your scrapbooks because a new day has dawned.  Joe Biden and the Democrats are now in love with mining, but not for coal, of course.  (Perish the thought.)  But if you're willing to mine for uranium, you can tear up the landscape to your heart's content.

'The River Is Essentially Dead': How Enviros' Push To Save Salmon Ended Up Killing 'Hundreds Of Thousands' Of Them.  A well-funded environmentalist group played a key role in the push to remove dams in the Pacific Northwest's Klamath River ahead of premature deaths of thousands of salmon.  American Rivers — an organization that has received millions of dollars from left-of-center environmentalist grantmaking organizations in recent years — was "the orchestrator of the Klamath dams removal project," according to Siskiyou News, a local outlet in Northern California.  The drawdowns of several reservoirs pursuant to the scheduled removal of four dams in the river preceded the deaths of "hundreds of thousands" of young salmon in the waterway, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.  The push to remove the dams is often marketed as beneficial for salmon, as proponents of the plan — including American Rivers — have argued that the dams obstruct the natural movements of salmon as well as their access to habitat.  However, weeks after beginning the process to remove one of the systems scheduled for deconstruction on the river, a large number of the 830,000 young salmon released into the river on Feb. 26 had died as of March 2, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

Payable to whom?
Climate alarmists say U.S., U.K. militaries 'owe' $111 billion in 'climate reparations'.  China's state-run Global Times on Wednesday eagerly touted a report from two climate alarmist think tanks, Common Wealth in the United Kingdom and the Climate and Community Project in the United States, that claimed the British and American militaries "owe" $111 billion in "climate reparations" to communities supposedly threatened by their carbon emissions.  The Global Times is the house organ of the Chinese government, the worst polluter and carbon emitter on Earth by a very wide margin, but it naturally left China's emissions unmentioned as it focused on the "social cost of carbon" calculations run by the two think tanks to slam the "toxic legacy of war" spread by its Western rivals.

Can't We Phase Out Climate Change Instead?  It is time to phase out the climate crisis.  Tone it down.  Make it believable.  Listen to, don't cancel, scientists who want to present another side of the debate.  The constant barrage of climate alarmism causes fatigue in public opinion.  The dire predictions, "hockey stick" graphs, and "population bomb" datelines that fail to deliver an apocalypse rightly cause great skepticism.  Blaming every freak weather storm, natural disaster, or even sociopolitical crisis on climate change destroys the credibility of "the science" that should seek empirical evidence, not political agendas.  A phase-out or even a gradual phase-down of the eco-rhetoric and its accompanying climate summits would be a welcome relief for a public tired of being told inconvenient untruths.

Climate Change Is Taking Over Common Sense.  The late, great humorist P.J. O'Rourke used to quip that everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to wash the dishes.  Well, now that can be said for traditional environmental groups that seem to have lost their way.  Green groups are supposed to be about keeping our rivers, lakes and streams clean.  They are supposed to be about fighting litter and keeping toxic chemicals out of the air.  Their job is to maintain the beauty of our national parks and save elephants and tigers.  Not anymore.  The New York Times recently reported in a disturbing headline: "Environmental Groups Cut Programs as Funding Shifts to Climate Change."  In other words, the Left's climate change hysteria and its campaign to end fossil fuels is interfering with a commonsense green agenda.  Worse than that, the climate agenda is in some ways making the condition of the environment worse.

Trudeau's 'climate czar' is the losingest loser in cabinet.  Steven Guilbeault was required to pay $20,000 in costs to Rebel News after blocking journalists from reading his taxpayer-funded X (formerly Twitter) account.  [Tweet]  Then Guilbeault lost a legal challenge to Bill C-69, the no more pipelines law, which created an impossible bar for energy projects to achieve approvals.  The challenge to the law, led by the province of Alberta, struck down the new requirement to consider social, gender and climate agendas in the regulatory process for energy projects as unconstitutional.  [Tweet]  Good things come in threes.  Trudeau's Climate Czar just lost another court challenge.  This time, the court ruled against Trudeau's unscientific ban on single-use plastics, which found the safe, sterile petrochemical classified as a Schedule One toxin, along with asbestos and lead.  [Tweet]  However, Guilbeault hasn't paid the money he owes to Rebele News.  And he vows to keep the no pipeline law and his plastics ban despite the court ruling against him.  [Tweet]

Time to Tell America's Climate Cult 'Stop!'  Describing the mission of his National Review magazine in its inaugural edition on Nov. 19, 1955, the then-not-yet 30-year-old conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. wrote that his new magazine "stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it."  Rishi Sunak, Britain's Tory prime minister, seems to have bravely adopted at least some of that mission by challenging Britain's radical climate agenda.  It's a lesson for the United States.  Addressing Britain's sanguine climate policy, Mr. Sunak said, "there's nothing ambitious about simply asserting a goal for a short-term headline without being honest with the public about the tough choices and sacrifices involved and without any meaningful democratic debate about how we get there."  Mind you, Mr. Sunak isn't what the climate cult types call a "climate change denier"; far from it.  But he understands that aspirations without means are merely pipe dreams.  And he also understands that imposing climate mandates without public discourse or debate is antithetical to the democratic principles that underlie his republic, as they do ours.

Incorporating Out-of-State Regulations is Unconstitutional.  Besides Washington D.C., as many as 14 states — the CARB states, so called after the California Air Resources Board — apply the bluebook, California's stringent air pollution control laws.  In most of them, lawmakers have neither legislated on the matter nor consulted citizens.  This anomaly is being challenged as unconstitutional by Peters Brothers Inc., a trucking firm based in Lenhartsville, Pennsylvania.  The family business owns a fleet of refrigerated trucks.

The perils of net zero coercion.  Climate coercion is a very bad way to cut greenhouse gas emissions in Western democracies.  The reflex of sweeping bans is already provoking a bitter backlash in Europe. [...] Germany's heat pump industry is not physically capable of covering such a sudden switch from gas boilers.  Heat pumps will become cheaper over the course of the 2020s, and new technologies are arriving that could let you keep old radiators without having to rip up the house.  We are not there yet.

Canadian smoke signals: It ain't 'climate change'.  The climate change mob will never allow a crisis to go to waste.  They just can't help themselves; it must be in their DNA.  Once again, we masked up, cancelled, and submitted.  One emergency goes, another arrives born of the left's favorite religious denomination: environmentalism even though reported evidence points to the fire's origin as arson. [...] To question whether shoddy government forest mismanagement is to blame is unacceptable.  Rather, lay the blame on all those plastic bags, straws, gas stoves and, of course, systemic racism.  Smokey the Bear's contract has gone up in smoke and why not?  Smokey roams in flyover country.  Environmentalists own this and will not tolerate dissent.  What they fail to realize is timber, like any crop, needs to be cultivated and managed.

Biden's World Bank Head Promises To Spend 'As Much As We Possibly Can' On Climate Change.  Ajay Banga, the Biden-appointed president of the World Bank, promised to "push" the financial institution to its limits to combat climate change in an interview with Reuters late Tuesday.  While Banga said he would not take any actions that would threaten the global financier's "AAA" credit rating, he said that he would leverage the bank's balance sheet "as hard as you can" to address climate issues, Reuters reported.  Members of the Biden administration, notably including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and President Joe Biden himself, and climate activists have — at times over the objections of developing nations — called for Banga to shift the bank's focus from combating poverty to additionally combating climate change.

The Corruption of Climate Science.  It is no exaggeration that every major institution in America has now committed itself to the elimination of affordable and abundant energy.  If it isn't stopped, this commitment, motivated by misguided concern for the planet but also by a lust for power and money and enabled by moral cowardice and intellectual negligence, will destroy Western civilization.  For over 50 years, with increasing frequency, corrupted, careerist scientists have produced biased studies that, amplified by agenda-driven corporate and political special interests, constitute a "consensus" that is supposedly "beyond debate."  We are in a "climate crisis."  To cope with this climate emergency, all measures are justifiable.  This is overblown, one-sided, distorted, and manipulative propaganda.  It is the language of authoritarians and corporatists bent on achieving even more centralized political power and economic wealth.  It is a scam, perhaps the most audacious, all-encompassing fraud in human history.

Neil Oliver: There's nothing green about the green agenda; It's all a scam.  [Video clip.]

That's probably the only way to meet this ridiculous goal.
South Africa beats climate goal as load shedding slashes emissions.  South Africa is ahead of its target for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases.  Output of the climate-warming gases from the world's 14th-biggest emitter is already falling even though its Nationally Determined Contribution, a target adopted by the cabinet in 2021, only forecast a decline from 2025.  Regular breakdowns of the coal-fired power plants that supply more than 80% of South Africa's electricity mean that less carbon dioxide is being pumped into the atmosphere and daily rotational cuts of more than 10 hours a day are further limiting emissions from factories.  "It's unintentional," Crispian Olver, the executive director of South Africa's Presidential Climate Commission, said in an interview in Johannesburg on Monday.

COVID shutdowns were just the beginning.  Climate lockdowns are next.  [Scroll down]  Now, for clarification "net zero" means total greenhouse gas emissions (including methane) must be less than their removals (such as from planting trees).  The FIRES report instead focused on an absolute zero target because they recognize the absence of novel revolutionary scalable technologies for 1) capture and removal of these gases; and 2) non-fossil fuel mass transportation and energy production.  In other words, if you realistically want to achieve the net zero target by 2050 you essentially have to go for absolute zero.  My twitter thread highlighted the eye-watering points that the strategy required:
  •   All airports in the U.K. except Heathrow, Belfast, and Glasgow to close by 2030.
  •   No flying at all by 2050.
  •   No new petrol/diesel cars by 2030.
  •   By 2050 road use restricted to 60 percent of today's level.
  •   Food, heating, and energy restricted to 60 percent of today's level by 2050.
  •   Beef and lamb to be phased out by 2050.
I said that, apart from the extreme limitations on personal freedom and travel, this means either a colder, hungrier population or massive depopulation.

What Will Net Zero Ever Do For Us?  We are being asked to cut overall energy use by 46-60% per person.  The evidence shows a clear relationship between high energy use and high GDP per capita.  Such dramatic cuts in energy use would put us on a par with Ecuador, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.  It is clear that reducing energy consumption puts us at severe risk of making us all poorer with big cuts in living standards.  We are also being asked to cut meat consumption by 35-50% and the zealots at UK FIRES want to ban beef and lamb entirely.  However, higher meat consumption is linked to longer life expectancy, so big cuts to meat consumption runs the risk of making us live shorter lives.  In addition, there are calls for up to a quarter of all our agricultural land to be re-forested, reducing our ability to grow our own food.  The UK FIRES extremists also want to ban all aviation and shipping, so non-rail food imports would be curtailed.  They also want to greatly reduce fertiliser use, further reducing crop yields and risking food security.  They don't stop there: we are to be forced into electric cars and to use them less.  We will be forced to heat our homes with heat pumps and install ruinously expensive insulation.

Assault and Battery: Beware Those EVs.  There can be little doubt in any serious person's mind that Green technology is an unmitigated disaster.  It is no longer an issue of Big Oil, which the Leftwaffe is strafing and bombing daily, but of the multi-billion-dollar industry of Big Green, or the Climate-Industrial Complex.  The game has changed.  As The Epoch Times reports, "a powerful lobby of politicians, scientists, and media pushes climate-related falsehoods into the popular perspective," to the advantage of Big Business and the attendant cohort of technopreneurs.  Whether we are considering the fantasy of costly, inefficient, and environmentally harmful wind farms, the array of solar panels under the cloudy skies and grey winters of the northern hemisphere, or even the pending legislation against gas stoves — "now you're cooking with gas" is an expression that may have seen its last days — we must prepare for a penurious and meager future.  Moreover, renewables are not keeping pace with the doing away of conventional and nuclear sources of energy, which means that the national energy supply may be increasingly depleted before the shortfall can be made up — if ever.

When Will This Climate Madness End?  What do gas ranges, Dutch farmers, and moose have in common?  In a normal everyday context, very little.  But in the world of apocalyptic climate change, everything. [...] The enlightened climate cult solution is to ban everything that adds greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and embrace everything that lowers the concentration of greenhouse gases.  For example, gas ranges and ovens are bad because they use fossil fuels like natural gas and propane to cook food.  If gas stoves are banned, electric ranges and ovens can fill the gap.  No worries, right?  The same argument can be made for fossil-fueled vehicles.  Ban them, and switch over to electric vehicles.  Ditto for fossil-fueled power generating stations.  Ban them, switch to renewable sources, and have a happy day.  This sort of logic extends to another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide.  In the Netherlands, the Dutch Government is trying to force up to 3,000 farms to close to meet European Union pollution limits on nitrogen oxides and ammonia.  This means that almost no form of agriculture is safe from climate change diktats.

The public has never seen any scientific data that shows that our use of natural resources increases temperatures or controls the climate.  The United States and other supposedly advanced and intelligent countries are working as fast as they can to destroy companies that produce oil, coal, natural gas and all the products derived from them.  They are doing it because of the predictions that these products cause temperatures to rise and massive climate damage.  What the media and other pushers of radical green energy policies never show is scientific data that show a direct link between our consumption of these products and warming temperatures.  Because there is none. [...] Government policies should be based on factual data, not predictions especially since the dire predictions from the last 100 years have been completely wrong.

Climate Hysteria and Woke Gobbledegook Are Becoming Inseparable.  One of Britain's leading climate 'experts', Professor Kevin Anderson, has provided a valuable insight into the increasingly bizarre demands that surround the promotion of the collectivist Net Zero political project.  Writing in the Conversation, he argues for Net Zero within 12 years, complete with a refit of U.K. housing stock, a withdrawal of all combustion engine cars in favour of expanded public transport, electrification of industry, the roll out of 'zero-carbon' energy, and the banning of all fossil fuel production. [...] On a practical level, Anderson's latest calls for radical societal restructuring under the guise of a 'climate emergency' are plainly ridiculous.  Retrofitting Britain's well-ventilated housing and industrial stock along with installing heat pumps would cost around £3 trillion, according to a paper published last year by the technology professor Michael Kelly — equivalent, it should be noted, to Britain's annual GDP.

Biden admin buckles to environmental groups, makes sudden reversal on key land decision.  The Biden administration announced late Tuesday that it would reverse a Trump-era land swap deal facilitating the construction, in an Alaska wilderness area, of a potentially life-saving road opposed by environmental groups.  The Department of the Interior (DOI) withdrew the land exchange — which had been finalized by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in 2019 and aggressively defended in court by the Biden administration — and explained that it contained procedural flaws and wasn't consistent with agency policy.  DOI Secretary Deb Haaland said the agency would initiate another environmental analysis of the proposal as part of President Biden's conservation agenda.

Bureaucracies [are] Utterly Incapable of Making Reasonable Tradeoffs.  You don't go into a career as an environmental bureaucrat if you think that your concern for the environment is something that can or should be compromised.  In the U.S., battle is currently joined on multiple fronts as to whether unaccountable bureaucracies get to declare the non-toxic beneficial gas CO2 a "danger" to human health and welfare and thereby claim the ability to shut down the entire fossil fuel energy economy and force a multi-trillion dollar (and probably impossible and impoverishing) energy transition on the people. [...] But consider for a moment how it works in the different governance model of the EU, where bureaucrats answer to no one and are virtually unconstrained.  This consideration is relevant to the U.S. situation, because the EU governance model of the unconstrained bureaucratic state, at least as to environmental issues, is the one favored by Democrats in our Congress and by the "liberal" justices on the Supreme Court.  Over in the EU, they have decided that nitrogen — or maybe it is "reactive nitrogen" — is a pollutant.  And pollutants are bad, and therefore they should be reduced or, better, eliminated.  And the bureaucracies have been empowered toward this goal.  Well, here's the problem.  Nitrogen is an essential building block of life, including human life, without which we all starve to death.  Every protein is made up of amino acids, and every amino acid has at least one atom of nitrogen in it.

House votes to kill Biden's 'woke' ESG investment rule that props up 'phony climate movement'.  The House voted Tuesday [2/28/2023] to kill the Biden administration's controversial rule that encourages private retirement plan fiduciaries to consider environment, social and governance (ESG) factors when making investment decisions for tens of millions of Americans.  The Department of Labor rule is widely seen by Republicans as part of the Biden administration's push to inject "woke" ideology into all aspects of government.  Under the rule, fiduciaries who make investment decisions for the retirement plans of more than 150 million people would be explicitly permitted under federal guidelines to consider companies' approach to climate change and other social issues, instead of focusing on only profitability and return on investment for retirees.  Republicans say that's a recipe for tanking millions of investment accounts, and on Tuesday, House GOP leaders called up a resolution aimed at killing the rule, which passed 216-204.  Only one Democrat voted for it.

Global Warming, The Moral Equivalent Of War.  It's not the first time climate alarmists have argued that rationing resources is an important weapon in the war to defeat global warming.  In some cases, it's rationing carbon dioxide, which would mean less of everything, since our economy runs on CO2-emitting fossil fuels.  But there have also been appeals to ration food, meat in particular, and consumer goods.  In a passage that is as revealing as it is revolting, the paper, published last week, argues that carbon rationing would "allow people to receive an equitable portion of resources based on their needs, therefore sharing out the effort to protect the planet." [...] The "fight" against global warming has the earmarks of Marxist thought, in which the individual members of society are expected to surrender themselves to the common good, as defined of course by the regime's rulers.  The core thinking in the paper is also perfectly aligned along the axis of malice with the World Economic Forum elites, who have said the future is a promised land in which we will own nothing and be happy about it.  Yes, those wretches who want us to eat bugs.

We Can 'Fix' The Climate Without Destroying Our World.  Briefly, a cleared forest releases a slow-motion plume of carbon dioxide as forestry waste decomposes.  This continues until the new canopy has grown enough to soak that up.  By contrast, thinning a forest leaves the canopy intact.  That avoids these releases to begin with.  This highlights three things that happen when you clear a field.  (1) You remove canopy above ground.  (2) You leave organic waste that decomposes behind.  (3) Plants soak up the resulting soil emissions.  Land stewards have been removing the plants that offset these soil emissions since the industrial era.  Loggers adopted clear-cutting at the turn of the 20th century.  A cleared forest is a wide-open field.  The soil fungi, which need plants for sugars, eventually die.  The wind takes the soil emissions up in the atmosphere before nearby plants soak them up.

California: Atmospheric river and misguided climate fear.  According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an atmospheric river is a long, narrow region in the atmosphere that can transport large amounts of water vapor, roughly equivalent to the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River.  When atmospheric rivers make landfall, they release this water vapor in the form of rain or snow.  An atmospheric river that forms in the tropics near Hawaii, sometimes called the Pineapple Express, can deliver large amounts of water to the U.S. West Coast.  This winter's atmospheric river has been catastrophic.  Ten different storms have stuck the California coast in the last three weeks.  More than 20 people have died, thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes, and 25 million people are under a flood watch.  The state averaged more than 11 inches of rain from late December to mid-January.  The series of flooding storms were unexpected, following several years of severe drought in California.  Government leaders and some scientists blame human carbon dioxide emissions and climate change.

Our Liberal Friends Have Learned Nothing [about] Climate Change.  Don't you lefties understand that climate change is just as much of a fake war as you believed the Cold War to be, back in the day?  Al Gore bellowing away at Klausi's WEF shindig ought to remind you about Sen. McCarthy bellowing about communists in the State Department.  But go ahead.  You climatistas will end up crashing the economy and get thrown out of power for a generation.

Climate change talking points.  [Scroll down]  "Global warming" entered the public policy debate in a serious way when the midterm election of 2006 made Nancy Pelosi speaker of the House of Representatives.  Knowing of the general public's pervasive ignorance of earth science, the demagogues of the Left seized the opportunity to wage war on fossil fuels as a convenient stand-in for capitalism.  After losing out to technology when it came to smog and acid rain, global warming had to be their next best line of attack.  Add to this the compelling appeal that doomsday cults have for those who are looking for any excuse to avoid facing the boring drudgery of ordinary life.  And lastly, we are seeing climate change being woven into just about every weather-related news report.  The current prolonged deluge that may be ending California's three-year drought is a prime example.  The term "atmospheric river" is used prolifically, as it was some years back in a Scientific American article that discussed the flood of 1862.  This flood is seldom mentioned in today's reportage concerning the current situation, even though it was of tremendous historic importance.  The (ahem) inconvenient truth being that sediment analysis shows such floods to have regularly occurred about every 165 years, give or take, going back thousands of years.  Doing the arithmetic, the last occurrence was 161 years ago.

The green agenda has never been about science or the environment: It is about green money and power.  The people pushing the green agenda always say they are basing the agenda on "science," yet their actions continually show that is not true.  The EU's scientific arm said that the chemical element lithium, used in green-vehicle batteries, should be labeled as a toxin, but the EU refused to call it that because it would interfere with their policy to promote electric cars powered by the highly flammable pollutant. [...] Why do scientists in and out of government promote the toxin lithium as a green alternative while seeking to control and bury CO2, a clear, innocuous non-pollutant that make plants grow and allows the world to be fed?

Paul Ehrlich and the madness of climate alarmists.  All forecasters make mistakes.  But few forecasters have been as consistently wrong as biologist Paul Ehrlich.  So it was quite surprising to see, on 1 January, the once venerable CBS series, 60 Minutes, inviting Ehrlich on the show to give his take on the state of the planet. [...] Ehrlich, a Stanford University entomologist, is most infamous for his 1968 doom-mongering tome, The Population Bomb.  In reality, since The Population Bomb was published, rates of starvation have fallen off a cliff, while the world's population has doubled. [...] The reason Ehrlich always misses the mark is not just down to bad luck.  He relies on a kindergarten understanding of political economy, in which multiplying human beings always run up against the limits of Spaceship Earth.  What all his forecasts ignore is how human ingenuity, risk-taking ambition and technological innovation can overcome the apparent physical limits of the planet.  Even now, advances in genetic modification and irrigation continue to improve crop yields — defying the predictions of climate alarmists that a warming world will inevitably lead to shortages.  Despite Ehrlich's history of egregious errors, he is still treated as an authority on all things ecological.

30 by 30 is the biggest land grab in history marketed under the guise of "protecting biodiversity".  Last week we published an article about a statement issued by the Indigenous Environmental Network, an American initiative to protect sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, and the health of both indigenous people and all living things.  The statement exposed the private commercial interests at COP15 planning to profiteer from "Mother Earth."  At the recent COP15 — the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity ("UNCBD") conference — the Global Biodiversity Framework, known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted. [...] Independently, the 'No Deal for Nature' campaign has investigated and detailed the monstrous and unprecedented assault on our living world under the guise of biodiversity.  "At the forefront is the accelerating loss of biodiversity, upon which all life depends," the campaign states, "this very real threat is now being marketed and exploited in order to reboot the global economy."

The Editor says...
"All life depends" on a lot of things, but "biodiversity" is not one of them.  When one specific type of plant or animal disappears, the rest adapt and move on.  In other words, they're smart enough to get over it!

A Fool's Game on Climate.  Use of fossil fuels had an immediate effect on our environment, as the use of kerosene soon took the place of whale oil for lamps and preserved the lives of thousands of whales.  Under the Trump administration this long tradition was continued and even added to.  The present administration has done much to reverse that trend.  It is almost as if they have determined that every act of President Trump had to go.  A couple dozen executive orders were issued the first day Biden was in office.  Many of these concerned the use of energy.  There was an immediate war on coal, oil, and natural gas, the very things that made America great.  First was cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline.  Then other pipelines bit the dust.  Oil exploration projects on federal lands and off shore were ended.  The goal of the present administration is to stop all production of carbon dioxide in just a few short years.  Carbon dioxide is a necessary gas from which every plant is built.  From that tiny percentage (0.042 percent) comes the substance of every plant and all plant life in the oceans.  We are just part of that carbon cycle.  Animals produce carbon dioxide while plants produce oxygen, essential for all life.  It is foolish to think that man can reduce carbon dioxide and control the earth's temperature.

Netherlands to close up to 3,000 farms to comply with EU rules.  The Dutch government is planning to buy out and close as many as 3,000 farms in the country, exacerbating an already-bitter dispute with growers as leaders attempt to halve the country's nitrogen emissions by 2030.  Leaders said last week they plan to allocate some $25 billion to the buyout plan, which they will use to purchase between 2,000 and 3,000 Dutch farms and other large nitrogen emitters "well over" their property values.  If farmers do not agree to the plan, the buyouts could become compulsory.  "There is no better offer coming," Dutch Nitrogen Minister Christianne van der Wal told members of parliament last week.  The plan comes as the Dutch government moves to halve its nitrogen emissions by 2030 in accordance with European Union conservation rules.  But to meet that target, the government estimates that 11,200 farms will have to close, and 17,600 others will have to reduce their livestock numbers significantly.

The Editor says...
Nitrogen emissions are not a plausible excuse for this action.  The atmosphere is already 78 percent nitrogen.  Nitrogen is not a pollutant, and the various nitrogen compounds resulting from (or essential to) farm work are not a real threat, either.  Certainly not a threat that justifies shutting off the food supply for millions of people.

From a Time When Communism Was Taught Right.  [Scroll down] We see now that China is showering entities like the World Health Organization and many organizations in the United States with Chinese cash so they toe the party line.  Many universities, think-tanks, and media have been corrupted.  Many corporations are beholden to cheap labor — think slave labor — to produce their goods and services.  Others provide service contracts that are configured to the restrictive nature of China.  These same companies hope to export their restrictive contracts from China to the United States.  Climate change hysteria is pushing for the elimination of fossil fuels in the United States and elsewhere.  The World Economic Forum is driving these changes on behalf of the Chinese government, Meanwhile, China is clamoring for the purchase and extraction of American minerals and building fossil fuel plants without pollution controls at an exponential rate to fuel its economic growth and rising influence in the world.

China has caused more pollution in 8-years than Britain has in the last 220, report claims.  China is responsible for 14 percent of all emissions throughout history, making it the second biggest polluter in the world, while the USA is in first place as it is responsible for 25 percent of all emissions.  In comparison, the UK has emitted just 4.6 percent of all emissions, which is the fifth highest in the world.  The Telegraph has reported that China has caused more pollution since 2013 than Britain has since the Industrial Revolution first began.  It comes at a time former Labour leader Ed Miliband recently suggested Britain should pay to help developing countries recover for "loss and damage" from climate change.

How You can Derail the Climate Agenda.  It's time, once again, for another climate conference.  This will be the 27th desperate effort to save the planet.  It doesn't have to be this way.  The fearmongers are hard at work.  They've put out no less than 8 reports in the run-up to the event.  We must act now, experts squeal.  The alternative is dire, as always.  The coverage is relentless, especially in rags that take money from conservancies.  A small twist this year is the number of leaders who won't show up.  UK prime minister Rishi Sunak was among the first to pass.  The event was set for failure by the time he changed his mind.  As of writing, the leaders of China, India, and a host of other countries will not attend.

The Green Energy Profiteering Scam.  When governments limit drilling and mining for hydrocarbons in the ground, they manufacture scarcity.  When governments set strict limits for how much oil, coal, and natural gas may be used commercially, such energies' broad industrial usefulness ensures increasingly high demand.  When companies are forced to limit their "carbon footprint" or purchase "carbon credits" (ordinary rocks) from licensed "green" vendors, then the government's preferred business partners reap windfalls (and the government's treasury mushrooms, too).  When only certain wealthy individuals and companies can afford artificially expensive hydrocarbon energies as regular business costs, then budding entrepreneurs and small firms can no longer compete.  Those at the peak of society's wealth pyramid have a much easier time staying on top when the same natural sources of hydrocarbon energy once used to amass fortunes are now denied to those who would do the same.  A war on "fossil fuels" is a superb tactic for protecting private market share.

The war isn't against 'fossil fuels' but rather the people.  Democrats in Congress just passed a slush fund — also known as the Inflation Reduction Act — which gives massive amounts of money to their political interests who claim they can control temperatures, sea levels, and storm activity forever.  Politicians are waging a war against the people, which are made manifest in their attempts to force everyone to get rid of their cars, trucks, lawn mowers, and everything else powered by gas combustion engines, based on the unproven theory that they cause rising temperatures, storms, floods, and droughts.  They want the poor and middle class to be forced to buy inefficient, impractical, and unaffordable options, or go without.  What they don't put limits on are private jets, yachts, or the number and size of mansions that emit massive amounts of carbon compared to the rest of us. [...] What we never see in testimonies, articles, and news programs is any direct correlation between crude oil consumption, coal consumption, methane emissions, CO2 content and temperatures because there is none.  The temperature has fluctuated the last 160 years cyclically and naturally as it always has.

Green Fascists Are Destroying the World.  This is not the environmentalism of previous generations, and this new zealotry does not negate or diminish the common sense concern for the environment that most reasonable people share.  But this new breed of intolerant, fanatical environmentalism, manifested in the movement to avert a "climate crisis," is perhaps the most virulent and dangerous expression of fascism in America today.  If left unchecked, this fascistic climate change movement will destroy freedom and prosperity while it destroys the planet it purportedly wants to save.  This is not a frivolous accusation because, in this case, the shoe fits.  There are two types of fascism.  One is based on ideology and manipulates popular emotions, and the other is based on economics and appeals to elitist greed.  The climate crisis movement has found a way to combine both.

11,200 farms in The Netherlands to be shuttered in order to meet the government's climate goals.  By now, you have probably heard about the conflict in Europe over farm animals, which the globalist power lords claim are "warming" the planet and changing the climate with their flatulence — and thus have to be destroyed.  Well, The Netherlands is already doing this with the planned destruction of some 11,200 farms, we are told.  Calculations done by the country's finance ministry reveal that lots and lots of cattle will need to die in order to reduce nitrogen emissions — nitrogen being a natural gas in our atmosphere that, combined with oxygen, keeps us alive and thriving.  Without nitrogen, everyone and everything would die — and this includes all plant life, by the way.  This is the globalist agenda, and it is rapidly taking shape in Western Europe where farmers protests are boiling over across the land.

Why Greens Can't Keep Angry Farmers Down on the Farm, in the Netherlands or Globally.  Farmers in the Netherlands reduced nitrogen pollution by nearly 70% through a voluntary system.  But the government says that is not enough and is demanding that they cut pollution by another 50% by 2030.  By the Dutch government's own estimates, 11,200 farms out of the roughly 35,000 dedicated to dairy and livestock would have to close under its policies; 17,600 farmers would have to reduce livestock; and total livestock would need to be reduced by one-half to one-third.  The Dutch government has demanded that animal farming stop entirely in many places.  Of the over $25.7 billion the government has set aside to reduce pollution, just $1 billion is for technological innovation, with most of the rest for buying out farmers.  This effort has sparked a fierce backlash among Dutch farmers, who argue that the government seems more interested in reducing animal agriculture than in finding solutions that protect the food supply and their livelihoods.

There's No Despot So Tyrannical As A Green Politician.  Reports of unrest over environmental policies from the Netherlands and Sri Lanka are much more than novelty news.  What is happening in both spots is a lesson that has to be learned quickly.  If not, there's deep trouble ahead.  Dutch farmers, whose history of crop yields puts them among the most productive in the world, continue to protest rules that limit their use of nitrogen, a nutrient in commercial fertilizers that converts to nitrous oxide, which is feared as a greenhouse gas.  Officials expected them to cut use 50% nationally, which means in some regions, the reductions will be as high as 95%.  The crippled farmers, their survival under attack, are, as they should be, revolting.

Where Science Ends and Morality Begins.  Environmentalists' desire to halt development of the natural landscape is plainly visible in their restricting of the water supply in California.  Since 1970, the population of California has increased 100 percent, but the volume of water in her reservoirs has increased only 26 percent.  The last major dam in California was built 42 years ago.  Environmentalists fight the construction of every new water project, including even desalination plants, which could be a source of virtually unlimited water for Californians.  But more water would mean more people, more wealth, and more transformation of the landscape.  (It would be a mistake to attribute California's water shortage to radical environmentalists; in California, garden-variety environmentalists have simply enjoyed more power to enact the standard green agenda than their comrades elsewhere.)

Just Stop It!  Donald Trump left us with production elasticity and as net exporters of energy.  Biden deliberately blew it up because the administration fully supports the big lie that is the Climate Change/Green agenda.  The Climate Change movement has nothing to do with saving the environment and has everything to do with the collapse of our economy and the rise of globalist domination once America is neutered.  Greens, to that end, use misguided and disproven arguments that fossil fuel use must be immediately curtailed to save the planet.  Greens do not care if people starve or freeze, even though they have no workable replacement for our total energy needs.  Greens block all nuclear power options, which would be a clean solution, further demonstrating that their goal is economic collapse and not climate.  Biden cut, and now refuses to expand, US energy production, yet he is trying to convince the Saudis to pump more oil to alleviate the crisis he created.

Biden Wants to Regulate Everything — Even Your Air Conditioning.  President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi want to regulate any gadget or appliance with an electric switch that turns on in your house or your driveway.  New Department of Energy rules will dictate the amount of water that comes out of your showerhead, how much warm air comes out of your heater and how much cool air comes out of air conditioners.  There is even talk about gadgets monitoring your home's temperature in the winter and summer months.  How is any of this the government's business?

America [is] Moving From A Permission Society To A Repressive Regime.  Last month, the Energy Department announced it was taking public comments on efficiency standards for residential air conditioners and pool heaters that are intended to "to help consumers save on their utility bills."  The "savings" angle, though, feels more like cover for the department's deeper agenda, which is its "commitment to reaching net zero carbon emissions."  The Democrats who for now dominate policy making in Washington believe there is nothing so private that they cannot regulate, nothing so personal that it can't be intruded upon.  The only question is the pace of the arrogation of our freedoms.  They have to be taken down in increments, so that the country won't notice the slippery slope toward tyranny.  In many cases, often regarding energy and conservation policies, restrictions are even celebrated by the loudest factions to help numb the public to the constant attacks on liberty.

The Unspoken Evil of Climate Change Tyrants.  The current US Administration has driven the world into a more dangerous place, and it has been led there by the climate change dictators.  Consider where they have led us.  The forceful anti-fossil fuel dictates of the green energy policy makers have led America from being not just energy independent but also a major exporter to become dependent on dangerous and belligerent regimes.  They closed the spigots decades before the essential infrastructure had been installed to sustain any adequate dependence on wind-power, solar panels, or semiconductor chips.  They are so maniacal in their devotion to their golden calf that they truly believe that leaving America bereft of fuel and energy is the only way to combat their obsessive fear.  The outcome has been a domestic economic disaster and far more damaging to the global environment and security.

Vermont leads the way ... off the climate bureaucracy cliff.  A recent Vermont legislative initiative purports to save the planet, by "conserving" fifty percent of all Vermont territory for wildlife by 2050!  In addition to the economic and constitutional problems this poses, this effort holds up for public display the foolish power-mongering implicit in all these highbrow, counterproductive "climate salvation" fantasies. [...] This effort is totally disconnected from helping the ecosystem, though it dramatically expands elitist ideological tyranny — this is the common theme when bureaucrats fantasize they can solve problems they don't even understand, with more bureaucracy and power appropriated to themselves.  The common theme in all of these efforts is that they 1) eliminate private property rights; 2) while transferring wealth from poor people to wealthy elites and 3) are environmentally counterproductive.  Environmental writer Wendell Berry opines wryly that "People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food."  A parallel is that people in Vermont are subjugated by an elitist bureaucrat industry, which pays no attention to either human health, food, or the ecosystem — all of these are mere pretenses to advance counterproductive ideological delusions.

The US Must Face an Existential Threat, but It's Not Climate Change.  Democrats are committed "to eliminating carbon pollution from power plants by 2035."  They want banks to stop financing fossil fuel development by 2030, and they want to end the use of fossil fuels completely by 2050. [...] Democrats are bent on the destruction of the oil industry.  They contend that climate change is an "existential threat" that political and environmental factions describe in millions of pages of mind-numbing documentation.  Climate change is a theory.  One may accept the theory and reject the prescribed remedies of the Democrat party.  Democrats offer an apocalyptic vision of climate change intended to scare the American people into voting for Democrat candidates.  They ignore the human capacity to innovate and adapt to changing conditions.  They assume that if oceans rise, people will throw their hands up and surrender coastal communities or drown.  The Dutch addressed life below sea level hundreds of years ago by building dikes and creating pumps powered by windmills to remove water.

Is this the end of the climate change scam?  Perfectly phrased by John Kerry's nonsensical plaint that the Russian invasion of Ukraine will increase the combustion rate of fossil fuels is the abject silliness of the whole concept of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).  Particularly recent U.S. policies against fracking, pipelines, coal, and internal combustion engines have placed us at a severe strategic disadvantage.  It has taken only a couple of days for it to become common knowledge that such policies have seriously enriched Vladimir Putin.  The grotesque human price of such a debacle will continue to mount, as will resentment for the foolish notion that weather can be subject to political influence.

The Great Climate Rip-Off.  Is the climate changing?  Yes.  Is mankind contributing to the change in climate?  Yes.  Should major national policy respond to this change?  No!  Climate changes continuously, both warming and cooling.  There is nothing new in this and probably nothing to get excited about.  Man inevitably modifies the climate.  The only questions are by how much and in which way.  Historically, man has modified the landscape sufficiently as to make a noticeable impact on the climate.  The essential question we must address is, how much are we, today, impacting the climate, and is that impact harmful?  The answer is we don't know!  My suspicion is that we have had only a modest, and probably benign, influence.  Given that we don't know, it is seriously bad policy to imperil our future in an attempt to control the climate.

People Don't Want to be Cold.  The climate summit was expensive, energy-burning theater.  One hundred eighteen private jets flew into the airport, President Joe Biden's motorcade had 24 vehicles, including SUVs and vans, and Greta Thunberg was angry.  Demonstrators denounced Israel, which recycles and reuses 90 percent of its wastewater while ignoring the Palestinian pastime of burning tires containing multiple carcinogens.  Sustainability, less, new technologies, clean technologies, and more less (yes, more less) were the watchwords.  Use less, do with less.  The President should have touted America's successes in reducing emissions:  From 2005 to 2018, total U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions fell 12% while global energy-related emissions increased nearly 24%.  Since 2005, national greenhouse gas emissions fell by 10%, and power sector emissions by 27% — as the US economy grew by 25%.  He should have compared that to China's announcement of 30 new, polluting coal-fired power plants and China being the world's biggest polluter.  Xi Jinping, naturally enough, was a no-show.  The president should have stood up for his people.  Our people.

The Latest Round of Global Climate Lie 'Pledges' From International Polluters.  The global "climate change" push is nothing more than the rest of the globe trying to crush our economy while doing nothing at all averse to theirs.  To that end, they'll rip us off and lie to us.  Because they hate us.  And they're not nearly as stupidly suicidal as are we.  America-sacrificing President Joe Biden and his "Climate Envoy" John Kerry just proudly announced they've secured yet another round of planetary climate promises.

Why RGGI is a "solution in search of a problem".  The Governor and other officials have relied heavily on the state's Climate Action Plans and specifically on the 2018 Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan in order to support their claims of current and future devastating impacts of continued CO2-driven warming.  Assertions in the Climate Action Plan are refuted by the analysis of Gregory Wrightstone, Executive Director of the CO2 Coalition and an expert reviewer for the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 6th Assessment Report (IPCC-AR6).  Because of DEP's flawed climatic analysis, the agency's predictions of drought, flooding and other extreme weather events have no scientific basis.

The Editor says...
DEP is the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which is the state equivalent of the EPA.  All fifty states have their own version of the EPA, which means there is no need for the federal EPA.

Biden Doesn't Want Us To Have Nice Things.  The current administration announced last week that it intends to force low-flow showerheads on the country that popularized showering, overriding an effort by the Trump administration to give consumers more options and reining in a government that believes it has no boundaries.  Donald Trump, like so many of the rest of us, had grown weary of the trickling drip from showerheads that caused us to stay in the shower longer so we could thoroughly rinse ourselves.  His Department of Energy proposed to change the 2013 federal rule that set a limit on water flowing through shower heads to 2.5 gallons per minute, a flow rate that was initially established by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1992 — signed into law by President "kinder and gentler" George H.W. Bush[.]  Had the revision gone through, the 2.5 GMP [sic] limit would have been applied to each individual nozzle in a shower head, rather than an entire head or unit, as was defined under the Obama administration, allowing for a greater flow of water.  This is what many consumers wanted.  They said so when they bought shower heads with multiple nozzles that were made to work around the 1992 rule.

Automobile tires, not climate change, are killing West Coast salmon.  From the "where the rubber meets the road" department, comes this bombshell finding that flies in the face of claims about the universal boogeyman of "climate change" killing salmon due to it supposedly raising water temperatures in streams where they spawn.  Just last year, PBS and Popular Science were screaming about "climate change" being the cause of salmon deaths with headlines like "Climate Change is Killing Salmon in the Pacific Northwest" and "Climate change is cooking salmon in the Pacific Northwest."  It seems they were wrong — dead wrong.  New research from the University of Washington published December 3 in the journal Science, exonerates "climate change" in the salmon-killing caper and finds a surprise villain:  an additive to automobile tires, not "climate change."  In fact, the researchers specifically ruled out climate change-driven water temperature increases as a cause.

Millions in Africa [are] Being Sacrificed to Extreme Poverty, Premature Death on Altar of 'Green Energy'.  Obama-era policies that favor so-called green energy over coal-fired electricity are dooming millions of Africans to lives of extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and increased risk of early death, according to a new analysis by the CO2 Coalition.  The study by the Arlington, Virginia-based coalition of 60 climate scientists and energy engineers contends that inadequate access to electricity is one of the key reasons for Africa's grinding poverty.  Economic growth in a competitive, global market requires reliable, universal electrification.  Without sufficient electricity for heating and cooking, Africans are exposed to high levels of indoor pollution from dirty fuels, the world's greatest environmental health risk, according to the World Health Organization.

The End Game.  The modern environmental movement was launched from the top of the economic food chain.  The Rockefeller Brothers, for example, funded some of the earliest environmental work, notably on population control.  Today, these depositories of old money built on fossil fuels, including not just the Rockefellers but also the Fords, have become leading advocates of radical climate policies.  In 1972, the influential book Limits to Growth was published with backing from major corporate interests, led by Aurelio Peccei of Fiat.  The book's authors suggested that the earth was running out of natural resources at a rapid pace and called for establishing "global equilibrium" through restrictions on growth and "a carefully controlled balance" of population and capital.  These conclusions, mostly accepted in top media, academic, and political circles, turned out to be almost comically off target, as production of food, energy, and raw materials accompanied not the predicted mass starvation but arguably the greatest rise of global living standards in history.

The Grifters of the Left.  [Joe] Biden at least got elected by the people of Delaware.  So many of the movers and shakers on the left aren't elected by anybody.  With a lot of them you aren't even allowed to know who they're working for.  Take the environmental movement, as a perfect example.  The enviros make nothing that anybody wants or needs.  In fact, they spend all their time attempting to stop other people from making things people want and need.  There's an entire fake industry that has sprung up out of a governmental impulse, fed by lobbyists and PR consultants and other spin doctors, to take money from taxpayers, rate payers, and other users of energy and feed it into zombie businesses that aren't otherwise competitive in the marketplace.  This industry depends on demonizing fossil fuels and the companies who extract them.  Because if the public were to fully appreciate the good the oil and gas industry has done for America's and the world's economy, it would be very rare that anyone would consent to paying extra for an electric car or wind or solar power.

50+ Questions No Reporter Dares Ask Joe Biden And His Campaign.  On The Environment:  You have previously said you want to ban fracking but then claimed that Trump was lying about your position.  Why is it a lie to say you want to ban fracking, when you said repeatedly you would ban or get rid of it?  You have publicly stated that climate change is a national and global emergency.  Does its urgency outpace the coronavirus?  If so, would shutting down the entire nation indefinitely be justified to also address climate change?  You and your campaign website have repeatedly warned of "increasingly intense hurricanes" and natural disasters due to climate change.  According to NYT bestselling author and climate activist Michael Shellenberger, "hurricanes aren't increasing in frequency," and data shows that "deaths from natural disasters are at their lowest point in 120 years."  Why is your campaign making inaccurate claims about climate, and do you plan to correct them?

'Social Action' as a Bogus Alternative to True Education.  "Environmentalism/Sustainability" means the globalist climate change initiative.  It means support for the United Nations Agenda 2030 and a one-world government.  This goes much farther than the onerous elimination of plastic bags at supermarkets.  Rather, it is the incredibly radical Green New Deal that the smug intellectual misfits of the Squad advocate.  It means eliminating autos and airplanes as viable means of transportation.

Environmentalism Today Is Infected with Urban Smugness.  As one of our guest bloggers and commenters noted recently, "the issues are really no longer Republican and Democrat in New York State, but rather downstate versus upstate."  I would only add the issue is much larger than New York and it's a battle of the working class and ordinary folks against urban elites who would govern them.  Environmentalism is the latter's religion.  It is the face of an urban smugness reflected in condescension towards those who provide the heat for their homes, put the food on their tables and maintain the green spaces in which they love to leisure.  Environmentalism today is the dead corpse of what we used to wisely admire as conservation, killed by this urban smugness.

More than 1,000 Minnesotans weigh in on proposed clean car standards.  The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is working on implementing clean car standards.  Gov. Tim Walz directed the agency to begin the process in September.  "If Washington won't lead on climate, Minnesota will," Walz said in a news release.  "That is why we are taking bold action to reduce carbon emissions in a way that increases car options, protects public health, creates jobs, and saves Minnesotans money at the pump."  The rule-making process is now underway, with a public comment period wrapping up in December.  The MPCA said it's received more than 1,000 comments.  "Transportation is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in our state, so tackling climate change means tackling emissions," said Amanda Jarrett Smith, the MPCA climate and energy policy coordinator. [...] According to the MPCA, there were 43 electric vehicle models available in January 2019, but only 19 of those were offered in Minnesota.  "We want to signal to the manufacturers this is a place they need to bring those vehicles and offer them for sale," said Jarrett Smith.

The Editor says...
[#1] The climate is not changing abnormally or intolerably.  [#2] Carbon dioxide is not carbon.  [#3] Electric car dealerships will be all over the map as soon as the demand is sufficient.  [#4] Minnesota's politicians are solving problems that don't exist.

Climate Stalinism.  The Left's fixation on climate change is cloaked in scientism, deploying computer models to create the illusion of certainty.  Ever more convinced of their role as planetary saviors, radical greens are increasingly intolerant of dissent or any questioning of their policy agenda.  They embrace a sort of "soft Stalinism," driven by a determination to remake society, whether people want it or not — and their draconian views are penetrating the mainstream.

Solar panels, vegan diets, no flights: meet America's climate revolutionaries.  The last time Californian climate scientist Peter Kalmus was on an airplane was in 2012:  He says it made him feel physically sick and like he was "stealing" from his children's future, and vowed never to fly again.  US President Donald Trump's administration has made no secret of its disdain for climate science, but that hasn't stopped some ordinary Americans from finding ways to drastically reduce their own carbon footprints, hoping to persuade others through their examples.

The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not carbon.  If you are leaving "carbon footprints," perhaps you stepped in some charcoal.

Greens: Save the planet, screw the people.  When an environmentalist says he or she wants to "save the planet" be sure to ask:  "For whom?"  Because often it seems like they're not doing it for people at all.  The anti-people nature of environmentalism is sometimes just a matter of minor inconvenience, as when environmentalist policies force upon us flickering light bulbs, weak showers and toilets, and front-loading washing machines.  Sometimes the imposition is greater, resulting in higher energy costs, the destruction of industries, and the degradation of human health.

Defining Nationalist EnvironmentalismMother Jones just published a report titled, "Anti-Immigration White Supremacy Has Deep Roots in the Environmental Movement" that "highlights far-right extremists' budding revival of eco-fascism."  That report reprises a New Yorker article from 2015 headlined "Environmentalism's Racist History."  Expect more of this from the establishment media:  right-wing equals white supremacist equals genocidal eco-fascist.  But where are they going with this new narrative?  If their goal is simply to underscore the alleged danger presented by anyone right-of-center, is this truly the best approach?  Because it doesn't stand up to logic, and it risks exposing the illogic of most conventional environmentalist policies.

Climate Crazies Now Want You to Feel Guilty About Your Vacation.  The scolds who buy into the notion that we're all killing dear old Mother Earth have a seemingly endless list of joys they want to remove from our lives, and have now set their sights on one of the greatest:  your annual vacation.  The New York Times has an opinion piece this weekend titled "How Guilty Should You Feel About Your Vacation?"  The article was written by a travel writer named Seth Kugel. [...] The "flight shaming movement" mentioned has been championed by that teenage brat who got a week's worth of publicity by refusing to meet with President Trump, even though no such meeting was ever discussed.  Those of us not members of the climate hysteria cult have long marveled at the disconnect exhibited by those who are as they wag their fingers at us from private jets and commercial airliners.

The Democratic Washing Machine.  The Democratic washing machine is so named because it was Democrats who decided to ruin a durable product in a mature industry.  In the name of saving electricity and saving water, they couldn't save just a little electricity and a little water.  No, they had to force manufacturers to create a product that used almost no water.  And to save electricity, they turned the control panel on the washing machine into something resembling the bridge of a starship, with so many options you have to study a detailed manual even to figure out how to turn on the device.

What I Learned on My Undercover Mission Among the Greenies at Glastonbury.  [Scroll down]  Scarier than that, though, is the assumption behind those paintings.  It's one that pervades the whole festival, namely:  every good and decent person in the world — including all 135,000 people at Glastonbury — knows that we have only 12 years left to save the planet and that if we don't put on our hair shirts, drink Oatly instead of milk [bit ironic that, given that the festival is held on a dairy farm and was founded by a dairy farmer...], abandon plastic, recycle everything, and bomb the economy back to the dark ages, we are all totally doomed.  I find the intolerance of this green totalitarianism utterly terrifying.

Climate science violates the basic precepts of science.  [Scroll down]  Climate science is more like "diet science", in which every second doctor has his own ideas about a good diet.  It is a very immature science at best, and most of its current conclusions will be totally rejected with time.  What is global temperature anyway?  How is it measured?  Why are we looking at the last fifty years and not the last fifty million years?  Even simple things like the measurements of temperature are subject to huge disagreements because of complexities like the urban heat island effect.  And the fact is that the world has seen much higher levels of CO2 in the past even during ice ages.  Until climate science can make accurate predictions of past ice ages and temperatures, will not be ready to be called a science.

Environmentalism: Evidence Suggests it Was Always and Only About Achieving World Government.  It is common sense to protect our environment, but what has occurred for 50 years is exploitation of that idea for a socialist agenda.  We wasted 50 years believing that humans are not natural, and everything they do is destructive.  We wasted and continue to waste trillions of dollars on unnecessary policies and useless technologies, all based on false assumptions, pseudoscience, and emotional bullying.  We now know 50 years later that every single prediction concerning the environmental demise of the Earth and the people made in the original Earth Day Report was wrong.  We also know that every additional claim, such as overpopulation, global warming, sea level rise, desertification, deforestation, and sea ice collapse, among many others, were wrong.  I challenge anyone to produce empirical evidence that proves anything happening today is outside any long-term record of natural activity.  Convince the people that the entire world is threatened, and you can convince them that no nation can save it.  It is then easy to convince them that a world government is the only way to save the planet.  The trouble is that none of it is true.  The World is in good shape, and people are living longer and healthier lives in every nation.

Americans, take note:  Aussies just rejected futile, hair-shirt environmentalism.  Yes, everyone wants a clean environment.  But that doesn't mean they will accept the crazed policies of today's green Left, which views the planet's supposedly imminent demise as a good excuse to impose socialism.  Australia's Labor Party campaigned heavily on higher taxes and cuts to greenhouse emissions.  Their program was typical of such a platform, involving higher energy prices, huge subsidies for unproven and politically favored forms of green power, and inevitable cutbacks in economically sustainable manufacturing and mining that currently sustain many jobs.  Of course, such policies hold forth no promise at all of reducing global temperatures, and they are certain to destroy the livelihoods of many while enriching a small number of politically connected cronies.

New Mexico Enacts 100 Percent Renewable Energy Mandate.  New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a law expanding the state's renewable energy mandate, officially known as the Renewables Portfolio Standard.  The Energy Transitions Act requires 50 percent of the electricity provided by the state's utilities to be generated by renewable sources by 2030, 80 percent by 2040, and 100 percent by 2050.

Hypothesis: Radical Greens are the Great Killers of Our Age.  Here is some of the supporting evidence:
  •   The banning of DDT from ~1972 to 2002, which caused the malaria deaths of tens of millions of children under five years of age, and sickened and killed many more adults and children;
  •   The fierce green opposition to golden rice, actions that blinded and killed millions of children;
  •   The misallocation of scarce global resources for destructive intermittent "green energy" schemes, which are not green and produce little useful (dispatchable) energy;
  •   Properly allocated, a fraction of the trillions of dollars squandered on green energy schemes could have installed clean drinking water and sanitation systems into every community on the planet, saving the lives of many tens of millions of children and adults; [...]
  •   The number of Excess Winter Deaths and shattered lives caused by runaway energy costs in the developed world and lack of access to modern energy in the developing world probably exceeds the tens of millions of malaria deaths caused by the DDT ban; [...]
  •   Indoor air pollution from cooking fires kills many women and children in the developing world;
  •   In addition to runaway energy costs and increased winter deaths, intermittent wind and solar power schemes have reduced grid reliability and increased the risk of power outages;

Finally, jail for a $54m fake green energy ponzi schemer.  From 2005 to 2009 a few US graduates straight out of college promised to turn biochar into energy and save the world as well.  They raised $54m, gave $17m to the early investors and then promised 484% returns to later investors.  The Clinton Foundation loved them, but they never made even a kilo of biochar.  Not long after that the US SEC figured the scam out and shut them down.  That was 2009.  Then it only took 10 years to get one sentenced to 30 months jail.

The Green New Deal : The Antithesis of Green.  Supporters are particularly vague about how they would find the hundreds of billions — or even trillions — of dollars needed to attempt such a plan.  Nevertheless, there is one unassailable fact about the Green New Deal:  It is not green.  Indeed, the entire notion of an all-renewable-energy system is the antithesis of environmental protection and scenic conservation.  The backers of the Green New Deal — along with their allies at big environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and others that tout all-renewable schemes — refuse to acknowledge the simple truth that deploying renewable energy at the scale required to fuel the U.S. economy would require covering state-sized territories with nothing but wind turbines and solar panels.  It would also require stringing tens of thousands of miles of new high-voltage transmission lines.  Promoters of all-renewable schemes inhabit a make-believe world where there's endless amounts of vacant land — territory that's just waiting to be covered with energy infrastructure.  The truth is exactly the opposite.

The drive to make New York 'zero carbon' is insane.  New York's Democratic-run state Legislature might enact one of the most radical energy mandates on the planet.  The Climate and Community Protection Act would require that greenhouse-gas emissions from all sources be halved by 2030 and reach zero by 2050. [...] The state's existing Clean Energy Standard calls for reducing emissions by 80 percent by 2050.  But the CCPA will require the entire economy to be run solely on electricity generated with renewable energy resources, primarily wind and solar power.  Transportation, which today accounts for 40 percent of the state's energy consumption, will have to be powered solely by electricity — even the Staten Island Ferry.  Manufacturing — or what's left of it — will have to be all-electric.  Farmers won't be able to use chemical fertilizers on their lands.  The state's dairy industry will be shuttered, because cows belch tons of methane.  How the CCPA envisions those emissions being captured is anyone's guess.  The same holds for methane emitted by landfills.  The few energy-intensive manufacturing industries that remain in the state will have to go.  Cement, for example, is manufactured from limestone using a chemical process that releases carbon dioxide.  Even the greenest electricity won't change that basic chemistry.

The Incredible Shrinking Credibility of the Climate Movement.  I'm old enough now to have lived through several predictions of environmental doom.  The purveyors of this eve of destruction theme come at us regularly, issue one forecast after another that is never realized and are seldom held to account.  I've learned enough at this point to know they'll always be with us.  No amount of facts, history or logic will change that; there's just too much emotional investment and too many special interests involved.  Human nature is human nature and it isn't pretty.  Nonetheless, the truth eventually outs as those who buy into the fear and the distortions invariably take things too far and illustrate the emperor has no clothes.  That's the tipping point and it looks like we're about there.

Washington could become the first state to legalize human composting.  When Americans die, most are buried or cremated.  Washington could soon become the first state to allow another option:  human composting.  The novel approach, known as "recomposition," involves placing bodies in a vessel and hastening their decomposition into a nutrient-dense soil that can then be returned to families.  The aim is a less expensive way of dealing with human remains that is better for the environment than burial, which can leach chemicals into the ground, or cremation, which releases earth-warming carbon dioxide.

The Editor says...
Ultimately, composting releases carbon dioxide, too, so there's nothing to be gained in that regard.  By the way, the Sun warms the Earth.  Carbon dioxide is just a small part of the atmospheric blanket which keeps us all from freezing at night.  One volcanic eruption could probably emit more CO2 than all the cremations in human history.

Five Dumb Arguments Against 'the Wall'.  [Scroll down]  A slightly less stupid, but equally ineffective argument to which the anti-wall crowd has inevitably reverted involves the claim that a physical barrier will damage the environment and doom certain flora and fauna to extinction.  A gaggle of environmentalist zealots sued the government based on the claim that the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, signed into law in 1996 by Bill Clinton to strengthen the nation's immigration statutes, somehow violates the separation of powers established by the Constitution.  If this seems a little thin to you, you are not alone.

Why Won't Liberals Look at the Evidence on Climate?  To any unprejudiced person reading [Goklany's] account, the facts should be obvious: that the non-climatic effects of carbon dioxide as a sustainer of wildlife and crop plants are enormously beneficial, that the possibly harmful climatic effects of carbon dioxide have been greatly exaggerated, and that the benefits clearly outweigh the possible damage.  I consider myself an unprejudiced person and to me these facts are obvious.  But the same facts are not obvious to the majority of scientists and politicians who consider carbon dioxide to be evil and dangerous.  The people who are supposed to be experts and who claim to understand the science are precisely the people who are blind to the evidence.  Those of my scientific colleagues who believe the prevailing dogma about carbon dioxide will not find Goklany's evidence convincing.  I hope that a few of them will make the effort to examine the evidence in detail and see how it contradicts the prevailing dogma, but I know that the majority will remain blind.  That is to me the central mystery of climate science.  It is not a scientific mystery but a human mystery.  How does it happen that a whole generation of scientific experts is blind to obvious facts?

Another report reluctantly admits that 'green' energy is a disastrous flop.  Amid hundreds of graphs, charts and tables in the latest World Energy Outlook (WEO) released last week by the International Energy Agency, there is one fundamental piece of information that you have to work out for yourself: the percentage of total global primary energy demand provided by wind and solar.  The answer is 1.1 percent. [...] The International Energy Agency (IEA) has in recent years become an increasingly schizophrenic organization.  As both a source of energy information and a shill for the UN's climate-focused sustainable development agenda, it has to talk up the "transition to a low-carbon future" while simultaneously reporting that it's not happening.  But it will!  This report should be profoundly embarrassing to the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, which has virtue-signalled itself to the front of a parade that is going nowhere, although it can certainly claim genuine leadership in the more forceful route to transition:  killing the fossil fuel industry by edict.

Climate change pain hits too hard, nearly 300,000 start revolt in France.  Changing the global climate is such a ridiculously ambitious task that there was never an scientific limit to the imposts that would be demanded.  So the zealots would take what they could get, and then ask for more in escalating cycles, until the people finally rose up in revolt.  Changing the climate is all apple pie until it really hits our quality of life.

How Misguided Environmentalism Is To Blame For California's Wildfires.  Part of the reason it is so difficult to manage California forests is the bureaucratic milieu.  The Forest Service manages 193 million acres of land, has 28,000 employees, and has an annual outlay of $7 billion a year, according to a 2017 Analytical Perspective from the budget of the U.S. government.  For decades, environmental protection schemes have usurped common sense.  For example, most fire ecologists say that the surest way of preventing massive forest fires is to use prescribed burns.  The California Environmental Protection Agency states that "prescribed burning is the intentional use of fire to reduce wildfire hazards, clear downed trees, control plant diseases, improve rangeland and wildlife habitats, and restore natural ecosystems."  Prescribed burns keep forests healthy by burning up the underbrush that accumulates on the forest floor and by thinning trees.  Yet for decades the Forest Service has suppressed most fires.  According to a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection executive summary:  "Land and fire management have in many cases increased fire hazard.

Soros Money Standing Behind Climate Activism in Texas.  A George Soros-funded government attorney in Texas has been leading the charge against a chemical manufacturing company that stands accused of jeopardizing the public safety.  The optics of the case have not been good for the company.  But the money trail that flows between Soros and elected officials comes with its own baggage and points to an agenda that is not necessarily in the public interest.  Lawsuits can make lawyers rich; they can advance political careers and impact public policy.  But how much they improve public safety and protect the environment is debatable.

Navajo Nation Spokesman Calls Tom Steyer's Green Energy Campaign A 'Slap In The Face'.  Navajo Nation leaders are not supportive of Tom Steyer's campaign to force Arizona into dramatically increasing its renewable energy mandate, a mandate they argue would financially ruin their community.  Arizona voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to decide the fate of Proposition 127, a ballot initiative that would mandate utility companies acquire half their electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, by 2030.  The proposal would amend the state's constitution and be a sharp increase from its current renewable mandate — which stands at 15 percent by 2025.

Report: Climate Activists Are Secretly Collaborating With State Governments.  A new report details how a network of climate activists provides off-the-books staff members and consultants for governors and states' attorneys general to pursue an anti-fossil fuel agenda.  Using documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits when necessary to force their release, a new report details how a network of climate activists provides off-the-books staff members and consultants for governors and states' attorneys general to pursue an anti-fossil-fuel agenda.

Inside The $4 Billion Wealthy Liberal Foundations Handed To Environmentalists.  Major foundations handed nearly $4 billion to global warming activists, anti-fossil fuel campaigners and other environmentalists over the past eight years, according to a database debuted Monday [9/17/2018].  The website Big Green, Inc. tracked $3.7 billion in commitments from major grant-making foundations to environmental causes from 2008 to 2016.  It's a project of the free market Institute for Energy Research and is based on nonprofit tax filings.  IER president Tom Pyle said the vast web of funding detailed by Big Green, Inc. shatters the notion environmentalists are locked in a David versus Goliath-like struggle against energy companies.

Children of the Mob.  It was a beautiful day in Paris for a demonstration, brilliantly sunny and not too hot, and the crowds were out:  obviously bourgeois, prosperous, well-behaved, and not at all multiracial or even multicultural.  It was a march for the climate, as though the climate were an oppressed person wrongly imprisoned by a distant dictatorship.  Such nice, good, well-intentioned people!  I found it all terribly depressing.  The organizers estimated the crowd at 50,000, the police at 18,500.  I did not actually attend it, my taste for clichéd speeches interspersed with snatches of popular music being very limited.  But I watched the crowds on their way to the demonstration, mostly with beatific expressions on their faces, as if aware that they were doing something really good like feeding the hungry or healing the sick.  They were both saving the planet and amusing themselves on a Saturday afternoon. [...] What I object to is the indoctrination of children on contentious political matters.  I am all for indoctrinating children so that they are polite and respectful to their elders, eschew pop music, do not chew gum, drop litter, or send text messages to their friends in restaurants, and so forth.  But filling their minds with ill-digested slogans, from which they never recover their ability to think independently, seems to me altogether different.  I do not want them to be indoctrinated even with things that I happen to consider right or correct.  I want children to grow up so that they can think for themselves.

Report: Political Interests 'Commandeered' State AGs for Environmental Agenda.  Outside sources paid for new attorneys in the office of numerous attorney general offices around the country in order to gin up climate and environmental litigation for political purposes, according to a new report by a D.C.-based think tank.  The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a self-described free-market think tank, published the 56-page report, bolstering their claims with emails and documents from dozens of open records requests to AG offices and universities across the country over a two-and-a-half year period.  Many of those requests had to be litigated to win release of the documents.

Three Climate Change Questions Answered.  A claimed nearly unanimous scientific consensus on fear of climate change has caused a push to substantially reduce or even eliminate the use of fossil fuel in favor of solar and wind.  But three crucial questions are:  1) is the scientific community really united?,  2) can solar and wind take over any time soon to provide the required vital energy for the maintenance of modern civilization in today's world of 7 billion people?,  and 3) has CO2 caused any harm yet?  The answer to all three questions is no.

Is 100 Percent Renewable Energy Possible?  It probably is possible to run on 100% renewable power, if you don't mind crippling the economy by devoting vast sums to that pointless goal.  It won't make much difference in CO2 emissions unless you can convince the Asians, who make most of the CO2 emissions, to also switch to 100% renewable energy.

"Green" Energy, an Environmental Disaster.  One of the worst features of both wind and solar energy is that they are terrible for the environment.  Land-based wind turbines are bad enough, but offshore installations are a fiasco waiting to happen.

The Left's All-or-Nothing Mentality.  These days we've almost become immune to the stunts that members of the left in this country pull to get attention.  Nothing liberals do seems far-fetched anymore.  That's what made the suicide by immolation of LGBT attorney David Buckelso shocking.  Buckel set himself on fire and ended his life not over the issue of gay rights but as an environmental protest.

The Parade of Impending Catastrophes.  Here is a short list of impending catastrophes:  soil erosion, running out of minerals, running out of oil, the ozone hole, biological diversity, radon, death of coral, acid rain, global warming, global cooling, sea level rise, extreme weather, species extermination, air pollution, polar bear death, clear cutting forests, plutonium, dioxin, nuclear power, coal power, mountaintop mining, the many supposed causes of cancer, food additives, genetically modified organisms, water pollution, overpopulation, chickens in cages, cows fed grain, plastic bags, mid-ocean floating garbage, super-hurricanes, droughts, floods, environmental refugees, pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers.

The green empress has no clothes.  During December 2017, Germany's millions of solar panels received just 10 hours of sunshine, and when solar energy did filter through the clouds, most of the panels were covered in snow.  Even committed Green Disciples with a huge Tesla battery in their garage soon found that their battery was flat and that there was no solar energy to recharge it.  The lights, heaters, trains, TVs, and phones ran on German coal power, French nuclear power, Russian gas, and Scandinavian hydro, plus unpredictable surges of electricity from those few wind turbines that were not iced up, locked down in a gale, or becalmed.  Germany has long supported two incompatible ideas:  engineering excellence and green totalitarianism.  Angela Merkel's support of climate alarmism while preaching energy efficiency continues this discordant tradition.

Germany Becomes the New Poster Child for Climate Change Hypocrisy.  Climate hypocrisy is nothing new.  Celebrities cruise around the world in their private jets, eating filet mignon while telling you to pack a salad and bike to work to reduce your carbon footprint.  So, color me not at all surprised that Germany, a vocal critic of the U.S.'s decision to exit the Paris climate accord, is preparing to abandon its 2020 climate targets.  Strong economic growth is a critical reason why Germany is very likely to miss its target.

Conservation, Not Environmentalism.  Much of the disagreement over the use of America's natural resources stems from confusion over the difference between conservation and environmentalism.  Conservation, a rational, conservative approach to protecting and preserving the environment, is an ethic of resource utilization.  Conservationists view man as a natural, invested partner in the endeavor to preserve the environment to ensure its continued, sustainable use by humans.  Environmentalism began as a sincere conservationist movement but subscribes to a view of man as nature's enemy.  Nature itself is revered and intrinsically embodied with value.  Environmentalists seek to limit human access to, rather than allow use of, nature to advance human life, health, and happiness.  Environmentalists perceive man as an immoral, destructive interloper who can interact only negatively with his natural surroundings.

Utah 'Monument' Was a Reward to a Clinton Donor.  The shrinking in size of two national monuments in Utah by President Trump through executive order was a long overdue rebuke to federal land grabs that have enabled federal control of vast swaths of American land, particularly in the West. [...] President Trump, who has unlocked much of America's resources that were formerly held hostage by greenies and others, has decided to return to the people of Utah control of and decision-making power over the land of Utah, so you no longer need permission from a Beltway bureaucrat to pick up a rock and move it one foot to the left.

The Great Climate Hoax Challenged by 31,000 Scientists.  First, let's address the Climate Change silliness through the lens of the U.S. Constitution.  The way the Constitution works as the law of the land is that if the federal government is to have an authority, it must be expressly enumerated in the document, either in the first seven articles, or by amendment.  The authority for the federal government to be involved in any environmental issues, much less Climate Change, does not exist on any of the pages of the document.  That makes any laws regarding Climate Change unconstitutional, as well as agencies like the EPA.

Courts Spank Climate Alarmists Twice.  A federal judge in Boston dealt a major blow this week to environmental activist groups, led by the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), who are suing ExxonMobil for allegedly failing to sufficiently prepare a facility in Everett, Massachusetts, for the effects of climate change, including sea-level rise and more frequent and severe storms.  On September 12, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf partially granted ExxonMobil's motion to dismiss CLF's case, ruling CLF was unnecessarily injecting climate change into its complaint, to the detriment of its own argument.  Wolf says the case is about whether ExxonMobil violated the terms of a Clean Water Act permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ordering CLF to refile its complaint with all references to climate change removed.  Wolf's order made it clear for CLF's claims to move forward, the organization needed to show ExxonMobil had either caused harm to the plaintiffs or that harm was "imminent," and references to the projected effects of climate change by 2050 or 2100 wouldn't qualify as such.  If the plaintiffs were concerned about the effects of climate change on the facility in 2050, Wolf said, "they should refile their case in 2045."

'I Say:  We Let the Planet Die'.  With the current hurricane activity being hyped as if it is unprecedented (it is not) the climate change sycophants are in full hype mood and it's time to shed light on what's really behind the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the gullible.  Greed.  Did you notice that being green is a heck of a lot more expensive but manufacturers are finding it really easy to jack up the prices of products by simply adding the green packaging?  Admit it, do you buy everything organic even though you have no way to verify that it really is organic but will pay the higher price anyway?  The entire greening campaign waged around the world is so successfully endemic that one can only conclude that idiocracy is no longer an urban legend.  Sadly our school children are being indoctrinated into this campaign based on fake facts.

Beware the bin lorries with seven spy cameras which will snoop for evidence that you are breaking rubbish rules.  Binmen are filing reports on millions of families for rubbish and recycling 'offences'.  Town hall chiefs have ordered them to rifle through domestic garbage and record where recycling is 'contaminated' with food or other waste.  The dustmen are also told to report householders who put out their waste at the wrong time, overload their bins, leave the lids open or fail to use slop caddies.

Germany's Angela Merkel Quietly Retreating From Paris Climate Treaty.  Angela Merkel is essentially the de-facto global head of modern political liberalism.  The central tenet, almost religious-based in its importance, is the lunacy within "climate change".  However, as most reasonable people have concluded, the 'climate discussions' are more about controlled global economics than any actual concerns about planetary climatology.  Bottom line, it's the economics that really matter beyond all else.

Dirty Big Green Criminalizes Climate Science.  Environmentalism isn't a hippie with a cardboard sign.  It's multinational corporations and big banks.  It's environmental consultants padding the bill for every government project.  It's subsidies that get carved up ten different ways into highly profitable investments at taxpayer expense.  It's brand greenwashing and useless recycling programs.  It's a dime, a dollar or a hundred dollars added to every bill.  Big Green is booming business.  But it can't succeed on its own.  Without public policy based on the hoax that the planet is going to be destroyed unless Big Green gets more green cash, the scam collapses.

Costs of green electricity driving Aussies off the grid and into poverty.  When greenies get their way, poor people suffer.  Global warming hysteria tends to be an affliction of the affluent, who don't have to worry about where their next meal is coming from or how they will keep the lights on at night.  But for those lacking the leisure to hypothesize a crisis that keeps getting stuck on pause, the costs of green energy can wreck lives.  It is happening in Australia, in the State of Queensland, ironcally rich in coal deposits.

72.8% Of World's Renewable Energy Is Made By Burning Wood & Dung.  The hysteria over solar and wind power as the only feasible source of future 'renewable' energy flies in the face of the facts.  Wood and animal feces are both renewable, and account for almost 73% of the world's renewable energy, but you never hear about planting more trees.  Of course, the Technocrats cannot control wood or feces as energy, so it is completely ignored.

The Nazi Origins Of Renewable Energy And Global Warming.  This article provides a critical historical between the doctrines of Nazi Germany and modern Sustainable Development, Green Economy and Technocracy.  I have documented that the U.S. Technocracy movement, once based at Columbia University in 1932, established a sister organization in Nazi Germany by 1933.  Technocracy was very appealing to German scientists and engineers and while the ideology lived on, the organization itself was terminated by Hitler because of perceived competition to his budding dictatorship.

Why I Spend So Much Time and Effort on Climate Skepticism.  It is now clearer than ever that the alarmists have no intention of reaching a symbolic compromise that while unjustified might be livable by the rest of society.  Rather, their apparent intention is to keep pushing the US and other developed countries into a fossil fuel-less society in which all energy used will come from wind and solar or a few other "renewables" but not including either hydro or nuclear.  This is just what the Democratic Party included in its Party platform last year.  And if their candidate had won, this is exactly what the US would now be trying to do.  She even endorsed Al Gore's objectives just before the election, perhaps in hopes of added votes from "environmentalists."  If this had happened, this is a recipe for a financial disaster and probably the end of the US as a global innovator and economic leader.

The 'Business Case' for Paris Is Bunk.  The economic merits of the Paris Agreement take on a different air when more fully considered.  Climate-change advocates' bizarre premise is that economic gains will come from restricting access to the most abundant, reliable and affordable fuel sources.  Never mind that this defies the experience of many European nations that have invested heavily in renewable energy.  After "Germany's aggressive and reckless expansion of wind and solar," for example, the magazine Der Spiegel declared in 2013 that electricity had become "a luxury good."  Apparently this time will be different.  There are a few interesting hypocrisies to consider as well.  The commercial interests that strongly support the Paris Agreement typically have created programs to exploit, game or merely pass through the costs of the climate-change agenda.  Many also maintain a green pose for marketing purposes.

What Happens to an Economy When Forced to Use Renewable Energy?  Some of America's most prominent politicians want national mandates for renewable electricity.  In addition, over the past seven months, three states — California, New York, and Oregon — have instituted plans that will require utilities to produce 50 percent of the electricity that they sell to customers from renewables.  The politicians backing these measures claim that such mandates will help reduce customers' bills and create jobs.  Had these politicians considered the surge in electricity costs that have occurred in Europe in recent years, they might have been less eager to push such mandates.  Indeed, the three EU countries that have been the most aggressive in pursuit of renewable energy — Germany, Spain, and the U.K. — have all seen their electricity rates increase more than other EU countries.  Further, Germany and the U.K. are seeing job losses due to high energy prices.

You Gotta Lie.  The foundations for the unspoken, progressive faith in catastrophic man-caused global warming are self-evident.  Many Western elites believe that modern, free-market industrial growth and consumer capitalism endanger the planet. [...] The catch, however, is that most Americans believe that oil wells, mines, freeways, dams, cars, reservoirs, and factories — and the granite counters, stainless-steel fridges, and big-screen TVs that derive from them — are largely godsends, ensuring a good life undreamed of by their grandparents.  Or they believe that most accompanying deleterious effects on the environment, such as slight and periodic changes in temperatures, are outweighed by the benefits of industry and can be soon ameliorated by rapidly advancing scientific and technological remedies.  The result is an impasse.

Photos of the Trash the Climate Marchers Left Behind.  Remember the biohazard filth left behind by the Occupy movement?  Or, more recently, the Dakota Access Pipeline nutjobs, who deposited tons of trash at their protest site and abandoned dogs?  Well, the recent climate protests — There's Only One Earth! — were no different, with the hysterical hypocrites on the Left (many of whom probably drove gas-guzzling SUVs to get there), leaving behind their usual detritus.

The Top 10 Liberal Confusions.  [#6]  They see no problem in their contradictory environmental ideas.  It's okay in their world to scar an area with garbage while protesting an oil pipeline.  It's okay in their world to deplete the world's food supply to use corn in our gasoline.  It's okay to kill birds with solar arrays and wind farms, to deplete world's lithium supply for car batteries, to jet all over the world to wring their hands about climate change.  It somehow makes sense to them to outlaw cow flatulence.

Environmentalists Use Photoshop and Fraud to Deceive.  You may have seen the headline, I did:  Antarctica hits record high temperature at balmy 63.5°F.  Where?  Base Esperanza.  Where is Base Esperanza in relation to what we normally think of as Antarctica?  A long, long distance away: [...] Base Esperanza is close to Tiera Del Fuego and not far from Africa, so warm temperatures there are not exactly shocking.  Plus, the weather phenomenon that caused the recent high temperature is well understood and has nothing to do with global warming.

Paris vehicle pollution sticker scheme comes into force.  Drivers in Paris must display an anti-pollution sticker in their vehicles or face fines in the latest attempt by the French authorities to improve air quality.  The sticker scheme, which became mandatory on Monday, includes cars, lorries, motorcycles and scooters, and bans some vehicles from the city during weekdays.

Green fascism
Stand Back:  Green Police At Work In Paris.  [Scroll down]  Here's where it gets more interesting: ["]City hall plans include closing roads to traffic and pedestrianising areas of the capital as well as an eventual ban on all diesel vehicles.["]  Wait, weren't we told that diesel vehicles were super awesome?  Of course, we saw what happened with Volkswagen and their emissions cheating, and the EPA just slapped Fiat Chrysler for doing the same on two different models.  Well, in the article right next to the green police one, we learn  ["]Oslo will ban diesel cars from the road for at least two days this week to combat rising air pollution, angering some motorists after they were urged to buy diesel cars a few years ago.["]


California Lt. Gov:  We'll Stop Trump's Wall with Environmental Suits.  President-Elect Donald Trump's plan to build a border wall along with U.S.-Mexico Border will be challenged through environmental lawsuits, according to California's second-highest official.  California Lt.  Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an interview with 'The Golden State Podcast' that he would use specific environmental laws in the state to stop the border wall from being built, at least in southern California.

The Editor says...
In this case, environmental laws are being used as weapons.  The matter at hand has nothing to do with the protection of the environment.  One thing politicians and environmentalists do well:  they obstruct and impede their enemies' progress.

The Green War Against the Working Class.  There was a time in America — and it wasn't even so long ago — that liberals actually cared about working class people.  They may have been misguided in many of their policy solutions (i.e., raising the minimum wage) but at least their heart was in the right place.  Then a strange thing happened about a decade ago.  The radical leftwing environmentalists took control.  These are people who care more about the supposed rise of the oceans than the financial survival of the middle class.  The industrial unions made a catastrophic decision to get in bed with these radicals and now they — and all of us — are paying a heavy price.

Hubris: the Troubling Science, Economics and Politics of Climate Change.  This book should leave any dispassionate reader deeply disturbed.  It should be required reading for people in policy and politics who deal with these matters.  No thought leader should be ignorant of the contents.  How will humanity extricate itself?  One can hope that the accumulation of failed predictions over the next two decades will burst the bubble.  The world academies cannot be asked to sit in judgment on the misconduct, as they will be in the dock.  The UN is also hopelessly compromised.

How the World was Deceived about Global Warming and Climate Change.  Current weather is normal; that is, it is well within the range of all previous weather and climate variations.  There are no dramatic increases in temperature, precipitation, hurricanes, tornadoes, or any other severe weather.  The climate is changing just as it always has and always will and the rate of change is perfectly normal.  Of course, that is not what the government, environmentalists, or the media promote and as a result most of the public believe.  The misconception is deliberate and central to the exploitation of global warming and climate change as the vehicle for a political agenda.

The Polarization of Climate Debate — the Solution They All Miss.  The climate debate is more polarised than ever.  David Roberts at Vox is very honest about the challenges believers face to solve the deep partisan political divide.  But despite all the grants and funding to solve this problem, the experts miss the obvious.  I explain below why polarization will solve itself.  Indeed, all their best efforts to reduce polarization in the climate debate are creating the polarization.  It takes a sustained effort and millions of dollars to keep a false belief alive.

In New Book Scholar Peels Back Layers of Deception in Climate Change.  [Scroll down]  I was initially motivated by questions from my students — and my wife — about the policy implications of climate change.  The more I looked into it, however, the more I learned the extent to which it fit with one of my research interests:  the extent to which modern health, safety, and environmental regulatory activity relies on poor science advanced by activists to push an agenda.  I learned that both domestic and international actors had succeeded in using the poorly understood science of climate change to advance an ambitious environmental agenda focused on increasing centralized control over people's daily lives.

An update on the Energiewende.  Germany is still pursuing its goal of shutting down its nuclear plants but refuses to shut down its lignite plants.  It is slashing renewable energy subsidies and replacing them with an auction/quota system.  Public opposition is delaying the construction of the power lines that are needed to distribute Germany's renewables generation efficiently.  Renewables investment has fallen to levels insufficient to build enough new capacity to meet Germany's 2020 emissions reduction target.  There is no evidence that renewables are having a detectable impact on Germany's emissions, which have not decreased since 2009 despite a doubling of renewables penetration in the electricity sector.  It now seems certain that Germany will miss its 2020 emissions reduction target, quite possibly by a wide margin.  In short, the Energiewende is starting to unravel.

Pay Attention America — Environmentalism Is Crushing Europe.  [Scroll down]  First off, Germany is embarking on the next stage in its "green" agenda, and France has recommitted to being the world's dominant nuclear economy.  Meanwhile, Italy is once again worried about negotiating adequate imports of natural gas from Russia (via pipeline) and Qatar/North Africa (as liquefied natural gas, or LNG, shipments), while Poland returns to its earlier plans of resurrecting coal production as the country's shale gas remains elusive and prohibitively expensive.  All of which signals that there is positively no cohesive vision for what an energy policy for Europe should be.

Britain's New PM Drives a Stake Through the Heart of the Green Vampire.  Official:  Britain no longer has "the greenest government ever."  Incoming Prime Minister Theresa May has driven a stake through the heart of her predecessor David Cameron's fluffy, faux-Conservative project by scrapping the Department of Energy And Climate Change (DECC).  Established in 2008, DECC was a hangover from the Gordon Brown era of woeful misgovernance.  Its first Secretary of State was future failed Labour leader candidate Ed Miliband whose only significant political achievement also happened to be one of the most expensive and pointless in British parliamentary history:  the drafting of the truly disastrous Climate Change Act.

Brexit is also a repudiation of 'green' movement, other mandates beloved of the Left.  When British voters chose to leave the European Union Thursday night [6/23/2016], they weren't just voting against Brussels' immigration policies.  They were also voting against Europe's growing list of green mandates.  The EU's allowance of millions of refugees and open borders policy did play a large role in the "Brexit" vote, but it was also a repudiation of global warming policies Brussels has imposed on the U.K.  "The decision by the British people to leave the European Union will have significant and long-term implications for energy and climate policies," Dr.  Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Greens' Daddy Warbucks Helps Himself.  Any comprehensive review of green energy and its politics and policies has to include the name of wealthy liberal Tom Steyer — who has been called the environmental movement's new "Daddy Warbucks."  Having made his billions from his tenure atop Farallon Capital Management — much of it from coal projects around the world — Steyer apparently had an environmental epiphany and now wants to atone for his past sins by trying to save the planet from manmade climate change.  He is using his wallet to try to elect candidates who will promote policies and energy plans that agree with him.  And that plan is "green."

Climate and Environmental Propaganda.  Have you ever wondered how the LA Times, Associated Press, Weather Channel and your local media always seem to present similar one-sided stories on climate change, fossil fuels, renewable energy and other environmental issues?  How their assertions become "common knowledge," like the following?  Global temperatures are the hottest ever recorded.  Melting ice caps are raising seas to dangerous levels.  Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts have never been more frequent or destructive.  Planet Earth is at a tipping point because of carbon dioxide emissions.  Fracking is poisoning our air, water and climate.  97 percent of scientists agree.  A clean renewable energy future is just around the corner.  It's as if a chain of command, carefully coordinated process or alliance of ideological compatriots was operating behind the scenes to propagate these fables.  This time, conspiracy theorists have gotten it right.

The Inconvenient Truth about the Environment.  Al Gore became an alleged billionaire selling carbon credits to morons who wanted to continue their lives of excess without guilt.  I have always believed that we need to follow the money whenever anyone tries to sell us a bill of goods.  Just because a product says it's 'green' doesn't mean it is but I guarantee it will cost more. [...] An inconvenient truth about the environment is that it should primarily be about ensuring that our air and water is clean and safe.  To the militant and government environmentalists, it has become a means to control how we live our lives.

Dirty Big Green Criminalizes Climate Science.  [Scroll down]  California carbon auctions are climbing into the billions.  And the endgame is a national and a global carbon tax that will allow Big Green to take money out of the pockets of every single human being.  Environmentalism isn't a hippie with a cardboard sign.  It's multinational corporations and big banks.  It's environmental consultants padding the bill for every government project.  It's subsidies that get carved up ten different ways into highly profitable investments at taxpayer expense.  It's brand greenwashing and useless recycling programs.  It's a dime, a dollar or a hundred dollars added to every bill.  Big Green is booming business.  But it can't succeed on its own.  Without public policy based on the hoax that the planet is going to be destroyed unless Big Green gets more green cash, the scam collapses.

Obama: Let them freeze in the dark.  The energy industry should borrow a page from the National Rifle Association.  The NRA has won its many fights with the gun grabbers (a NRA coined phase) by extolling guns as harmless little items with many benefits.  They went after the motives of their opponents.  Just as those who want to disarm the public could really care less about crime and the sanctity of life the freeze in the dark crowd is really not concerned about the environment.  It is not about mythical global warming it is about controlling the population.  Even if were about mythical global warming it would not be an easy sell since a recent poll shows that less than ten percent of the public thinks it is an important issue.

Can we hit the 'restart' button?  Is the seemingly unending battle over tiny changes in metrics such as LOTI (Land-Ocean Temperature Index), ocean heat content, Annual Global Mean Temperature Anomaly Over Land & Sea (and its plethora of alphabet/version variations), fledgling measurements of global sea level rise, [and the list goes on] ... is this the purpose of Climate Science?  Can we justify the effort and resources being spent on this activity?  Does any of it produce new understanding of the Earth's climate or lead us to answers about potential solutions to changing climate?  Or is a major portion of the entire scientific endeavor we call Climate Science just an exercise in spinning our wheels, getting the subject mired further and further into the mud?

The Last Leftist Bastion: Environmentalism.  It is not a coincidence that today's Left has been reduced to justifying its policies with contorted references to the one remaining science whose findings can appear to suggest an expanded role for government:  environmentalism.  The long-standing progressive desire to impose racial and class quotas in affluent suburbs, for example, now issues forth under the guise of "ecologically friendly" higher-density housing.  Liberals similarly claim that public funding for community organization empowers the poor to fight for cleaner air, that avoiding military conflict prevents atmospheric pollution, and that greater access to abortion eases humanity's burden on scarce environmental resources.  The progressive distortion of environmentalism for unrelated political purposes has become so ludicrous, in fact, that many serious ecologists believe it has undermined bipartisan support for legitimate conservation programs.

When you rely on solar panels and windmills, there isn't enough electricity for toasters.
Sparks fly in Bradford as Tory councillors fight toaster ban.  A prized communal toaster has sparked a standoff between council staff and Conservatives at Bradford town hall, with councillors vowing to hide the appliance from health and safety staff who say it is a fire risk.  Staff working in the Grade I-listed, 19th-century building are banned from using toasters because they are a fire hazard and contravene the council's eco-friendly policies on energy use.

Money and Power Drive Obama's Climate Agenda.  Obama's green energy plan put the coal industry on life-support, targeted oil and gas as the enemy and sought to impose restrictions on power plants that generate electricity to homes and businesses.  What the president reportedly hides behind the curtain is his alliances with international green elites, a select group of political and Wall Street cronies, and energy regulatory czars who have orchestrated a CO2 carbon-taxing scheme that would put billions of dollars into their own pockets. [...] The media neglect the real reason Barack Obama wants your hard-earned dollars to flow into a global green machine.  Barack Obama continues to push, at the expense of America and beyond all logic and recent scientific data, for a long-term and massive financial commitment to global warming.<>/p>

Green Energy Investors Look to Cash in on Paris Talks.  A group of millionaires and billionaires that includes major investors in green energy are using the international climate talks kicking off this week to push for more government subsidies for the types of companies in which they are investing.  The Breakthrough Energy Coalition on Monday [11/30/2015] unveiled policy proposals demanding that governments step up their "investment" in green energy companies.  The coalition's founding members include a host of financiers with significant green energy portfolios.  At the same time, the group said it will be leveraging government support in its own investment work, which will target early-stage green energy companies.

California's Carbon Restrictions Hurt Poor, Minorities.  Jonathan A. Lesser, in his paper, "Less Carbon, Higher Prices: How California's Climate Policies Affect Lower-Income Residents," examines a number of California's environmental policies and how they impact electricity prices at the county and household level.  Lesser finds three significant economic results from the state's renewable-energy mandates and carbon cap-and-trade program:  Rising prices, a hidden regressive tax, and increasing energy poverty.  California's renewable-energy mandates and carbon cap-and-trade program have caused household electricity prices to rise, and Lesser estimates they will likely continue to rise at an even faster rate in coming years.

The Cynicism of the Clean Power Plan.  If you want to irritate promoters of the Clean Power Plan, just state the obvious:  It's going to increase electricity prices, and that will be bad for the poor and the middle class. [...] Eurostat data from Spain, which has also been on a renewable-energy binge, tells a similar story.  Between 2007 and 2014, residential electric rates in Spain jumped by 70 percent.  Over that same time period, wind capacity increased by about 50 percent and solar capacity grew about seven-fold.  Spanish households are now paying some of the highest electricity prices in Europe, about $0.27 per kilowatt-hour, a rate that is more than twice the U.S. average.

Four Dirty Secrets about Clean Energy.  For years, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has demanded that the U.S. and other industrialized countries cut carbon emissions to 20% of 1990 levels by 2050.  While most countries claim to support huge carbon caps, in practice they have resisted implementing them.  The reason is simple:  fossil fuels provide nearly 90% of the energy we use — the cheap, abundant fuel that powers modern farming, manufacturing, construction, transportation, and hospitals.  The use of fossil fuels is directly correlated to quality and quantity of life, particularly through the generation of electricity; in the past two decades, hundreds of millions of people have risen out of poverty because energy production has tripled in India and quadrupled in China, almost exclusively from carbon-based fuels.  To drastically restrict carbon-based fuels, countries have conceded in practice, would be an economic disaster.

Renewable Energy: Not Cheap, Not "Green".  A multi-billion-dollar government crusade to promote renewable energy for electricity generation, now in its third decade, has resulted in major economic costs and unintended environmental consequences.  Even improved new generation renewable capacity is, on average, twice as expensive as new capacity from the most economical fossil-fuel alternative and triple the cost of surplus electricity.  Solar power for bulk generation is substantially more uneconomic than the average; biomass, hydroelectric power, and geothermal projects are less uneconomic.  Wind power is the closest to the double-triple rule.  The uncompetitiveness of renewable generation explains the emphasis pro-renewable energy lobbyists on both the state and federal levels put on quota requirements, as well as continued or expanded subsidies.  Yet every major renewable energy source has drawn criticism from leading environmental groups:  hydro for river habitat destruction, wind for avian mortality, solar for desert overdevelopment, biomass for air emissions, and geothermal for depletion and toxic discharges.

German Professor: Europe's €5.7 Trillion Climate Policy Is "Very Expensive", "Counter-Productive" And "Does Nothing For Climate".  In the presentation [Joachim] Weimann makes it clear that he is an alarmist, and that he believes something needs to be done rapidly.  The thrust of his presentation, however, is about Germany's Energiewende and Europe's climate policies, and whether they are really effective.

How green megadonors built a bogus campus anti-carbon drive.  Finally, someone is saying what should already be obvious:  The fossil-fuel-divestment "movement" sweeping college campuses is really just Big Green astroturf.  Last week, the New York-based National Association of Scholars released a damning new report on the founding, funding and motivations of the divestment movement. [...] Divestment is the brainchild of radical environmentalist Bill McKibben and hedge-fund billionaire turned climate crusader Tom Steyer.  On its face, the goal is to get college students to pressure their universities to sell off any holdings in the natural gas, oil and coal industries.  In reality, the divestment movement serves the political and financial interests of its founders.

Green Tech and the climate crisis syndicate.  Renewable Portfolio Standard advocates recently held their 2015 National Summit.  The draft RPS agenda suggests it was quite an event — populated by bureaucrats, scientists and consultants who have jumped on the climate and "green energy" bandwagon, to follow the money.  Indeed, they are no longer content with 10% corn ethanol in gasoline, or some wind and solar power in the electricity mix.  Now they want to convert the entire electrical grid from fossil-fuels to renewable sources and, if Catholic bishops get their way, totally eliminate hydrocarbons by 2050, despite the horrendous impacts that would have on workers, families and the world's poorest people.  There's certainly a lot of money to be made.  The green revolution is estimated at $1.5 trillion per year, which means potentially huge profits for those with political connections.

Climate Bigwigs Coming For Your Fridge And AC.  Nothing says "climahypocrite" like taking fossil fueled flights to Dubai, then huddling in air conditioned hotel and meeting rooms while complaining about climate change caused by refrigerants[.] [...] HFCs were developed to replace ozone killing CFCs.  Now we're being told that they are bad for 'climate change'.  And, in all honesty, they tend to be more potent than CO2, the article isn't wrong on that.  But, the replacements are not ready for prime-time, and are considerably more expensive.

The IPCC's Legion of Hacks and Dunces.  As climateers turn their gaze toward Paris, what the warmist media won't be reporting is just how poorly qualified and error-prone many of them are.  That's no mere sceptic's complaint, by the way, but the honest verdict of their fellow scientists.

Saving the Environment from Environmentalism.  Most would agree on the major goals of environmentalism:  first, reduce carbon emissions, and second, minimize our environmental footprint as we pursue growing human needs.  Current thinking on how to achieve these goals is informed by two basic premises:  first, environmental solutions must "harmonize with nature", hence the emphasis on so-called "green" renewable resources; and second, nuclear power must be opposed at all costs.  Fossil fuels are to be displaced over the long term, but they take a back seat to nuclear power, like way back.  There is now good reason to believe those premises are fundamentally flawed.

Global Warming Goes To Court.  After years of testifying before administrative agencies and lobbying in legislatures with disappointing results, many climate activists see the courts as their last best hope.  Over the past few years, lawsuits have been filed in almost every American state and in many foreign countries asserting that the judiciary has the authority and the responsibility to order the executive and legislative branches of government to take more aggressive actions to combat climate change.

Warmists Want To Track Urban Emissions At Every Level.  Remember, most Warmists are members of the same party and belief set that says Government should stay out of all decisions when it comes to abortion, but wants the Green Police to monitor your carbon footprint.

Environmentalists Use 21 Children To Sue Obama Over Global Warming.  Environmentalists and a former NASA climate scientist are using 21 children to sue the federal government for allowing the burning of fossil fuels and "knowingly" harming future generations by causing global warming.  The intent of the lawsuit:  to force the U.S. with a court order to phase out fossil fuel use and reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million by the end of the century.

Apple And Google Pour Billions Down A Green Drain.  Business has been captured by climatism, the belief that humans are causing dangerous global warming.  Leading companies announce plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, purchase renewable energy, use vehicle biofuels, and buy carbon credits.  But there is no evidence that commercial policies to "fight" climate change have any measureable effect on global temperatures.  Apple and Google, the darling companies of the millennial generation, have spent billions trying to halt global warming.

German Experience With Green Power A Lesson Obama Should Learn.  Since the early 1990s, Germany has gone to great lengths to replace fossil-fuel-generated electricity with renewables.  Renewable electricity accounted for nearly 30% of the country's electricity by the end of 2014.  Germany is thus roughly where Obama hopes to take America over the next 15 years — he's even called on Americans to "look at Berlin" for inspiration.  But what are Germany's results?  Dramatically higher energy costs for businesses and consumers, an increasingly unstable electricity grid and a recent increase in carbon emissions.

De Blasio Flies to Vatican to Deliver Environmentalism Speech.  Pope Francis has been pushing hard on the issue of climate change, having issued a recent 184-page papal encyclical largely blaming climate change on fossil fuels and human activity.  He also said that developed, industrialized countries bore the most responsibility for the problem.  De Blasio referenced the encyclical, asserting that it "burns with urgency," while lauding the Pope, saying he had "awakened people across the globe to the dangers we face as a planet."  De Blasio loftily stated, "The encyclical is not a call to arms.  It is a call to sanity."

Let's Worry about a Real Threat.  These days, there is a lot of tampering with the electric grid.  People who wouldn't know a generator from a turbine are suddenly making no small plans to reform it.  We now have good electricity and bad electricity.  Good electricity is generated without emitting carbon dioxide (CO2).  But that rule is not rigid, because nuclear electricity, and hydro electricity, if it involves a dam, are both bad electricity, even though they don't emit CO2.  I'm not making this up.  I'm repeating the California legal definition of renewable electricity.

The Dept. Of Energy's War Against Common Sense Continues.  Toilets that don't flush; washing machines that don't wash; light bulbs that don't illuminate; electric cars that don't drive; exploding windmills; useless solar panels, and now...

Appliance industry warns federal dishwasher regs would lead to dirty dishes.  The recent proposal from the Department of Energy is meant to boost dishwasher efficiency by setting stricter limits on the amount of water each dishwasher can use, among other changes.  Under the plan, washers could use only 3.1 gallons of water for a single load.  But an appliance industry group says the new measures would be counterproductive — as they'd force users to run their dishwashers more, and hand-wash, just to get the same results, in turn using more water.  "[The regulations] would result in dishwasher performance that is unacceptable to consumers, essentially turning back the clock to the days of hand-washing dishes," the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) said in a statement.

Pope's Thinking is Outdated.  Pope Francis says, "The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth."  This is contradicted by extensive data on water and air quality, public health, lengthening life spans, and decreases in worldwide hunger and poverty.  The past decades have seen dramatic successes in improving the environment in the U.S. as well as billions of people lifted from poverty and hunger by free trade, cheap and reliable energy, and yes, by capitalism.  The pope says the only way to address the possible problem of climate change is for carbon dioxide emissions to be "drastically reduced."  But this is outdated thinking.  Scientists, economists and even the United Nations agree that adaptation to future climate change, rather than expensive and futile efforts to control climate by reducing emissions, is more likely to have a discernible positive effect on public health and safety.

The Climate Wars' Damage to Science.  The great thing about science is that it's self-correcting.  The good drives out the bad, because experiments get replicated and hypotheses tested — or so I used to think.  Now, thanks largely to climate science, I see bad ideas can persist for decades, and surrounded by myrmidons of furious defenders they become intolerant dogmas.

The Subversion of Science by Green/Left Politics.  The development of modern science in the late 18th century went hand in hand with the rise of modern industrial capitalism.  Its potteries, mines, steam engines, mechanization, and science itself, were all done by private enterprise.  The role of government was to enforce patents and maintain a healthy legal and commercial environment.  Nowadays most scientists are paid by the government.  What passes for science has largely become taxpayer-funded Environmentalism.  Environmentalism has taken over much of science.

How Madness Rules Our Age.  Hyper-strict EPA requirements, Global Warming restrictions, and the Kyoto protocols all defy empirical science.  Who can forget those lab results from feeding mice twenty and thirty times their weight in tested substances to detect cancer, and how the government removed wonderful food additives from the shelves?  Does anyone remember the sweetener cyclamate?  Banned in the USA, but still allowed in fifty five other countries.

Lessons from Europe: Recipe for a high-cost energy system.  European energy policy today is dominated by the European Climate Change Program (ECCP), which was established by the European Community in 2000.  The program called for the nations of Europe to adopt measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions.  The goal was for Europe to collectively meet the targets of the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty signed in 1997.  The ECCP was based on two assumptions.  The first was that changes to national energy systems were needed to fight global warming.  Second, that coal, gas and oil fuels would become more expensive, allowing renewable energy to compete.  But policies to promote renewables resulted in substantially higher electricity prices for Europe.

There Are Big Divisions In Catholicism Over "Climate Change".  First, I'm wondering how any Democrat can be a Catholic, as the majority support abortion on demand.  They don't listen to the Pope on most issues, why should they listen to the Pope on this?  Second, we see that 68% believe that the Earth is warming.  Count me among those who have that belief, and the raw data and facts support that belief.  But, notice that only 45% of the general public believe that it is caused by human activity.  Unfortunately, it is rarely, if ever, asked as to the percent that Mankind is responsible for.  Some may say a little (put me in that box).  Cult of Climastrology members will say that Mankind is mostly/solely responsible, which seems to be the same feeling from Pope Francis.

Someone Tell the Pope: Environmentalism Crushes the Poor.  Yesterday [6/16/2015] the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity released a report that documents how the Obama administration's war on coal (and on cheap energy generally) has hurt poor and middle-class Americans.  While I can't vouch for the calculations, the report is an impressive piece of work, based on energy consumption and price data from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration, along with data from the Census Bureau and the Congressional Budget Office.  Energy costs consume a substantial portion of the budgets of lower-income Americans.  This simple chart tells the story:  while energy costs account for only 7% of expenditures by those who earn over $50,000 per year, those making less than $30,000 pay an astonishing 23% of their after-tax income for energy.

Merkel: G-7 leaders call for ending fossil fuel use by end of century.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the Group of Seven wealthy democracies have agreed that the world should phase out the use of fossil fuels by the end of this century.  Merkel said today that the G-7 leaders committed themselves to the need to "decarbonize the global economy in the course of this century."  That is a technical term for ending the use of oil, gas and coal — but not nuclear power — and replacing them with alternative sources of energy such as wind and solar power.

The Green Behind California's Greens.  [Scroll down]  Since the deaths of HP's cofounders, their heirs have pushed the two foundations' philanthropy ever-leftward, and activist environmentalism is a prime beneficiary.  Under the direction of Packard's three daughters, the conservative Republican's philanthropic wealth has gone to the National Abortion Rights Action League Foundation, the Feminist Majority Foundation, and the very green Earth Action Network.  This liberal giving has prompted Packard's son, David, whose political views are closer to his father's, to withdraw his money from the foundation and form his own nonprofit, which gives to more traditional and nonpolitical causes.  In a signature moment in green giving, the Packard and Hewlett Foundations decided in 2007 to boost their spending on climate-change issues, funneling the money into a new, San Francisco-based nonprofit, ClimateWorks, led initially by the former head of environmental programs at Hewlett.  The Hewlett Foundation, according to the Columbia Journalism School report, agreed to put $500 million into ClimateWorks, with the Packard Foundation adding approximately $390 million since 2008.

It's Done: Stick a Fork in the "Green Energy" Movement.  The green energy movement in America is dead.  May it rest in peace.  No, a majority of American energy over the next 20 years is not going to come from windmills and solar panels.  One important lesson to be learned from the green energy fad's rapid and expensive demise is that central planning doesn't work.  What crushed green energy was the boom in shale oil and gas along with the steep decline in the price of fossil fuel that few saw coming just a few years ago.  A new International Energy Agency report concedes that green energy is in fast retreat and is getting crushed by "the recent drop in fossil fuel prices."  It finds that the huge price advantage for oil and natural gas means "fossil plants still dominate recent (electric power) capacity additions."  This wasn't supposed to happen.

The Black Heart Of The Green Movement.  Initially, the anthropogenic global warming movement held people of all political stripes who expressed a concern as to whether Mankind was responsible for the warming.  This is how you get the Warmist talking point about Margaret Thatcher being a believer.  But, then we started seeing that the people who were pushing AGW the hardest were on the far left, especially Progressives (nice fascists).  The movement was rife with them, and what they wanted was the government, especially the central government and the United Nations, to be empowered with more and more power and control.

Environmentalism and Envy.  Environmentalists subscribe to continually changing prophecies of apocalyptic disaster.  Our topsoil is being washed into the ocean (The Road to Survival — 1948).  DDT is exterminating birds (The Silent Spring — 1962).  Overpopulation will result in starvation (The Population Bomb — 1968).  We will run out of resources and strangle on pollution (The Limits to Growth — 1972).  Acid rain from burning coal will destroy our forests and crops (circa 1985).  Hairspray will destroy the ozone layer and cause cancer (1980s).  Burning fossil fuels adds CO2 to the atmosphere that will cause disastrous global warming (1988-2015).  These prophecies and many others were claimed to be scientifically justified.  The science is always secondary and almost always poor science.  What's important is the thrill of impending doom and the call to activists to engineer a rescue.

It's Time To Reclaim The Planet From Environmentalists.  The environment isn't getting worse — it's rapidly improving, even as our economy grows and our energy use increases.  The EPA recently released new data on air quality showing that total emissions of the six major air pollutants have dropped by 68 percent since 1970.  This is all the more impressive considering that during this same period, America's population has grown by 54 percent, we're using 44 percent more energy, we're driving 168 percent more miles in our cars, and our economy has grown by 238 percent.  It goes from impressive to astounding when you consider that natural gas, coal, and oil have driven this growth.  Technological innovations have made obtaining these energy sources smarter, safer, and more efficient than ever before.

By Hook and By Crook, You Are Going to Pay for Climate Change.  It's the first day of spring and we are having snow again.  Not much, a couple of inches, just enough to prove that March always goes out like a lion.  Undeterred, global progressives, intent on sending us into the stone age of technology, are forcing their agenda of redistributive taxation of man-made global warming/climate change on everyone.

The climate beclowning continues.  [Scroll down]  My main original contribution to the climate policy debate was to point out, based on raw data from the Department of Energy, that the climate change advocates' emissions targets for the U.S. for the year 2050 — an 80 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from 1990 levels — would require rolling back hydrocarbon energy use to the level of 1910 (or 1905 by a separate analysis by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, a federal government lab I should point out).  On a per capita basis (since our population has grown so much), this would mean reducing U.S. hydrocarbon energy use to the per capita level of Somalia today.  This is sheer fantasy.

The High Cost of Energy Illiteracy.  "Energy romanticism" is perhaps the single greatest intellectual failing of environmentalists — the dreamy view that we can generate 95 quads of energy with puppy dog treadmills, unicorn flopsweat, and of course their beloved wind and solar.  (Of course, most enviros say "What's a 'quad'?" when I ask for even a cursory inventory of energy sources that would supply America's annual energy use.)  At the base of this is near total illiteracy about energy.  The latest example is the giddy celebration that Burlington, Vermont, has become carbon neutral!  And if a New England hippie town of 50,000 can do it, then surely Cleveland can do it too, no?

Keywords:  paranoia, fruitcake, nutty professor.
Climate Change Professor Now Worried CIA, Nefarious Countries Will Change Climate.  A Rutgers University professor is claiming that an employee at the Central Intelligence Agency contacted him with concerns that world governments may be causing floods and droughts by controlling the weather.  The professor is Alan Robock of the environmental sciences department at Rutgers, the Daily Mail reports.  He made the comments at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  The five-day conference in San Jose, Calif. wrapped up on Monday [2/16/2015].

Another Of Obama's "Green Energy" Projects Fizzles, Leaving Taxpayers $88 Million In The Hole.  Green energy is simply not viable without taxpayer subsidies.  The subsidy either comes on the front-end via tax credits, or on the back-end as we see here.  Either way the taxpayer is left holding the bag just so the ecotwits can smugly preen in their coal-powered Priuses.  There's a reason private enterprise won't build these boondoggles without government guarantees.  They're too risky, and the potential returns too meager.  Remember Solyndra?  Or the myriad failures of wind power?  Meanwhile environmental groups like the Sierra Club raise hundreds of millions of dollars from their deluded supporters, which they use to lobby government into wasting tax dollars on green energy.

Where's our refund for climate change costs?  A new report released by the White House shows Americans are overpaying for climate change reduction efforts, and considering scientific research shows average global temperatures have not risen significantly since 1998, maybe we should all get a refund.  A recent survey conducted by a Harvard political scientist found U.S. households are willing to pay approximately an extra 5 percent, or about five dollars, more on their electricity bill each month to combat climate change.

The Democrats' green energy dream is becoming their nightmare.  Like so many other scandalous episodes, the media long ago dismissed the controversy surrounding the green energy firm Solyndra.  A little corruption at taxpayer expense is the cost of doing green business, the left-leaning members of the press apparently tell themselves. [...] For years, Democratic politicians have been untouched by the scandalous antics of the green firms they supported.  But the Democrats' green energy chickens are finally coming home to roost.

China is lead contributor to plastic trash in oceans, study says.  Millions of tons of plastic trash flow into the world's oceans each year, and a new study finds that most of it comes from China and developing economies in Asia.  The study, published in Friday's [2/13/2015] edition of the journal Science, estimates that China's heavily coastal population contributes 1.3 million to 3.5 million metric tons of plastic to the world's oceans each year, largely due to mismanaged waste.

Failed climate predictions
Failed climate predictions gets a website.  We are a small group who have followed the global warming / climate change issue for some years.  Initially we didn't know which version was correct but we noticed several things.  One was the frequent use of predictions, often scary, that seemed on the surface to be believable.  We wondered whether anyone ever went back to see if the predictions turned out to be true.

Arrogant statism of global warming fanatics.  I don't trust radical environmentalists.  Simply stated, too many of these people are nuts.  Environmentalists assert that you're racist if you oppose their agenda.  Some environmentalists don't believe in bathing.  How about the environmentalists who sterilize themselves to avoid carbon-producing children? [...] There are also environmentalist who claim that climate change causes AIDS.  And environmentalists put together a ranking implying that Cuba is better than the United States.  Then there's the super-nutty category.  The environmentalists who choose death to lower their carbon footprints.  But you know what's even worse than a nutty environmentalist?  What terrifies me far more are the very serious, very connected, and very powerful non-nutty environmentalists who hold positions of real power.

Now Hiring Rent-A-Mobs: Mobilizing Global Warming Activists for 2015 Action.  January blizzards have been blanketing the nation in snow from Maine to Texas — breaking many snowfall records in the process — but the "climate change" alarmists insist that anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming, AGW, is still the top "existential threat" to man and nature.  Climate Ground Zero is one of the many national enviro-activist groups gearing up to apply pressure on Congress to accept the new binding climate treaty to be offered later this year at the United Nations climate summit in Paris.  A key part of this effort is mobilizing street canvassers to sign up new members, get petitions signed and publicize marches, demonstrations, and protests.

Seattle government now going through citizens' trash for public shaming, revenue.  Sure, the incentive to compost is the putative reason for this regulation, but exactly how is it enforced?  In order for city officials and trash collectors to know you have committed the civic sin of disposing of leftover food in your trashcan, they have to examine the contents of your trashcan.  Let's hope the citizens of Seattle and trash collectors can come to some kind of silent truce over this.

No, there shouldn't be a law.  [Scroll down]  How on Earth are they going to enforce this on any kind of consistent basis?  Will garbage collectors be trained by some sort of trash removal Obi-Wan Kenobi, using the Force to sense if residents slipped some leftover tofu in the wrong trash container?  It's not enough that city employees have to collect our disgusting trash, we are going to make them collect tax revenue too?

Yes, the Greens Are a Joke — But Not a Funny or Harmless One.  [Scroll down]  Truth is, though, to laugh at the Greens is to underestimate the viciousness of their ideology — which is an unholy mix of economic illiteracy, pathological altruism, and misanthropy, built on a foundation of ignorance, self-delusion and mendacity.  These people aren't just misguided fools.  The policies for which they have agitated over the years — punching far above their weight — have caused the world and its inhabitants real harm.

Climate Researchers 'Prostitute' Science, Says Climate Expert.  The global warming dispute is more political argument than the settled science of impending disaster.  While those sound like something we'd say, in this case that's the message of Terry Hughes, a recently retired Earth science professor and glacier expert.  "You will never read or hear any of this from the scientific and political establishments," he told the College Fix.  "I'm now retired, so I have no scientific career to protect by spreading lies."

Green Power Would Make Life Nasty, Brutish And Short.  Three centuries ago, the world ran on green power.  Wood was used for heating and cooking, charcoal for smelting and smithing, wind or water power for pumps, mills and ships, and whale oil for lamps.  People and soldiers walked or rode horses, and millions of horses and oxen pulled ploughs, wagons, coaches and artillery.  But smoke from open fires choked cities, forests were stripped of trees, most of the crops went to feed draft animals, and streets were littered with horse manure.  For many people, life was "nasty, brutish and short."  Then the steam engine was developed, and later the internal combustion engine, electricity and refrigeration came along.  Green power was replaced by coal and oil.  Carbon energy powered factories, mills, pumps, ships, trains, and smelters; and cars, trucks and tractors replaced the work-horses.

America Is Being Transformed Into Brazil.  Our dishwasher broke just after Christmas.  The timer stopped working, and a new one costs about $100.  My wife suggested that since the dishwasher is nineteen years old, we should buy a new one.  Up until now it was working very quietly and efficiently, washing and drying a full load in about an hour.  We visited the appliance shop where we had recently purchased a new clothes washing machine a few months earlier.  I mentioned to the salesman that our new washer was very slow, taking nearly two hours to finish a large load compared to our old one, which took about 35 minutes.  With a bright smile, he explained that that was because of the new federal energy efficiency standards for clothes washers enacted by the Obama administration's Department of Energy in May 2012.

Climate change and the left.  With the collapse of Marxism, there was created a vacuum on the left.  Those seeking an ideological faith to cling on to for moral certainty, felt bereft.  They also wanted a faith which again gave them a feeling of still pursuing the common good of society, especially the new global society, and even more a feeling of moral superiority, which is a characteristic of many middle and professional types on the left.  Climate change and the moral common good of saving the planet, with its claimed scientific certainties, offered to fill the vacuum.  It may or may not be a coincidence that the climate change faith gained momentum in the 1990s immediately after Marxism collapsed with the Berlin Wall.

Abuse of Science in Texas.  This example of government scientists hiding information for years while simultaneously issuing press releases, giving interviews, testifying to county boards and state legislatures and briefing members of Congress is just one example of the "secret science" of government conducted by unelected bureaucrats that an industry comprised mostly of small family-owned businesses, such as the pavement maintenance industry, must grapple with.

Weather Channel Comes Out for Junk Science, Scaremongering and 'Global Warming'.  "There is no significant man-made global warming at this time, there has been none in the past and there is no reason to fear any in the future," declared John Coleman, veteran meteorologist and founder of the Weather Channel, last week.  Every word of this statement is accurate, defensible and supported by all the current available science.  But that hasn't stopped Coleman's old home the Weather Channel issuing a bizarre "position statement" in response.

Energy trade group, green bosses rake in green.  It pays to be a top dog in the energy and environment business — even in the nonprofit arena.  Big bosses at some of the most influential environmental nonprofits and energy trade associations are making comfortable salaries — from hundreds of thousands of dollars to several million per year — and many have racked up sizable raises recently.

How camouflaged activists want to de-industrialize the West.  A federal judge recently rejected a lawsuit filed by environmental groups to prevent the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from issuing oil and gas leases for parts of central Nevada.  The case represents a small battle in protracted war to de-industrialize the West.  The activists employ a familiar battle plan:  Scope out an economic project, sue the government to block its approval, and sit back as legal costs mount.  Recently, these groups have grown more litigious — "sue and settle" cases, where activists sue the government to negotiate settlements with often-friendly bureaucrats behind closed doors, more than doubled over the last few years.

Climate Change Has Jumped the Shark.  Here's why: From the beginning 25 years ago the arguments over climate science have dominated the scene and distracted us away from the fundamental problem:  the prescribed method for preventing climate change is essentially replacing nearly all hydrocarbon energy, in the space of less than two generations.  Climate orthodoxy calls for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, worldwide, by the year 2050, which would take the United States back to a level of hydrocarbon energy use last seen more than 100 years ago.  For the developing world, it means remaining poor for several more decades.  There has been very little recognition and less candor about the sheer fantasy of the emissions target.

It's the Poor Who Suffer Most from the Great Wind Power Fraud.  The wind industry and its parasites tout spurious and unproven benefits in terms of CO2 emissions reductions — reductions which cannot and will never be delivered by a generation source delivered at crazy, random intervals that adds nothing to the entire Eastern Australian Grid hundreds of times each year — and which, therefore, requires 100% of its capacity to be backed up 100% of the time by fossil fuel generation sources.  Despite (or, rather, because of) its mad wind-rush Germany has seen CO2 emissions increase as it has had to build and re-commission coal fired plants to provide reliable base-load power to keep the grid up and running. [...] Wherever there's been any significant investment in wind power retail power prices have gone through the roof — witness Denmark, Germany and South Australia — which all jostle for the top spot on the table for the highest power prices in the world.

Apple, Google and Greenwashing.  Apple is a great company.  But, Apple has a dark, pandering side.  Like many companies, Apple swears allegiance to green dogma.  The allegiance is mostly lip service, along with a few well-publicized green projects, such as their solar power installation in North Carolina that supplements coal power to run an Apple server farm.  According to the Guardian, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, said that the climate change issue "resonates with Apple's workers and customers" and that is why the company has moved from environmental laggard to green leader.  In other words, Apple is pandering to its employees and customers.  Corporations do that, but they don't usually claim that the future of the Earth is at stake.

Jihadis and Warmunists: Brothers Under the Skin.  Watching the parade of the naïve, the far left, and their energy-hogging celebrity manipulators marching in New York City this week, I was struck by how much these true believers had in common with jihadis, a notion reinforced by Purdue Professor Louis Rene Beres' description of jihadis in Gatestone Institute and my friend "Ignatz's'" comment at Just One Minute.  Both movements seem to these authors to be a means of denying death and change and making the mortal, immortal and the insignificant individual life, a significant force when massed with others.  If this is true — and I think it is — we cannot defeat these irrational movements in the ordinary ways.  New strategies are called for.

March to nowhere: Futility of the climate protest.  Anti-global-warming activism consists of symbolic protests against a highly complex planetary phenomenon we understand poorly and don't control.  The unpredicted pause in the rise in global temperature since the late 1990s is so embarrassing to climate activists, who are filled with a fiery certitude about the "science," that it goes unmentioned.  In their fevered urgency, they give off the sense that they are desperate to save the planet before it might become evident that it doesn't need saving.

Climate Extremists and the Dirty Filthy Hypocrites.  The reported 400,000 who marched with the likes of Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio on behalf of the statists' climate change agenda left New York City a dirty mess.  They want to clean up the planet but not so much that they have to clean up their own trash.

The Air Comes Out of the Climate Change Talks.  There were quite a number of empty seats in the chamber as the president spoke.  Secretary of State John Kerry played with his BlackBerry.  Many looked bored.  At the end of the president's remarks, the most enthusiastic applause came from [Leonardo] DiCaprio.  Perhaps that's because he's good actor.  The climate change talks might be attracting dwindling audiences.  But there's one thing you can bet on:  the climate change show will run and run.

Climate change alarmists silent on economic damage done by climate change alarmists.  President Barack Obama and the climate-change crowd seem only interested in dire predictions when it comes to their environmental agenda.  They're not all that into the disastrous consequences extreme environmental regulations on business could have on the U.S. and global economy.  "It's one way to ramp up the messaging and frankly ramp up the sort of extreme positioning around this issue from that standpoint that they're not going to recognize the economic impacts," Betsy Monseu, chief executive officer of the American Coal Council said of the People's March.

Litterbug Climate Marchers Leave Behind Piles of Trash.  This week in New York City somewhere around 400,000 litterbugs descended on the Big Apple, and not to celebrate the wonderful news that the planet hasn't warmed in 18 years.  Instead they gathered to do, uhm, whatever this is, and to pretend Global Warming is real and dire, so that those pushing this phony crisis can tell the rest of us what to do and how to live our lives.  You would think that the one thing environmental fanatics and those of us who are not fascists could agree on is that only arrogant scumbags are litterbugs.

Reason Magazine actually asked climate protesters what they want to do, and it's hilarious.  Those in politics who spend much of their time railing about the dangers associated with anthropogenic climate change will often assert that the public largely shares their concerns about catastrophic climate shifts.  You rarely hear from those oft-cited members of the public who are supposedly alarmed by climate change alarmism.

Hands off our hair dryers! We've had enough of the EU's meddling.  First the EU came for our incandescent light bulbs but we said nothing because we thought saving energy was a good idea — and anyway, we didn't realise until it was too late how much brighter, warmer and nicer the old ones were compared with the flickery, mercury-filled eco ones. [...] Then they came for our televisions, our washing machines, our smart phones and our kettles...  It's easy to make light of all the tedious, pettifogging regulations that the EU has imposed on us over the years and that, unfortunately, is the problem.

Now EU targets our kettles, toasters and even lawnmowers.  Campaigners last night [9/3/2014] rallied round to vent their fury as Brussels bureaucrats unveiled their latest plan to erode the "lifestyles and choices of ordinary people".  It follows the banning this week of vacuum cleaners which have motors above the new EU limit of 1,600 watts in a bid to cut energy usage.  The permitted wattage will be almost halved again from September 2017 as the limit is reduced to 900 watts.  Dozens of other everyday appliances could have the power sucked out of them too and some scrapped altogether if new rules around climate change are brought in.

Britain Faces 'Winter of Blackouts' As Firms Are Asked to Ration Electricity.  "The chickens are coming home to roost".  So said the Ukip energy spokesman, commenting on the news that businesses are being asked to join a 1970s style energy rationing program this winter to stop Britain being plunged into darkness.  Offices and factories will be offered compensation to shut down for four hours a day so that energy can instead be diverted to households.  The scheme, reported in the Daily Mail, is part of a series of measures set to be taken by National Grid which also includes asking owners of decommissioned gas, coal and oil power stations to turn them back on.

The Editor says...
That's what you get for letting the tree-hugging hippies dictate your environmental laws and squeezing the life out of the electric utilities.  But if you're looking for places to cut back on electric power consumption, allow me to make a suggestion:  Lots of electricity could be conserved by limiting television stations to three or four hours a day.  But they would all have to be synchronized; that is, they could operate (for example) between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. and again from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.  That way, all the electricity currently being used by all the TV sets in England (as well as the TV stations) would be reduced by at least 50 percent.  If such a plan were implemented, what would you miss?  Hour after wasted hour of insipid game shows, soap operas and meaningless tripe.

Pressing the climate hoax.  A 127-page draft by the U.N. climate panel insists that humans must drastically reduce their production of carbon dioxide because it's heating the globe.  Urgent action is needed lest "abrupt and irreversible change" result.  The European Union just banned the most effective vacuum cleaners and has announced it is about to ban powerful hair dryers, lawn mowers, smartphones and kettles, all suspects in the continuing plot against the planet.  They're all in a hurry, but the planet isn't.

The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not "heating the globe."  The Sun heats the Earth, and the atmosphere keeps us from freezing at night and scorching in the afternoon.  Moreover, there has been no global warming for almost 18 years, so there is absolutely no reason to fast-track anything on the U.N.'s socialist agenda.

Having solved all other problems, Obama will now fix your dishwasher.  For some reason which I can't quite put my finger on, this sounds awfully familiar.  Changing regulations for everyone's benefit without taking into account the real world fallout and secondary costs which would inevitably be passed on to the consumer?  Give me a minute.  I'm sure it will come to me.

Obama pushes green standards for everything but the kitchen sink.  The Obama administration is working on new efficiency standards for seemingly every appliance but the kitchen sink.  Spurred by President Obama's climate action plan, the Department of Energy is pumping out new standards for refrigerators, dishwashers, air conditioners, ceiling fans, furnaces, boilers, water heaters, lamps and many more appliances.

Rise in powerful vacuum cleaner sales ahead of EU ban.  From 1 September, companies in the EU will be banned from making or importing vacuum cleaners above 1600 watts and it has led to a sharp rise in sales.  In one recent study, five of the top seven cleaners had motors of more than 1600 watts.  [Video clip]

EU to ban high-energy hair dryers, smartphones and kettles.  The European Union is considering pulling the plug on high-wattage hair dryers, lawn mowers and electric kettles in a follow up to its controversial ban on powerful vacuum cleaners.  The power of hairdryers could be reduced by as much as 30 percent in order to be more eco-friendly, a draft study commissioned by Brussels suggests, threatening many of the models favoured by hairdressers and consumers for speedy blow-dries. [...] Current EU legislation covers televisions, washing machines, refrigerators and vacuum cleaners but not most smaller electrical appliances.

The Editor says...
Dear European friends:  If you don't have enough electricity to go around, the solution is to generate more of it, which in your case means abandoning your attachment to solar panels and windmills.

Sustainability: The Universal Solvent of Private Property Rights.  [Scroll down]  On this side of the Atlantic, Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring laid the groundwork for a message that found a receptive audience in guilt prone readers.  She put a human face on the claimed crimes against the environment.  Misuse of insecticides was translated into a fear of all insecticides at any level.  DDT was made the poster child for environmental destruction.  Bird deaths and egg thinning were offered as evidence.  Years later, many of the claims in her book were termed "lies," once they were subject to scientific review.  In the interim, millions of innocent children have suffered malaria-related deaths in Africa from prohibition of DDT use, and the term "eco-imperialism" became a book title.

Environmentalism and the Fear of Disorder.  [Scroll down]  The researchers found that participants who read the article questioning scientific progress expressed greater intention to recycle, reduce washing temperatures, and buy organic foods than those who read the version affirming scientific progress.  Why the difference?  Because, the researchers report, "questioning scientific progress results in a relative increase in disorder perceptions, which in turn triggers the motivation to restore order via personal actions such as engaging in environmentally friendly behavior."  A reasonable reading of these results is that a lot of environmentalists experience many aspects of the modern world as chaotic and thus seek to compensate for their perceptions of disorder by engaging in ritual behaviors that make them feel like they are exerting more personal control.  It is not much of a leap to conclude that by imposing those rituals on others, some environmentalists seek to reduce their dread of disorder even more.

Senate Committee Report Details Environmentalists' Inner Workings.  Over the past fifty years, America's environmental movement has grown from college kids adorning flowers to a billion dollar industry.  With huge budgets to employ lobbyists, lawyers, and public relations professionals, many of America's leading environmental non-profits are unrecognizable from their modest beginnings.  What may seem like an organic, disparate movement is actually a well oiled machine that receives its funding from a handful of super rich liberal donors operating behind the anonymity of foundations and charities, according to a new report out today by the Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW).

How to cut emissions, and how not to.  The world's efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions began with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, were formalized in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and have since mutated into the hundreds of "XX percent of renewables by 20YY" targets adopted by groups of countries, individual countries and regional jurisdictions.  They have spawned, among other things, innumerable bureaucracies, countless climate conferences, forests of wind turbines, patchwork quilts of solar panels and a billion-dollar-a-day climate change industry.  And they haven't worked [at all].

Pursuing Energy Failure, Again and Again.  From the energy-independence moonshine of the corn-ethanol scam to the latest 645-page slate of regulations the EPA wants to inflict on the domestic electricity-generation sector, the supposed threats have varied.  Back in the 1970s, the claim was that we were too dependent on Arab oil (a claim that we continue to hear today).  These days, in addition to the never-ending blather about "energy independence," we have the spurious claim from the Obama administration that yet another layer of EPA rules on U.S. industry will make a dramatic difference when it comes to global climate change.

Report: US, Foreign Elites Pay Greens To Push EPA Policies.  Environmental organizations are often portrayed as homegrown groups fighting back against the tide of corporate boogeymen like Big Business or Big Oil.  But this is not the case, according to a new congressional report.  A report by Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee says environmentalists are being backed by "an elite group of left-wing millionaires and billionaires."  This "Billionaire's Club" funnels money to environmental groups who then lobby on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency to help promote its agenda, in return, getting access to generous tax write-offs and federal funding.

Get Ready for the New England Power Shortage.  In 1980, under the first administration of Governor Jerry Brown, California decided it wasn't going to build any more power plants but would follow Amory Lovins' "soft path," opting instead for conservation and renewable energy.  By 2000, with the new digital economy sucking up electricity, a drought in the Pacific Northwest cut hydropower output and the state found itself facing the Great California Electrical Shortage.  You know what happened next.  For weeks the Golden State struggled to find enough electricity to power its traffic lights.  Brownouts and blackouts cascaded across the state while businesses fired up smoke-belching diesel generators to keep the lights on.

The New Global Dictator.  New energy research is being directed by policy and diktat that has been decided in advance of the research being conducted.  In Europe, this has origins in the 20 20 20 policy that was decided in 2007 that itself has roots in the Kyoto Protocol and the desire to reduce global CO2 emissions. [...] These binding targets, created by unelected technocrats (who may not even know what the SI unit of energy is) have a profound effect on all of our lives.

Official Report: People Who Worry Most about Climate Change Use More Energy.  People who are most concerned about climate change use more electricity than those who believe it to be not so serious a threat, a government study has found.  The Household Electricity Survey, commissioned by the Department for Energy and Climate Change, said that this discrepancy may be due to the fact that older people, who are most likely to not see climate change as a threat, are generally more frugal with their energy consumption.

The Left Doesn't Really Believe in Climate Change.  The sky is always falling.  If the new ice age doesn't do us in, the ozone hole will.  The instant DDT is banned, aerosols must follow.  Global warming is replaced by climate change is replaced by "global weirding."  And what is the solution to these often-contradictory scenarios?  We anachronists who retain a bias toward the hard sciences would employ very different measures to prevent a freezing ocean and a boiling one.  To an engineer, soldier or plumber, this is obvious.  But how do leaders of the environmental left address these opposing doomsdays?  By raising taxes, increasing government, impeding capitalism and reducing national sovereignty.  Coincidentally, the same policies they would promote if their supposed environmental catastrophe was utter fiction.  It is little wonder that voters are suspicious.

German Govt Falsifies Climate Report Translation To Hide Green Policy Failure.  The German Ministry of Environment has falsified the conclusions of a UN climate change report in the German-language version released last week, in an attempt to hide the fact that the country's 'green policies' are useless.  The ministry's four-page summary of the report contains outright contradictions and falsifications of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommendations, apparently made to hide UN criticism of the way the German government has turned emissions-trading into a cash cow for futile renewable energy projects.

Keyword:  Slush fund.
Rep. Van Hollen Pushes For $50 Billion 'Federal Green Bank'.  Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is turning to the web to drum up support for the creation of a Federal Green Bank that would create $50 billion in debt in order to offer loans for clean energy projects.  In a video posted on YouTube this week for the Safe Climate Caucus, Van Hollen says even though several states have created their own "green banks", the federal government still needs to get involved.

Why Everything Is Dirtier.  [Scroll down]  My needs are for clean clothes, same as the laundry needs of the whole of humanity since the beginning of time.  The whole purpose of laundries is to meet that need.  Here's the problem, however.  The goal of the regulators who regulate the laundry is not to improve your life.  It is to wreck your life a bit at a time by pressing increasing numbers of restrictions and mandates upon private producers.  One of these mandates has removed TSP from detergent — and with catastrophic results.  No one wants to talk about this.  There is a major hush-hush culture here because business, understandably, doesn't want to face a consumer backlash, and government doesn't want to acquire the reputation for being the civilization wrecker that it truly is.

America's power grid at the limit: The road to electrical blackouts.  Americans take electricity for granted.  It powers our lights, our computers, our offices, and our industries.  But misguided environmental policies are eroding the reliability of our power system.  Last winter, bitterly cold weather placed massive stress on the US electrical system — and the system almost broke. [...] Eight of the top ten of PJM's all-time winter peaks occurred in January 2014.  Heroic efforts by grid operators saved large parts of the nation's heartland from blackouts during record-cold temperature days.

The Editor says...
What would alleviate this problem?  Increased production of electricity, of course, but that is exactly what environmentalists oppose when they campaign against coal, because coal is no longer used to power factories, propel ships and heat large buildings — it is used almost exclusively in the generation of electricity.  When the lights go out on the coldest (or hottest) day of the year, you can blame left-wing tree-hugging environmentalist hippies (and their socialist Democrat congressmen) who think they are "saving the earth" by eliminating the use of coal.

Roy Spencer invented satellite temperature analysis, gets called "a blogger".  Careful Cheryl Jones, your groupthink is showing.  She's a science writer who writes today in The Australian about "climate bets", but without seemingly using The Internet.  Here's how she describes Roy Spencer: [...]

Interview: James Delingpole on The Little Green Book of Eco-Fascism.  "I'm not a scientist and actually given what I've seen of scientists in my experiences following the global warming scam, I'm glad I'm not a scientist because a lot of these guys are basically shysters and crooks.  They're not some kind of white-coated elite with a special hotline to the truth.  In fact, they're just ordinary guys and girls trying to earn a living like the rest of us but slightly more dodgily than the rest of us in the one or two egregious cases," James Delingpole [says.]

Science and Panic.  We are bombarded with dire warnings about our environment, but nearly all of the research purported to support those claims was funded by the political powers advocating them.  Political powers will pick-and-choose scientists who provide useful factoids, despite what caveats those scientists attach to preserve their credibility.  The topic of climate change brings this mixture to an extreme, such that some scientists have traded activism for credibility.  Politicians may further distort or lie about scientific findings, especially when results are scarce, inconclusive or contradictory.  For the layman or dangerously educated, point-by-point arguments are pointless, as it becomes difficult to discern between fact, deception, science or politics.

Chevron Takes Battle To Radical Environmentalist Lobby.  Chevron had been accused of polluting the rainforest floor in Ecuador through its 2001 acquisition of Texaco, supposedly harming thousands of villagers as it callously took its profits.  It was all-so-perfect a story to go with the leftist narrative about greedy oil companies exploiting innocent Third World victims.  Only it wasn't true.  Fact is, Texaco cleaned up its share of the Ecuadorean oil-extraction operation near Lago Agrio, where the accusations were hatched, and then got two clean bills of health from the Ecuadorean government in 1995 and 1998, having fulfilled its responsibilities free and clear.

Nothing but hot air: another alarmist report from global warming brigade.  I have long come to realise how environmental science works:  it starts from the premise that everything in the natural world is under threat, that mankind is to blame and that only drastic changes can save it.  It is bad news if temperatures rise, bad news if they fall, bad news if the climate gets wetter, bad news if it gets drier.  If a type of animal or plant is decreasing it is a man-made tragedy.  If it is increasing it is a threat to the "delicate ecological balance" caused by mankind's mismanagement.  The IPCC's latest summary for policymakers on the "impacts, adaptation and vulnerability" is a fine example of the genre.  It portrays a grim future of mass food shortages and asserts that the effects are already there to be seen."

Environmentalists to the Peasants: Drop Dead.  California is going through a terrible drought and 2013 was the driest on record in the state.  So who is suffering, financially and otherwise, from its effects?  Hint:  it is not the coastal elite.  The water still flows to the upscale neighborhoods of La Jolla, Malibu, and Marin County.  Their lawns are watered, their BMW's washed and polished, their swimming pools full.  No, it's the farmers in the Central Valley and the agricultural workers who are idled as 500,000 acres of the best farmland on the planet lies fallow.  Where is their water going?  To save the environment.

Uppity Deniers, Unite!  If we Americans could control the climate, all of our country would be like San Diego at all times and Russia would be like, well, Russia.  We can control our pollution output and we have.  When the Environmental Protection Agency started, it made enormous strides in cleaning up pollution in the U.S.  The easy pickings, however have all been picked.  Auto emissions and other sources of pollution were adjusted to great initial effect.  Big strides were made and the cost was appropriate to the outcome.  Now, however, any incremental benefit is at a huge and highly inappropriate cost for highly questionable efficacy.  This has not diminished the zeal of those that would use the planetary wellness issue to bludgeon Americans into submission.  It's not about the money to the EPA; it's about control of Americans, not control of pollution.

Hedge Funds, K Street, and the Ugly Underbelly of the Democratic Party.  In case you missed it, Senate Democrats staged an all-night talkfest on Monday to promote higher taxes and increased government regulation to address the scientific theory known as "climate change."  Hopefully you did miss it, because most well adjusted people have better things to do than stay up all night watching a bunch of senior citizens talk about solar panels and wind turbines.  At least one person was paying close attention:  liberal billionaire and reluctant democracy advocate Tom Steyer, who has pledged to spend $100 million backing Democrats who support aggressive government action to reduce carbon emissions.  Democratic senators want Steyer's money, they just don't want anyone to think their stance on "climate change" is based on anything other than a genuine concern for Gaia.

Skeptical Climatologist Calls Out 'Global Warming Nazis'.  Here are some of the things you are not allowed to mention if you are a climate skeptic.  [#1] Hitler's Germany was the most eco-friendly regime in modern political history.  As well as banning smoking on public transport and creating some of Europe's first nature reserves, the Nazis were heavily into wholefood and clean living.  Himmler wanted to feed the SS on organic food only.  Goering threatened to send people who were cruel to animals to concentration camps.  [#2] There is no such thing as a climate change "denier".  No one denies that climate changes.  All that skeptics dispute is the degree to which man contributes to this largely natural — and unscary — process.  [#3] The environmental lobby uses the same tactics used by totalitarian movements through the ages — fascists, Nazis, communists, there's really no difference.

GE Will No Longer Design Projects to Please Climate Change Advocates.  In a watershed moment and a huge victory over environmentalists, General Electric has agreed to stop projects that are designed solely for the purpose of carbon dioxide reductions to please those who lobby for climate change concessions.  The National Center for Public Policy Research, a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank which has been fighting GE for years because of GE's liberal bias under CEO Jeffrey Immelt, scored a huge victory after receiving the commitment from General Electric.

EPA proposes restrictions for new wood stoves.  The federal Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new standards for wood stoves that would reduce the maximum amount of fine particulate emissions allowed for new stoves sold in 2015 and 2019.

The Editor says...
If you're burning wood to stay warm (and alive), do you care about the quality of the smoke?

The flooding of the Somerset Levels was deliberately engineered.  Devastating evidence has now come to light not just that the floods covering 65 square miles of the Somerset Levels could have been prevented, but that they were deliberately engineered by Labour ministers in 2009, regardless of the property and human rights of the thousands of people whose homes and livelihoods would be affected.  Furthermore, that wildly misleading Met Office forecast in November led the Environment Agency to take a step that has made the flooding infinitely more disastrous than it need have been.

10 Lefty Lies About The Floods Which Have Devastated Britain.  [#2] The Environment Agency has been doing a great job with inadequate resources.  No it hasn't.  With a staff of 11,200 and an annual budget of £1.2 billion, this bloated quango is grotesquely overmanned and overfunded, bigger almost than the size of the Canadian, Danish, French, Swedish and Austrian Environment Agencies combined.  It is also — like most government agencies — extremely wasteful, inefficient and poorly managed.

Why do environmentalists prefer Iran to Canada?  Is anyone more hypocritical than a professional environmentalist?  In case anyone needs a hint, see this month's exhibit:  As North American environmental activists throw all of their energy and resources into blocking Canada from selling its oil to the United States, they have haven't made a peep over Iran increasing its own oil exports.  And one would think they'd care, as the environmentalists' entire rationale for opposing Keystone is that if a pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is built, more carbon will be put into the atmosphere.  But their problem here — and often — is that the facts don't support their claims.

The Editor says...
Please note that carbon dioxide is not carbon, for the same reason that water is not hydrogen.

The Party Of Science Has Absolutely No Clue What It's Talking About.  For years, a concerted effort has been made to intertwine scientific truth with progressive politics in the public imagination.  In recent weeks alone, Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Crist both earned headlines by trashing the "anti-science" GOP.  The left-leaning media works hard to make campaign issues out of contrived litmus tests that bear little relationship to real national issues.  Their project seems to be working.

If You Think Communism Is Bad For People, Check Out What It Did To The Environment.  When the Berlin Wall came down and the Iron Curtain was finally lifted to expose the inner workings of communism to Western eyes, one of the more shocking discoveries was the nightmarish scale of environmental destruction.  The statistics for East Germany alone tell a horrific tale:  at the time of its reunification with West Germany an estimated 42 percent of moving water and 24 percent of still waters were so polluted that they could not be used to process drinking water, almost half of the country's lakes were considered dead or dying and unable to sustain fish or other forms of life, and only one-third of industrial sewage along with half of domestic sewage received treatment.

Global warming devastates America.  Everything's global warming, America. Didn't you get the message yet from your President and John Kerry and Al Gore and James Hansen and the gang?  Everything!  That's why, if ever any of you want to see a day of sunshine again in your miserable, too-selfish-to-change-your-lifestyle carbon-addicted lives, here are a few things you absolutely are going to have to do:  permanently reject the Keystone XL pipeline; beg your president for more green taxes and regulations; plead for more of your money to be diverted to successful clean energy businesses like Solyndra and Fisker electric cars; insist that more bald eagle nesting trees be chopped down in order to clear a space for wind farms; demand that the Heartland Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute be defunded and that Marc Morano, Anthony Watts and Pat Michaels be executed.

Ohio EPA Proposes Phosphorus, Nitrogen Restrictions.  The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is proposing restrictions on phosphorus and nitrogen amounts in state waterways.  Ohio would be only the third state to enact such restrictions, joining Florida and Wisconsin.  Excessive phosphorus and nitrogen can lead to algae outbreaks.  Environmental activists have recently pushed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental protection agencies to abandon qualitative assessments of bodies of water and instead impose strict numeric limits regardless of whether algae outbreaks are reported.

The Editor says...
The U.S. EPA overlaps the Ohio EPA, and anyone who tries to do business in Ohio must comply with the rules and regulations of both agencies.  There is no longer any justification for the federal EPA's existence, for two reasons:  (1) The severe pollution problems that led to the creation of the EPA in the early 1970's have been eliminated, and (2) each of the fifty states has its own EPA.

National Renewable Electricity Standard: Why raise electricity prices?  Earlier this month, Representatives Jared Polis (D Colorado), Ben Ray Luján (D New Mexico), and Ann Kuster (D New Hampshire) introduced the National Renewable Electricity Act of 2013 (RES Act) into the US House of Representatives.  The act mandates that all US retail electrical suppliers buy an increasing amount of electricity from renewable energy sources, or pay fines for the shortfall.  If the law is passed, it will raise electricity prices for Americans for questionable environmental gains.

The Environmental Movement: How Corrupt Is It?  We have written many times about the corruption of the global warming movement.  Billions and billions of dollars are being poured into the pockets of global warming alarmists, because they perform such a valuable service:  they help to persuade voters that governments should be given greater control over the world's economies.  What's a few billion dollars when trillions are at stake?

Environmentalism's Endless Lies.  [Scroll down]  There is no such thing as "environmental justice."  It is an invention of environmental groups that are intent on convincing people that whatever they do or fail to do somehow has an impact on the weather.  Indeed, the entire global warming hoax, now called climate change, was based on the lie that humans were responsible for producing huge amounts of carbon dioxide via industry, driving, or making some toast for breakfast.  The environmental enemy was and is the use of energy, but it is energy that has so vastly improved and protected everyone's life.

The Greens Are Coming!.  [James] Delingpole's home country of Britain in some respects has gone further than any.  It's not just the rampant fuel poverty.  England, reports Delingpole, is "the only nation anywhere on Earth legally bound to commit economic suicide in the name of environmentalism.  Thanks to the 2008 Climate Act, Britain is required to spend in excess of £18 billion per annum 'decarbonizing' the UK economy."  Unlike other countries, where drastic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions are a goal, or target, England must, by law, reduce its CO2 emissions 80 percent by 2050.  Incredibly, the 2008 Climate Act breezed through Parliament by an almost unanimous vote.  There were only five nays out of 650 members in the House of Commons.

Keywords:  necessarily skyrocket.
Price of Electricity Hit Record for October; Up 42% in Decade.  The price of electricity hit a record for the month of October, according to data released Wednesday [11/20/2013] by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  That made October the eleventh straight month when the average price of electricity hit or matched the record level for that month.  The average price of electricity in October was 13.2 cents per kilowatt hour (KWH), up from 12.8 cents per KWH in October 2012 — and up from 9.3 cents per KWH in October 2003.  Americans now pay 42 percent more for electricity than they did a decade ago.

Survey Shows Germans No Longer Willing To Pay Higher Prices For Green Electricity.  Some years ago, Germans as a whole were convinced that something had to be done to "rescue the climate" and were much more open to paying higher prices for electricity.  However the rapid increase in electricity prices over the last years, and hence correspondingly greater pain, has led the public to rethink.  Also 5 consecutive unexpectedly harsh winters and the fact that the globe isn't warming anymore also has had an impact.

Does Environmentalism Cause Amnesia?.  [Scroll down]  What does hurt people is bad public policy.  Exhibit A is the U.S. ethanol mandate — justified in part as a response to global warming — which diverted the corn crop to fuel production and sent global food prices soaring in 2008.  Exhibit B is the cult of organic farming and knee-jerk opposition to [genetically modified crops], which risk depriving farmers in poor countries of high-yield, nutrient-rich crops.  Exhibit C was the effort to ban DDT without adequate substitutes to stop the spread of malaria, which kills nearly 900,000 people, mostly children, in sub-Saharan Africa alone with each passing year.  The list goes on and on.

Now Europe wants to make it harder to clean your carpets.  Home owners will find their armoury in the battle against dust and dirt weakened by a ban on powerful vacuum cleaners.  Under European Commission 'eco' rules that will come into force next September, the power of new vacuum cleaners must not exceed 1,600 watts.  That figure will be lowered further to 900 watts by 2017.  Current cleaners boast an average of 1,800 watts.

The Editor says...
If it takes twice as long to clean the house with a 900-watt vacuum cleaner than it took with your old 1800-watt vacuum cleaner, what have you saved?  What if you have a welding hobby or a ham radio station or some other use for electricity, in addition to your vacuum cleaner?  Once the electricity passes through the meter, it becomes your property, to use as you please.  If electricity is so scarce that vacuum cleaner rules like this are necessary, the correct response is to produce more electricity, using coal-fired power plants that already exist.

The Climate-Industrial Complex.  The National Academies of Science released in 2012 a 300-page report:  A National Strategy for Advancing Climate Modeling.  The committee that authored the report was entirely composed of establishment climate scientists, mostly engaged in computer modeling of climate.  The report paints a glowing picture of climate models and suggests that near term climate forecasts are possible or will be possible in the future.  A more objective analysis is that climate models are severely troubled and not much progress is being made in spite of spending billions of dollars.

How Europe's Economy Is Being Devastated By Global Warming Orthodoxy.  Many Europeans complain about their high energy costs, largely due to their increasing dependence on renewables — the most costly energy sources.  But European political parties as well as a majority of people still want government to promote costly options, especially wind and solar power.  This is killing European economies.  Electricity costs in Europe are more than double the cost of electricity in the U.S.

Washers That Don't Wash and Dryers That Don't Dry.  From washing machines to microwaves to refrigerators, government regulations are making consumer goods far more expensive while reducing their effectiveness and longevity.  The Department of Energy claims that their new appliance standards save consumers money through reduced environmental costs and energy use.  But a recent study by the Mercatus Center confirms shows that you and I don't see that extra money in our wallets.

The Obama EPA's War on America.  Greenhouse gas emissions are primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), a gas vital to all life on Earth, the "food" that vegetation depends upon.  It plays no role whatever in a "global warming" that is not occurring.  It is emitted by the Earth's many active volcanoes and hot springs.  It is exhaled by humans and land animals.  It is the product of the combustion of hydrocarbons.  As it increased in the atmosphere, the Earth has entered a cooling — not a warming — spell since the late 1990s.  Its atmospheric concentration is a very tiny 0.039 percent by volume.  It is, however, the justification on which much of the EPA's enforcement activities are based.

A science-based rebuttal to global warming alarmism.  The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environmental Program.  Over the last 25 years, the IPCC became the "gold standard" of climate science, quoted by all the governments of the world.  IPCC conclusions are the basis for climate policies imposed by national, provincial, state, and local authorities.  Cap-and-trade markets, carbon taxes, ethanol and biodiesel fuel mandates, renewable energy mandates, electric car subsidies, the banning of incandescent light bulbs, and many other questionable policies are the result.

California's Middle Class Faces Slow Death by Green Laws.  An environmental law in California, designed with the best of intentions of course, has helped wreck middle class prospects — and state lawmakers are finally taking note.  The California Environmental Quality Act, signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1970 and beloved by environmental groups, mandates strenuous reviews of the environmental effects of all proposed construction projects.  While greens have claimed that the law has protected California's natural beauty from rapacious developers, lawmakers are coming around to the viewpoint that it has been abused to the detriment of citizens, as the New York Times reports: [...]

An Environmentalist Deception.  The federal government's ever-growing control over and continuous acquisition of land across America is the antithesis of the institution of private property and undermines conscientious private stewardship of land, waters, and other natural resources.  Every day, we see the results of a century of mismanagement of government-owned forests.  Failure to harvest timber allows the forests to become overgrown and filled with overstressed, diseased, beetle-ridden, dying, and dead trees — leading to millions of acres scorched by catastrophic wildfires every summer, year after year.

Global Warming Is Not The World's Top Problem, Energy Is.  Global warming gets all the attention in crisis thinking today but at its heart that is an energy issue too — when anti-science activists in America forced viable alternative energy out of America, it put us firmly on the path of rampant coal usage and higher greenhouse gas emissions.  Then they recognized the perils of coal emissions that were used in place of nuclear power and that solar was still not ready and promoted biofuels.

The Environmental Lobby's Great Forest Con.  Environmental activists constantly pressure government agencies to intervene in the lives of others, whether it is telling them how to run their businesses, where they can build their homes, or what types of food they can and cannot eat, among countless other examples.  Another area activists are increasingly focusing on is forest management, telling tree farmers how they should manage their land.

EPA Endangerment Finding:  At the time of the endangerment finding there were several dozen global climate models, now there are at least 73.  The US has 19.  One climate model is sufficient — if it has been validated.
  •   EPA offers no direct physical evidence that greenhouse gases are causing significant global warming or the dire future hazards.
  •   EPA relies heavily on global climate models for forecasts of future harm from increasing temperatures.
  •   From 1990 (first IPCC report) to the 2009 EF, the EPA and the scientific organizations upon which it relies have failed to produce a valid model.
  •   Two decades is twice the time it took the Apollo team to model how to land men on the moon and bring them back, and to successfully complete the mission.
  •   Without direct physical evidence or a valid model, the EPA cannot establish causation — that greenhouse gases are responsible for significant global warming or climate change.
  •   The failure to validate a model is recognized by the IPCC because after the 1990 report the IPCC shifted from using the scientifically proper term "model predictions" to "model projections."
  •   The term "model projections" is scientifically nebulous.
  •   All studies based on the models that have not been validated are scientifically nebulous, such as those that claim dire future weather events.
  •   Climate change has been occurring for hundreds of millions of years. The EPA has produced no evidence that it can successfully explain natural climate change.
  •   Without understanding the natural causes of climate change, the EPA cannot scientifically understand the human influence on climate.

The Age of Hyperbole: How Normal Weather Became 'Extreme'.  As American linguist Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa said:  "In the age of television, image becomes more important than substance."  It is effectively visual lying, dictated by Marshall McLuhan's observation:  "The medium is the message."  For example, TV news programs often illustrate air pollution with a smoke stack emitting water vapor, implying it is pollution when it is anything but.

Our rising bills for going green.  Yesterday [7/16/2013] energy giant npower said the Government's environmental policies would help to cause a 19 per cent rise in fuel costs by 2020.  They added that energy firms' subsidies of wind and solar power and the price of better energy efficiency will see annual bills rise £240 to £1,487 from £1,247.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg Pushes Mandatory Composting.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg — the man who brought about the failed supersize soda ban and restrictions on trans fats in city restaurants — is pushing for a law forcing New York City residents to compost their food refuse.  Bloomberg's proposal would encourage voluntary composting initially, and then make food composting mandatory by 2015-2016.  Opponents decried yet another expansion of the nanny state and also worried about food composting expanding the city's rat population.

Green taxes 'to increase energy bills by a third by 2020'.  The Taxpayers' Alliance predicts that green charges and tax will comprise £620 of a typical UK household's electrcity and gas bill by the end of the decade.  Green charges, which are used to fund wind and hydropower projects, and VAT currently make up 11 [percent] of gas bills, or £91 of an average £830 statement.  They account for 16 [percent] of electricity charges, equivalent to £100 of the £630 average bill.  However, Liberum Capital analysts expect green policies to push power costs up 29 [percent] by the end of the decade.

The Editor says...
Did you see that?  The average natural gas bill in England is £830, and the average electricity bill is £630.  At the time of this writing, that's the equivalent of $2,204.  Here in Dallas, I pay about one eighth to one tenth of that amount.

NHS hospitals asked to generate their own power amid blackouts fears.  According to one energy company, four hospitals have already signed up to a deal under which they will reduce demand at peak times by using diesel-fired generators.  KiWi Power, which is a commercial partner of National Grid, says it has started to approach every NHS trust in the country about undertaking similar plans after winning a government contract to encourage power saving.

The Editor says...
There is no longer enough centralized generating capacity in England to serve all customers during periods of peak demand.  This is because England's energy policy is dictated by environmentalists who are opposed to the use of coal.  So the hospitals — and presumably any other large consumers of electric power — are being asked to switch to diesel-powered backup systems during peak demand hours.  How big is the "carbon footprint" of a megawatt diesel-powered generator -- or a dozen of them?  What if the generator runs out of diesel fuel, and the (centralized) utility power fails, due to transformer overload, falling trees, lightning, or something else?  What will this increased demand do to the price of diesel fuel?  Any guesses?

German Energy Drain.  Germany's Christian Democrats unveil their campaign platform later this month ahead of September's federal election, and energy policy is expected to feature prominently.  The CDU-led coalition government has accelerated the country's push toward green energy during a period in which German industry has flourished relative to its European peers.  Unfortunately for Germany, this energy transformation has also spurred a flight of German industry outside the country — not least to the United States.

Risk of UK blackouts has increased, Government admits.  Ofgem warned there could be energy shortages in the middle of this decade as the UK has failed to build enough new wind farms and nuclear powers stations to replace old fossil fuel plants.  It also believes demand for energy may not fall as much as originally expected, as fewer households are insulating their lofts and switching to green appliances than predicted.

The Editor says...
Conservation and insulation are not energy sources.  The only solution to an energy shortage is increased energy production.  As a practical reality, the most reliable, cost-effective fuels for the generation of electric power are coal and natural gas.  This was all common knowledge 50 years ago, and then the tree-hugging earth-worshiping environmentalists acquired political power.  Now the general population is reaping what the greens have sown.

The Moment the Environmental Movement Changed.  In the summer between third and fourth grade, I attended a day camp at a "nature center" in our Chicago suburb — a large park with a lagoon, a hiking trail, and several fire pits.  The theme of the camp was learning about the wilderness — which meant, in essence, learning how to tame it.

Europe's anti-carbon agenda is adverse to human health and welfare.  The hostile regulatory environment toward carbon, especially coal, is leading to business closures, higher prices, stagnation, unemployment, fuel poverty and an increase in the death rate.  In their fascination with computer models based on untested hypotheses, European Union policymakers have put their countries so far behind the economic curve that it will take decades to catch up to more competitive nations.

Europe is becoming a green-energy basket case.  For years, European leaders have flaunted their unwavering commitment to fighting climate change — and chastised the United States for lagging behind.  But last week brought yet more confirmation that the continent has become a green-energy basket case.  Instead of a model for the world to emulate, Europe has become a model of what not to do.

European power plants are burning firewood from U.S. forests because of "global warming" restrictions.
Europe's Green-Fuel Search Turns to America's Forests.  Loggers [in Windsor, NC] are clear-cutting a wetland forest with decades-old trees.  Behind the move:  an environmental push.  The push isn't in North Carolina but in Europe, where governments are trying to reduce fossil-fuel use and carbon-dioxide emissions.  Under pressure, some of the Continent's coal-burning power plants are switching to wood.  But Europe doesn't have enough forests to chop for fuel, and in those it does have, many restrictions apply.  So Europe's power plants are devouring wood from the U.S., where forests are bigger and restrictions fewer.

Europe importing U.S. trees to keep the lights on.  Environmentalists in the United Kingdom are outraged by what has become a growing trend in Europe  — countries are importing more wood from the United States in order to meet the EU's strict renewable energy mandates.  The BBC reports that millions of tons of wood pellets will be shipped into Europe to help keep the lights on in a more environmentally friendly fashion.  Environmentalists argue that burning wood pellets wrecks U.S. forests and does nothing to address global warming in the short term.

The Editor says...
The environmentalists who are so alarmed by this latest development should have asked (years ago) where their energy was going to come from after coal was outlawed.  I'm pretty sure they didn't see this coming.  And what does Europe gain by burning down the forests, if global warming has already stopped?

Bees, pesticides, more green lies.  Have we been here before?  You bet we have, from at least Silent Spring (1962) onwards.  We've seen it involve everything from DDT to the snail darter, the spotted owl to the polar bear and fracking.  The odd detail changes but the basic story is always the same:  man is bad, capitalism is evil, let's ban another vital element in the Western industrial economy.

Who's turned off by 'save the environment' light bulbs? Almost everybody.  I have this experience regularly with products labelled as "environmentally friendly":  they don't work as well as the products they're replacing.  My environmentally-friendly shower head was really just a shower head that made my shower less showery.  I'm told cars with large-capacity engines are much less fuel efficient, but I've noticed how much better they respond.  Even when the product touted as "green" works as well as its counterpart, the tradeoff is often a higher price.

Activist 'Sustainability' Fails Environmental Goals.  How can politicians, regulators, and environmental activists decree that oil and gas are not sustainable — even as seismic, fracking, drilling, and other technologies unlock a century of new deposits?  And then insist that corn ethanol is sustainable even though this year's U.S. ethanol quota requires 40 percent of our corn crop, on an area the size of Iowa, billions of gallons of water, huge quantities of hydrocarbon-based pesticides, fertilizers, and tractor fuel, vast amounts of natural gas to run the distilleries, and perpetual subsidies ... to produce a fuel that drives up food prices and gets one-third less mileage per gallon than gasoline?

Relentless Liars: The Great Green Edifice is Crumbling.  The Greens regard anything that would provide energy for any reason to anyone as the enemy.  That is why "a panel of experts will discuss fossil fuel projects in our state, their impacts, and ways to reduce that pollution."  Fuel is not pollution.  Fuel is what we use to heat or cool our homes, drive our vehicles, provide electricity, and conduct the business of the nation.  The air and water in New Jersey is so clean we actually invite people to live here, start businesses here, and to visit as tourists to enjoy it.

The Pressure is Building!  [Scroll down]  The 'green' agenda of Agenda 21 provides a cover for a whole host of abuses by those seeking to dominate the ignorant under the guise of Agenda 21.  Global cooling, global warning [sic], climate control, or whatever, is used to advance the agenda, and is leading us to a glacier-like death by 'greenocide'.  With this 'greenocide', we are losing personal property rights, and we are staring at mushrooming utility energy costs, as coal, natural gas and oil are under constant attack by ne'er do well elites.  Also, the cost of building just about everything is being driven up [...]

The Left's War on Science.  The environmentalists, like the Communists, believe that human beings have total control over the environment and that the environment determines all.  Warmunism, like Communism, originates not from science, but from ideology.  The Communists divided industry into two types by ideological classification; the good cooperative Socialist industry and the bad competitive Capitalist industry.  The Warmunists similarly ideologically classify two types of industry; environmentally conscious green technology and dirty non-socially conscious brown technology.

Too much green energy is bad for Britain.  With the worst snow conditions in the country since 1981, it's worrying, to say the least, that gas supplies are running low.  A month ago, The Sunday Telegraph warned in this column of the problems of an energy policy that puts expensive, inefficient green power before coal-fired and nuclear power. [...] Now we are reaping the consequences.

Don't Buy an Electric Car.  I live in California, home to all sorts of environmental nonsense.  We couldn't build our house where we wanted to because of a tiny plant you can hardly see and a grasshopper that might — just might — live there.  It cost a fortune to replace our perfectly good septic system with a more environmentally friendly one to meet new codes.

Green Tyranny.  The Environmental Protection Agency just announced it will boost gas prices ("only" a penny, although industry says 6 to 9 cents) to make another minuscule improvement to air quality.  In New York City, my mayor wants to ban Styrofoam cups, saying, "I think it's something we can do without."  Congress already dictates the design of our cars, toilets and light bulbs.

The Darkness of Earth Hour.  Spreading awareness is the sole purpose of most environmental activism.  Awareness spreading doesn't make anything better, but makes people feel guilty, outraged, hopeful or some combination of the appropriate political sentiments in the face of an imminent armageddon that can only be fought by convincing everyone to be deeply concerned by it and disdainful of everyone who stands outside their Chicken Little consensus.

Have politicians had a mental blackout?  There's a real risk of energy shortages in Britain, yet still the political class is obsessed with cutting fossil fuel use.

Supreme Court sides with timber industry in runoff dispute, dealing blow to environmentalists.  In a defeat for environmentalists, the Supreme Court on Wednesday [3/20/2013] sided with the U.S. timber industry in a dispute over whether loggers should have to get special EPA permits because of gravel and dirt falling into nearby waterways.  In a 7-1 vote, the court reversed a lower-court ruling which said the run-off from logging sites is the same as any other industrial pollution, requiring a Clean Water Act permit from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The cleaner the enviroment, the more desperate enviros become to tackle the Next Big Scare.
Obsessive-Compulsive Environmentalism.  [T]he irony behind the modern-day environmental movement in America is that the more successful the movement is, the more petty subsequent goals necessarily become.  There is no other choice.  The big environmental organizations have mouths to feed and rents to pay just like any other business. [...] The pressing need to find new problems to solve is moving the big environmental organizations in new directions.  Their unending search for risks to micromanage and overinflate are leading towards a growing war on chemistry and common sense.

The Great Green Con no. 1.  The Mail on Sunday today [3/16/2013] presents irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global climate warming have been catastrophically flawed.  The graph [in this article] blows apart the 'scientific basis' for Britain reshaping its entire economy and spending billions in taxes and subsidies in order to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.  These moves have already added £100 a year to household energy bills.

The Greening Of Portland.  About a year and a half ago, then Portland mayor Sammy Adams and his cohorts on the Portland City Council decreed a radical, "green" approach to waste disposal: they sent little plastic slop buckets (made in China, naturally) out to virtually every house in the city, and cut garbage pickups to twice a month — with no reduction in rates, of course.

Prominent American Scientists Call For Eco-Dictatorship Under UN Rule.  [Scroll down]  By admitting they are willing to "move beyond existent levels of public permission" to push ahead with draconian environmental policies, these prominent scientists (among whom we find two Nobel laureates and one Paul Ehrlich) have proven their willingness to deceive the American population for their "environmental" control model.  As Aaron Dykes put it while interviewing Lord Christopher Monckton, the environmental "cause" is nothing more than "an absolute valued pretext for their absolute control model".

EPA's Secret and Costly 'Sue and Settle' Collusion With Environmental Organizations.  "Sue and Settle" practices, sometimes referred to as "friendly lawsuits", are cozy deals through which far-left radical environmental groups file lawsuits against federal agencies wherein courtordered "consent decrees" are issued based upon a prearranged settlement agreement they collaboratively craft together in advance behind closed doors.

Woodsy On The Rampage: The Ecology Of Radical Environmentalism.  [T]he radical environmental movement is more than a marketing ploy designed to win demands from government officials.  It is also a school of thought drawing inspiration from various philosophical sources.  One of the main philosophical schools that radical environmentalists draw upon is known as "Deep Ecology".  According to this set of ideas, the conservation policies pursued by more mainstream environmental groups are incorrect because man is still used as the primary measure of all things, at least when it comes to environmental protection.  To the Deep Ecologist, every natural thing is on equal footing.  Human beings are no better than moss or a pine cone.

Greenfellas: The Italian Mafia Muscles In On Green Energy Racket.  For an industry all puffed up about its supposed environmental virtue, green energy sure is attracting a dirty crowd.  Witness its latest entrant, Italy's Mafia.  The mob knows a good fraud when it sees one.

The Promise Of A Green Future Is More Than A White Lie.  Children and their mothers are victims of green propaganda, particularly through the schools.  Sadly, few people, including mothers, have any idea what is taught in the schools.  It is where the emotional blackmail of environmentalism is inculcated into society.  The message preached is that industry and development are the cause of most environmental and social problems.

Trampling on People, Environment, Science & Ethics.  The activist groups and government agencies certainly talk a good game.  They've certainly got the "mainstream" media and a lot of legislators and regulators on their side, while many who question their claims and agendas lack the greens' money, influence, connections and firepower — or the courage.  All that notwithstanding, these supposed "white hats" are often all hat and no cattle — or worse.  In truth, the very foundation for many of their policies is built on sand, worthless computer models or outright deception.

Government Scientist Gets Fired for Telling the Truth.  Over the past three decades, government has unleashed an unprecedented wave of environmental rules and regulations that affect nearly every aspect of American life, and for the most part the public has tolerated it.  Public embrace of environmental propaganda and fear mongering about the apocalyptic consequences of mankind's abuse of the planet have elevated environmentalism to a status above national security.  The public is now more likely to give up rights and freedoms for the cause of saving the planet than for security reasons.

Study: Environmental regulations turning outdoorsmen into eco-felons.  Five Gulf Coast states have over 1,000 laws that allow prosecutors to target people with criminal sanctions over rather minor infractions related to the environment and outdoor living, a new study shows, even in cases where the accused did not cause any harm or knowingly break the law.

Redressing global climate hysteria.  Throughout "Climate of Corruption," [Larry] Bell aptly demonstrates there are "big differences between environmental stewardship ideals, which most of us subscribe to, and the ideologically moralistic, antidevelopment, obstructionist activism that exemplifies much of today's environmental zealotry."  But, to a great extent, it is this zealotry that substantially misguides efforts to identify and successfully address real threats to the environment, energy sufficiency and ultimately, humanity itself.

Climate Science vs Politics: The Road Ahead.  There is good news and bad news about climate.  The good news is that science evidence has made it quite clear that the human contribution to a possible global warming is minor; in fact it cannot even be identified in the data record.  The bad news is that the media and politicians pay no attention whatsoever to the science and are marching ahead full-speed with efforts to control CO2 emissions — thereby hurting the economy, destroying jobs, and stunting economic growth.

How Fossil Fuels Saved Humanity from Nature and Nature from Humanity.  Nothing can be made, transported, or used without energy, and fossil fuels provide 80 percent of mankind's energy and 60 percent of its food and clothing.  Thus, absent fossil fuels, global cropland would have to increase by 150 percent to meet current food demand, but conversion of habitat to cropland is already the greatest threat to biodiversity.  By lowering humanity's reliance on living nature, fossil fuels not only saved humanity from nature's whims, but nature from humanity's demands.

The Dumbing Down Of Americans.  Even though Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth' has been largely debunked, the global warming advocates continue to wield political power so that hapless Americans are being forced to save a planet that can pretty well take care of itself.  We recycle or get fined for not doing it; we buy expensive electric cars that require charging stations that don't exist or which tend to blow up; we can no longer buy incandescent bulbs and have to spend much more on mercury filled CFLs made in China; we pay for expensive useless wind turbines that kill birds but we must not develop on the sacred nesting place of obscure animals we never heard of before.  Basically our government mandates these nonsensical environmental regulations as if we're the only polluters in the world while China and India spew their contaminants unfettered by such rules.

Six Green Lies Threatening to Starve You.  If it could be objectively proven that carbon dioxide emissions were causing catastrophic change to the climate and therefore encroaching upon the rights of others, civil law provides an adequate mechanism for addressing such harm.  That has not happened for two reasons.  First, it cannot be objectively proven that any given defendant's carbon dioxide emissions are harming any given plaintiff.  Second and more fundamentally, protecting rights is not the objective of the green movement.  On the contrary, environmentalists seek to clamp down on rights.

Winter Power Cuts Feared As Britain Runs Out Of Energy.  Energy regulator Ofgem also said consumers face massive rises in electricity bills as generators are forced to rely on expensive gas to fuel power stations.  The battle to keep the lights on is also being compromised by EU anti-pollution laws which are forcing the early shutdown of coal-fired power stations.  At the same time Britain's nuclear plants are also closing.

One million new plankton species found.  A team of marine scientists have discovered up to a million new species of plankton during a 70,000-mile voyage around the world's oceans.

Biodiversity: A Major Deception By Environmentalists.  The headline says, "One million New Plankton Species Found." [...] How can this be?  Don't we know the number of species on the planet?  We must know because alarmists claim they're in dramatic decline.  E.O. Wilson says species are going extinct at 3 per hour.  [Neither] He, nor anyone else can name one of these species.  If you don't know the total you only make inaccurate alarmists claims.

Editor's comment:
Too many environmentalists devote their entire careers to trivial issues that don't affect anybody.  The importance of their work cannot be underestimated.

Mocking derision:
Show me the list of the million new species, and tell me who has taken pictures of them, and typed out the names for them already.  Prove to me that Species #44637 is measurably different from all 999,999 other species of plankton.  To compare each of a million items in a set to each of the other items in that set would require 499,999,500,000 operations.  [N * (N-1) / 2]  But wait — there were already at least 3,444 known species of plankton, so the number of comparisons required would be 503,449,428,845.  That would require more man-hours of work than the world has to offer.  In other words, it didn't happen.  All that aside, there is no shortage of plankton, so who cares if there are more than two or three species of plankton?

Under a Green International Plan, the Price of US Wood and Paper Products Will Necessarily Skyrocket.  If an international "green" plan goes forward, another US industry will lose out to international competition and the price that American consumers pay for items like paper, pencils and building materials could start rising.  At issue:  Whether the US Green Building Council will adopt a single standard for all forestry lands that is being pushed from overseas.

Another Spectacular Green Failure.  Greens have an odd knack for developing useless and expensive government policies.  Ethanol, ballyhooed as a way to reduce greenhouse gasses, raises food prices for the poor and, in the U.S., actually increases greenhouse gas emissions at great cost.  Costly programs to create "green jobs" seem to produce more scandals than jobs.  And now we have a subsidy program for electric cars that costs money but otherwise gets nothing done.

Environmentalism and the Leisure Class:  This week President Obama handed down what may prove to be one of the most fateful decisions of his entire administration when he rejected the plan to build the Keystone XL Pipeline carrying oil from the tar sands of Canada to the refineries of Houston. ... In turning down Keystone, however, the President has uncovered an ugly little secret that has always lurked beneath the surface of environmentalism.  Its basic appeal is to the affluent.  Despite all the professions of being "liberal" and "against big business," environmentalism's main appeal is that it promises to slow the progress of industrial progress.

Just Freeze! EPA Says Burning Wood Is Bad, but so Is Natural Gas, Coal, Oil.  So, you're living in Fairbanks, Alaska, and it's 45 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit.  The high today will be -39 degrees below zero.  The weather services all project lots more double-digit minus numbers in the coming days and weeks, with dips into the minus 50s and 60s.  Heating oil prices are killing your family budget, so you crank up the wood stove and start burning some of the firewood you collected last summer.  Uh-oh!  Now you're in trouble!

George Osborne's CO2 tax will double UK electricity bills.  Fast approaching, if largely unnoticed, is yet another massive shock the Government has in store for us with its weirdly distorted energy policy.  It is surprising to see what an abnormally high proportion of the electricity needed to keep our lights on has lately been coming from coal-fired power stations.  Last Wednesday evening [9/26/2012], for instance, this was over 50 percent, with only 1.3 percent coming from wind power.  Yet by next March, we learn, five of our largest coal-fired plants, capable of supplying a fifth of our average power needs, are to be shut down, much earlier than expected, under an EU anti-pollution directive.

A "Mean Green", Obama Wages War Against Cheap Energy.  President Obama is a mean green.  Indeed, he sounds like one of their leaders when he tells us there is something wrong with Americans living so comfortably when there are poor nations in the world.  In his words:  "We can't drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes, you know, 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that every other country is going to say OK ... [when we] keep using 25 percent of the world's energy."  Given that Obama disapproves of Americans' affluence, it isn't surprising that he appointed one of the meanest greens of all to be his science advisor — John Holdren, who comes from the extreme branch of environmentalism that openly advocates the "de-development" of the United States.

The president decides to stick with climatism.  The president's remarks support the ideology of climatism — the belief that manmade greenhouse gases are destroying Earth's climate.  Today, the world is in the grip of the madness of climatism.  Our president and 191 other world leaders of the United Nations continue to pursue futile policies to stop global warming.  Universities preach "sustainable development."  Companies tout their "green" programs.  Schools teach our children that if we change light bulbs, we can save polar bears.  But an increasing body of science shows that the theory of catastrophic manmade warming is nonsense.  Climate change is natural, and car emissions are insignificant.

Green, Rotten, and Red Sustainability Indoctrination.  The Green Festival in D.C. is a "non-profit event, dedicated to celebrating social justice and sharing a vision of a healthier and more just future for us all."  I already live in a socially just society with equal opportunity for all citizens.  What individual citizens choose to do with their time and the choices they make determine their future.  It is not society's responsibility to see that sloth and laziness are rewarded equally to those who work hard to achieve.  Who knew that social justice and a just future involved bicycle maintenance, container gardening, home brewing, recycled crafts, yoga classes, NAACP, Washington Peace Center, 350.org, local non-profits, and national initiatives to speed up the transformation of America into the UN Agenda 21's idea of one-world communist governance?

Eco-Luddites New Target: Air Conditioning.  The leftist critique of capitalism and all the improvements in the quality of life that it has brought remains what it has always been:  the desire of intellectuals to dictate to the rest of humanity how they may live.  Or even more to the point, how many of them may live at all.  Thus, the latest New York Times feature about the evils of air conditioning and how the increasing demand for it in the Third World is unsustainable tells us a lot more about the left and its mindset than it does about the future of society.

What is the EPA hiding?  The Environmental Protection Agency has been a lightning rod for controversy during the Obama Administration as they have pushed the applications of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act to their limits in seeking to control all land use across the nation.  One area that hasn't received as much scrutiny, but reeks of old-style influence peddler politics is the Agency's escalation of sue and settle cases to change the law through federal court decree operating hand in hand with radical environmentalist groups that are willing participants in the scam.

Activists are not scientists.
NOAA Official: 'Activate Your Science'.  A senior public servant thinks scientists should be passionate, engaged activists.

Caught in a green crossfire.  President Obama has waged war on fossil fuels for three and a half years — and American consumers and families are caught in the green energy crossfire.  They are getting hit with higher energy prices, dismal employment prospects and a floundering economy, as billions go to unfriendly overseas countries for oil we could produce in the USA, and billions of tax dollars are wasted on subsidy schemes designed to make "green" energy more competitive — by raising the cost of electricity and fossil fuels that really power our economy.

Green Policies Increase Risk of Colorado Forest Fires, experts say.  Environmentalist policies against logging may have helped this summer's Rocky Mountain fires to expand, experts told the Washington Free Beacon. [...] Robert Zubrin, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and President of the aerospace engineering research and development firm Pioneer Astronautics, blamed environmentalists for the spread of these fires.  "They facilitated the spread of fire by keeping people from logging, adding firebreaks, and using pesticides," he said.

First they came for the timber industry.  Now the radical enviros are after the gold miners of California and Oregon whose small suction dredges have worked gold bearing streams in the mountains for at least the last 50 years. [...] Today's miners bring gold out of stream beds with a portable dredging device, operated by one or two miners.[...] This process removes not only the gold but the heavy non-native toxic metal detritus (horseshoes, nails, cans, etc) as well as mercury which was used by 19th century miners to extract the gold.  All parties acknowledge that over 2.5 tons of mercury has been removed from California's Sierra streams by the gold miners during the last 50 years.

The Dishonesty of Environmentalism.  Environmentalism and 'saving the world' are almost exclusively preoccupations of the left.  Outwardly they are noble pursuits, and yet they have always smelt a bit rotten.  In order to find the source of the odor it is necessary to look beneath the surface and understand what is going on at the psychological level when someone takes up these causes.  Clues are few and far between, so when you find something in the press that hints at a deeper malaise, it's worth looking at it very closely.

City of San Francisco Bans Apple Computers.  San Francisco has earned a reputation for being, in certain regards, the nation's most permissive city, but even the City by the Bay has certain limits.  Take, for instance, one's choice of computers:  If you work for the city, you will not be allowed to procure an Apple using city funds.  Why?  Because the computer industry giant with its headquarters less than an hour away from San Francisco is not "green" enough.

Rio: killing the earth since 1992.  Quite possibly the only good thing about this week's Rio + 20 summit is that it coincides with the publication of a brilliant new book called Os Melancias.  If you're American or Canadian you'll know it as Watermelons:  The Green Movement's True Colors.  In Britain, it's called Watermelons: How The Environmentalists Are Killing The Planet, Destroying The Economy And Stealing Your Children's Future.  And in Australia and Kiwiland it is called Killing The Earth To Save It: How Environmentalists Are Ruining The Planet, Destroying The Economy And Stealing Your Jobs. [...] Thanks to the junk science, bogus computer projections, and scaremongering of the environmental movement the planet and its inhabitants have suffered grievously these last 20 years.

Showerhead flow rates, 1.6 gallon toilets.
Spare Us From All That Manipulative Green Guilt Nonsense!  Alright already!  Maybe I'll reuse that hotel towel, just like I often do at home.  But only if they spare me the planet protection and imperiled polar bear pitch and just be honest.

The Global Doomsayers' Ever-Changing Story.  Part of the preamble to Agenda 21, the action plan that came out of the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, reads:  "We are confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being."  In the 20 years since, something embarrassing has happened:  a sharp decrease in poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy and a marked reduction in these global disparities.  The conference that begins next week in Rio de Janeiro, on the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Summit, will nonetheless remain resolutely pessimistic about the planet's ecosystems and their capacity to support human beings indefinitely if economic growth continues.

Germany's Green Energy Policy Hit Households Hard.  Many people in Germany are no longer able to pay their electricity bills.  Skyrocketing electricity prices are making electricity unaffordable for a large number of Germans.  The past year over 600,000 households had their power switched off in Germany because they can't afford the skyrocketing electric bills.

Green Welfare, Green Taxes, Green Poverty.  Fancy political propaganda has us thinking that renewable, alternative fuels are the modern energy sources of the future.  But just the opposite is true.

Environmental propaganda is everywhere.
Political Pancakes.  This Father's Day morning, my children received a little lecture on how to be a better — to use a nauseating Obama phrase — "citizen of the world" by being environmentally conscience and, of course, fit and trim.  In the upper left hand corner of the [IHOP] placemat there was a picture of the earth over which the words "Clean Fun" were stamped.  To the right, the first lesson:  "Time to get busy learning what you can do today and every day to give back to the planet!"  Just below the globe, a maze called "Recycle Road" instructs kids to "get recycling" by guiding the newspapers (located at the entrance) to the recycle bin (at the end of the maze).

Where Will You Be When the Lights Go Out?  America's energy policy is being dominated by environmentalists' priorities — regardless of the impact to the American economy, individual communities, or economically-challenged citizens.  The plans to shut down or limit America's abundant, available, and affordable energy are organized, coordinated, and effective.  The results will be "lights out in America" — a dim future.

Europe's Green Energy Suicide.  As austerity bites into European living standards, sparking revolt at the polls, "growth" has become the politician's mantra.  But to be competitive, European countries require a secure, plentiful and competitively priced energy supply.  Unless Europe radically rethinks its obsession with carbon-dioxide emissions and the anti-fossil fuel energy policies that flow from it, growth is likely to remain elusive.

Environmental groups collecting millions from federal agencies they sue, studies show.  Deep-pocketed environmental groups are collecting millions of dollars from the federal agencies they regularly sue under a little-known federal law, and the government is not even keeping track of the payouts, according to two new studies.  Under the Equal Access to Justice Act, or EAJA — which was signed into law by President Carter in 1980 to help the little guy stand up to federal agencies — litigants with modest means who successfully show government agencies wronged them can get their legal fees back from the taxpayer.

Environmental Groups Cash In.  Environmental groups are exploiting for profit a little known federal law meant to help average Joes take the government to court.  Millions of dollars in taxpayer money has gone to already wealthy environmental groups as a result of the law, according to Fox News, which reported that the government does not even track the payouts.

The green energy bubble is bursting fast everywhere.  So the tech bubble burst a decade ago, and the housing bubble five years ago.  The higher education bubble is swelling to the bursting point, but it is the green energy bubble that is bursting loudest at the moment, and as usual environmentalists are slow to see that they're about to get run over by a revival of the hydrocarbon economy.  Those old dinosaurs may have been big lumbering animals, but the nimble fossil fuels they threw off are crushing the so-called green "fuels of the future" beloved of fruit-juice drinkers and vegans everywhere.

Germany Stalled on the Expressway to a Green Future.  Germany's energy revolution has hardly begun, but it's already running out of steam.

Y2Kyoto: Rise Of The Green Reich.  Not a minute too soon, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is creating "environmental justice" units that will be empowered to oversee regulations in conjunction with local governments throughout the country.  The framework for the Environmental Justice Working Group includes eleven federal government agencies, including the TSA, the Secret Service and FEMA.

Alberta should resist eco-urge.  [Scroll down]  There's also the Obama administration's moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Outer Continental Shelf, and the tens of billions it has pumped into alternative energy, such as wind and solar power.  Together, all of these point to one thing:  magic-wand thinking.

Germany's Failing Environmental Projects.  The energy-saving light bulb ends up as hazardous waste, too much insulation promotes mold and household drains are emitting a putrid odor because everyone is saving water.  Many of Germany's efforts to protect the environment are a chronic failure, but that's unlikely to change.

Modern Environmentalism, 1970 - 2012, RIP.  Maybe it's because environmentalism has become such a crashing bore?  I've been talking about "apocalypse fatigue" for a long time, but environmentalists can't help being their own worst enemy.

Environmentalism, The Autopsy.  More to the point of yesterday's post about the slow and agonizing death spiral of the environmental movement:  could anyone have predicted this?  In fact, someone did, at the very beginning of modern environmentalism around the time of the first Earth Day.

Liberal Illiberalism.  When "conservation" sometime in the 1970s was redefined as "environmentalism," the morality of the entire issue likewise changed.  Most Americans had wanted clean air and water; and they were willing to pay to curb pollutants and drive more expensive, but cleaner, cars.  They had no desire to see condors die off or kit foxes disappear.  But at some point, the green creed began to dictate that all species were equal to humans.

The Decline of Greenism.  An April 9 Gallup Poll shows that since 2006, radical environmentalism has been losing influence in America.  Gallup results are even more dramatic when viewed over the last couple of decades:  worry about water pollution dropped from consuming 72% of Americans in 1989 to perturbing 46% in March 2011; worry about air pollution since 1989 dropped from 63% to 36% in 2011.  When Gallup asks Americans to prioritize environmental concerns or economic concerns, the same pattern emerges.  In the latest poll on the subject, 54% favor economic growth and 36% favor the environment.

Global Warming and National Suicide.  The apocalyptic vision to which we subscribe has a superficial scientific gloss — "climate change" — but at bottom, both visions prescribe economic suicide, and both promise that self-sacrifice will bring about a golden age.

Global warming greed.  It's only now becoming clear how many people have become rich thanks to the global-warming scare. ... The Government Accountability Office (GAO) counted a whopping 641 programs in place at 130 federal agencies in 2010 to prop up windmill technology and underwrite solar panel manufacturers.  The report released Tuesday [3/13/2012] didn't include a reliable estimate of the total cost to taxpayers.  The auditors found the array of loans, tax credits, agency purchases of purportedly green vehicles and the cost of regulations would take a great deal of effort to tally.

Dying to be Green.  Some 8,000 people die in the UK every year due to what is being called "fuel poverty" or, more simply, when it costs too much to heat your home.  Naturally the left is already on the case, staging "die-ins" outside energy companies and demanding that carbon credits be used to make homes "super-energy efficient."  Left out of the equation is that rising fuel prices can in no small part be attributed to the environmental mania which is at the heart of the movement.  It isn't oil and gas companies that are killing the elderly with high fuel prices.  It's carbon mania and environmentalism.

How green zealots are destroying the planet.  Just imagine a world where you never had to worry about global warming, where the ice caps, the 'drowning' Maldives and the polar bears were all doing just fine.  Imagine a world where CO2 was our friend, fossil fuels were a miracle we should cherish, and economic growth made the planet cleaner, healthier, happier and with more open spaces.  Actually, there's no need to imagine:  it already exists.  So why do so many people still believe otherwise?

What Do Light Bulbs Have to do with the Commerce Clause?  It's time for us to insist that there is no basis in the US Constitution for home appliance regulations designed to control the consumption of electricity or water. ... The central issue is how the Commerce Clause, previously distorted and stretched to underwrite any and every conceivable interference in our daily lives, may have finally found its high water mark under the conservative Rehnquist Court.

California Issues Clown Car Mandate.  [I]f we've learned anything in recent years, it's that industrial policy and telling consumers what they need and must have vs. what they want and find useful doesn't work.  Only the marketplace can accurately pick winners and losers.  The government, having no competition, usually picks losers.  We have also learned that climate change is an overhyped fantasy based on ideology rather than science.  Yet the fraudulent science behind it is used to distort the economy and misallocate resources toward green energy and green products that cannot compete on their own merits.

Texas cities find it can take a lot of green to be 'green'.  College Station, the maroon-hued home of Texas A&M University, is finding it is not easy being green.  Four years after launching an ambitious local effort to fight global warming, city leaders say their high hopes have fallen to hard economic realities, forcing them to abandon their green-at-all-costs approach.

The collapse of the green-energy bubble.  The parallel-energy universe known as renewables, a place where dollars and economic theory know no bounds and make no sense, looks increasingly like a bubble set to collapse.

Heads Up, America: Time to Take Back Our Kids.  Fifty million babies have been aborted in America since Roe in 1973.  Wacko environmentalists believe that all life, from a puppy to a toad, is equal to human life.  Could abortion on demand and extreme environmentalism be contributing factors in our youth's lack of respect for human life?

Welcome to Sustainable City.  As I walked through Washington, D.C. Ronald Reagan National Airport Terminal C on my way to the gate, a large electronic billboard caught my attention. ... Capturing the site on my iphone, the typical fare of environmentalism popped up, presenting Siemens as the leader in "sustainable development," "green buildings," "intelligent buildings," "smart grid," "sustainable urban development," "sustainable communities," "environmental care," and health care. ... Familiar with the UN Agenda 21 propaganda and its buzzwords preceded either by "sustainable" or "green" everything, in the name of saving the planet from human behavior, a clever and devious attempt to control every facet of human activity and life, I stopped immediately.

The dark side of green energy:  In the annals of Canadian green energy policy, nothing stands out like Ontario's headlong rush into becoming a world leader in the business.  In the belief that politics can defy economics, politicians all over the world are making the big bet that they can overturn the hard rules of supply and demand, the role of prices and the limits of innovation by pushing the right policy buttons.  There isn't a jurisdiction in Canada, from provinces funding carbon sequestration to Ottawa's biofuels program, that hasn't spent millions and even billions to reshape the world in the image of green activists and green-industrial lobbyists looking for handouts.

Making Eco-village in Green Mansions.  Loudon County, Virginia, is one of the richest counties in the nation.  They are now at the forefront of implementing the environmentalist green agenda of living in an eco-village.  The residents are "a typical middle class mix of mostly white-collar workers."  If we consider this group typical middle-class, we should consider the price of homes in this utopian "paradise."  The last home bought in this Shangri-La in September 2011, a foreclosed home, cost $359,000.  Some sell between $895,000 and $1.7 million.

Obama's War on U.S. Energy.  Global warming claims, the basis for EPA rule-making regarding emissions, have all been refuted and debunked.  Antarctic sea ice is at a near-record extent and is expanding; so too for Arctic ice.  The polar bear population is thriving.  Sea levels are actually dropping.  Global temperatures have been holding steady for a decade and the Earth has been in a cooling cycle since 1998.  The frequency of U.S. hurricanes has declined along with the frequency of tornadoes.  There is no evidence the Earth is experiencing unusual weather.  This list of climate lies is a very long one.

The Hype Surrounding Renewable Energy.  As much as we all might wish otherwise, there really is no free energy lunch.  Not so long as much or more needs to be put in to get it than it yields, that removes more valuable land and other resources from more beneficial uses than it is worth, that isn't reliably available in sufficient quantities when and where needed, that promises highly debatable environmental advantages, that costs consumers lots more than "nonrenewable" alternatives, and whose sustainability depends upon endless government mandates and subsidies.

National Park Service has new land-grabbing tool.  Big Green has an unlikely new sales pitch to convince Congress to fund ever-expanding land grabs by the National Park Service — save wildlife migration.  A map overlay showing all the U.S. wildlife migration paths would blot out nearly half the nation — a very clever diagram for empire-building bureaucrats.  The obscure but well-heeled Wildlife Conservation Society (2010 assets $764 million) unveiled the idea last week in "Spectacular Migrations in the Western U.S.," a 45-page report on the purportedly urgent need for a widespread network of wildlife migration corridors to avert countless extinctions.

Climate Corruption 101.  Never mind where you might stand on the question of global warming, global cooling, climate change or plain old weather.  If there's one constant to this entire climate debate, it is that in the name of "climate," the United Nations wishes to regulate and tax the economy of the planet — stripping resources from the most productive economies to hand them out as assorted UN bureaucrats deem fit.

DHS drafts 'environmental justice strategy'.  President Obama's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) outlined an "environmental justice strategy" that would review how a variety of DHS activities, from interaction with local governments to granting regulatory permits, affect poor and minority populations.  DHS defines environmental justice as "the commitment of the Federal Government ... to avoid placing disproportionately high and adverse effects on the human health and environment of minority populations and low-income populations."

Climate Change Debate is about Global Wealth Redistribution.  Conferees at the climate talks in Durban, South Africa feared that they would close the conference with no deal, but on Sunday [12/11/2011] in the waning moments after a heated debate, they were able to stitch together a package that the chair said "saved tomorrow, today."  That's lofty rhetoric for an arrangement that is less about preventing global warming than it is about redistributing global wealth.

A Stupid Energy Policy.  The Department of Energy (DOE) reports that 24 states and the district of Columbia have renewable energy mandates ranging from Maine's high of 40 percent to Pennsylvania's low of 8 percent.  Also known as a "Renewable Portfolio Standard" (RPS), these policies require that energy providers ignore practicality and price in order to obtain a minimum amount of electricity by a specific date from sources that environmental zealots consider "renewable," such as solar and wind.

Drinking Global Warming Propaganda.  [Scroll down]  People do care about nature, a clean environment, recycling natural resources, including water, and preserving as many of the earth's species as possible.  However, Paul Watson, the co-founder of Greenpeace has said, "The data does not matter, it does not matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true."  Indeed, people believe what they are told, if repeated enough, no matter what the accurate scientific data bears.  "We are on the verge of a global transformation.  All we need is the right major crisis," said David Rockefeller, the Club of Rome executive member.  Judi Bari, principal organizer of Earth First provides that major crisis, the supposed human destruction of the environment.  "If we do not overthrow capitalism, we do not have a chance of saving the world ecologically.  I think it is possible to have an ecologically sound society under socialism.  I don't think it is possible under capitalism."

Rotten Wind in the State of Denmark.  The equation was supposed to be simple:  green energy policies = cheap energy + green technology exports + green jobs + environmental benefits.  What we have seen is not what was promised.  The new green energy technologies produce more expensive, less reliable, less abundant energy at higher prices than conventional forms of energy such as fossil fuels, nuclear power, and hydropower.  Households, particularly poor households, shoulder the brunt of higher energy prices, along with higher prices for goods and services, including food.

Green Energy Skepticism.  Ivar Giaever, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, resigned from the American Physical Society because of its position on global warming.  So did University of California professor Hal Lewis.  When Lewis resigned, he said that the global warming movement was a "scam" and a "pseudoscientific fraud."  Even so, our government is imposing strict controls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in hopes of staving off global warming even though earth's atmosphere is cooling.  Meanwhile, the cost to you and me is higher energy prices, higher inflation, a lower standard of living, and fewer new jobs, since every product we buy has an energy cost component.

Thanks in part to environmental rules, electricity bills are headed for double-digit increases.
Shocking Costs Of Environmentalism.  Yes, the environmentalists' bill is now coming due.  Some cost hikes are unavoidable.  The electrical grid, like other infrastructure, needs to be updated and improved.  But the costs due to "tougher environmental regulations" are avoidable.  They are the product of choices, not all of them sound.  Trying to scrub and eliminate carbon dioxide emissions, for instance, is counterproductive.  CO2 is not a pollutant.  It's a naturally occurring gas necessary for life on Earth.  But the environmentalists are extreme in their loathing of man-made carbon emissions, and their agenda is supported by many policymakers.

Forest 'roadless rule': environmental victory or US job-killer?  The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals moved closer to resolving a battle over a Clinton-era executive rule protecting national forests from new roads.  But critics see the 'roadless rule' as a job-killing block on the country's natural resources.

A Disastrous Presidency.  The entire green agenda, which the president has been pushing since day one, is flawed policy.  Alternative energy sources such as wind and solar are too expensive to be price-competitive with coal, natural gas, and oil.  Yet Obama's plan is not to find a way to get the cost of alternative energy down; it is to make the price of fossil fuel energy "skyrocket" until alternative energy is cheap by comparison.

Green Twilight.  Rational opposition to the greens has consistently misinterpreted the movement's core beliefs.  Critics have concentrated on arguments that wind, solar, and squirrel-on-a-treadmill power cannot replace brute force methods such as nuclear, coal, and oil.  That electric go-carts are no substitute for technologically mature internal-combustion cars, that bullet trains cannot possibly compete with jetliners.  All this is true — and all this is irrelevant.  It's all irrelevant because green initiatives are not meant to replace anything.  They are intended to form the basis of a new, deindustrialized society with minimal power generation, limited air travel (or travel of any sort, for that matter), and local, nonindustrial economies.  In a green society, there will be no massive power plants, no private automobiles, no jetliners.

The Bizarre World of Radical Climate Science.  People who are ignorant concerning engineering or science may accept the notion that wind and solar are realistic sources of electricity.  It is more difficult to explain why the government is dumping billions of dollars into these technologies, both in the form of cash and in the form of mandates that shift the cost to electricity users.

At Gov't-Funded 'Green' Apartments, Teens Police Their Parents' Recycling Habits.  A non-profit affordable housing developer that spent $33 million for "green upgrades" to an Alexandria, Va., apartment complex, also administers a "Teens Going Green" program at the site where, among other things, teens take the green agenda "back home," and are "policing their parents" to be more environmentally conscious.

EPA Eco-Radicals Are Hurting Families at the Tap.  If your water bill increased recently, you might want to call the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The EPA has driven up the cost of water by cracking down on localities, forcing cities to borrow money to fulfill costly mandates, and in some cases forcing localities to clean water that is already safe to drink.  Just look at what the EPA is doing to New York City's otherwise excellent water system.

Top 10 Green Job Fiascos.  President Obama pledged he would start a clean-energy revolution that would create 5 million green jobs over 10 years.  Of course, when the government tries to intrude in the marketplace, bad things happen.  Such as these...

Solyndra scandal exposes the lie of government 'investment'.  Beware of a company that claims it can make widgets for $10 each, sell them for $8 apiece, and then "make up the losses on volume."  No banker or venture capitalist would invest in such a foolhardy scheme.  But substitute "solar panels" for widgets and that is exactly what Washington's professional politicians and career bureaucrats did with $535 million in loan guarantees for Solyndra LLC, the now-bankrupt California company that was the centerpiece of President Obama's "clean energy future."

Did someone mention the Solyndra scandal?

Silent Spring II.  It's not news environmentalists prefer trees, animals, and insects over people.  In 1962 Rachel Carson chose nature, created a stink about DDT and millions of children have since paid the ultimate price. ... Now, President Obama has chosen a similar path.

America is Under Attack.  As early as 1946, the left began a strategy to use people's concern for the environment to impose government control over land use.  They tricked people into accepting laws that on the surface appeared designed to protect some aspect of the environment, but always, with vague or ambiguous language, or clauses hidden deep within the legalese and gobbledygook, gave government the power to regulate and control our property, our businesses, and our lives.  Today, we see this manifest in the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the totally misnamed Environmental Protection Agency.

The UN Wildlands Project.  The UN issued several policies at the 1992 Earth Summit, one of which was the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).  Compliance with this UN policy is being driven and managed by the Wildlands Network which shares the same goals as the CBD; to set aside half the land in America for animals.

Seeing red over green activism.  Pity the poor American consumer. ... Wages are stagnant, and at the same time, policymakers in Washington are taking a breather from the long-term budget fight that is doing little to help American consumers.  As if that situation weren't bad enough, a cadre of wealthy professional environmental activists continues to pursue campaigns that raise the prices of consumer goods.  These goods include staple products such as paper towels, toilet paper, grocery bags, schoolbooks and other school supplies.

The Greens Just Love Us to Death.  [Scroll down]  In case I didn't mention it, "global warming" was a complete hoax, a fraud concocted by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in order to gin up a market for the sale and trade of "carbon credits."  Anyone — and I mean anyone — who tells you that humans are causing climate change is a charlatan or a dupe.  Avoid them.  My general recommendation is to avoid anything that has the word "green" attached to it.  You are being conned into spending more for something than necessary.

Enviros Go Straight to Jail.  If Tea Partiers were really so vile, then why are arrests at a tea party gathering about as rare as hens teeth, yet when leftists come together, getting arrested is almost standard operating procedure?  Yes.  They plan it in advance.  "Among the protesters who avoided jail Monday morning were Jane Kleeb, former head of the Young Democrats and now leader of Bold Nebraska, a grass-roots citizen organizing group," writes Politico.  "She plans to be arrested Sept. 3."

A Nutshell History of Climate-Change Hysteria.  At a time when the push is on to subject humanity to more crazy, shortsighted progressive environmental programs (read carbon regulations) to "save the earth" from its human population, a brief look at progressive airy predictions of the past is in order.  Enlightenment from the campus teach-ins of the 1960s and early 1970s slowly invaded conventional college classrooms so that the hippie-generation mentality of the time eventually became the hip academic norm.

Supreme Court Rejects Environmentalists' Suit Demanding Power Plant Emissions Cuts.  In the most significant global warming case to reach its front doors, the Supreme Court on Monday [6/20/2011] blocked a major lawsuit brought by states and environmental groups against five large power companies they accused of creating a public nuisance because of carbon dioxide emissions.

Obama's Environmentalists Destroy Marine Environment.  The most prolific marine ecosystem on earth is being systematically destroyed on orders of the U.S. Department of the Interior. ... The most prolific and "diverse marine ecosystem" ever recorded by marine scientists was created by the "facilities" the U.S. Dept. of the Interior is hell-bent on dismantling (offshore oil platforms).  Acting as artificial reefs over the past half century, the natural beauty, teeming fish life, coral colonies, and "bio-diversity," created by these structures is amply documented in several studies commissioned by none other than the U.S. Dept. of the Interior.

How Environmentalists Cause War and Repression:  No other group has done as much to keep America dependent on foreign oil as the environmentalists have.  After leading successful campaigns against nuclear power and domestic drilling, the green movement may lecture on "oil wars," but it is responsible for most of them.

Climate Witchcraft and Post-Normal Science.  French philosophers invented deconstructionism and postmodernism, or the theory that nothing means what it says.  Followers of these ideas are adept at finding hidden messages of capitalist oppression in the most unexpected places.  A related ideological disturbance is post-normal science.  Post-normal scientists favor relaxing scientific rigor in order to better pursue political goals.  Those goals often involve a reorganization of society that will elevate the importance of scientists.

The Non-Energy Generating Department of Energy and the Smart Grid.  The Department of Energy does not generate directly or indirectly one watt of electricity. ... The DOE seems preoccupied with "establishing the safety, reliability, and efficiency of energy supplies in a global marketplace."  There seems to be almost an obsession with coordination with the global environment and Agenda 21 stewardship as if we already live under a one-world government of the United Nations.

Is There No Safe Plane Fuel But Leaded Gas?  Thirty-nine flight service companies asked a federal judge to stop the California attorney general from enforcing a state law banning the sale of lead-based fuel for piston-powered airplanes.  They claim the environmental law will disrupt air taxi services and could cause plane crashes and deaths.

Huge increase in electric bills seen in the next few years.  [Scroll down]  There is also a chance that actual shortages — you know, the kind that occur regularly in Third World countires — might hit the grid with rolling blackouts, brownouts, and perhaps even regulations that would outlaw HDTV's, certain refridgerators [sic], and other appliances that consume a lot ot electricity.  Yes, but at least we'll stop global warming in its tracks... or not.  For every atom [sic] of CO2 we stop emitting in the US, China and India will put two into the atmosphere.  Their economies will boom.  Ours will shrivel.  Has there ever been a great nation that committed economic suicide for no real reason?

U.S. Energy Crisis a Liberal Power Grab.  It is no coincidence that U.S. oil production peaked in 1970, the year after President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act and the Environmental Protection Agency was established, just the beginning of a decade of laws that have made the United States the hardest place in the world to produce energy.  When the federal government started taking over roles traditionally held by the states and expanding its reach into every corner of every economic activity in the country, those who love more government had the perfect proxy for justifying more power over the economy and over the way Americans live their lives.

Why 'vote blue, go green' doesn't sound quite so clever any more.  We may produce less carbon in the United Kingdom, but we still consume more, merely exporting the production to competitors, to no global benefit and our economic loss.  And when, by 2015/16, some of our existing coal-fired power stations close down, there will be a panic about energy supply.  Only conventional, non-green solutions will be available to make up the gap.  The business to be in will be emergency energy (mainly gas).  The other day, I heard that a top executive of one of our biggest power companies has had an emergency generator installed in his large house.  One must assume that he knows something we don't.

The Purposeful Flooding of America's Heartland.  Some sixty years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began the process of taming the Missouri by constructing a series of six dams.  The idea was simple:  massive dams at the top moderating flow to the smaller dams below, generating electricity while providing desperately needed control of the river's devastating floods. ... But after about thirty years of operation, as the environmentalist movement gained strength throughout the seventies and eighties, the Corps received a great deal of pressure to include some specific environmental concerns into their MWCM (Master Water Control Manual).

US liberals really are the dumbest creatures on the planet.  [Scroll down]  They think the main reasons for the public's growing scepticism on Climate Change are 1. The media has been far too balanced on the subject and is not pushing the eco-message hard enough.  2. Big business is funding Climate Denialism.  3. Evil Conservatives — led by Evil Talk Show Hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck — are deliberately telling lies about Climate Change.  4. The Republican party is "anti-science".

Stop Environmentalists' War on Women.  Environmentalists and their government-regulating minions are quietly and methodically reversing women's progress with an onslaught of absurd regulations of highly dubious value.  Low-flow toilets developed to meet government water-saving standards are a chronic irritant. ... Front-loading clothes washers are likely to be the next headache for women.  Bowing to Department of Energy efficiency standards, manufacturers switched to front-loaders, reports the Wall Street Journal, "because they don't fully immerse their laundry loads [so] they use less hot water and therefore less energy."  Yet they're more "expensive, often have mold problems" and Consumer Reports testing found that "they didn't clean as well as the 1996 [top-loading] models." ... Expect clean dishes from a dishwasher?  Don't.  Thanks to environmental laws enacted in 17 states, national manufacturers have reduced the critical ingredients in dishwasher detergents — phosphates, which dislodge food particles from surfaces — from almost 9% to 0.5%.  The result:  Dishes and flatware come out speckled with heat-encrusted food particles.

Conservation Catch 22.  We hear the same incessant bleating from the hard left environmental autocrats in the media, in our legislatures and in our schools.  They force-feed us their unrelenting message that Americans must conserve, recycle, and protect the environment.  They cry out that our natural resources are running out, we are poisoning the earth, swatting aside endangering species, melting the glaciers and forcing shivering polar bears to starve amongst the vanishing ice floes of the Arctic.

A Big, Muddy Project Alright.  Bill Mitsch is not afraid of big ideas.  Mitsch, head of the Ohio State University Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, is using the catastrophic flooding this spring to recommend the establishment of a 1.5 million acre wetland park along the Mississippi River.  That many acres would be a "park" about the size of Delaware, replacing some of the most productive farmland in the world with a swamp.

Fast Train To Hell.  Public sector planners appear to be smitten with rail as the answer to environmentally friendly transport that will reduce automobile use -- the b$#234;te noir of righteous greenies.  And even better, rail transit adds considerably to their desire to re-settle populations to prevent "sprawl," a condition they find repugnant.  Most Americans call sprawl "neighborhoods," however, little realizing that ramping up urban rail transit creates the cutting edge of the ax designed to control where they live.  Localized rail transit is a planner's dream and a city's nightmare.

More about mass transit.

The Dangers of CFLs Even Greater Than Previously Known.  The politicians who passed the law phasing out incandescents wanted a trophy they could hold up to the voting public and say, "See, we gave you something better than what a free market could give you.  We advanced society."  Instead of a trophy of success, they have a monument to the failure of their ideology and their ignorance of economics.  Politics is no substitute for economics.  It can only produce an uneconomic result:  if the result were economic, it wouldn't require government coercion.

Global-warming zealots to ban ice makers.  Ice makers are the latest target in the left's ongoing war against the conveniences of modern life.  Earlier this month, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued a report that may condemn this essential household item to the contraband list that already includes functional light bulbs, toilets, washing machines and showerheads.

Back on EPA's enemies list: your fridge.  Remember when the Environmental Protection Agency's ban on chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, because they punched holes in the ozone layer, forced refrigerator manufacturers to switch to more environmentally friendly refrigerants? ... It turns out that HFCs require more electricity to produce the same amount of cooling.  Who knew?  Which means that ozone-saving fridges make bigger carbon footprints than their ozone-destroying counterparts.  Something Must Be Done before the fridge destroys the polar bear!  But never fear.  The EPA is already on the case.

Feds Will Regulate Ice Makers To Save Climate.  In its latest effort to save the planet from global warming, the U.S. government is on the verge of regulating ice makers commonly found in many refrigerators because they increase energy consumption by a good 12 to 20%. ... In a nutshell, the culprit is the tiny motor inside the freezing system that's used to release ice from the mold and into a tray.  Because the motor is specially built to function in a cold setting, it requires an internal heater to keep it from freezing up.

Tales of the red tape.  For years, there have been rules that restrict the flow of water to a shower head.  That was bad enough but now those rules have been tweaked.  The flow restriction no longer applies to each individual shower head, but to the whole shower.  The Energy Policy Conservation Act of 1992 set the restriction for each shower head at only 2.5 gallons per minute (half what Americans could have before then).  Now, if you install a shower fixture with two nozzles, it's down to 1.25 gallons per minute per shower head — and so on, for those who want to have more than two.

A Good Hot Shower.  In an age of near universal regulation, censorship, and media conformity, an old-fashioned hot shower is one of the few pleasures of life that remain.  Or so it would seem.  In fact, the long arm of environmental extremism now extends even into your shower.  Along with legislation to phase out incandescent bulbs and force nearly everyone to drive a snub-nosed hybrid, liberals in the Obama administration have been attempting to outlaw luxury shower heads.

Renewable Electricity Mandates Raise Prices and Kill Jobs.  Renewable electricity mandates are causing electricity prices to rise and killing jobs in the states that have enacted them.  "Electricity prices are already nearly 40 percent higher in states with an REM (renewable electricity mandate).  While the renewable mandates may not be the only reason electricity prices are higher in those states, these mandates likely contribute to higher prices and certainly are not helping to decrease the price," reports a recent study from the Institute for Energy Research.

Climate Activists Target States With Lawsuits.  A group of attorneys using children and young adults as plaintiffs plans to file legal actions in every state and the District of Columbia on Wednesday [5/4/2011] in an effort to force government intervention on climate change.

Top Green Admits: "We Are Lost!"  George Monbiot of the left-leaning British newspaper The Guardian has a must-read column in which he admits that because of a whole series of intellectual mistakes, the global green movement's policy prescriptions are hopelessly flawed.  Read the whole piece for a thoughtful and brutally clear expose of the intellectual bankruptcy of the green movement from one of the smartest people in it.

What Do Light Bulbs Have to do with the Commerce Clause?  Rand Paul, freshman US Senator from Kentucky, at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last month, summed up in a few choice sentences the Democratic Party progressive agenda:  ["]You're really anti-choice on every consumer item that you've listed here, including light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets — you name it, you can't go around your house without being told what to buy... You raise the cost of all the items with your rules, all your notions that you know what's best for me.["]

Why would OPEC give money to the American environmental left?  As gas prices approach $5 a gallon, and some even predict $6 a gallon by summer, the White House has launched an investigation into what is causing the rapid price surge.  But on Thursday's "Mark Levin Show," George Mason University economist Walter E. Williams said no investigation was necessary since the cause of the spike in energy prices was obviously the fault of Washington politicians listening to "environmental wackos."

Australian Mining Titan Says "Green" Groups Paid by CIA.  Billionaire Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer accused the CIA of funding environmental extremists seeking to cripple the island nation's industry, saying during a press conference that the money was being routed through conduits such as the infamous Rockefeller Foundation.  And the Australians involved in the alleged plot are essentially committing "treason," Palmer declared.

They're coming for your hand soap.  Antimicrobial hand soaps and body washes are very popular, especially in cold and flu season.  They've been found to be effective in limiting the spread of bacteria, which is why they're so popular.  But, like anything people like, there are people who don't like it, and the people who don't like something are rarely content until their will is imposed upon everyone else.  In this case, the people who don't like it are the left-wing environmentalists who don't seem to like much of anything humans concoct to improve people's quality of life.  Their usual modus operandi is being followed in this case.  Rather than trying to make a case for or against something, these groups have taken to the courts.

Infra-red camera scheme put on hold over privacy concerns.  A project in Boston designed to educate home owners about energy efficiency has been put on hold due to privacy concerns.  The city was due to have a number of infrared cameras installed that would take aerial and street-level photos across approximately four miles in order to show heat loss in homes during the winter months.

The Green Energy Economy Reconsidered.  "Green" energy such as wind, solar and biomass presently constitute only 3.6% of fuel used to generate electricity in the U.S.  But if another "I Have a Dream" speech were given at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, it would undoubtedly urge us on to a promised land where renewable energy completely replaced fossil fuels and nuclear power.  How much will this particular dream cost?  Energy expert Vaclav Smil calculates that achieving that goal in a decade — former Vice President Al Gore's proposal — would incur building costs and write-downs on the order of $4 trillion. ... Have we ever seen such a "green economy"?  Yes we have; in the 13th century.

Energy: A Tale of Two Narratives.  When it comes to energy, two prominent narratives exist.  The environmentalist narrative states that the world has only a limited amount of supplies of fossil fuel, so we need to enact steep taxes or other statist punishments to make people conserve what little they have.  The classical liberal narrative, on the other hand, avows that there is no practical limit to most commodities people need, including fuels.  Rather, as access to one type of fuel becomes less easy, the price of it will rise, which will encourage consumers to use less of it or more of a substitute.  Several recent stories illustrate anew how much more accurate the classical liberal model is than the environmentalist one.

Sitting in the Dark.  Forget the World's Fair, we now have a new way to celebrate human accomplishment.  Instead of going to see a vision of the future, we turn off the lights and sit in the dark for an hour.  Earth Hour shows how far we have come from celebrating human accomplishment to celebrating the lack of accomplishment.  For all its pretentious activism, environmentalism is a movement that promotes inaction.  Don't build, don't create and don't do — are its commandments.

Al Gore's seawater swindle.  [Scroll down]  According to the Montreal Gazette, power usage in Edmonton, Canada, actually increased by 1.01 percent during Earth Hour.  Power usage did drop in Calgary, but as a power company spokesman explained, the drop "was so minuscule that it couldn't even be attributed to that particular event."  As more of the cataclysmic predictions of the global-warming charlatans fail to pan out, these feel-good stunts will become more and more irrelevant.  That's good news because Earth Hour is about hating automobiles and electricity, two of mankind's most important technological developments.

Green Capitalism:  Looking around the world, you can find a direct correlation between poverty and ecological disaster.  Where people are poorest, the pollution and economic destruction are far worse than in more wealthy areas.  Places where many poor people live in close quarters such as Calcutta, Beijing, and Mexico City are even worse.  The main reason that poorer areas are such ecological disasters is because of the poverty.  Economic stress causes people to stop being so fussy about how they find their next meal, or shelter, or clothing.  When resources are limited, people begin choosing more critical needs over less, and picking up the trash stops being a priority, as does cleaning up waste, planting trees, and so on.

Environmental groups have spent major green on political causes.  While groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and Koch Industries often get chided for the political spending, green groups are making their fair share of financial contributions to political causes, too.  According to data obtained by The Daily Caller, environmental groups have spent more than $125 million on political causes, advertising campaigns and lobbying since 2009.  Nearly $40 million of that was spent in California in 2010 alone, mostly to campaign against the Prop 23 ballot measure that would have postponed the implementation of greenhouse gas regulations.

A new religion complete with evangelists, tithes, indulgences and superstitions.  Last night [1/31/2011] BBC Four aired a documentary which took a look at climate change sceptics ... The presenter of the programme, Rupert Murray, concluded by saying that despite the arguments of the sceptics he did not want to take the risk that they were wrong.  He was, he said, willing to give up some of his freedom if it helped to stop climate change.  This was a rather startling thing to say, especially as his own programme did not conclude that the warmists are right and the sceptics wrong.  In fact he appeared to be saying he would give up his freedom just in case the warmists are right.  There was worse still in the programme, with one scientist effectively saying that democracy might need to be suspended in order for governments to successfully prevent a climate catastrophe.

'Sustainable' Poverty:  The Real Face of the Leftist Environmental Agenda.  Since the seventies, the American left has warned of coming famine, overpopulation, total deforestation, urban sprawl, and overcrowding.  The only problem is that none of this has ever happened.  The left lied, and freedom died.

The Green Dream Is an Economic Nightmare.  The green vision — really, the green dream or delusion — is that the world is running out of fossil fuels, and we need to switch to so-called renewable/sustainable sources such as solar power, wind power, and biofuels.  If we just embrace these "new" energy sources, the greens aver, why, jobs will just multiply like squirrels on speed.  But if we continue to use fossil fuels, we are doomed to economic stagnation.

Rand Paul's Toilet Tirade.  [Scroll down]  His unwitting victim was Kathleen Hogan, the deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency at the Department of Energy.  "You're really anti-choice on every other consumer item that you've listed here, including light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets — you name it, you can't go around your house without being told what to buy.

Bias alert:
Rand Paul is right.  The writer of the article above makes it sound as if Rand Paul's objections were irrational and unfounded.

UK economy tanking from renewable energy stress.  The United Kingdom didn't even have Arnold Schwarzenegger and Barack Obama and still managed to devastate its economy by demanding "renewable energy" replace what works and is affordable.  Imagine what we can do.  We have a report from James Delingpole, who may detest the global warming nonsense even more than we do.

Just sit in the dark.  For "progressives," few things are as virtuous as sacrifice.  Especially if it's someone else doing the sacrificing.  Thus, in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis, you just know they'll be calling for less nuke power and greater energy-conservation efforts (preferably, by you).

Obama is AWOL in Oil Crisis.  We have a major oil crisis unfolding now and where's Obama? ... We now, this week, have oil prices busting through $100 a barrel.  This will create major havoc to our already anemic economy.  How did we get here?  Our president has a moratorium on nearly all domestic oil production:  we can't drill off our coasts, nor Alaska and certainly not the gulf.  We can't build nuclear power plants, dam rivers, explore for natural gas or mine coal.  We're stuck with windmills and failing solar power companies — companies that can't even stay in business after billions in taxpayer subsidies.  This is an energy policy written by hippies.

Deliberately making Americans poorer.  So-called green energy often is not very green and cannot possibly serve as a substitute for most fossil fuels. Windmills and solar panels are far more expensive than coal and gas; their production is intermittent, unreliable and largely unstorable.  Because of the physics of the electrical grid, wind and solar can never produce more than about 18 percent of electrical production — at least not until low-cost storage devices are developed.  Many biofuels, and in particular corn-based ethanol, are not only more expensive than the natural fuels but have a bigger total carbon footprint.

Environmentalists: Hands Off My Dishes!.  [Scroll down]  Our dishwashers are fine.  The reason our dishes are dirty is that the environmentalists have succeeded in banning phosphates from dishwashing soap.  Until recently, dishwashing soap contained about 8 percent elemental phosphorus.  That's the magic element that "strips food and grease off dirty dishes and breaks down calcium-based stains."  It also prevents food from reattaching to the dishes.  Or used to.  As of July 2010, the nation's detergent manufacturers, bowing to laws regulating phosphorus in 17 states, reconfigured the formula for all dishwashing soap to contain less than 0.5 percent phosphorus.

Another Triumph for the Greens.  In the last six months, a lot of people have suddenly discovered their dishwashers don't work as well as they used to.  The problem, though, isn't the dishwashers.  It's the soap.  Last July, acceding to pressure from environmentalists, America's dishwasher detergent manufacturers decided to change their formulas.  And the new detergents stink.  One of the key ingredients in dish detergent is (or was) phosphorus. ... Traditionally, phosphorus was loaded into dish detergent in the form of phosphates, which are compounds of phosphorus bonded to oxygen.  Prior to last July, most detergents were around 8 percent elemental phosphorus.  Now they're less than 0.5 percent phosphorus.  The result is detergents that don't work very well.

The real cost of 'global warming'.  The renewable energy industry is helping to destroy the UK economy and drive up unemployment says a new report.  For every one of David Cameron's "green jobs" created in the renewable energy sector (mainly solar and wind), another 3.7 jobs are being lost in the real economy, says the independent study by Verso Economics.  In total, measurable policies to promote renewable energy cost £1.4 billion in the UK and £168 million in Scotland in 2009/10.  But this doesn't take into account the additional economic damage inflicted by the erection of enormous, bird-chopping monstrosities all over some of Britain's most attractive tourist spots — including, for example, the hitherto unspoilt island of Tiree.

Defining "Clean" is the Energy Challenge.  Clearly no sane person would be in favor of "dirty" energy standards, but there are many problems with the impossible goal the administration has set out to reach.  First among them:  the administration itself cannot agree on what it means by "clean energy."  The remarks the president made in his State of the Union address to the nation last week are a case in point.  President Obama posed the challenge that "by 2035, 80 percent of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources."  There is an easy part of this pledge.  Oil, the "dirtiest" of all among his environmentalist friends, already accounts for virtually nothing in electric power generation.  The market saw to that over the past 20 years.

How to Fight Back Against Sustainable Development.  [Scroll down]  Does the community plan call for reduction of energy use?  If so, look for calls for energy audits and taxes on energy use.  The audits mean that the government has set a goal to reduce energy use.  It will follow that government agents are going to come into your home to inspect your energy use.  Then they are going to tell you what must be done in your home to cut usage.  That will cost you money.  Don't fall for the line that it is all voluntary — to help you save money.  They haven't gone to this much trouble to be ignored.  Regulations are not voluntary.  These are just a couple of examples of what to look for as you do your research.  There are many more, including meters on wells to control water use, smart meters on your thermostat to take away your control of your thermostat; non-elected boards and councils to control local development and implement smart growth, leading to population growth; Public/Private Partnerships with local and large corporations to "go Green;" creation of open space; pushing back livestock from streams, enforcing sustainable farming methods that restrict energy and water use in farming practices; and much more.  It all leads to higher costs and shortages, in the name of environmental protection and conservation.

The Great 'Climate Change' Taxpayer Rip-Off of 2011.  Over at the National Science Foundation (NSF), its budget of $7.4 billion (that's a lot of science!) includes a request for $480 million for Atmospheric and Earth Sciences, $765.5 million for NSF's Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability program and $19 million for a joint program with DOE "to promote education in clean energy research.  An additional $10 million would fund "Climate Change Education" in the nation's schools.  It's not education, it's indoctrination.

Obama uses 'green' emissions standards to push truckers into Teamsters union.  President Barack Obama's administration is using new "environmental standards" to force independent owner-operator truckers into becoming part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union that gave more than $2 million to Democrats in the last two election cycles.

This is another way Obama is paying back the unions for their support.

The £25,000 eco-classroom that can't be used.  Eco-campaigners who built a classroom powered by the sun believed they were paving the way for the future.  Instead they have been taught a valuable lesson — there is not enough sun in North London to sufficiently heat their building.  The much feted zero-carbon Living Ark classroom was opened three months ago to great fanfare.

They're coming for your hand soap.  Antimicrobial hand soaps and body washes are very popular, especially in cold and flu season.  They've been found to be effective in limiting the spread of bacteria, which is why they're so popular.  But, like anything people like, there are people who don't like it, and the people who don't like something are rarely content until their will is imposed upon everyone else.  In this case, the people who don't like it are the left-wing environmentalists who don't seem to like much of anything humans concoct to improve people's quality of life.

Boy Bagged For Taking Eco-Unfriendly Ziploc to School.  Isabel Theoret was preparing a sandwich for her 6-year-old son's Kindergarten class one day last week, when he screamed out, "No Mommy! Not a Ziploc!"  The child, who lives with his family in the town of Laval in Quebec, explained that his teacher would exclude him from a contest to win a stuffed teddy bear if he brought an environmentally unfriendly plastic baggie to school.

CALGreen: Regulatory Nirvana.  Average Californians want a thriving economy, accountable schools, reliable police and fire services, a functioning penal system, and fiscal responsibility from the state.  Sacramento is giving them instead a new set of regulations — for a dormant industry — which will employ hundreds of public servants to keep the CALGreen promise of reducing global GHG emissions .0096 percent by 2020.  Meanwhile, the public is invited to rejoice that more of the cost of green regulation will be borne by the taxpayer.  I'm not sure the art of regulation for regulation's sake can be perfected much more than this.

NASA extremist advocates U.S. decline.  Consider James E. Hansen, director of the taxpayer-funded NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.  Last week, blogger Marc Morano discovered a Nov. 24 blog post by Mr. Hansen calling on China to lead an international effort to impose fees on carbon-dioxide emissions, then lead the World Trade Organization to allow import fees on goods from any county — with the U.S. being the target — without such fees.  The goal would be to punish America, causing "continual descent into second-rate and third-rate economic well-being," until the "fossil-money- 'democracy'" no longer "rules the roost in Washington."  Mr. Hansen also praised communist Chinese leadership for "tak[ing] the long view ... in contrast to the West with its [lamentably] short election cycles."

Fresno, Zimbabwe.  Fresno, California, stands as the de facto capital of California's mighty Central Valley, the breadbasket of America. ... Yet far from being a paradise, Fresno is starting to resemble Zimbabwe or 1930s Ukraine, a victim of a famine machine that is entirely man-made, not by red communists this time, but by greens.  State and federal officials, driven by the agenda of environmental extremists, have made it extremely difficult for the valley's farms, introducing costly environmental regulations and cutting off critical water supplies to save the Delta smelt, a bait fish.  It's all driving the economy to collapse.

Did someone mention Zimbabwe?

Manmade famine in America.  It seems inconceivable, but people in America are going hungry en masse due to a famine caused by political authorities.  Fresno, California is not yet a sister city of Kiev, Ukraine, but the two cities, capitals of rich agricultural regions, share a history of mass hunger caused by central governments indifferent to the suffering of their people, in the pursuit of ideological goals.

The Cost Of Green.  The green lobby assured everyone it knew what it was doing when it got a judge to cut water to Central Valley farmers to save the delta smelt.  But while the Valley economy is now ruined, it hasn't helped the smelt.

Going Broke by Going Green.  The administration's green policies are being thrust into a precarious American economy.  Every "green scenario" shows raised energy costs across the board.  Not only will the average person pay more for energy; many will lose their jobs as the forced transition to alternative power sources rocks the stability of current energy-producing and energy-using companies.

Bootleg Lightbulbs Coming to California.  Old reliable, the 100-watt light bulb — safe, cheap, and bright enough to read, write, cook, shave, and put on your makeup by, will be gone January 1.  The California Energy Commission in September 2010 published its 226-page Appliance Efficiency Regulations, whereby the 100-watt incandescent light bulb will be outlawed at midnight on December 31, 2010.  Californians with self-imposed rationing, running out of both energy and common sense, have declared that consuming electrical power is a social vice.  Electric power must be curbed, along with banning Dr. Pepper and Happy Meals.  And it's not just light bulbs.  These appliance standards will regulate and ban hundreds of products including...

Supreme Court to Hear Global Warming Case Against Power Companies.  The Supreme Court announced Monday [12/6/2010] it will give further consideration to a closely-watched lawsuit filed by environmentalists, eight states and New York City blaming the problems associated with global warming on the carbon dioxide output of five major power companies.  An ultimate judgment against the energy providers could lead to dramatic changes in the energy marketplace and ripple into other industries.

Lame Duck Land Grab.  "Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is hoping to pass a package of public lands and wilderness bills during the lame-duck session of Congress.  Bingaman's panel has sent more than 60 bills to the floor this session that would create new national parks, monuments, wilderness areas and wildlife sanctuaries.  Now he's hoping to bundle them into an omnibus measure for Senate passage before the 111th Congress adjourns, spokesman Bill Wicker confirmed today."

Big Green leader warns House GOP to forget popular will.  Republicans just won the biggest mid-term election victory since before World War II in a massive repudiation of President Obama's unprecedented expansion of federal spending, regulation and debt.  But GOP leaders better not even think of doing what the voters clearly elected them to do, but instead they must do what they are told by the enlightened ones in the Big Green radical environmental movement.  That's according to Francis Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Chris Huhne has a blueprint for a green, cold, dark Britain.  As much of the northern hemisphere last week froze under the snows of the fourth unusually cold winter in a row, our ministers, led by David Cameron and Chris Huhne, the Climate Change Secretary, laid out a blueprint that promises to inflict on Britain a social and economic catastrophe unique in the world.

The Green Movement: From Common Sense and Compromise to Coercion and Control.  Today few argue that our environment should not be protected against man-made contaminants or that natural wilderness, where economically and socially practicable, should not be conserved. ... But the contemporary Green Movement, represented by a variety of national and international institutions, has far exceeded its original mandate to protect the earth.  In modern times, this aggressive and extremely well funded campaign uses the environment as a shield behind which it seeks to advance a doctrinaire social and political agenda.

Greenwashing America.  Every time you see a product being sold as "green," and therefore supposedly safer for the environment, you can be sure that it is more expensive than a comparable product that does the same thing without making this claim. ... In a similar fashion, every time you hear a corporation claiming that it is concerned about the environment, you can be sure that it is trying to protect itself against lawsuits that will cut into its profits and dividends.

The Slow Death of the Environmental Movement.  Having observed the movement for decades, I think we are seeing a growing awareness that environmentalism is fear-driven, based on many false claims, a threat to the U.S. economy, fundamental freedoms, and humanity in general.

Watch out for "Ecocide".  Ecocide, a term coined by the former British barrister Polly Higgins, comes with a proposal that asks the United Nations to recognize it as a fifth "crime against peace" — one that could be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court alongside "genocide," "war crimes," "ethnic cleansing," and "crimes against humanity."  Higgins defines ecocide as:  "The extensive destruction, damage to or loss of ecosystem(s) or a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished."  For this purpose, the definition of "inhabitants" includes plants and animals, as well as human populations.

Goodbye Global Warming, Hello Biodiversity.  After three decades of trying to push the global warming scam to a point where billions could be made selling and trading bogus "carbon credits", the global schemers have abandoned it in the wake of 2009 revelations that a handful of rogue climate scientists were literally inventing the data to support it.  If there is one lesson to be learned from and about environmentalists, it is that they are utterly relentless.

The Danger of Environmentalism.  Earth Day approaches, and with it a grave danger faces mankind.  The danger is not from acid rain, global warming, smog, or the logging of rain forests, as environmentalists would have us believe.  The danger to mankind is from environmentalism.  The fundamental goal of environmentalism is not clean air and clean water; rather, it is the demolition of technological/industrial civilization.  Environmentalism's goal is not the advancement of human health, human happiness, and human life; rather, it is a subhuman world where "nature" is worshipped like the totem of some primitive religion.

Motive Force Behind All Climate Change.  There never was a compelling case for human caused global warming.  The CO2 climate change hypothesis is not science, it is sorcery driven to hysteria by political opportunists.  It is time to restore science to its rightful place.

Dronism.  The well-off like nice cars, tasteful homes, good food, and appropriate vacations — but not the oil, gas, coal, nuclear energy, transmission lines, timber, cement, farmland, water pumps, etc., that bring that to them.

You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe...  America's "addiction to oil" has nothing to do with technological reality, and that we can snap our fingers and a "green energy" future will magically appear.  A nice corollary is the idea "electric cars" are a panacea.  Sounds really swell until one remembers that 50% of our electricity is coal-generated.

The Green Agenda.  In keeping with President Obama's promise to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet, the Energy Department has set new efficiency standards for 26 appliances and household products.  The list ranges from microwaves, to washing machines and dryers, to residential water heaters and dishwashers.  The department reportedly claims the new standards will save consumers from $250 billion to $300 billion on their energy costs through 2030.  But that's what Democrats always say about their green schemes:  "We're doing this to clean up the Earth, and we're going to save you money while we do it."  Don't believe it.

How Washington Ruined Your Washing Machine.  It might not have been the most stylish, but for decades the top-loading laundry machine was the most affordable and dependable.  Now it's ruined — and Americans have politics to thank.  In 1996, top-loaders were pretty much the only type of washer around, and they were uniformly high quality.  When Consumer Reports tested 18 models, 13 were "excellent" and five were "very good."  By 2007, though, not one was excellent and seven out of 21 were "fair" or "poor."  This month came the death knell:  Consumer Reports simply dismissed all conventional top-loaders as "often mediocre or worse."  How's that for progress?  The culprit is the federal government's obsession with energy efficiency.

Second thoughts on Green dogma — from a surprising source.  Germany has long been the titular and emotional leader of the "Green Movement" in Europe.  No country has adopted more so-called environmental friendly policies.  The German population has obediently gone along with environmental measures; in fact they have been the model people when it comes to green living.  So it is doubly startling when Der Spiegel, the leading left-wing publication in Germany publishes an article entitled:  "Is Environmentalism Really Working?" openly questioning the viability and cost of a myriad of green initiatives.

9th Circuit:  Mud from logging roads is pollution.  A federal appeals court has decided that mud washing off logging roads is pollution and ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to write regulations to reduce the amount that reaches salmon streams.

The Smart Grid Trojan Horse.  [Scroll down]  Stopping the march to green serfdom will not be easy because a confluence of separate conflicts of interest are securing our fate.  On one end, you have the green mafia, who are on the threshold of having their dreams fulfilled.  On the other end are vendors who stand to make millions selling "greenware."  Between are utilities that will finally secure the means to bear the financial pressures of environmentalism.  On the periphery are engineering firms and installation contractors, many that would otherwise starve in this economy but for the Smart Grid initiative.

How Obama Is Locking Up Our Land.  Have you heard of the "Great Outdoors Initiative"?  Chances are, you haven't.  But across the country, White House officials have been meeting quietly with environmental groups to map out government plans for acquiring untold millions of acres of both public and private land.  It's another stealthy power grab through executive order that promises to radically transform the American way of life.

Our Hero Barbara Boxer.  [Scroll down]  Cap-and-trade is a Democratic Party platform plank, but ten senators from Boxer's own party sent her a letter explaining that they could not vote for her bill.  June 29, 2009 left the high water mark for climate change policy.  On that day, the House of Representatives enacted a cap-and-trade scheme, the Orwellian-titled American Climate and Energy Security Act.  It was the first time the Congress had put a price on carbon, a.k.a. taxed energy.

Environmentalists give Barack Obama a pass on oil spill.  Some say there's little doubt that if a spill like the one in the Gulf took place on former President George W. Bush's watch, environmental groups would have unleashed an unsparing fury on the Republican in the White House.  For their liberal ally, Obama, they seem willing to hold their tongues.

Environmental Hazards.  The partisan bad faith of the organized environmental establishment is glaring.  Consider the case of the first President Bush, who pushed hard for a new Clean Air Act in 1990 (most environmental groups boycotted the signing ceremony on the White House lawn, though), and then went to the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, signing the U.N. treaty on climate change that set the Kyoto Protocol process in motion, and also signing a major biodiversity treaty.  So how many environmental groups endorsed Bush for reelection in 1992?  In round numbers:  zero.

'Green New Deal' is a raw deal for the U.S..  In Europe, green ideas have been in fashion for two generations and have driven policy to a much greater extent than in the United States.  Despite this, we have not witnessed a sizable green wave of new jobs, as evidenced by our unemployment rates, which are routinely several percentage points higher than in America.  The green movement has succeeded in generating increased government spending and subsidies at taxpayer expense.  Much of this spending has been directed toward inefficient renewable-energy projects, such as solar and wind power.

Get your hand out of my shower.  Before the advent of the modern environmental movement, Bill Buckley used to assert with a glint in his eye that a liberal is someone who wants to reach into your shower and adjust the temperature of the water.  Man, oh, man, was he right.  The liberals' environmental agenda has brought Buckley's satirical thrust uncomfortably close to reality.

Obama Adviser's Green Manifesto.  [Scroll down]  "In the longer term, it may be that the solution to the employment problem will require a reduction in the amount of work done by each worker in order to create more jobs," wrote [John P.] Holdren and his co-authors.  "Gradually shortening the work week (ultimately to 20 hours or less) or decreasing the number of work weeks per year (companies could have different spring-summer and fall-winter shifts) would accomplish this," they wrote.

Soap Smuggling's "Thelma and Louise".  What do you do when you can't get your dishes clean enough?  Run across the state border of course, and smuggle in banned substances.  Carole Spotts and her friend Susan Barrentine call themselves the real-life "Thelma and Louise." ... Carole and Susan are driving 70 miles round trip, to Idaho and back, to get a substance banned in their home state of Washington.

Environmentalists Also To Blame For Exxon Valdez And Gulf Spills.  Environmentalism did not cause the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, but it did help make it possible, just as 1989's Exxon Valdez disaster, which the Gulf Oil spill has now eclipsed, was also ironically made possible by a desire to protect the environment.  The original plan when oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope was to build a pipeline directly to the northern border of the 48 contiguous states.  Groups like the Sierra Club waged a major battle against both the Prudhoe Bay development and the pipeline.

Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.  A record-setting heat wave has settled on the Beltway this week, resulting in my thermometer topping the 85°F mark by the time I came into work today.  Did I mention my thermometer is inside my apartment?  "Oh yuck," you're probably thinking.  "You should get a place with air conditioning."  But you see, my unit has air conditioning.  The problem is that, under Virginia law, it can't be turned on until May 1.

In the Company of Wolves.  Hunting, once enormously popular and widespread, is today in the process of becoming an esoteric pastime.  The more romantic strains of environmentalism often lead to animals of all types being protected, and in some places, cosseted.  So we're getting generations of animals that have never been shot at and have no awareness that humans are the most dangerous animals of all.

On Earth Day, Did You Thank a Hunter?  Ten cents of every dollar I spent on my hunting and fishing toys funds Federal and State "conservation" programs.  From my guns and ammo to my duck calls and decoys, from my rods and reels to my lures and gaffs, from my trolling motor to the very fuel for my outboard — ten cents of every dollar in this ghastly expenditure funds habitat for Spotted Owls, Red Cockaded Woodpeckers, Bald Eagles, Ospreys, Manatees, Snail darters, Black-Footed Ferrets, California Condors, Florida Panthers and Sea Otters.

Climate Götterdämmerung:  Exaggeration and alarmism have been a chronic weakness of environmentalism since it became an organized movement in the 1960s.  Every ecological problem was instantly transformed into a potential world-ending crisis, from the population bomb to the imminent resource depletion of the "limits to growth" fad of the 1970s to acid rain to ozone depletion, always with an overlay of moral condemnation of anyone who dissented from environmental correctness.  With global warming, the environmental movement thought it had hit the jackpot...

Dave Matthews:  'Too Bad If We Have To Pay a Little Extra Money for Gasoline'.  Grammy award-winning musician Dave Matthews told CNSNews.com it is "too bad if we have to pay a little extra money for gasoline" and coal because that is what "we have to do" to protect the environment.

Green halo slips in study.  According to a study, when people feel they have been virtuous by saving the planet through their purchases of, say, organic baby food, it leads to the "licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable behaviour", otherwise known as "moral balancing" or "compensatory ethics". ... Its authors ... argue that people who wear what they call the "halo of green consumerism" are less likely to be kind to others and more likely to cheat and steal.

Green Meanies.  [Scroll down slowly]  The researchers asked about 150 subjects to play computer games in which they could increase their money by cheating and lying about it.  Mazar and Zhong found that the greener shoppers were more likely to cheat, lie, and steal than conventional consumers.  Later, subjects were told to take their spoils from an envelope based on the honor system.  Again, Greens were six times as likely to take more than they earned.  Finally, subjects played a game where they were asked to share money with another player.  You guessed it:  Green shoppers shared fewer dollars than conventional shoppers.

Social engineering at its worst.  Canadian researchers have discovered environmentally conscious people are jerks.  The researchers didn't put it that way, because they're Canadian.  But the two University of Toronto psychologists say that people who buy ecologically friendly products — socially conscious types wallowing in their own moral superiority — use their enviro-cred to excuse bad behaviour.  The study showed that, when playing games administered by the psychologists, green people are less likely to share wealth with those around them, and more likely to lie within the context of the those games in order to enrich themselves.

'This Is the End of Favoring Motorized Transportation at the Expense of Non-Motorized'.  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced that federal transportation policies will no longer favor "motorized" transportation, such as cars and trucks, over "non-motorized" transportation, such as walking and bicycling.  LaHood signed the new policy directive on March 11, the same day he attended a congressional reception for the National Bike Summit, a convention sponsored by a bicycling advocacy group, the League of American Bicyclists.

In Canada:
New eco fees catching consumers by surprise.  Checking her receipt as she left a downtown Canadian Tire, Chris Colorado noticed a new charge.  Her $1.99 bottle of dish soap was accompanied by a 13-cent "eco fee."  The levy for thousands of new products, from pharmaceuticals to fire extinguishers, quietly came into effect July 1, the same day as the harmonized sales tax.

Bill Gates, Environmental Kook.  At the TED 2010 conference in Long Beach, California Bill Gates won a standing ovation by calling for the end of carbon-based fuels in forty years; literally, our CO2 emissions must drop to zero or we risk a warming world, lower crop yields, and starvation of the poor.  It is absolutely stunning, as we read Gates' excerpts, to accept that a formerly unrelenting strategic genius has transformed himself into a conveyer of hackneyed global warming alarmism.

Environmentalism Refuted:  [Scroll down]  The same intellectual quarter that a generation or more ago urged the totalitarian control of all aspects of human life for the purpose of bringing order to what would otherwise allegedly be chaos, now urges a policy of laissez-faire — out of respect for natural harmonies.  Of course, it is not a policy of laissez-faire toward human beings, who are to be as tightly controlled as ever.  Nor, of course, is it a policy that recognizes any form of economic harmonies among human beings.  No, it is a policy of laissez-faire toward nature in the raw; the alleged harmonies that are to be respected are those of so-called eco-systems.

Obama's Progressive Goose and Our Conservative Gander:  The president has been trying to convert the country's energy sector to the "green" creed, which is sure to take the wrecking ball to the American way of life and dramatically reduce our standard of living.  Obama's energy policy goes to the heart of the entire progressive agenda.  After the downfall of communism, the left almost immediately embraced the next millenarian project — environmentalism — and concentrated its prodigious energies on a giant undertaking:  to stampede the world and put the progressives in power, wielding the global warming scare as its latest cataclysm.

Are the Communists Coming?  [Scroll down]  When a candidate uses terms such as "smart growth," and "sustainability," don't take these words to be meaningless.  Know that they come from Agenda 21, a product of the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development.  This is the same conference that produced the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Climate Change Treaty.  Agenda 21, and its policies seek to take elected officials out of the policy-making arena and place that authority in the hands of appointed "stakeholder councils," and the like.  "Stakeholder councils" serve much the same function as "soviets" in the old communist regimes.

The Original Enviro-Nazis.  Eco-fascism is rooted in history like a German oak tree.  This is nowhere more shockingly evident than at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.  Buchenwald means "Beech Forest."  The SS enjoyed a zoo just outside the camp, and in the midst of the camp are the remains of Goethe's oak.  The famous scholar Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) blazed the trail for the German Romantic Movement.  Goethe spent much time around the environs of that particular oak tree, the destination of his favorite forest retreat.  Today, Romanticism is known as Environmentalism.  When the Nazis cleared the ground for the construction of the camp, they carefully preserved Goethe's oak tree.  Late in the war, the tree died during an Allied bombing raid.  However, the stump still remains thanks to the special care that the Nazis gave to it at its funeral.

Why do I call them Eco Nazis? Because they ARE Eco Nazis.  A fascinating article by Mark Musser in American Thinker on one of the pioneers of apocalyptic global warming theory.  Turns out — whoulda thunk? — that he was a eugenicist and a Nazi.

The Green Nazis.  With its strong emphasis upon celebrating the authenticity of the German folk people (das volk) indigenously rooted in the natural landscape of their homeland in great contrast to the liberalism of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, German Romanticism is one of the great foundational pillars of modern environmentalism.  While in hindsight, some environmental historians may debate over how green the Nazis were in actual practice, the National Socialist aspirations for a greener Germany cannot be denied.

The Green Nazi Deep Ecology of Martin Heidegger.  One of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, foundational to the academic left and deep ecology of the greens, was committed to Nazism.  The green Nazi/deep ecology connection in the life and works of Martin Heidegger have been routinely given a pass over the years by many western scholars who love his existential philosophy.

Green is the New Brown.  Perhaps the most evil idea to take root under National Socialism was the concept of "Blood and Soil", an idea stemming from Darwinian Natural Selection.  "Blood and Soil" was the romantic notion that a People were evolved by the climate, landscape, and general environment to be what they are, and in the case of Germany many believed the deep, dark forests, the oaks and pines, the mountains and streams, had shaped the German People in character and indeed even in racial aspects.  Blood and Soil meant that the People and the land were one.

The Nazi Roots of Sustainable Development.  Much of the European Union's green sustainable development plans are largely based on government controlled land use planning theories rooted in the lebensraum tradition.  Literally, lebensraum means "living space."  Lebensraum was originally developed by German geographer Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904) and then greatly expanded under the banner of National Socialism (1933-1945).

Radical Muslims, Environmentalists, and the Green Jihad.  [Scroll down]  Something like environmentalism can be easily used as a jihadist tool in the hands of a green Muslim to help sabotage America from within.  After all, [Abdul] Matin says that "Muslims have a personal connection to the color green," and that "the favorite color of the Prophet Muhammad was green."  More troubling is that Keith Ellison's pilgrimage to Mecca in 2008 was paid for by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, which is just another name for the Muslim Brotherhood.

A Green Tea Party:  A revolt against economic hardship imposed by unelected bureaucrats based on junk science is brewing.  This Tea Party movement wants the faulty finding on carbon dioxide to be reviewed and dumped.

The Great Green Land Grab.  All across America, various environmental organizations are engaged in schemes to deter development such as housing, new energy plants, or the horror of a manufacturing facility that might actually employ people.  In some states, the attack has been on farms and ranches, finding ways to punish their owners for improving their land in any fashion such as digging a drainage ditch.

Enviros play dirty on coal, natural gas.  They don't discuss the subject too openly outside their own circles, but environmentalists make crystal clear on their Web sites that they want to stop all coal-based power production in this country.  They claim coal can never be made clean, so it must be eliminated before it's too late to do anything about global warming.  Ted Nace puts it succinctly in a Grist Web site post:  "The stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis."  That may sound extreme, but Nace is merely expressing mainstream environmentalist thinking.

Green trade shows are starting to feel recycled.  The green scene has been flooded with conferences, conventions, trade shows and other events trying to capitalize on the popularity of sustainability and concerns about climate change.  Most of the meetings deal directly with environmental issues such as carbon emissions, conservation or alternative energy.

The Editor says...
How ironic!  People are using capitalism to profit from environmentalism, even though environmentalism abhors capitalism.

Skating on thin ice for climate change.  Energy Secretary Steven Chu didn't reach the pinnacle of his profession by treading the well-worn path of modern group-think.  It's regrettable that the Nobel Prize-winning physicist is stuck in that rut now. ... You have to feel for a man of science trying to make the jump to politics.  In science, facts speak for themselves.  In politics, facts are often run to ground by baloney.  As energy secretary, Mr. Chu has traded fact for fiction and now spends his days selling President Obama's discredited climate-change policy.

Activist 'Green' Lawyers Billing U.S. Millions in Fraudulent Attorney Fees.  Without any oversight, accounting, or transparency, environmental activist groups have surreptitiously received at least $37 million from the federal government for questionable "attorney fees."  The lawsuits they received compensation for had nothing to do with environmental protection or improvement.  The activist groups have generated huge revenue streams via the obscure Equal Access to Justice Act.

Season's Greenies.  This is a tough time of year for eco-friendly global planners.  In Copenhagen they tried to put together a deal to save the world's forests while we rode around with millions of Christmas trees tied to our car roofs.  Among the ruses that came out of Copenhagen, they called on rich countries to pay poor countries to not cut down their trees.

NOAA's Ministry Of Propaganda.  Despite failures at Copenhagen, the fraud of the IPCC and the farce of Climate-gate, the administration wants an agency to monitor climate change.  Why must we fund one-stop shopping for climate charlatans?

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2024 by Andrew K. Dart



Mandatory recycling

DC Resident Fined Thousands For Not Recycling Cat Litter.  Dupont Circle resident Patricia White says she has been fined eight times for throwing homemade cat litter in her trash.  The fines total $2,000.  White says she shreds old newspaper and junk mail to use as cat litter.  She believes she is helping the environment by reusing the paper and avoiding cat litter you will find in stores.  After being fined several times, White says she called the Department of Public Works inspector who issued the tickets.  According to White, the inspector admitted to digging through trash looking for violations.

UK group fears trash bin spies.  It's the new front in the nanny state: Microchips placed in garbage bins to monitor how much people throw away.

£1,000 fine for using wrong bin.  Householders could be fined up to £1,000 if they fail to comply with complex new rules on refuse sorting.  Food scraps, tea bags and vegetable peelings thrown into the wrong dustbin could land them with hefty penalties under government plans to be unveiled today [3/18/2010].

Recycling bin 'contaminated' by scrap of bread.  A London man has been left stunned after garbagemen refused to empty a recycling bin containing a "miniscule" piece of bread.  South London resident Michael Carter returned from shopping last Monday to find the wheelie bin still full and marked with a red tag.

Hundreds of households hit with bin fines bigger than those given to shoplifters.  Figures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph have revealed that local authorities issued more than 1,240 fixed penalty notices last year for breaking rules on recycling and putting out rubbish.  Councils are issuing fines of up to £110 for such infringements as putting their bins out for collection at the wrong time, over filling bins, or putting recycling into the wrong boxes.

Oh, but that would never happen in this country, right?
High-tech carts will tell on Cleveland residents who don't recycle.  It would be a stretch to say that Big Brother will hang out in Clevelanders' trash cans, but the city plans to sort through curbside trash to make sure residents are recycling — and fine them $100 if they don't.  The move is part of a high-tech collection system the city will roll out next year with new trash and recycling carts embedded with radio frequency identification chips and bar codes.

Green Police Becomes a Reality in Cleveland.  Remember Audi's absurd "Green Police" Super Bowl commercial where green cops arrest citizens for using plastic bags, plastic water bottles and sort through the community's trash cans to ensure they're recycling?  Well, the absurdity is about to hit the streets of Cleveland.

Granny's $100 ticket — for throwing out newspaper.  An elderly Manhattan woman living on Social Security was slapped with a $100 ticket — for throwing away a newspaper in a city trash can.  Delia Gluckin, 80, tossed the paper, which was in a white plastic shopping bag, in a bin right outside her Inwood apartment building Saturday morning [12/4/2010] and was immediately ambushed by a Department of Sanitation agent wielding a handheld computerized ticket book.

Privacy No More!  You may think this is crazy, but the Green Police are coming to a town near you!  I am serious!  Many think the [advertisement] put out by Audi during the 2010 Superbowl is funny and cannot happen here in the United States — think again; it is happening now!  Seriously, your garbage and recyclables are being monitored (in some cities in the USA) via RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) either put on your garbage containers/recycling bins or on your garbage bags.  Plus, there are people who are called "Green Police" or the "Eco Police" that can then give you a fine of $25-$100 for not recycling or not recycling correctly.  In other countries in Europe you can go to court if you do not recycle correctly or not enough — these RFID can even weigh how much garbage is being picked up at each address and then it is used to see if each address is doing enough to recycle.

The Editor says...
The RFID chip is like a bar code.  It can identify the person who has been issued a specific recycle bin, but the RFID chip is not a scale.  The bin can be weighed by the garbage truck easily enough, and that's how they'll determine if you're not recycling enough.  There are numerous ways around this problem, but I'll leave them to the reader as an exercise.  Let's just say I'll never be accused of recycling too little.

More about RFID chips as a threat to privacy and freedom.



EverGreens:  After Failure, Warmists Will Change Hats And Move On.  The charge is that scientists only considered stations which showed warming, and tossed those which did not fit their preconceptions.  What makes this delicious is that the stations Hadley chose had large chunks of missing data, and the stations ignored had uninterrupted records.  This makes sense:  it's easier to homogenize data that isn't there.  The explanations to come will no doubt provide for some light comedy.
Inexplicable italics in original.

In Pursuit of Death.  Over the last two decades, activists in the news media and popular culture have managed to mainstream radical environmentalism, leading to a "green veto" over the use of natural resources, as well as land and development policy for the nation.  Major projects are routinely halted over dubious claims of damage to habitats or endangered species.  The costs of EPA-mandated impact studies alone are daunting enough to nix needed projects before they begin.  Environmentalism is no longer just a collection of disaffected youth, misguided conservationists, and touchy-feely, back-to-nature types; this once-harmless eccentricity has unveiled a dark side.

Hitler's Green Killing Machine.  Historians have either overlooked or forgotten that sweeping Nazi environmental laws, all signed by Hitler and considered to be his pet projects, preceded the racially charged Nuremberg Laws, reflecting the fact that Nazi racism was rooted in ecology.  By the summer of 1935, right before the Nuremberg laws were set up, Nazi Germany was by far the greenest regime on the planet.  The Animal Protection laws were followed up by a strong hunting law for Hermann Goering in 1934.  In 1935, Hitler also signed the Reich Nature Protection Act, the high water mark for Nazi environmentalism.  Here is seen the birth of environmental permits, environmental impact statements and environmental totalitarianism.

Just Say No to Democracy.  Actually, "democracy" is not only messy but also immoral and unworkable.  The Founding Fathers saw that coming, as well.  So we don't live under a system of simple majority rule for a reason, as most readers already know.  The minority political party, luckily, has the ability to obstruct, nag, and filibuster the majority's agenda.  Otherwise, those in absolute power would run wild — or, in other words, you all would be living that Super Bowl Audi commercial by now.

Green Police Aren't Just in Super Bowl Ads.  If you've been watching the daily scandals destroy the credibility of the U.N. IPCC, then you might not realize that Cambridge, Massachusetts is in a state of climate emergency.  This is not hyperbole, but an official policy order, passed by the City Council in May 2009, "recogniz[ing] that there is a climate emergency" and requesting the City Manager "to direct the appropriate city departments to increase the City's responses to a scale proportionate to the emergency."

The Green Police Take Over the Country.  The most interesting element of the Super Bowl wasn't the Super Bowl.  It was an advertisement for the Audi A3 TDI.  The commercial depicted uniformed officials arresting Americans for, among other offenses, asking for plastic bags at the grocery, throwing away batteries, failing to compost an orange peel and installing incandescent light bulbs.

Audi's Gorewellian Super Bowl Ad.  [Scroll down]  Some conservatives didn't like it because it makes light of what they believe is actually happening.  After all, in America and Europe the list of environmental crimes is growing at an almost exponential rate.  The ad is absurd, of course, but not nearly as absurd as Audi thinks.

Audi Super Bowl Ad:  Working Both Sides of Street?  The main selling point, surprisingly, is not that this car, which won a "Green Car of the Year" award, is good for the planet, but that if you drive it, you won't be hassled, bullied, and jailed by the "green police."  The ad tries to work both sides of the street.  It attempts to appeal to those who believe SUVs are destroying the planet — and those who resent eco-elitists and busybodies telling them how to live.

Capitalism and Climate Change.  The goals of the climate-change crowd are not reduction in global warming but the enactment of a worldwide system of regulation that puts business under government control and transfers wealth from rich nations to poor ones under the guise of fighting climate change.  Should the emissions come down on their own, as they are doing, the excuse for draconian legislation goes, well, up in smoke.

Don't confuse environmentalism with science.  Climatology is a science, not to be confused with environmentalism.  The heart of environmentalism is not to be found in the natural sciences.  It is ideology and nothing more.  That is why it ends in "-ism."  Environmentalism is itself not a monolith, but its dominant strand is distinctly statist in character.  As such, its main nemesis is the science of economics, not climatology or any of the other natural sciences.  A sound understanding of economics is all that is needed to discredit the emerging interventionist social agenda of the environmental movement.  The methods that they recommend cannot deliver the results that they promise.

Green Is the New Red.  The inconvenience of the truth falls on Gore, not his opponents.  Water levels have in fact declined slightly at Tuvalu, and the country's modest population shrinkage is due to economic migration.  Malaria was much more prevalent in Nairobi a century ago, and has risen slightly in recent years only because of the ecologists' attack on the use of insecticides.  The polar ice caps aren't melting at all; the ice sheets over the oceans are, but the ice over land is actually thickening, so water levels are not being affected.

The Left's End Times.  [Scroll down]  Their chicken-littleism, preaching, and rants about global warming (or climate change, or whatever else they think helps sell the goods) is never portrayed as such — not, of course, by themselves or by a pliant establishment media.  Theirs is "settled science," according to movement gurus, with Al Gore being the most conspicuous.

Obama's "Progressives":  With the collapse of the former Soviet Union, many former communists became "environmentalists," often playing major roles in the many organizations serving that cause.  Among President Obama's ever-expanding circle of "czars" is Carol Browner, the former Clinton-era director of the Environmental Protection Agency (1993-2000), whose latest appointment also revealed that she served on the Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which is part of Socialist International.  Her association with the group has since been scrubbed from their website.  Most obvious and notorious is Van Jones, who has never made a secret of his political preference for communism and is Obama's new "Green Jobs" czar.  The links between the environmental movement and communist goals are numerous; it should not surprise anyone that the "global warming" hoax was birthed in the bowels of the United Nations.

British campaigner urges UN to accept 'ecocide' as international crime.  A campaign to declare the mass destruction of ecosystems an international crime against peace — alongside genocide and crimes against humanity — is being launched in the UK. ... The radical idea would have a profound effect on industries blamed for widespread damage to the environment like fossil fuels, mining, agriculture, chemicals and forestry.

Save the Planet by Banning Ice Cream.  Notice that the environmentalists immediately claim superiority over us.  They are the ones who have pointed out the error of our ways, and they are saving the planet that we very nearly destroyed with our selfish lust for material goods and endless modern comforts.  They claim that if it weren't for them, we would soon wreck the planet and self-inflict the greatest wound ever suffered by mankind.  The only way to redeem ourselves in their eyes is to turn back the clock on our lifestyle.  How far should we turn the clock back?  They won't say.  For now, they just ask us to use less energy.

Orwellian Nightmare:  Science Is Whatever 'the Party' Says It Is.  The Party — the political class of the world — does not want God to exist.  Therefore, if the laws of physics and the laws of mathematics say He does, then the laws of physics and the laws of mathematics must be changed to whatever the Party wants.  Therefore, God does not exist.  He must not be mentioned, must not be prayed to in class.  The Party wants the Earth to be warming, so that its members can establish their power over every aspect of our lives.  The Earth has not warmed in a decade, in fact it has gotten colder.  But the Party says warmer, and further, says that the warming is due to human addition of CO2 to the atmosphere.

Steal this!  A Canadian study shows that people who buy green products tend to lie and steal more than those who don't.

A green, sustainable future that doesn't work.  In the high desert of central Arizona, more than five thousand miles from the global-warming summit in Copenhagen, sits an aging and unfinished vision of the enviro-friendly, sustainable life that some climate change activists foresee for us all.  It's called Arcosanti, created in 1970 by the Italian architect Paolo Soleri, and it is the prototype of a green community of the future.  The only problem is, it doesn't work.  And it never did.

Can America Survive its Sharp Left Turn?  Most Americans want a clean environment.  They want to be able to enjoy green spaces that are clean and free from pollution.  Most Americans also realize that our planet is much cleaner and healthier today than it was 40 years ago.  The left sees people as bad for the planet.  Given that they can't actually eliminate people, they insist people sacrifice their comfort and prosperity in the name of environmentalism.  They are willing to shut down businesses and whole communities to save a tree or a fish.  They are willing for you to pay much more for your energy in the hopes that you will stop using it.  That is a threat to our livelihood.

Energy to spare.  Under the inspiration of the Green Zeitgeist, I cannot go into a magazine shop without finding some science-lite cover story on new prospects for harnessing solar, thermal, wind, tidal, or whatever "renewable" forces.  There is an immense credulous audience out there, willing to be entertained by such nonsense.  No one with a grasp of high school physics should take any of these schemes seriously.  In each case, we are looking at a crank idea from the hippie era, which has not since been significantly improved, because it can't be.

Saving the Environment Through Human Misery.  The New Scientist describes 5 "eco crimes we commit every day"; acts of thoughtless decadence that are killing the planet.  Are you a climate criminal?  Listen to these indictments and decide if you engage in any of these heinous activities.

Hurricane Expert Rips Climate Fears.  There has been an unrelenting quarter century of one-sided indoctrination of the western world by the media and by various scientists and governments concerning a coming carbon dioxide (CO2) induced global warming disaster.  These warming scenarios have been orchestrated by a combination of environmentalists, vested interest scientists wanting larger federal grants and publicity, the media which profits from doomsday scenario reporting, governmental bureaucrats who want more power over our lives, and socialists who want to level-out global living standards.

Burning the home fires is a crime on bad air nights in Bay Area.  Light a fire at home, pay a $400 fine.  Burning wood fires in home fireplaces and stoves on bad air nights in the Bay Area becomes illegal again as of Sunday [11/01/2009], when the region enters its second cold-weather season with lighting up banned during Spare the Air alerts.

The Editor says...
This is the same state that had numerous wildfires this year, which burned hundreds of acres of trees, with no lasting effect on air quality.  Fireplaces and campfires are not an air pollution problem.  Banning these fires is just another step toward total control of every activity.

San Francisco bans wood burning on Christmas Eve.  No chestnuts on an open fire this Christmas Eve.  Bay Area officials have banned residents from burning wood, indoors and outdoors, on Tuesday — and might extend the ban into Christmas Day — as part of an air quality initiative.  The order came from a governmental body called the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

National Sovereignty, Climate Mysticism, and You.  The ostensible subject was the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Treaty, scheduled to take place in December.  Anyone who doubts that environmentalism has become one of the most potent weapons in the quiver of the international Left should take a look at some of the treaty's proposed provisions.  Basically, it is a wealth transfer scheme in which rich countries send money to poor countries because they, the rich ones, have (so the story goes) done more to insult the environment.  (Isn't the real story that they have enriched the entire world beyond imagining? Yes — but that contravenes the left-wing narrative.)

'Climate Change' Treaty:  The Supreme Law Of The Land?  We hear it said that whenever the President signs, and the Senate ratifies, a Treaty, it becomes part of "the supreme law of the land".  But is that True?  Not necessarily!

Carbon Pawprints.  As polls show belief in global warming is dropping, a new study suggests that dogs and cats, like people, are a plague upon the earth.  They say people should have edible pets. ... They do not actually say your wiener dog should be on the menu.  But they've calculated the carbon emissions created by popular pets, taking into account the ingredients of pet food and the land needed to create them.  They advise having pets like rabbits or chickens.  Maybe we could start a Cash for Cluckers program.

Obama's new world order.  Global-warming alarmists are using the myth of climate change to impose an embryonic socialist world government.  Following the collapse of communism, the West's progressive elites desperately searched for a viable ideological alternative.  They found it in environmentalism.  Although the Green movement wraps itself in the flag of empirical science, it represents the very opposite:  a dogma that provides meaning and purpose to its rabid followers.

Ask Not if the Science of Global Warming is True?  "The idea of climate change," [Mike] Hulme writes, "should be seen as an intellectual resource around which our collective and personal identities and projects can form and take shape.  We need to ask not what we can do for climate change, but to ask what climate change can do for us."  In other words, socialists like Hulme can frame the global warming issue to achieve unrelated goals such as sustainable development, income redistribution, population control, social justice and many other items on the liberal/socialist wish list.

Every Drop of Water in America.  Some in the federal government want to exert control over ... every drop of water in America.  It is an attack on private property and it is emblematic of the real agenda of environmentalists.  It is Communism.  The American Land Rights Association recently issued a notice.  "Having been slapped down by the U.S. Supreme Court's two recent decisions that the words 'navigable waters' in the Clean Water Act limited federal agencies to regulation of navigable waters only, Democrats and liberal Republicans in Congress are striking back."

America Needs a Climate Change Revolt.  We've got until December — when world leaders meet in Copenhagen to hammer out a global warming agreement — to pound it into the thick heads of our elected officials that we want no part of it.  It's fine to be for clean air and clean water.  But we are heading toward a new world order on climate change — and that's NOT fine.

Environmental laws put gaps in Mexico border security.  In the battle on the U.S.-Mexico border, the fight against illegal immigration often loses out to environmental laws that have blocked construction of parts of the "virtual fence" and that threaten to create places where agents can't easily track illegal immigrants.

Starting today, it is illegal not to recycle plastic bottles.  Starting today [10/1/2009], that old soda bottle and empty milk jug are no longer just garbage.  They must be recycled.  A new state law is taking effect that prohibits all plastic bottles from being disposed of in landfills.  Supporters of the law say it will boost North Carolina's burgeoning recycling industry, which has an unmet demand for old bottles that can be converted into new goods.

The Myth that Liberalism is the Ideology of Science:  The Left supported global cooling before latching onto the equally fictitious global warming.  Its ban on DDT has led to the death of millions in Africa.  Liberals clapped along when Paul Ehrlich predicted that we'd all be starving to death in the eighties and nineties.  For all their insufferably smug talk about science, for the liberals, the pursuit of knowledge is always secondary to their political agenda.

The Real Climate Agenda.  Environmentalism generally and catastrophic man-made global warming specifically is a falsified diversionary scare distracting us from the fall of our Republic into the dark, stinking swamp of statism. ... We no longer have representative government, but are ruled by an alien ideology.  Understand that the federal government is not us, it is them.

Climate Of Control.  Though the EPA says a cap-and-trade bill will do nothing if the developing world doesn't cut CO2 emissions, Democrats are intent on passing a global warming law anyway.  What is their real goal?

Is environmentalism the opiate of the liberals?  Human nature abhors a religious vacuum. ... Just as environmentalism has replaced Marxism as the central economic theory of the far left, so too has environmentalism begun to replace liberal Christianity as the left's motivating religious force.  Were it not for the presence of powerful black Protestant churches in the liberal alliance, environmentalism might have supplanted liberal Christianity already.

The 'Green' Trojan Horse.  Among the many controversies swirling around the White House's "green czar," none is more disturbing than his plan to use the green movement to socialize the economy.

The Fall of the Red Czar.  No thanks to the establishment media and Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration's "green jobs czar" Van Jones is out of a job. ... Now that Jones has stepped down, the media has rallied to his defense, depicting Jones as the victim of a "vicious smear campaign" by foes of his environmental politics — a charge echoed by the administration's Democratic allies.  The less palatable truth is that Jones is a racial provocateur and opportunist who tried to capitalize on the administration's sympathy for the "green" agenda to bring his own brand of socialist and black radical politics to national prominence.

More about Van Jones.

What a 'Green Jobs Czar' Does.  Citing this effort as "a major opportunity" and an "unprecedented opportunity" — both in the same paragraph, so please understand:  this is an opportunity, people! — to address the problem of so many people taking up so much space (sorry, critical habitat) and using so much stuff, EPA and the Vice President have decided that "A systematic review of how a wide range of Federal policies affect the development of urban, suburban, and rural America is long overdue."  They also can't resist citing carbon (sic) emissions as a reason to revamp policies with an eye toward telling people how to live.

Green Jobs and a Green Economy Will Fail Like Van Jones.  Van Jones perpetuated the view that environment and climate change are ideal vehicles for advancing total government control.  In 1993 former Senator Timothy Wirth, now Director of the UN Foundation, said, "We've got to ride the global warming issue.  Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing, in terms of economic policy and environmental policy."
Italics in original.

Reducing Vehicle Travel Won't Make Much Dent in Greenhouse Gas Emissions.  A highly publicized July report by the Urban Land Institute, titled Moving Cooler, also called for policies reducing the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by people in their cars.  The reductions would be forced by highly intrusive land use policies allowing for only minor expansion of roadway capacity and forcing almost all new development to be within existing urban footprints.  It would employ such radical strategies as forcing people to pay $400 per year to park their cars in front of their own homes.

The Editor says...
Allow me to simplify this issue:  Leftist politicians want to raise taxes and restrict your freedoms in order to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

The Green Nazi Hell and America's Future?  When the Nazis seized power, environmentalism was surprisingly given a premier role in 1933-35.  In fact, the Nazis passed the most progressive environmental laws found anywhere in the world at the time.  The first was a law for the protection of animals called Tierschutzrecht, which forbid cruel experiments on animals, not to mention Jewish ritual slaughter.

On the other hand...
Save the planet:  time to eat dog?  The eco-pawprint of a pet dog is twice that of a 4.6-litre Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year, researchers have found.  Victoria University professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialise in sustainable living, say pet owners should swap cats and dogs for creatures they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits, in their provocative new book Time to Eat the Dog:  The real guide to sustainable living.

GE's 'net-zero energy home' scam.  Beware:  green or clean energy — whatever you want to call it — is the new snake oil.  It's sad that the only sort of energy innovation occurring today is based more on financial shenanigans (cost-shifting, subsidies and worse) than technologies to produce more energy at less cost.

Greening the Capitol.  [Scroll down]  In fact, getting any sort of cost-benefit analysis out of Green the Capitol is difficult at best. ... But if you do some digging on the site you can download the report submitted to Congress giving the details of the initiative.  Buried 30 pages into the 60-page report is this pertinent information:  In 2006, the House's energy costs amounted to $15 million.  In 2008, after the implementation of Green the Capitol, the House was spending over $20 million.

What Green Jobs?  President Obama devoted nearly $60 billion of his stimulus package to building a new green-based economy rich in renewable energy and strategies to cut carbon.  But despite the price tag, not one green job yet exists.  It comes down to a problem of etymology.  No one can yet agree on what a green job actually is.

The Myth of the Expert.  For some reason government scientists like Dr. [Phil] Jones that get millions in government research grants are considered to be disinterested experts.  Yet anyone who has ever taken a dime from an oil company is bought and paid for.  Of course that is nonsense.  To politicians, scientists are just another interest group competing for favors.  It's pay to play.  To get their grant money scientists need to deliver science that helps argue for bigger government.  And they do, especially in the climate sciences.

The Alice in Wonderland World of the Greens.  An irrational fear of 'climate apocalypse' has driven nature-worshipping green ideologues in every age generation.  Being inherently anti-capitalist they care little whether their demands threaten to bankrupt modern economies, or deny poorer nations the same cheap, hydro-carbon powered industrialization path out of poverty taken by developed nations.  For Green World, preposterous self-righteous claims are morally self-evident, Real World facts and reason mere irrelevancies.

In Search of an Intelligent Energy Policy.  No responsible energy policy can go forward that is rooted in the belief that man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions significantly contribute to global warming or "climate change" as it is now called.  This article will address data from the historical temperature record as well as climate models that refute the theory that CO2 causes or to a large extend amplifies climate change.  Based on the following data it appears that the only thing consistent about the climate is that it is always changing.

Green nonsense.  Waxman-Markey contains unpleasant surprises for Americans, including a provision which could prevent homeowners from selling their homes if they aren't retrofitted to meet federal "green" guidelines.  But the House passed the 1,400-page bill before its members had an opportunity to read it, much less ponder its implications.  Let's pray the Senate is more responsible.

Phosphate phaseout has dishwasher soap makers scrambling for an alternative.  Automatic dishwasher detergents with phosphates have handled a lot of dirty plates over the years, but new laws aimed at making the soaps easier on the environment are putting that to an end, and the industry hasn't been this agitated in years.

Environmentalist Economic Strangulation.  [Scroll down slowly]  This green agenda is more than absurd, it is sinister.  The real goal of greens is not "clean energy" but less energy.  Energy is essential to economic progress, and many greens want to halt and reverse economic progress.  Some radical greens have praised Fidel Castro for de-developing Cuba.  Al Gore wrote in his book Earth in the Balance that U.S. policy should aim for slower economic growth.  President Obama's chief science advisor John Holdren's top two environmental goals are to shrink the human population and to slow economic growth.

Just another myth used to steal your taxes.  The reality is that folks are catching on to the fact that man-made global warming is a hoax, an inconvenient truth attested to by more and more scientists.  Like any good con man, Obama wants to hurry the shakedown before his mark figures out his game.  Democrats actually said that "if we do not act now, the climate will soon be out of our control."  This, of course, raises the question:  Just when was the climate ever under our control?

This can happen here, too.
Environment Agency Sets Up Green Police.  The boys in green are coming as the Environment Agency sets up a squad to police companies generating excessive CO2 emissions.  The agency is creating a unit of about 50 auditors and inspectors, complete with warrant cards and the power to search company premises to enforce the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which comes into effect next year.

Cap and Trade: Political Alchemy, Economy Buster and Disaster for Poor.  During recent years, with the support of radical environmentalists, a form of political alchemy is being foisted upon the public. ... During the last two decades, liberals have developed a way to demonize fossil-burning fuels.  This strategy included the turning of carbon emissions into a commodity which can be assigned monetary value.

The regulation of essential elements of life.  The EPA is now considering designating CO2 a dangerous pollutant.  The regulation of essential elements of life by our government scares me.  It should scare us all.  I am devastated by the notion that our own government founded on freedom would regulate and control the most fundamental aspects of life on earth. ... We generally have too much water where we don't need it and too little where we do.  Are you planning to regulate water also? ... Carbon dioxide is just as essential to life as water and oxygen.  Carbon dioxide is no more a pollutant than oxygen or water.

Communist U.N. Boss Praises "Mother Earth".  Our media haven't found much time to cover the U.N. Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis underway at the world organization's headquarters in New York.  But the Obama White House is working hand-in-glove with a Communist Catholic Priest who gave a bizarre speech on Wednesday devoted to saving "Mother Earth" from evil capitalists.

Lovely Organic Oil.  Environmentalists sit in their cozy air conditioned offices attempting to figure out something to do to raise money and keep their marketing businesses alive, so we are bombarded daily about catastrophes suppositions and wild what if scenarios.  We are told about all the things that we should do to be "mainstream" and friendly to our planet.  If you didn't know better you would think that plastic bags were sent from some evil alien planet to destroy us all, but this (just in case you were not sure) is not the case.

Chicken Little Lays Egg.  Ever since global warming made the leap from scientific theory to purported scientific law, there has been a shortage of discussion on the effects of the policies aimed to combat it.  It is presupposed that if we want to solve this "climate crisis," we must ratify treaties such as Kyoto, shut down coal plants and not invest in any more oil refineries.  The ramifications of doing so could be disastrous for America.

The Ecopalypse, 96 Months Away?  Capitalism is liberating:  You're born a peasant but you don't have to die one.  You can work hard and get a nice place in the suburbs.  If you were a 19th century Russian peasant and you got to Ellis Island, you'd be living in a tenement on the Lower East Side, but your kids would get an education and move uptown, and your grandkids would be doctors and accountants in Westchester County.  And your great-grandchild would be a Harvard-educated environmental activist demanding an end to all this electricity and indoor toilets.  Environmentalism opposes that kind of mobility.  It seeks to return us to the age of kings when the masses are restrained by a privileged elite.

Why Anti-Growth Activism Does Not Help the Environment.  Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is closing down an El Dorado county sawmill that has been around since 1889.  SPI will also close another sawmill and electric power plant in Tuolome county.  Two more SPI mills in Plumas and Humbolt counties will also close, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs.  One reason for the closings is the drop in new-home construction.  Anti-growth activists will be happy about the shutdowns, part of their stance known as BANANA — Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.

EPA Endangerment Finding for CO2.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued its proposed "Endangerment Finding" for emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles.  If the finding is finalized, these emissions will be subject to technological limitations under the Clean Air Act and would trigger a cascade of regulations on virtually all sources of regulated greenhouse gases, from backyard weed whackers to massive electrical power plants.

Eight Fallacies about Global Warming:  The reality is that there is no clear evidence that human emissions of carbon dioxide have any measurable effect on temperatures.  Such a claim rests on climate models of unproven accuracy and on lines of physical argument that expressly exclude consideration of other known important drivers of climate change. ... At its most basic, if scientists cannot be sure that temperatures are today rising, nor establish that the gentle late 20th century warming was caused by CO2 emissions, then it is nonsense to propose that expensive controls are needed on human carbon dioxide emissions.

'Job-Creating' Ordinance Makes Negligence of 'Green' Audit Criminal.  The government is continuing to encroach on freedoms more and more in the name of climate change.  Case in point:  An ordinance that went into effect June 1 stating if you sell your home in Austin, Texas and you fail to get a clean energy "green" audit, you will likely face criminal charges.  According to an ordinance passed by the Austin City Council in November 2008, any home 10 years or older will require an "Energy Conservation Audit.

In Australia:
Government's switched on energy move.  All Australian homes will soon have to undergo a mandatory energy-efficiency assessment costing up to $1500 per property.  The assessment has to be done before any property can be sold or rented under new laws to tackle carbon emissions.

U.S. Energy and Climate Plans Would Drag Us Back to 1905 — or 1862.  President Obama wants to prevent "runaway global warming," by slashing U.S. carbon dioxide emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.  According to Oak Ridge National Laboratory data, this reduction would return the United States to emission levels last seen in those halcyon days of 1905.  But America's 1905 population was 84 million, versus 308 million today.  We didn't drive or fly, or generate electricity for offices, factories, schools or hospitals.  To account for those differences, we'd have to send CO2 emissions back to 1862 levels.

Environmental red tape hurts families in California
Fish Don't Vote.  The Republican Party has long been fishing for an issue that will reach out to Hispanic and other minority voters.  Now, a three-inch fish may be the key to establishing common ground between that voting bloc and the GOP.

Land Grab, Air Grab, Water Grab — S 787.  The CWA (Clean Water Act) regulates point source pollution discharges into "waters of the United States."  The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the phrase "waters of the United States" to exclude isolated waters, such as ponds, intermittent streams, and wetlands which do not have a "significant nexus" to a navigable waterway.  These bodies of water are not regulated by the CWA.  S 787 would change the CWA to significantly broaden the scope of the bill.

S.F. OKs toughest recycling law in U.S.  Throwing orange peels, coffee grounds and grease-stained pizza boxes in the trash will be against the law in San Francisco, and could even lead to a fine.  The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday [6/9/2009] to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal for the most comprehensive mandatory composting and recycling law in the country.  It's an aggressive push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and have the city sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by 2020.

Rain or Shine, Environmentalists Want to Control Us.  This is the winter of environmentalists' discontent.  They desperately want the earth to be warming to prove Al Gore's truth inviolate and they are going to make you pay thousands of dollars for it no matter whether it's true or not.  But the weather has been inconveniently cold.

The Climate-Industrial Complex.  Some business leaders are cozying up with politicians and scientists to demand swift, drastic action on global warming.  This is a new twist on a very old practice:  companies using public policy to line their own pockets.

The Geography of Carbon Emissions.  No American city is among the top 50 cities in the world for air pollution according to the World Bank.  Another list, 'The Top Ten of the Dirty Thirty,' compiled by the Blacksmith Institute of New York compared the toxicity of contamination, the likelihood of it getting into humans and the number of people affected.  Places were bumped up in rank if children were impacted.  No US or European sites made the list.

Activists Motivated by Power, EU's Klaus Tells ICCC.  Environmental activists are less concerned about any crisis posed by global warming than they are eager to command human behavior and restrict economic activity, the president of the Czech Republic told the opening session of the second International Conference on Climate Change.  Vaclav Klaus, who also is serving a rotating term as president of the European Union, triggered the approving applause of about 700 attendees when he said, "Their true plans and ambitions:  to stop economic development and return mankind centuries back."

What Europeanization Will Really Mean:  Since Mr. Obama and his friends would like us to be more like Europeans, my wife and I recently went on a great explore to find out what life is really like in Europe and what changes we should expect.  Get out your bike because you will soon be riding it everywhere.  That means you too, Grandma — no exceptions.  The best way to cut down on that nasty CO2 is to chuck your cars and get on a two-wheeler.  Of course, after a couple years with the government running two of our three major car companies, a bicycle may become an attractive alternative.

An All-Out Deification of Nature.  Since the introduction of bumper stickers calling for us to respect "Mother Earth," we have been careening towards an all-out deification of nature.  And as the last decade has witnessed an unprecedented push for green cars, green energy, and green government policies, it seems environmentalism has finally become less about saving the planet and more about worshiping it. ... There is an undeniable infatuation with nature in our post-modern culture, and like all infatuations, this one causes people to rush to support solutions that are flatly outlandish in their claims.

Green hysteria shackles our economic growth.  I am surprised so many people in Europe, the US and elsewhere have come to support policies underpinned by hysteria over global warming, particularly cap-and-trade legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions and subsidies for "green" energy sources.  I am convinced this is a misguided strategy — not only because of the uncertainty about the dangers that global warming might pose, but also because of the certainty of the damage that policies aimed at mitigation will cause.

California adopts first regulation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from fuel.  California took aim today at the oil industry and its effect on global warming, adopting the world's first regulation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from the fuel that runs cars and trucks.  The state Air Resources Board voted 9-1 in favor of the complex new rule, which is expected to slash the state's gasoline consumption by a quarter in the next decade.

Out West, Catching Raindrops Can Make You an Outlaw.  Every raincloud that passes over her eastern Colorado ranch tempts state Rep. Marsha Looper to break the law.  A long, hard drought has settled across the land, and on those rare occasions when the sky opens, Ms. Looper longs to set out some rain barrels to collect the bounty for future use.  She'd like to use the rain to grow hothouse tomatoes.  But she refrains.  "I don't want to get thrown in jail," she explains.

California May Ban Black Cars.  The California legislature is considering regulating the color of cars and reflectivity of paint to reduce the energy requirements to cool them. ... The problem isn't the color per se, but the reflectivity of the paint overall.  And dark colors just don't reflect well, so they are likely out.  "Jet black remains an issue," says the report.

Update:
California Car Paint Proposal Parked For Now.  California has backed down from a proposal on new cars' paint coatings.  The state said it's looking for ways to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions by improving cars' efficiency.  One way to do that is by making cars more reflective so that their air-condition systems don't have to work as hard.

Public Land Mismanagement and Environmental Irresponsibility.  Decades of fire suppression by the Forest Service have disrupted natural fire cycles and turned many western forests into tinderboxes waiting to burn.  Dense stands of spindly deadfall and underbrush now occupy land once characterized by open savannahs and large, widely spaced trees.  One result is larger, more intense fires that burn the publicly owned forests to the ground.  Indeed, by the Forest Service's own estimates, 90 to 200 million acres of federal forests are at high risk of burning in catastrophic fire events.

California appears poised to be first to ban power-guzzling big-screen TVs.  The influential lobby group Consumer Electronics Assn. is fighting what appears to be a losing battle to dissuade California regulators from passing the nation's first ban on energy-hungry big-screen televisions.

California considering banning giant TVs.  Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's governor, has supported controversial proposals by the California's energy commission to impose strict energy consumption limits on TVs with screens that are more than 40 inches wide.  The commission claims that California's estimated 35 million televisions and related gadgets account for about 10 percent of household energy consumption in the state.

California To Ban TV:  But Not For a Good Reason.  Why is the California Energy Commission (CEC), a Gov. Jerry Brown creation, wanting to ban television sets?  Well, it seems that a honking 48-inch plasma screen, that bright symbol of the bygone days of conspicuous consumption and purveyor of drooling vacuity, uses too much electricity, and electricity production makes too much greenhouse gas emissions (at least in America, where half of our electricity comes from coal — in France, a plasma screen would emit nary a CO2 molecule as the TVs there are nuclear powered).

Green economics:  It just doesn't add up.  Green jobs will grow the unemployment rolls, concludes a study at Juan Carlos University in Madrid.  Every green job created ploughs under 2.2 jobs elsewhere in the economy, and that doesn't account for the indirect job losses to come of the higher energy prices that accompany green energy technologies:  Companies can be counted on to flee this green, or should we say gangrene, economy.

The Myth of 5 Million Green Jobs.  [Scroll down]  The central finding of the study is that — treating the data optimistically — for every renewable-energy job that the government finances, "Spain's experience reveals with high confidence, by two different methods, that the U.S. should expect a loss of at least 2.2 jobs on average, or about 9 jobs lost for every 4 created."  Despite expensive and extensive green-job policies, a surprisingly low number of jobs were created.  And about two-thirds of those "green" jobs were just to set up the energy source, in construction, fabrication, installation, marketing and administration.  Only 10 percent of the green jobs created were permanent jobs actually operating and maintaining the renewable sources of energy.

Ruling hands greens a setback.  The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday [4/1/2009] that federal environmental regulators can use cost-benefit analysis techniques when deciding how to upgrade equipment at power plants, a defeat for green groups who want the impact on the environment to be the chief or only consideration.  The 6-3 ruling strikes down a victory for the Riverkeepers environmental group, which had persuaded the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that cost should not matter in its bid to require companies to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in system upgrades to meet what it claimed were Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

California Gas Stations Shut Under Expensive Mandate.  Nearly 100 California gas stations are being forced out of business by a statewide mandate requiring them to implement expensive new equipment to reduce vapor emissions at the pump.  The mandate, issued by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), is known as Phase II of the state's Enhanced Vapor Recovery program.  It requires gas station owners to purchase and install devices to prevent vapors from escaping when customers fill their cars.

Hayward begins ticketing for smoking in public.  Lighted cigarettes meant lightened purses and wallets for smokers who were caught puffing in public this week, as the city began enforcement of a smoking ban that technically went into effect last summer.  The law, passed by the City Council last May, mandates a $50 fine for smoking on sidewalks, streets and other public places, including a 20-foot no smoking zone around outdoor patio areas of restaurants and bars, as well as parks, sports fields, playgrounds and municipal parking lots.  That zone also applies to windows, doors and ventilation ducts.

Pelosi's Toy Story:  Under a new law set to go into effect February 10, unsold toys, along with bikes, books and even children's clothing are destined for the scrap heap due to an overzealous law to increase toy safety.  The damage comes from new rules governing lead in children's products.  After last year's scare over contaminated toys made in China, Congress leapt in to require all products aimed at children under 12 years old to be certified as safe and virtually lead-free by independent testing.

California's 'Green Jobs' Experiment Isn't Going Well.  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was all smiles in 2006 when he signed into law the toughest anti-global-warming regulations of any state.  Mr. Schwarzenegger and his green supporters boasted that the regulations would steer California into a prosperous era of green jobs, renewable energy, and technological leadership.  Instead, since 2007 — in anticipation of the new mandates — California has led the nation in job losses.

Green power's hidden agenda:  Wind, solar, and geothermal, by contrast, are the most expensive alternatives to coal.  A kilowatt of power from such renewables typically costs about ten times as much as a kilowatt from coal — and more than six times as much as a kilowatt from nuclear or hydropower.  Alternative energy promoters, including former vice president Al Gore, promise that these prices will decline if only the government subsidizes the necessary technological innovation.  Those promises have not come true over the past three decades, and it's extremely unlikely that they ever will.

The 100-Meter Gasp.  The Beijing Olympics [exposed] the environmentalist fraud that the U.S. is the world's biggest polluter.  Compared with China, we get the gold medal for energy efficiency.

The Great Global Warming Swindle.  I have followed green politics for a while now. ... It is transparently obvious that the greens sit squarely in the tradition of Romanticism.  Like the romantics, they hate industry, love nature, idealise peasant life, they think capitalism is wicked, they think people in modern society lead depraved shallow lives and have forgotten the true value of things, they don't like cars or supermarkets or lots of proles taking cheap long-haul holidays, etc, etc.

Environmental Myths Masterfully Debunked:  Greener Than Thou, the new book by Terry L. Anderson and Laura E. Huggins of the Hoover Institution, ... debunks four environmental myths:
  1. No price for environmental purity is too high.
  2. Materialism and concern for nature cannot coexist.
  3. Constraining markets and the use of private property protects the environment.
  4. Malthusian population growth will outstrip resources.

Suddenly being green is not cool any more.  Julie Burchill can't stand them.  According to her new book, Not in my Name:  A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy, she thinks all environmentalists are po-faced, unsexy, public school alumni who drivel on about the end of the world because they don't want the working classes to have any fun, go on foreign holidays or buy cheap clothes.

Judge scales back ruling on roadless national forests.  A federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday [12/2/2008] that a Clinton-era ban against new road construction and development on millions of acres of national forest would apply only to 10 western states.  Two years ago, Judge Elizabeth Laporte invalidated a 2005 Bush administration rule that overturned the 2001 "Roadless Rule," which protected 58.5 million acres of federal land in about 40 states.  But in August, a federal judge in Wyoming invalidated President Bill Clinton's Roadless Rule, leading the Bush administration to request that the two judges modify their conflicting rulings.

The Long Awaited Re-Emergence of the Silent Majority.  Radical environmental legislation, in the form of endangered species acts, clean water acts, salmon recovery acts, inhibiting or outright prohibiting energy source extraction, power generation by any energy means, or the construction of oil refineries, and the fraud that is man-caused global warming in the form of CO2 emission limits and the insane cap and trade policies, has cutoff American creativity, ingenuity, industriousness and its envied economy, bringing the economy to its knees and rendering the United States a third-world country.

Environmentalism:  Freedom's Foe for the '90s.  At the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, some young people, intimidated by the pace and complexity of modern life, were looking either to rebel or to retreat -- to tear down "the System," or to withdraw to nature for a "Colorado Rocky Mountain high." ... [T]hey preached the inherent goodness of untouched nature and undisciplined emotion; the corrupting influence of reason, culture, and civilization; economic egalitarianism and small-scale participatory democracy; the mystical infallibility of the collective will and the sacrifice of the individual to the group.  And they were united in their hatred of a common enemy:  modern American, capitalistic society.

High cost of hitting climate panic button.  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's handpicked global warming guru Ross Garnaut has issued his third apocalyptic theory unencumbered with any hard scientific evidence.  Again, he calls for Australia to take a lead in controlling emissions though he admitted on ABC radio yesterday [9/30/2008] that any mitigating action taken by Australia to control so-called hothouse gases would have absolutely no effect on global climate change.  Garnaut's prescription would however throw more Australians out of work even as Australia's economy wilts in the global economic meltdown.

How the Greens Captured Energy Policy:  Through its influence in the media and government (both bureaucracy and congress), the Greens effectively abolished nuclear power, curtailed domestic oil production, and left the American energy industry in the comatose state in which it abides to this day.  Nor this was an error or overreaction — it was a deliberate effort to fulfill the Green agenda.

Govt. Energy Star Program A Farce.  The federal agency recently swayed by the industry it regulates to conceal a hazardous chemical has been duped into labeling bogus products as greenhouse emissions-decreasing energy savers that qualify for government rebates.  This certainly indicates that Uncle Sam's highly-touted Energy Star program, which offers hundreds of millions of dollar in rebates to those who use "energy efficient" products, is a big joke or at the very least a waste of public funds.

Obama's EPA Gave Energy Star Certification to Phony Products, GAO Says.  The Environmental Protection Agency certified that a "gas-powered clock radio" was an energy-efficient product under the government's Energy Star program, despite the fact that neither the clock nor its manufacturer ever existed.  The clock and 14 other phony products were part of an investigation into the Energy Star program conducted by the Government Accountability Office, which submitted 20 fraudulent Energy Star applications from four fake companies.  The EPA evaluated 16 of those products while the Department of Energy (DOE) evaluated four.

California may adopt energy standards for new TVs.  Many large TVs are energy hogs, however, and California regulators want to get the biggest offenders off store shelves.  The California Energy Commission is expected to adopt rules this summer requiring retailers by 2011 to sell only TVs that meet guidelines of the federal Energy Star program, which is generally voluntary.  The proposal includes labeling that tells California buyers how much of their utility bill goes to powering their flat-screen.

The Editor says...
Energy Star guidelines were voluntary.  But that was just the first step.  Naturally, California leads the way in the incremental march toward a mandatory environmental utopia.

State considers ban on big screen TVs.  In their continuing quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state regulators have uncovered a new villain in the war on global warming:  your big screen TV.  Couch potatoes, beware.  The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal that would ban California retailers from selling all but the most energy-efficient televisions.  Critics say the news standards could take 25 percent of televisions off the market — most of them 40 inches or larger.

Who Should Decide the Size of Your TV?  As part of its effort to combat global warming, California is considering a proposal to regulate big-screen TVs off the market.

Freedom, not climate, is at risk.  As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism.

The Environmentalists' Real Agenda:  Once in a while the truth accidentally tumbles out on global warming activists' real agenda.  That's exactly what happened at the U.N., when Bolivia's leader called for ending capitalism to save the planet.

This sums up the global warming issue pretty well...
Baby, Baby It's a Cold World.  Global warming has nothing to do with climate or science.  What it is all about is the great, historic class struggle between working people and the ruling classes.  Global warming is a great excuse for a massive expansion of government power.  That, not science, is why the overlords, from the New York Times to the United Nations to Al Gore, so heartily embrace it.  The U.N. thinks global warming is a perfect reason for the U.N. to be transformed into a world government.

Climate Reality Bites.  Thankfully, the American system makes it hard for colossal tax and regulatory burdens to foxtrot into law without scrutiny.  So we hope our politicians will take responsibility for the global-warming policies they say they favor.  Or even begin to understand what they say they favor.  For a bill as grandly ambitious as Warner-Lieberman, very few staff, much less Senators, even know what's in it.  The press corps mainly cheerleads this political fad, without examining how it would work or what it would cost.

Taking Us Back To Mud Huts And Loincloths.  Time's Joe Klein probably thought he was being clever when he wrote his late June essay on the evils of cooling headlined "Kill Your Air Conditioner."  Instead, he wrote yet another chapter in the left's book of environmental silliness. [...] Predictably, Klein believes Americans should sacrifice.  Sounds noble, but he leaves out the part in which sacrifice slowly mutates into government rationing.

Neither a Borrower Nor Lender Be.  Liberalism, as an experiment against common sense, undermines every institution it touches, including financial ones. ... Indeed, given the choice between economic decline and political correctness, liberals always choose the former.  To preserve the kangaroo rat, they will cut jobs.  To advance faddish global warming theory, they will undercut whole industries.

Testimony before a Texas Senate Hearing on Wind Turbines:  Despite what activist groups and the renewable power industry may tell you, alternative power mandates will not create jobs or boost the state's economy.  Indeed, simple common sense tells us that if a product makes economic sense, you don't have to subsidize it to make people produce it, and you don't have to put a gun to somebody's head to make him or her purchase it.

Australian homeowners may be forced to turn houses green before sale.  The Master Builders Association wants laws to make it compulsory for owners of all existing homes to meet minimal environmental standards before they are allowed to sell them.

Spy planes with thermal imaging camera to snoop on homes wasting energy.  Our movements are already tracked by CCTV, speed cameras and even spies in dustbins.  Now snooping on the pubis has reached new heights with local authorities putting spy planes in the air to snoop on homeowners who are wasting too much energy.  Thermal imaging cameras are being used to create colour-coded maps which will enable council officers to identify offenders and pay them a visit to educate them about the harm to the environment and measures they can take.  A scheme is already underway in Broadland District Council in Norfolk, which has spent £30,000 hiring a plane with a thermal imaging camera.

Eco town dwellers may be monitored for green habits.  Residents of the planned eco towns in England could face strict monitoring of their travel habits, home insulation and even wasted food, to ensure they are truly living a "green" lifestyle.  Experts advising the government on its plans to build up to 10 eco towns by 2020, yesterday called for ministers to toughen environmental standards for the developments with monitoring to ensure their carbon footprint is three times smaller than the British average.

British government sending heat detector vans to snoop on 'wasters'.  Town halls are photographing houses in the middle of the night to see whether they are wasting energy.  The thermal images, which show heat escaping though windows, doors and roofs, will be sent to homeowners to encourage them to insulate.  Tens of thousands of properties have been photographed over the past few months and there are plans to extend the scheme to every house in the country.

Aircraft may spot energy wasters in Australia.  The Christchurch City Council says it may "shame" people into more energy-efficient ways by using an aircraft with infra-red imaging to identify poorly-insulated houses.  The proposed aerial thermal imaging map is part of an ambitious plan to slash Christchurch's $1.6 billion annual energy bill and cut energy use by every city resident by 9 percent.  The scheme will be rolled out this winter.

The nine-bin nightmare:  Families forced to follow green zealots' new recycling diktats.  Families are facing a nightmare future of recycling confusion.  In a regime set to spread across the country, residents are being forced to juggle an astonishing nine separate bins.  There has already been a storm of protest with warnings that the scheme is too complex and homes simply don't have the space to deal with the myriad bins, bags and boxes.

Going green means having green to spend.  The dirty secret of the environmental movement is how indifferent it can be to the poor.  Consider the widespread ban on DDT.  As environmental groups celebrated the recovery of bald eagles, parents in poor countries buried 20 million children who died from the ensuing malaria outbreak.  Now we see another crisis looming from the fight against global warming.  Food riots are breaking out in poor countries as motorists in wealthy countries burn grains and oils in gas tanks.  We are green for one simple reason:  We can afford it.

California threat to sue US govt over ship, aircraft emissions.  California said Thursday [8/31/2008] it planned to sue the US government for failing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, aircraft, construction and agricultural equipment.  In the latest legal threat from the state against the Environmental Protection Agency, California's Attorney General Jerry Brown said the body was "wantonly ignoring" its duty to set pollution standards.

Inhofe Report Exposes Environmental Groups as 'Massive Democratic Political Machines'.  U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today released an updated comprehensive investigation into the financial and political activities employed by charitable and environmental organizations claiming to be non-partisan.

Here is the full report:
Political Activity of Environmental Groups and their Supporting Foundations.  Following the League of Conversation Voters' endorsement of Senator John Kerry for President, The Hill, a Capitol Hill publication, published an article featuring the financial connection between the League of Conservation Voters and Heinz family foundations.  The article further featured the connections between the League of Conservation Voters and other well-known environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense and their financial links to Heinz family foundations as well.

North America's first carbon tax rolls out under fire.  Civic leader Scott Nelson says he is as worried as anyone about global warming, but that does not make him happy to be one of the first North Americans to pay a carbon tax to curb climate change.

The Editor says...
Well, then Mr. Nelson should quit bellyaching about one or the other.  Here's a clue:  One is a big problem and the other is not.

First In Nation 'Pollution Fee' Coming To SF.  The Bay Area Air Quality Management District's board of directors on Wednesday [5/21/2008] approved new rules to charge businesses a fee for the pollution they emit.  The group's board of directors voted 15-1 on unprecedented new rules that will impose fees on factories, power plants, oil refineries and other businesses that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

Certain dishwashing detergents to be banned in Whatcom County.  Starting July 1, all dishwasher detergents for sale in Whatcom County can't contain more than 0.5 percent phosphorus.  The new law affects only detergents for automatic dishwashers, such as Electrasol and Cascade.

No driveway carwashes, Washington state says.  Along with wild salmon and steelhead trout, the Pacific Northwest soon may have another endangered species — the driveway carwash.  Washing your car or boat in the driveway or street is a residential ritual as American as backyard barbecues.  But the state of Washington is telling its local governments they must prohibit home car washing unless residents divert the wash water away from storm drains, where they say it causes water pollution.

San Francisco's $100 fine for visible recycling bins: San Francisco residents, already facing some of the highest housing prices and parking fines in the nation, now have a new nightmare to watch out for — $100 tickets if their garbage or recycling cans can be seen from the street. [...] Under a law passed two years ago by the Board of Supervisors, it's no longer good enough just to get your cans off the sidewalk once they've been emptied — you have to get them out of sight as well.  Completely out of sight.

Seattle Imposes Stricter Mandate for Recycling.  The City of Seattle has announced a new program requiring residents to increase recycling of food scraps, plastics, and other materials not currently covered in the city's recycling mandate.  The new plan will create a significant increase in garbage pickup prices. [...] Seattle currently requires residents to recycle certain materials, including paper and some types of plastic.  If either the trash collector or a City of Seattle inspector believes more than 10 percent of the content of a trash bin is recyclable, they can flag the can and refuse to pick up the trash.

Los Angeles to experiment with table-scrap collection.  First it was bottles and cans.  Then it was cardboard and lawn clippings.  And next month, Los Angeles officials will ask a select group of residents to reuse coffee grounds, eggshells and other leftovers — by placing them in yet another recycling bin.

Take Out the Trash Precisely, Now.  It's the Law.  When Gareth Corkhill, a bus driver, was fined $215 — and given a further $225 fine and a criminal record when he failed to pay — for leaving his garbage can lid slightly ajar this spring, Whitehaven's residents banded together in dismay.  They raised the money to pay the fine, and they began to complain.

Overfill your bin and you'll be treated worse than a shoplifter.  Families who overfill rubbish bins are to face bigger fines than those imposed on drunks or shoplifters, the government has told local authorities.  New guidance instructs councils to impose fixed penalties of "not less than £75" and up to £110 in what the opposition has attacked as a "new stealth tax".

S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash.  Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom.  And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped.

Gang Green:  Earlier this month, while visiting a friend in San Francisco, I almost spilled my latte in my lap when I read this on the front page of the Chronicle:  "S.F. Mayor Proposes Fines for Unsorted Trash."  The story began:  "Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom."  Isn't that what homeless people do -- rooting around in other people's garbage?

Earth Day Is a Holiday For Liars.  I have followed the apocalyptic claims and the legislated mandates of the environmental movement since the 1970s and their single unifying factor has been the lies told to achieve various elements the Green agenda. … By blocking access to energy such as the ban on oil extraction in ANWR or off the coasts of the United States, by lobbying against the building of coal-fired and nuclear electricity generation plants, by arguing for inefficient, highly subsidized solar and wind alternatives, Greens are creating a national energy crisis.

Climate alarmists pose real threat to freedom.  The climate alarmists believe in their own omnipotency, in knowing better than millions of rationally behaving men and women what is right or wrong. [...] We have to restart the discussion about the very nature of government and about the relationship between the individual and society.  We need to learn the uncompromising lesson from the inevitable collapse of communism 18 years ago.  It is not about climatology.  It is about freedom.

Climate rhetoric does not justify bad policy.  Like the spices that have been used since ancient times to hide the flavor of spoiled meat, a liberal reference to 'stopping climate change' has become the perfect ingredient to hide bad public policy.  Speech writers sprinkle the oratory of politicians with repeated allusion to 'stabilizing climate' and other virtuous sounding, but impractical green rhetoric whenever they want to avoid serious debate.

The Little Car that Environmentalists Love to Hate.  Car A gets a fuel efficiency of 46 miles per gallon.  Car B gets about 50 miles per gallon.  Car A is called the Toyota Prius and is hailed by environmentalists as a step towards solving global warming.  Car B, a new car called the Tata Nano unveiled by an Indian company, is reviled by environmentalists as disastrous for global warming.  The New York Times devotes an entire editorial condemning the Tata Nano.  Columnist and author Tom Friedman calls for the Tata Nano to be "taxed like crazy."  The reason for this extreme criticism?  The Tata Nano is cheap — very cheap.  It is a revolutionary new car design that will cost only about $2,500 and will bring car ownership within reach of millions of new people in the developing world.

Why I Left Greenpeace:  At first, many of the causes we championed, such as opposition to nuclear testing and protection of whales, stemmed from our scientific knowledge of nuclear physics and marine biology.  But after six years as one of five directors of Greenpeace International, I observed that none of my fellow directors had any formal science education.  They were either political activists or environmental entrepreneurs.  Ultimately, a trend toward abandoning scientific objectivity in favor of political agendas forced me to leave Greenpeace in 1986.

The Greenpeace Scam:  In the early 1990s, an encyclopedic book, Trashing the Economy, by Ron Arnold and Alan Gottlieb, closely examined the many environmental organizations, including Greenpeace.  It was and is quite revealing, noting that Greenpeace was founded in 1971 by a group of draft dodgers living in Vancouver, Canada.  "Confrontation, civil disobedience, inflammatory lies and physical harassment are Greenpeace's methods ..."  Greenpeace gained fame protesting the whaling industry and went on to attack the timber industry.

Time to grow up.  Greenpeace, in addition to wanting economies to be fair and for us to quit using limited resources [...] also wants "an energy revolution" to stop climate change, disarmament (I know, that one's always good for a giggle) and to change farming practices that actually feed people to "socially and ecologically responsible" farming.  Say hello to the $10 loaf of bread.

Lights out?  The recent campaign urging people to turn off their lights was a futile gesture by environmentalists. [...] Measuring the avoided climate impact for the indefinite future, the entire combined efforts of the queen, many companies, and the city halls of Copenhagen and other cities yielded $20 worth of good.

When 'green' is shorthand for environmental idiocy:  Consider the recent "lights out" campaign [...] the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) quickly called it an amazing success.  Newspapers around the world dutifully wrote feel-good stories about how engaged environmentalists celebrated as the lights went out around the world.  Nobody, it seemed, wanted to spoil the party by pointing that the event was immensely futile, that it highlighted a horrible metaphor, or that it caused much higher overall pollution.

Earth Hour all sour.  During Earth Hour — from 8 to 9 p.m. last Saturday — we were all supposed to turn out our lights and quit using energy because [...] because [...] using energy is bad.  If ever there was a stunt that revealed the true nature of the radical environmentalists, this was it.  Earth Hour was a preview of what they want for us on a 24/7 basis.  They want us to:  Sit in the dark.  Not watch TV.  Let our dirty clothing fester in filthy piles.  Allow bacteria to grow on our used dinner dishes.  Live like some savage in a reed hut located somewhere unpleasant.

The Real Meaning of Earth Hour:  Earth Hour is intended to showcase public concern about global warming and to inspire people to take practical actions to reduce their "carbon footprints."  But it is far from indisputable that we face any sort of planetary crisis.  Predictions of catastrophic global warming have long been disputed, and continue to be disputed, by numerous serious scientists skeptical of the global warming "consensus."  Furthermore, what is never mentioned is the fact that reducing greenhouse gases to the degree sought by global warming activists would, itself, cause great harm.

Sit in the Dark — or Power to the People?  Which is the better answer to the world's growing energy requirements:  feel good gestures or creating new energy sources that can feed our needs?  Being an incurable right wing redneck whacko, I tend to favor finding solutions that actually do something.  Feel good gestures such as turning out your lights and sitting in the dark for an hour (as in the recent "Earth Hour") may save us some energy — though media reports said electrical consumption in my city actually went up during Earth Hour — but it doesn't address the real problems of a growing society that requires ever-increasing amounts of electricity in order to power the machines that make our civilization possible.

Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About:  The liberal environmental movement takes for granted that strict government regulation and public ownership is necessary for the preservation of the environment.  Yet who, in the end, is responsible for the great environmental catastrophes of the recent past?  According to Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the real answer is:  environmentalists themselves.

They Mean To Bug Ya:  Greenies promote entomophagy.  A May 29th Time magazine article extolling the virtues of "entomophagy," or bug-eating, has drawn a few snickers from conservative commentators.  When viewed in the context of a broader public relations campaign, however, it becomes apparent that it won't be laughed off so easily. [...] In the Far East, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, they tell us, bugs are often seen as a delicacy.

Dump Cars, Nix Air Travel, Climate Alarmists Say.  "The car is doomed," says Damon Honnery, an associate professor at Australia's Monash University.  In an interview with the Melbourne newspaper The Age, Prof. Honnery [says] car travel should be cut by 80 percent, road construction halted, air travel drastically cut, and public transport boosted if Australia is to meet carbon emission targets set by the Kyoto Protocol.

Why daylight saving time is bad for the environment:  The annual time change has long been sold as a way to save energy, but the opposite might be true.  Always sold as a conservation measure, the practice of daylight savings actually jacked electricity use in homes across one central U.S. state by up to four percent, according to a new American study.

The great daylight saving scam.  Four years ago, Congress in its infinite wisdom extended daylight saving time (DST) by a month, with the goal of saving energy.  Lots of energy.  The bill's champion, Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, said it would save consumers a generous $4.4 billion over 15 years.  Of course, Mr. Markey was just repeating what has long been an established truism among policymakers:  Setting the clocks forward in the spring saves energy because people don't have to turn their lights on as much as at night.  Just one problem.  While daylight saving time might "save" daylight, it doesn't appear to save energy.  In fact, it very well might do the opposite.

California's Potemkin Environmentalism:  [Governor] Schwarzenegger's reputation as an environmental trailblazer is in keeping with California's recent history and self-perception. [...] In truth, however, the Golden State's energy leadership is a mirage.  California's environmental policies have made it heavily dependent on other states for power; generated some of the highest, business-crippling energy costs in the country; and left it vulnerable to periodic electricity shortages.  Its economic growth has occurred not because of, but despite, those policies, which would be disastrous if extended to the rest of the country.

Laurel, Maryland Considers Ban on Dry Cleaning Chemical.  The city of Laurel, Maryland is considering a ban on the most efficient and inexpensive dry cleaning chemical, even as a similar ban in California is chasing dry cleaners there out of business.  Perchloroethylene, known simply as "perc" in the dry cleaning industry, is the primary chemical used in more than 80 percent of the nation's dry cleaning businesses.

Environmental group files lawsuit over fire retardant.  Fire retardant has an impact on the environment, according to the nonprofit Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, and so the organization is challenging the U.S. Forest Service's decision to continue using the firefighting tool.

Enemies of the Poor:  The WWF, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network and other multinational activist corporations battle mines in Romania, Peru, Chile, Ghana and Indonesia; electricity projects in Uganda, India and Nepal; biotechnology that could improve farm incomes and reduce malnutrition in Kenya, India, Brazil and the Philippines; and DDT that could slash malaria rates all over Africa, where it kills 3,000 children every day.

Greenpeace Farming Plan Would Reap Environmental Havoc around the World.  A new report from Greenpeace International, Cool Farming, includes organic farming recommendations that would impose severe hunger on half the world's humans or force the clearing of the world's remaining forests to plant more low-yield crops.

Environmentalism's Dangerous Campaign for "Safety".  Green Communism routinely uses any method of deception or propaganda it can to justify eliminating, or hampering US Industry and growth.  Their goal is classic Marxism, the capture and management, even elimination of all means of production.

The red menace is kind of green.  The décor inside the national headquarters of the Communist Party USA, or CPUSA, is more Macy's than Marx.  Glass walls rise from the floor to form state-of-the-art work spaces, nontoxic linseed oil burnishes the work surfaces, and biodegradable blue carpet is underfoot. [...] The Reds went "green" for their $1 million overhaul, including various environmentally conscious features in the design.

The Seeds of the Global Warming Police State:  Czech President Vaclav Klaus, drawing on his memories of Soviet oppression, recently declared that the global warming hysteria had replaced Communism as "the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy, and prosperity."  The environmentalists continue to do their best to prove him right.

The Gore Global Warming Agenda and our Energy Future:  With the help of the Hollywood Elite and liberal friends in Congress such as Senator Barbara Boxer, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, this radical environmentalist agenda is gaining momentum towards legislation that would bring drastic change to our everyday lives.  If Mr. Gore gets his way, Congress will likely push forward new taxes and restrictions on our energy consumption including a total ban on the incandescent light bulb and a moratorium on any new coal plants in the United States.

Who Will Control Your Thermostat?  In California, we have 236 pages of state-mandated standards for building energy efficiency, known as Title 24. [...] What should be controversial in the proposed revisions to Title 24 is the requirement for what is called a "programmable communicating thermostat" or PCT.  Every new home and every change to existing homes' central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision.  Each PCT will be fitted with a "non-removable " FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose.  During "price events" those changes are limited to ±4°F. and you would be able to manually override the changes.  During "emergency events" the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them.  In other words, the temperature of your home will no longer be yours to control.

The Editor says...
I can think of a couple of ways to defeat that FM receiver without touching it.  And I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before some hacker figures out how to shut off (or turn on) every air conditioner in town.

California Seeks Thermostat Control.  Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages.

The Editor continues...
Scroll down to the end of the article to see a quote from Nicole Tam, a spokeswoman for PG&E, who claims that the thermostat control signals are hacker-proof because they "are encrypted and encoded".  What a relief!  We all know that no encryption scheme has ever been cracked by hackers.

California Proposes Taking Control of Thermostats.  The California Energy Commission has proposed requiring thermostats that allow the government to control the temperature of homes and businesses in case of high energy prices or shortages, a measure that some critics are calling "draconian."

States, environmental groups ask EPA to regulate plane emissions.  A coalition of states and environmental groups is urging the federal government to curb global warming pollution from planes and other aircraft.  California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia plan to file a petition Wednesday asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from domestic and foreign aircraft departing or landing at American airports.

[They apparently assume that airplanes use fuel only during takeoff and landing.]

Cool it!  You can give birth.  Good news!  Kevin Rudd will next month stop global warming, so you won't have to cull your children, too.  He'll sign that Kyoto Protocol, and pfft — problem gone.  Such a relief, if a little late for Toni Vernelli, who works for PETA, the animal liberation group.  Like all smart people, Vernelli believes in apocalyptic man-made global warming.  But she's not an Al Gore hypocrite, flying around the world to tell mugs to cut the gases she's just blown out the back of her jet.

Environmentalism's Outer Limits:  Enviro-fanatics are sterilizing themselves to reduce their "carbon footprint."  We dread where their nihilistic ideology — that mankind is an evil planetary force — will lead next.

Handy ideas to make us green and mouldy.  By now you'll be in a panic, wondering how to save yourself from the apocalypse to come.  After all, when the Profit of Doom, Al Gore, says global warming risks "ending all human civilisation" you'll have figured it will take more than a few low-energy light bulbs to save us.  Too right, so I've collected the best and most original tips of many experts on how to slash the gases they say are killing the planet.

A New Environmentalist Manifesto:  When I see enviro-luddites burning down homes and torching SUVs, when I see so many people transfixed on punitively taxing carbon and subsidizing allegedly better alternatives, when I see anti-intellectual hysteria over a degree Fahrenheit of global warming over a century's time, and when I see all sorts of anti-business taxes and regulations masquerading as necessary for the environment, I see a lot of negative unintended consequences.  I see people standing in the way of progress.  I tend to view today's collection of largest environmental interest groups, replete with anti-human population control worldview and socialist overtones, as — at best — neutral for the environment in the short term and terrible for the environment over the very long term.

The Soylent wing of the Green movement examined.  The enviroloonies seem to have found their way out of the asylum again:  this time to tell us that 70 percent of Britons should die for the sake of Gaia.  That's not quite the way they put it, of course.

Sorry, no more babies.  Eco-doctor's orders.  Doctors have called time on big families.  A recent editorial in the British Medical Journal talked of discouraging patients, on environmental grounds, from having too many children.  The more people, the bigger the drain on global resources.

'Medieval Environmentalists' attack CO2 in their efforts to derail civilization.  Why are carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, particularly the relatively small amount emitted by human activity, the sole focus of most climate change debates?  In scientific circles, CO2 is referred to as a 'trace gas' that, for hundreds of thousands of years, has remained at or below five ten-thousandths of the atmosphere by volume.  Even among the so-called 'greenhouse gases' (GHG), CO2 accounts for less that 4%, with water vapour being by far the most significant GHG.  CO2 is clearly a miniscule component of the massive mechanisms that create climate and cause climate change.

Film Exposes the 'Dark Side of Environmentalism':  The one big advantage environmental activists have is the presumed purity of their motives.  They claim they want only to protect the Earth from a few particularly greedy people, and they say their efforts benefit everybody.  That's their story, anyway, and they're sticking to it.  The reality is a far different matter….

Green Goodies:  It's payback time for another left-leaning lobby.  First came Big Labor.  Then the tort lawyers.  What special interest lobby remains for the Democratic majority to reward for services rendered this past election?  The answer rests in the ecstatic press releases tumbling out of the nation's largest environmental groups, as they oversee the House's pending energy legislation.

Green Self-Fulfilling Prophecies:  There is little more annoying for a policy analyst than when two types of wrong-headedness conspire to undermine his case.  Such is the case for policies driven by the pursuit of a pesticide free — or at least pesticide diminished — future, which will cause an increase in insect-borne disease.  When this happens, as it surely will, climate alarmists will claim it's due to your greenhouse gas emissions, not their policies, and will press for more stringent controls.

'Green fatigue' leads to fear of backlash over climate change.  In Britain, people have made no noticeable changes to their behaviour and are taking increased numbers of car journeys, going on more flights, pumping out more carbon dioxide and using more electricity to heat their homes.  At the same time there is deep antagonism towards green taxes and the introduction of wind farms to the countryside to generate carbon-free electricity.

Forest Reforms in the Crossfire.  A small yet fanatical group of eco-activist groups who argue that forest thinning projects kill habitat and species are challenging efforts to prevent forest fires.

Wildfires and environmental obstructionism:  Environmentalists blame global warming for the problem, but guess who's standing in the way of a solution?  Litigious environmentalists!

Global Warming Is Not the Cause of the California Wildfires.  Attempts by activists to make the ongoing California wildfires a global warming issue are patently ridiculous.  The modest warming of the twentieth century has resulted in moister soil conditions and reduced drought frequency and severity.  Arguing that global warming is causing more drought and wildfires is like arguing that increasing crop yields is causing more starvation.

Our Burning Forests – the Legacy of Radical Environmentalism:  Fire is nature's way of keeping conifer forests healthy, as even the Sierra Club is now belatedly beginning to comprehend.  Without the small regular fires that we have been putting out in our forests for the last 100 years what we now have are forests overrun by brush that not only strangles the conifers but also changes the ecology of the conifer forests.

Kennedy makes connection between democracy, environment.  Appearing before a crowd of Westminster College students along with area residents Tuesday night [9/25/2007] as part of the second annual Symposium on Democracy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was "really happy the connection has been made here between democracy and the environment.  "The primary measurement of how effective a democracy is, is how they distribute the goods of the land," Kennedy said.

The Editor says...
Mr. Kennedy is either a socialist masquerading as a Democrat, or he is astonishingly ignorant.  First of all, we do not live in a democracy, and secondly, the distribution of wealth — evenly or unevenly — is not the proper role of our government.




Environmentalism is a religion

This subtopic is now on a page of its own, located here.



Climate Change As Religion: The Gospel According To Gore.  Global warming (aka "climate change") has become a religious mantra, a call for action in a crusade against larger evils we have perpetrated against nature, a punishment for our sins. ... Global warming has been effectively marketed by doom-speakers because it provides really exciting visual impressions:  icebergs calving, polar bears exhausted from swimming, and such.  Endless "authorities' will back up these images with scary prophesies regarding just how bad things are likely to get based upon speculative theories and unproven computer models offered as articles of faith.

Earth Day instead of Easter?  Some Catholics are concerned with what they see as an attempt by environmentalists to hijack Easter for their own Earth Day purposes.  In a letter dated April 1 to churches across the country, the environmentalist group Earth Day Network encourages priests to remember Earth Day Sunday, even though Easter is that same Sunday.  "This year we again invite you to celebrate Earth Day Sunday and share with your parishioners a story of creation care that will impart to them the importance of protecting a nurturing the planet that was provided to us," the letter reads.

Do as our eco saviours say, not as they do.  Take Al Gore.  He is the world's loudest climate-change warrior.  He believes the Earth is a "ticking time bomb".  Or does he?  Dogged reporters in the US make the point that Gore can't really be concerned about the planet because he has three homes, including one in Nashville with 20 rooms, eight bathrooms, a guesthouse and a pool. … Either the planet is coughing, spluttering, dying and in need of urgent action, or it isn't.

Heather Mills Questions Why We Don't Drink Rats' Milk.  Yesterday, Mills arrived at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park to give a lecture on how eating meat and dairy is contributing to global warming and harming the earth.  From the onset, Mills did her case absolutely no favors by arriving in a mileage-challenged Mercedes 4x4 SUV.  Nice move.  Once inside, she started her speech saying, "'Why don't we drink rats' milk, cats' milk or dogs' milk?  The startling truth is that animals farmed for meat and dairy are now one of the greatest threats to the planet."

Other sources for the same story:  [1] [2] [3] [4]

The Editor says...
For some reason my neighborhood grocery store doesn't carry rats' milk.  Maybe Heather should invest in a rat dairy, if she feels so strongly about it.

The Green Counter-Establishment:  How it Holds Power.  The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, and the National Wildlife Federation are examples of traditional conservation organizations that underwent a radical transformation during the rise of modern environmentalism. ... Whether through land deals, foundation grants, government funding, individual contributions or membership dues, the big environmental groups have found a way to stay big and rich.

The Man Who Saw Tomorrow:  [Warren] Brookes warned of Americans "being led in part by a dangerously shallow media to engage in the reckless regulatory pursuit of zero risk, and a flat-earth assault on science and technology" and a nation "more willing than ever to give up big benefits to control either imaginary or infinitesimal risks."  "Just as the toddler on a tether is safer than the child running free," Brookes continued, "a risk-free society is one on a very tight leash."

Governor's budget plan grows green staff.  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's [...] latest budget proposal calls for no fewer than 211 greenhouse-gas busters to be sprinkled throughout state government, at an annual cost of $55.4 million.  That's 77 more greenies than are on the payroll this year.  The new jobs range from $36,000-a-year accounting technicians to $102,000-a-year attorneys to draft and enforce green regulations.

Too costly to go green.  [Scroll down] Certification standards for these green buildings may also end up putting a strain on the budgets of governments and businesses.  The installation of low-flow faucets, shower heads and toilets could be particularly burdensome for small businesses, restaurants, laundromats and small retailers.  The call for 75 percent to 90 percent of school classrooms to have a significant amount of windows to produce natural light. … The reduction of outdoor lighting, and the level of wattage used in outdoor lights, may be difficult for college campuses focusing on safety and security as a major priority.

Seattle Mayor wants to curb landfill dependency — is recycling table scraps next?  First, Seattleites were told to recycle glass, paper and aluminum, or risk having their garbage left on the curb.  Now the city wants residents to recycle food scraps starting in 2009.  Mayor Greg Nickels and City Councilmember Richard Conlin on Thursday proposed stricter rules for sorting trash as part of a comprehensive plan to raise the city's recycling goals and limit the amount of trash sent to landfills.

City to require table-scrap recycling at homes in 2009.  All single-family homes in Seattle must sign up for table-scrap recycling in 2009, the City Council decided Monday.  While residents will have to pay for the service, the city will not check whether they are actually dumping food in the new separate bin.

The Editor says...
Oh no, they won't check.  Not at first.  But history shows us this kind of incremental change only goes in one direction.  Within a few years, they'll start enforcing it more vigorously.

S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash.  Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom.  And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped.

An Inconvenient Truth or Convenient Fiction?  No serious person is genuinely anti-environmental, and the obvious similarity between "conservative" and "conservation" suggests that in some ways care for the environment — or nature — is wholly compatible with conservative principles.  And there are genuine environmental problems in the world; just because they are exaggerated by environmentalists or over-regulated by bureaucrats doesn't mean they don't exist or should be ignored.  So it is important to take this issue back from the extremists and the mindless bureaucrats and apply sensible remedies to our genuine problems.

2008 Candidates Rely on Private Jets.  A flock of small jets took flight from Washington Thursday [4/26/2007], each carrying a Democratic presidential candidate to South Carolina for the first debate of the political season. … No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or emissions.

Flighty Hill Changes Planes — Constantly.  Jet-setting Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton is a fussy frequent flier who used three different planes in a single day during a recent campaign swing through South Carolina.  The former first lady even grounded one aircraft — a chartered Gulfstream II — in Columbia, S.C., last Friday [4/27/2007], demanding a swankier Gulfstream III replacement for a flight out west.

Unmasking Global Warming:  The Case of Mikhail Gorbachev.  It is as paradoxical as it is revealing that the man who now parades as an angel of ecological salvation is by virtue of his actions at Chernobyl and elsewhere responsible for more environmental destruction than any other person alive.

Environmentalism vs Creativity:  [Environmentalists] support like-minded politicians who've invented nothing but obstacles to innovation.  They march in protests that have created nothing but vandalism.  And they rage against capitalism the only system by which worthy creations can effectively be financed, marketed and widely distributed.  One woman is admired by her fellow environmentalists, not for pouring her time and energy into, say, inventing a new kind of generator or more fuel-efficient engine, but for spending two years perched atop a redwood tree!

If Environmentalism Succeeds, It Will Make Human Life Impossible.  Earth Day approaches, and with it a grave danger faces mankind.  The danger is not from acid rain, global warming, smog, or the logging of rain forests, as environmentalists would have us believe.  The danger to mankind is from environmentalism.

The horse:  Is this the secret weapon to beat global warming?  They may previously have appreciated it more for its culinary value, but the French are discovering a new green form of transport:  the humble horse.  More than 70 French towns have already gone back to the future by introducing horse-drawn carriages to replace petrol- and diesel-powered vehicles for local tasks such as collecting rubbish, street-cleaning and taking children to school.  And at least 30 more are set to join the revolution next year.

The Editor asks...
Is this where the environmentalists want to take us?  Do you want to commute from the suburbs in a horse-drawn wagon?

Going Against the Green:  Green is the universal sign of conspicuous virtue, of concern for planet, of a new paganism that worships the goddess Gaia and treats the Earth as itself a single living organism.  Anyone who questions this newly fashionable faith is regarded as a dangerous heretic to be cast into the outer darkness.

San Francisco votes to ban plastic bags in stores.  San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 this afternoon [3/27/2007] to make the city the first in the nation to prohibit petroleum-based plastic checkout bags in large markets and pharmacies.

Beware the Eco-Industrial Complex.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously warned Americans in 1961 against the growing and unwarranted influence on our government of a "military-industrial complex."  The 2007 version of this concern should focus on the looming eco-industrial complex.

Global Warming as European Imperialism:  The great Global Warming scare is only the latest eructation of European imperialism.  Euro-imperialism used to be known as socialism.  Before that, it was just called British or French imperialism, because those countries were very proud of it.  There was no need to lie.  The only reason today's huge European effort to control the world isn't called "imperialism" any more, is that its supporters hate that word.  The reality of imperial control is fine with them.

Pull plug on motorway lights to save the environment, say experts.  Motorway lights should be turned off at night to protect the environment, experts have said.  Light pollution stops us enjoying the beauty of the night sky and could be disrupting the delicate life cycles of birds, bats and other wildlife, according to the Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution.

The Editor says...
If "light pollution" is such a problem, why not ban headlights on automobiles?  The answer is obvious:  The safety of people is more important than the comfort of animals.

[Fines for "light pollution" and picking wild flowers?  They're serious!  Please note that "light pollution" only occurs in countries where there is such prosperity that electric power is abundantly available at night.  This naturally excludes Communist countries like Cuba and North Korea.]

Motorway lights are switched off at midnight to cut pollution.  Motorway lights are being switched off at midnight across the country in a move critics warn could compromise safety.  Seven stretches are now plunged into darkness until 5am every night in a bid to cut carbon emissions and reduce light pollution.

How Elite Environmentalists Impoverish Blue-Collar Americans:  The great Central Valley of California has never been an easy place.  Dry and almost uninhabitable by nature, the state's engineering marvels brought water down from the north and the high Sierra, turning semi-desert into some of the richest farmland in the world. ... The depression conditions in the great valley reflect more than a mere water shortage.  They are the direct result of conscious actions by environmental activists to usher in a new era of scarcity.




Anti-capitalism motivates environmentalists

UN Climate Advisers Say White Men Are To Blame For The Climate, Her Social Media Posts Shows Hatred For Capitalism And Whites.  A United Nations youth climate adviser has a history of social media posts that call for the destruction of capitalism, claim "terrorism" is used as a Western smear to justify its imperialism and attack White people for purportedly fueling humanity's extinction vis-à-vis the climate crisis.  The United Nations' Secretary-General António Guterres personally selected Pakistani-American Ayisha Siddiqa as one of his advisers to help "accelerat[e] the implementation of his climate action agenda," a 2023 UN announcement stated.  Siddiqa was a Time Woman of the Year in 2023 who has co-founded two youth climate activist organizations.  [Video clip]

Kill the 'Climate Corps' Before It Kills Us.  The word "corps" generally calls to mind a military force fighting whose job is to protect the nation.  But defending the nation is out of fashion at the moment, so the word, like so many others these days, has had to be repurposed.  President Joe Biden has just proposed an $8 billion budget item to create a "Climate Corps" program with the mandate of "tackling climate change" by "end[ing] fossil fuel."  Which is to say, rather than defending a nation, this corps' goal is to impoverish one.  The White House seems to think that curtailing the leasing of energy production on federal lands and inserting into the absurdly named Inflation Reduction Act more than $369 billion in green giveaways isn't enough.

WEF Is Dictating Canada's 'Climate Change' Policies, Documents Show.  Newly revealed documents show that the globalist World Economic Forum (WEF) has been dictating Canada's radical "climate change" policies.  Additionally, the docs show that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's far-left government has been paying the WEF with taxpayer money.  The documents were unsealed in response to an Order Paper Question sent by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis.  The documents reveal Trudeau's "Environment and Climate Change" (ECCC) department paid the WEF to produce a report to draft the government's environmental agenda.  The report included the economic policies for Canada's ever-increasing carbon tax.

NY attorney general sues world's largest beef producer over methane emissions, climate commitments.  New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing JBS USA, the world's largest producer of beef, over the company's emissions and for "greenwashing" by allegedly misleading the public about its environmental impact.  In an announcement, James noted that beef production has the largest greenhouse gas footprint of any major food commodity and that animal agriculture accounts for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.  According to James, JBS USA's various net-zero pledges for 2030 and 2040 are therefore misleading and "not feasible" given the scope of its worldwide beef production operations. [...] The global food system — which includes land-use change, actual agricultural production, packaging and waste management — generates about 18 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of 34% of total worldwide emissions, according to a 2021 study published in the Nature Food journal.

The Editor says...
So what?  Who cares if food production results in carbon dioxide emissions, if it also results in food?

Climate and Capitalism.  [Scroll down]  In Rhodes, Greece, this week, a resident published his video of fires being set at night, all at the same time across a ridge of trees.  This is an almost perfect climate psy-op.  Fires, and then film the misery of tourists sleeping in the airport waiting to leave.  And then there is this:  [Tweet]  I'm starting to think it is a world-wide scam of set fires meant to scare us into more regulation, more giveaways.  In Canada we have arrested dozens of fire-setters, and dozens are still being sought.  Fires and fear promote the idea that "nothing has been done," but in fact, behind the scenes, everywhere, the Iron Triangle of the movement has installed palettes of regulation on every town and county, every rangeland, parkland, wilderness, forest and mountain.  Wherever you go, metaphorically or not, there is a sign that says:  Do Not Enter.  It is killing all productive activity, it is killing the economy of every nation.  "Climate change" is now eating capitalism.  It is a profit center for both government and business.  In 2002 Goldman Sachs built a division that sold "climate solutions" by way of tax and carbon credits.  This zero-sum game is trading in the misery of hundreds of millions.

The Fake Climate Consensus.  We are told climate change is a crisis, and that there is an "overwhelming scientific consensus."  "It's a manufactured consensus," says climate scientist Judith Curry in my new video.  She says scientists have an incentive to exaggerate risk to pursue "fame and fortune." [...] It made Curry realize that there is a "climate change industry" set up to reward alarmism.  "The origins go back to the ... U.N. environmental program," says Curry.  Some U.N. officials were motivated by "anti-capitalism.  They hated the oil companies and seized on the climate change issue to move their policies along."

Do Leftists Believe What They Claim to Believe?  While many undoubtably believe in the dangers of man's contribution to global warming, consider Christine Stewart — former Canadian environment minister — who said, "No matter if the science is all phony, there are still collateral environmental benefits. ... Climate change [provides] the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world."  So if you were to debate Christine Stewart on E.V.s or wind turbines, for example, you would not persuade her, because you would not be arguing against "social justice," which is the deeper issue.  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, admitted that the true motivation behind her Green New Deal, which proposes transitioning the U.S. economy away from all fossil fuels in ten years, is to overhaul the "entire economy."  Note that AOC didn't call the Green New Deal the "Socialist New Deal," even though the Green Party site says it is a "major step towards ending unemployment for good and a tool to fight the corporate takeover of our democracy and exploitation of the poor."

Climate Alarmist War On Nitrous Oxide Threatens The Global Food Supply.  In November 2022, four eminent scientists issued a theoretical physics paper, "Nitrous Oxide and Climate."  It proves that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s "war on nitrous oxide" to achieve Net Zero Emissions (NZE) by 2050 threatens to cause a significant collapse in the world's food supply.  The article's four authors are eminent men in their field, so their analysis and opinion deserve to be taken very seriously: [...] All four are staunch critics of the IPCC war to expand the hysterical climate attack on carbon dioxide (CO2) to include demonizing nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), which are classed as "minor greenhouse gases."  The report concludes with a compelling truth:  "It is not possible to maintain highly productive agriculture without nitrogen fertilizer."  It's a genuinely frightening thought that the neo-Marxists at the heart of today's climate hysteria have chosen to attack N2O because millions will die if governments ban nitrogen fertilizers.  The neo-Marxist ideologues are willing to manipulate existential climate fear in their insane willingness to kill millions if that's what is required to negate capitalism.

A Government at War with Its People.  [Scroll down]  Increasingly, the question is not whether the government is lying, but rather how malicious its intentions are. [...] Are the climate change cultists committed to taking over farms and ending hydrocarbon fuels because they are too dumb to understand weather patterns, solar and geothermal energies, and chemistry?  Because they are committed communists who believe in global government and command-and-control economies?  Because they wish to induce instability and famine that will depopulate the planet?

The Push for 'Net Zero Emissions' is Climate Hoax Fiction, Not Energy Reality.  Last August, Mark Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, published a prescient report entitled "The 'Energy Transition' Delusion: A Reality Reset."  The report demonstrates convincingly that the transition to Net Zero Emissions (NZE), if politically imposed, will mean a dramatically reduced standard of living for the world's advanced industrial societies.  It's an excellent essay, but it misses the mark because Mills misses the real point of the leftist push for a "green energy" revolution: For leftists, NZE is not about the climate.  Instead, NZE is simply a vehicle to achieve a purely political goal.  While eminently reasonable and admirable, the Manhattan Institute's push for "energy and climate" reality to dominate governmental policy debates will fail because global warming and climate change hysteria derive from neo-Marxist anti-capitalist ideology.

There is a Simple Fix to Economic Chaos.  Some of us have been saying this for a very long time:  green will bring down the world.  Green creates a vicious circle, a term you may remember from Economics 101.  It is when the serpent eats itself, no wealth is created and collapse results.  That is what we are doing with ESG, with carbon taxes, with the forced adoption of unreliable vertiginously expensive green energy.  It has skewed every single market.  No one is investing in sound enterprise, and anything once sound is a Jenga tower, unstable, rotting from within.  This.  This is what threatens to bring down the world.  Green is built on subsidies.  And not just government subsidy.  Every mutual fund, every hedge fund, every multinational and every local or national corporation has a green monster within preventing innovative investments, sucking profits and growth.

County's Lawsuit Suing Energy Companies For 'Climate Change' Teed Up For Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court may be getting ready to take up a county's lawsuit alleging oil companies are responsible for environmental damages caused by climate change, the latest development in a campaign by local left-wing officials to influence national climate policy.  The case, brought by Boulder County, Colorado against Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil, seeks monetary relief for the companies' decision to burn fossil fuels and allegedly "conceal" the associated dangers, which the county argues "caused, accelerated, an[d] exacerbated the impacts of climate change."  While the companies have appealed the case to the Supreme Court, it still has to decide on the question of jurisdiction, and whether or not the case should be heard in state or federal court.  Boulder isn't the only local government suing oil companies: local-level climate lawsuits have been occurring for years, and there are similar pending cases in cities across the country, from California to Rhode Island.

The Toxic Intersection of Climate Alarmism and Communism.  Environmentalism has far too much in common with communism.  In fact, the parts are so interchangeable that it can be hard to tell the difference.  We are reminded of this by the "degrowth" movement.  In the words of some of its adherents, degrowth prioritizes "social and ecological well-being instead of corporate profits, over-production and excess consumption.  This requires radical redistribution, reduction in the material size of the global economy, and a shift in common values towards care, solidarity and autonomy."  In other words, economic growth has to be reversed to save the planet.  Poverty, then, is not only locked in, since the economic pie cannot grow larger, it also begins to spread, dragging those who had escaped it back into its grasp.

Saint Greta battles windmills.  Greta Thunberg is tilting at windmills.  Which, if you think about it, is pretty appropriate.  After all, Greta has delusions of grandeur, and those of us in the less exalted classes are expected to follow her docilely as she battles imaginary demons.  You are to be her Sancho Panza to her Don Quixote.  Saint Greta is no longer just fighting global warming and fossil fuels but has declared war on industrialized society itself.  Capitalism, not trapped atmospheric heat, is her real target.  In line with her values, she is now protesting a wind farm in Norway because it endangers the traditional hunting grounds of the native Sami people.

Environmentalism will be the ruin of Germany.  To add insult to injury, in 2022, even Germany's much-vaunted environmental goals have been missed.  If Germany's green zealots thought that sacrificing industry would be good for the planet, they were wrong.  Coal, one of the most polluting energy sources of all, provided a vital lifeline in 2022, with Germany's coal power output increasing by 20 percent on the previous year.  Nevertheless, it seems there are no limits to German madness.  Despite Germany's reliance on coal this year, economy minister Robert Habeck has recently announced that Germany will now give up coal entirely by 2030 — eight years earlier than originally planned.  This move comes just as Germany's elites are pushing for more heat pumps to replace gas boilers for home heating and for electric vehicles to replace petrol cars.  Both of these will require even more electricity to be produced, yet the German government seems determined to produce less.  All of this is a recipe for economic disaster — in Europe's most important economy.  Could a hostile power have designed a policy more devastating to the fundamentals of the German economy than that of the current government?  Probably not.  In the short term, the only way the government's proposals make any sense is if Germany is planning to go back to using Russian gas.  That might explain the German government's reluctance to more effectively support Ukraine.

Cold winter exposes climate frauds: Germany returns to coal.  This is weird.  After "leading the way" for the climate communists, Germany now faces a freezing winter and ballooning energy crises — they're at the precipice of an economic meltdown, so they're bringing back their coal. [...] [Carlos Fernandez] Alvarez acknowledges that a transition away from gas and coal as a source of energy is at this moment, not achievable without forcing people to return to the Dark Ages.  Ramrodding through policy to conform to "climate goals" results in "an unprecedented energy crisis" — it's just not feasible.  Secondly, Alvarez eviscerates the seriousness of the "climate crisis."  It's obvious the powers that be don't mind sacrificing the prosperity and comfort of the average citizen, so if it were actually a crisis, they'd make us use candles.  But it's not a crisis, rather it's communism in disguise, and therefore they can't do too much too soon, it's a boil the frog type strategy.

The 'save the world' racket is a scam: Stop falling for it.  Collectivism is now cloaked by environmentalism.  Bankman-Fried's fraud is dwarfed by "climate change," a financial scam and global power-grab of such monumental proportions that even collectivist megalomaniacs like Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong wouldn't have dreamt of achieving it.  Using dubious "science" and massive propaganda campaigns, governments are imposing draconian policies that will never affect the planet's climate but will make proponents unimaginably wealthy, while stripping most of the world's population of their property and their freedoms, leaving them destitute and starving.

Teen Activist Goes Off the Rails at Book Launch.  Say whatever you will about Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, but at the very least, you couldn't really question her commitment to actually "saving" the planet (whatever that means in 2022).  But that annoying teenager, with her sneering "how dare you," seems to have melted away to reveal her true face, and it's a face that looks astonishingly similar to that of any modern-day dictator like Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un.  To recount, right before Halloween this year, Thunberg had the entire London's Royal Festival Hall singing her praises as she unveiled her new book "The Climate Book."  As UnHerd notes, Thunberg was "gently quizzed" while on stage when it became apparent that it was no longer enough for her to save the planet — she needed to take down the very same capitalism that has allowed her home country to flourish.  Thunberg wasn't exactly subtle with this assertion, either.

Capitalism Must Be Smashed to Save "Climate," Activists Say at UN Summit.  The world is ending because of the profit motive and capitalism, and the "system" must be overturned to prevent planetary destruction, explained Lydinyda Nacpil with the Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development in this brief interview with The New American magazine's Alex Newman at the United Nations COP27 climate summit.  Nacpil organized a protest with dozens of activists inside the UN venue demanding "system change, not climate change."  When asked what should replace capitalism and which nations she believes are closest to her vision, she declined to answer.  [Video clip]

Why Elites Like Greta Thunberg Hate Capitalism.  For the last three years, Greta Thunberg has said that her life's purpose was to save the world from climate change.  But last Sunday, she told an audience in London that climate activists must overthrow "the whole capitalist system," which she says is responsible for "imperialism, oppression, genocide... racist, oppressive extractionism."  Her talk echoed the World Economic Forum's calls for a "Great Reset" away from fossil fuels and toward renewables.  There is no "back to normal," she said.  But her claims are absurd.  The "whole capitalist system" has, over the last 200 years, allowed for the average life expectancy of humans to rise from 30 to 70 years of age.  The "whole capitalist system" produces larger food surpluses than any other system in human history.  And the "whole capitalist system" has resulted in declining greenhouse gas emissions in developed nations over the last 50 years.

Greta Thunberg throws in her lot with the anti-capitalist Left.  Last night, London's Royal Festival Hall hosted a children's crusade.  The purpose?  To "celebrate" the launch of The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg's coffee-table manifesto which collects essays from climate scholars, interspersed with photography and doom data (the cover itself is a colour chart of global temperature, moving from halcyon blue to DEFCON red).  London answered the call.  Greta was in conversation with a beaming Samira Ahmed ("You're the coolest 19-year-old I've ever met!"), who gently quizzed her about life as the world's most famous climate activist.  The crowd adored her.  They lapped up her awkward ingenuousness.  It was the perfect middle-class day out, like a trip to Glyndebourne or Blenheim.  Some had even brought their young children, clearly hoping to inspire them into the same breed of activism.  And, belying her reputation for aggressive sermonising, Greta was perfectly charming.  The fury of "How dare you!" Greta has given way to a likeable figure of exasperated passion.

Greta Thunberg Gets (Even More) Radical: 'There Is No Going Back to Normal'.  Nineteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg is at it again, scolding world leaders, predicting imminent doom for the planet and mankind, and shaming people who use too much energy.  This time, however, she's taking a more radical tone, calling for fundamental change in the way humans lead our lives. [...] She also says the quiet part out loud about the world's COVID response: it wasn't about safety at all, it was about creating a New World Order: [...] This is terrifying stuff.  She's saying the pandemic relief funds had nothing to do with the virus at all, they were thinly-disguised Green New Deal policies.  Note that if you had said that in 2021, you would have been roundly criticized as a conspiracy theorist and censored on every platform possible.  Although she did not snarl as she famously has in the past, the whole thing sounded more like a religious sermon than a scientific discussion.  The talk was heavily populated by evil corporatists, cynical world leaders, and angelic climate activists who know better.  Economic growth is a bad thing, she asserted.

Radicals Celebrate Earth Day: 'Maybe Humans Are the Disease'.  Leftists celebrated Earth Day on Friday by using it as a political wedge to cudgel those whom they oppose into compliance.  Earth Day, first designated as an annual event in 1970, has origins that go back to ancient forms of paganism.  For instance, nature worship or "earth religion" includes forms of paganism, such as "animism" (a worldview that all animals and plants have a spirit), "Wicca" (worship of earth mother goddess by magic), and "druidism" (the natural world is synonymous with divinity).  According to Refinery 29, Earth Day is a "sacred holiday" and "a chance for Pagans to show gratitude to nature."  In that sense, "every day is Earth Day," Pagan author Deborah Blake claimed.  Left-wing political pundits use the sacred holiday to push environmentalism, which is different than conservationism.  The radical left has adopted environmentalism as a wedge to promote "climate change," a political cudgel to orient the American economy away from capitalism.

Ten Steps to Totalitarianism.  Does anybody still think totalitarianism can't happen here?  Ask yourself how many of these steps we've already galloped past. [... #3] Control over Energy:  Whether you believe that anthropogenic climate change is an imminent threat or not, this much is indisputable: energy undergirds all economic activity.  Everything from agricultural production and industrial manufacturing to supply transport, shipping, and consumer shopping depends upon a constant supply of energy.  If everything bought and sold across the planet were viewed as a pyramid with the most luxurious items sitting at the top, hydrocarbon energy in all its forms provides the pyramid's foundation.  As governments seize greater control over hydrocarbon energy, they seize total control over the global economy.

I Survived Communism.  Now, it's Back, Veiled as 'Environmentalism'.  "It was scientifically proven that communism is the only social-economic system providing the masses with justice and equality — 100 percent of scientists agree on this.  The topic is not up for debate!"  So proclaimed my professor during one of his lectures on the subject of "scientific communism" while the former country of Czechoslovakia was still under communist control.  I was reminded of his blustery pronouncement the first time I encountered the spurious claim that "a consensus of 97 percent of scientists agree global warming is man-made."  Most people don't question scientific statements because they think they are facts.  They do not understand that scientific statements must always be challenged, because science is not about "consensus;" ideology is.

SEC takes first step toward requiring companies to disclose emissions and climate risks.  The Securities and Exchange Commission will seek public input on establishing a regime for requiring corporations to disclose the risks they face from climate change and policies to curb emissions.  The request for comment, which acting SEC Chairwoman Allison Herren Lee announced Monday [3/15/2021], is likely a first step toward the agency requiring such disclosures from companies.  Investors, including large asset managers such as BlackRock, and environmental groups have strongly called for mandatory disclosures, especially as they say it becomes increasingly clear that climate change poses a serious risk to the financial system.

Global lockdown every two years needed to meet Paris CO2 goals — study.  Carbon dioxide emissions must fall by the equivalent of a global lockdown roughly every two years for the next decade for the world to keep within safe limits of global heating, research has shown.  Lockdowns around the world led to an unprecedented fall in emissions of about 7% in 2020, or about 2.6 [billion] tonnes of CO2, but reductions of between 1 [billion] and 2 [billion] tonnes are needed every year of the next decade to have a good chance of holding temperature rises to within 1.5C or 2C of pre-industrial levels, as required by the Paris agreement.  Research published on Wednesday [3/3/2021] shows that countries were beginning to slow their rates of greenhouse gas emissions before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, but not to the levels needed to avert climate breakdown.

The Editor says...
At least this article answers one question:  The Paris agreement wants global temperatures to return to "pre-industrial levels."  Why?  Even if industrial activity is responsible for the very slight warming of the last 150 years, and it isn't, the world isn't going to forfeit all industrial activity for the sake of achieving the Goldilocks Temperature.  Moreover, the threat of a "climate breakdown" is ridiculous, because global average temperatures have been warmer in years past than they are now, and the climate didn't break down.  Nor will it ever do so.

Russian Spies are Behind Environmental Groups:  Democrats Shrug.  When are Russian foreign influence operations a major crisis?  When their existence can be exploited to achieve Democrat ends.  But when the operations themselves are achieving Democrat political ends, it's as quiet as a whisper.  It fell to the Financial Times and the former Danish PM who heads NATO to address the issue.  "I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations — environmental organisations working against shale gas — to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas," the NATO Secretary General warned.  Finally an explanation for Greta Thunberg that makes sense.  But this isn't really new.  The Democrats and their media just chose to ignore it.

How Socialist Dogma Replaces Real Science with "Settled Science".  [Scroll down]  Climatology and ecology have turned from objective sciences into undersigners of party science.  Instead of scientific debate, doomsday advocates hysterically accuse political opponents of denying scientific facts and general ignorance.  These dogmatic beliefs were refuted not only from a theoretical point of view but also after the gloomy predictions did not come true:  the ocean did not flood the cities, and polar bears did not die out.  But the emerging facts of manipulation in temperature measurements, data processing, and data interpretation have only led to a change in the Left's terminology.  Instead of global warming, now we are dealing with climate change due to human activity.  Scholars who question harmful carbon dioxide's effect on the climate get ridiculed and silenced.  Luckily, the Left still falls short of prosecuting dissident scientists.  Nevertheless, leftists clearly understand that peddling climate change and recruiting more believers will bring them long-lasting political success.  The Green New Deal, which is presented as a means to save humanity from the consequences of climate change and is based on the false premises of socialist climatology, is as stupid as the fight against sparrows in China during the Cultural Revolution.

Green Groups Are China's 'Useful Idiots'.  Western environmentalists are being controlled and used by the communist regime in China, states a new report from the Global Warming Policy Foundation.  According to author Patricia Adams, a long-time observer of the country, Beijing has coopted western environmental groups through a combination of sticks and carrots.  "Like all western NGOs, green groups are only allowed to operate in China so long as they bite their tongues and toe the party line.  But Beijing is also able to influence their behavior through funding bodies like Energy Foundation China, a US-based body that distributes money from American billionaire foundations."  This two-pronged approach means that western greens have effectively become mouthpieces for President Xi.

Climate Reparations.  In case there was any doubt that 'Climate Change" was not communism, here is an article in Foreign Policy that will remove it. [...]

Forgetting History and Misrepresenting History is America's Real Pandemic.  [Scroll down]  As a result, none of what's happening now should surprise us, except for one thing:  We finally have a President that sees the problem as it is, and not as the media and ruling classes attempt to present it.  Having had to deal with the EPA, environmentalists and other misfits for many years representing my industry, I knew the bureaucracy was corrupt, and that corruption was created by elected representatives from both parties, especially starting with -- again -- Nixon, who created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and a host of other "green" laws.  All of which have been out of control for years.  All of which are anti-capitalist.  All of which are anti-American.  All of which impose fundamentally unconstitutional regulations.  All of which the nation is struggling with today.

Climate Change:  Most Brazen Scientific Hoax In Human History.  [Scroll down]  Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer, one of the UN's top climate officials, effectively admitted that the organization's public position on climate change is a hoax.  The same admission was made in July 2019 by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, who told governor Jay Inslee (D-WA) that the Green New Deal is not about saving the planet:  It wasn't originally a climate thing at all ... we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.  In other words, the intent of the Green New Deal is to use climate alarmism as a false flag excuse for dismantling America's capitalist economy. [...] Powerful globalists in this country feel it's not fair that billions of people in the world sleep on the ground in mud huts, while Americans sleep on soft mattresses in air-conditioned comfort.  The progressive elites who feel that way also believe that America's wealth must therefore be "shared" to an unprecedented extent with poor nations of the world.  Global wealth redistribution is the foremost tenet of communism, and those who advocate it are by definition communists, whether they are open about it or not.

The Climate Campaign Is Less And Less About The Climate.  Here in the United States, the environmental movement has been completely taken over by the campaign to ban use of fossil fuels, with the stated goal of slowing or preventing "climate change."  But at this point, is the "climate" campaign really about the climate in any meaningful way?  The alternative hypothesis is that the principal goal of the anti-fossil-fuel movement in the United States is destruction of the American freedom-based economic system, commonly going by the name of "capitalism."  So let's consider whether the anti-fossil-fuel campaign in the U.S. could really be about its avowed goal of saving the planet from climate change caused by greenhouse gases.  If that were the case, then the campaigners would be principally focused on the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, mostly CO2, not only in the U.S. but in the world.

Al Gore, UN Secretary-General, others now demanding 'Great Reset' of global capitalism.  The economic, social and political chaos caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and Black Lives Matter protests have for months captured the attention of virtually every American — and for good reason.  These are incredibly important issues worthy of significant and thoughtful debate.  But while most Americans have been preoccupied with protests and pandemics, a potentially bigger story has managed to slip beneath the radar:  a growing movement among the world's most powerful leaders to call for a "reset" of the entire global economy.

Radical Environmentalists' Giddiness During Pandemic Exposes Their True Aims.  While the country and really the whole world is enmeshed in stopping the COVID-19 pandemic, [Barack H.] Obama and many others on the left are desperately trying to get Americans to embrace their agenda. [...] Some environmental activists are clearly excited at the possibilities of "degrowth," as one environmental economist called the widespread economic contractions that have become possible in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.  Ed Conway, the economics editor of Sky News, had a particularly disturbing take.  "Don't take this the wrong way but if you were a young, hardline environmentalist looking for the ultimate weapon against climate change, you could hardly design anything better than [the] coronavirus," Conway wrote.  "Unlike most other such diseases, it kills mostly the old who, let's face it, are more likely to be climate sceptics.  It spares the young.  Most of all, it stymies the forces that have been generating greenhouse gases for decades."

Global Warming Alarmists:  Not Only Wrong But Vicious.  Christiana Figueres, at one time the United Nations' climate director, says the coronavirus might be good for the climate "because there is less trade, there's less travel, there's less commerce." She didn't say it, but given her past statements, it's not hard to imagine she'd be OK with any global or Western crisis that hurt the economy. [...] Speaking on Britain's Channel 4 Television last week, Figueres showed that her crusade against capitalism, which is simply basic human enterprise liberated from government controls, remains unchanged.

Mask off:  Greta Thunberg comes out full Marxist.  Surely, you didn't think climate change was the only thing Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg had in mind, did you?  Nope, she's now got bigger ideas: [...] It's natural to want to dismiss Thunberg as a spoiled brat, but the fanatical drumbeat emanating from her that "nothing has been done" and "we must act now" is the clarion call of a vintage Marxist looking to take over society.  Someone like this isn't going to be satisfied, no matter what is done.

Clearing the Air on Climate Change.  Another thing to ponder based on these facts is why capitalism is so often made out as the villain of the "climate crisis."  Capitalism has certainly been responsible for much greater industrial activity and production, which has resulted in an explosion of wealth and advancement of living conditions all over the world over the past 300 years.  But it has also been responsible for the development of technologies to produce more efficiently and to harness cleaner sources of energy, as well as creating the wealth to allow for their application.  Free economies excel at innovation; command economies do not.  The biggest environmental abusers over the past century have not been capitalist countries but socialist ones.  Witness the environmental messes exposed in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism.  And, again, the biggest producer of greenhouse gases today, by far, is communist China.  Capitalism is the only system that provides the benefits of industrialization along with the ability to evolve systems of production in a more environmentally friendly direction.  The only other real alternative is to go back to a pre-industrial world, and I don't think even woke millennials are willing to do that.

Leaving the Democrats.  In 1978, I got a job in the wood products industry at a particleboard factory and began work a schedule that just became normal to me.  [S]even days on, two days off, working nights, weekends, and most holidays.  I wore "save the whales" t-shirts at work.  The industry came under attack because of environmental concerns for the spotted owl.  The lumber and wood products industry in the West was decimated over the next 15-20 years.  We tried to muster support from our government, but our efforts fell on deaf ears.  Eventually after 22 years, the facility I worked at closed.  The ability to do what we did, which was to recycle sawdust and discarded wood into a usable product, became too expensive as we had to go further and further away for our raw materials.  The logging industry was gone because of environmentalism and government policies to put animal concerns ahead of humans.

Tackling the climate crisis means the end of capitalism as we know it.  When John McDonnell announced plans to de-list the companies wilfully destroying the planet through unchecked carbon emissions, the response from the City was predictably hyperbolic.  "Financial totalitarianism," said one banker.  "Kamikaze communism," said the right-wing propaganda website Guido Fawkes.  Labour's thinking on industrial, fiscal and central bank policy has taken a sharp green turn under the impact of the Extinction Rebellion protests, and last October's IPCC report, which dramatically shortened the deadline for halving global carbon emissions.  But it is not yet radical enough.  Climate change is a problem where — given the scale and the deadlines — nothing short of dramatic structural change in the way capitalism works can deliver the 2030 target of a 45 percent cut in carbon emissions.  To deliver the net-zero carbon emissions demanded by 2050 will require an economy so different from ours that we are unlikely to recognise it as capitalism.

The Editor says...
There is no climate crisis.  "Tackling the climate crisis" will have no effect on the climate.  It's all about the destruction of capitalism.

Economists Have Been "Useful Idiots" for the Green Socialists.  In the old Soviet Union, the Communists allegedly used[i] the term "useful idiot" to describe Westerners whose naïve political views furthered the Soviet agenda, even though these Westerners didn't realize that they were being exploited in such fashion.  It is in this context that I confidently declare that American economists have been useful idiots for the green socialists pushing extreme climate change policies.  The radical environmentalists were quite happy to embrace the economic concepts of "Pigovian negative externalities" and a carbon tax in the past, but now that it is impossible for economic science to endorse their desired agenda, the activists have discarded the entire field as hopelessly out of touch.  Economists who still support a carbon tax and other climate "mitigation policies" should be aware of the bigger picture.

False flag environmentalism is dangerous for America and the world.  Claiming the US, Europe or other westernized countries are environmental hellholes all in the name of smearing capitalism or trying to sway continents such as Africa to use unreliable, intermittent renewable energy is the worse form of environmental practice.  These lies halt "mining, logging, fossil fuels extraction and environmentalists condemn communities to poverty."  But environmentalists rail against America, Trump, Republicans, oil companies, capitalism — when the pathetic irony is — "it's not really about pollution or reducing CO2 emissions or solving the energy needs of the most needy and making the world cleaner and healthier."  American companies many times are the only way developing countries have access to better lives or have the resources to clean up environmental deprivations.

Environmental Hypocrites of the Left.  George Monbiot recently expressed a carefully calibrated environmental message that allows people on the environmental left to feel self-righteous without making any real sacrifice.  In a video that was shared widely, including by celebrities such as James Corden, the British writer argues that the only way to help the environment is to change the "big, structural, political economic stuff."  Monbiot concludes that we need to "go straight to the heart of capitalism and overthrow it."

The Slow Walk to Silent Surrender.  More and more businesses and industries are buying into the climate orthodoxy that human activities are the primary cause of climate change.  And, democratic candidates for President are making it a wedge issue that will put further pressure on business and industry to get on board.  While a large number of scientists support this hypothesis, for a variety of reasons, it still is only a hypothesis that relies on complex computer models that have been built using a large number of assumptions that attempt to fill gaps in knowledge.  While short term business objectives may justify going along to get along, there is an unexplored alternative that would not compromise the business community and damage our economic system.

Environmental Activists Pushed Chinese-Friendly Policies with Obama Administration.  The World Resources Institute, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit devoted to curtailing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable development, was one of several environmental advocacy groups that received letters from the House Natural Resources Committee in 2018 inquiring about their relationship with China's government and the impact this relationship has had on their political activism.  The letters, signed by then-Chairman Rob Bishop (R., Utah) and Rep. Bruce Westerman (R., Ark.), who chaired the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, also asked the environmental groups if they followed foreign agent registration requirements.

Green New Deal Is A Revamped Communist Manifesto.  A few years ago at the height of the global warming scare I wrote a book which set out to answer one of the key questions of our time: if climate change isn't really a problem why do so many people act as though it is?  The answer, I discovered, is that environmentalism is just a fashionable mask for the usual leftist obsessions with state control and wealth redistribution.  Not everyone who believes in man-made climate change is a full on Commie.  Some are merely useful idiots.  But whatever reason people may have for supporting the scam — greed, stupidity, virtue-signalling, idiot leftist teachers — the net result is the same:  bigger government, higher taxes, more regulation, lower standards of living.  Exactly like you'd get under communism, in fact.

Climate Change:  The Poetry of Dreams and the Prose of Reality.  As the argument goes, if the United States would replace internal combustion engines with batteries and shut down oil refineries and coal-fired power plants, we would save the planet.  There is a reason they keep emphasizing the United States.  Other countries, especially the major polluters such as Russia, China, and Eastern Europe, have no intention of following this destructive path.  Every single week of the year, China brings into service a new, large coal-fired plant that has practically no environmental controls and subsequently contributes to 30 percent of the air pollution in Los Angeles.  By taking this position, the supporters of global warming have demonstrated that they selectively collect, analyze, and utilize scientific data to support their ideological position.  Otherwise, they might have found that the theory of global warming is full of holes.

Twilight of the Green Follies.  [Scroll down]  Its most consequential current incarnation — 'global warming' — is a barely disguised assault on capitalism.  It is for many, the last and best chance of the Left to do away with the hated free enterprise system.  Why this is so is not difficult to understand.  Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the American socialist, Robert Heilbronner, admitted that the capitalist system had proven economically superior to the socialist model, but urged his co-religionists — for this is what they really are — not to despair.  It was still possible to achieve socialist goals, he argued, by using the ecological movement.  And so they have.  With its bogus claims of ever greater triumphs of renewable energy, government mandates and exorbitant subsidies, the global warming scam closely resembles Stalinist Lysenkoism and the erstwhile Soviet propaganda of the glorious achievements of socialism.

The Mask Slips.  Meteorologist Eric Holthaus wrote on Twitter this morning [10/9/2018] that "The world's top scientists just gave rigorous backing to systematically dismantle capitalism as a key requirement to maintaining civilization and a habitable planet."  He said that as en endorsement of the latest UN climate report, which Grist claims "shows civilization is at stake" if we don't... bring Western Civilization to an end.  Funny how the Left's goals always seem to come to that, isn't it?

Turning Luddite eco-imperialism into a virtue.  Banks and other carbon colonialists glorify limited wind and solar energy for poor villages, while denying financial support for fossil fuel electricity generation.  Anti-chemical fanatics promote bed nets and narrowly defined "integrated pest management," but bitterly oppose chemical pesticides and the spatial repellant DDT to kill mosquitoes, keep them out of homes and prevent deadly malaria.  Radical organic food groups battle any use of genetically engineered crops that multiply crop yields, survive droughts and slash pesticide spraying by 75% or more.  They even vilify Golden Rice, which enables malnourished children to avoid Vitamin A Deficiency, blindness and death.  Now their struggles are getting worse, as a coalition of well-financed malcontents, agitators and pressure groups once again prove the adage that power politics makes strange bedfellows.  Coalition members share a deep distaste for fossil fuels, petrochemicals (including chemical pesticides and fertilizers), modern agriculture, biotechnology, corporations and capitalism.

Seattle bans plastic straws, utensils, becoming first major US city to do so.  Seattle has officially become the first major U.S. city to ban restaurants from giving plastic straws and utensils to customers in an effort to help the environment.  Since July 1, restaurants in the Emerald City are barred from providing customers plastic straws, cocktail picks or utensils unless someone specifically requests one.  In that case, the customer should be given a compostable option, according to Seattle Public Utilities.  With 5,000 food service providers in the area, Seattle is the first major city in the U.S. to enact such a ban, KIRO-TV reported.

The only thing you need to know about Earth Day.  Every country and populace that has got rich has done so through some variant of capitalist free-marketry.  No socialist system has managed it, no feudal, no planned, no fascist, certainly no communist.  Every place and time which has engaged in what we today call neoliberal globalization has become rich.

Subverting US Energy Policies:  A Summary.  Although there has been a lot of press coverage about Russian interference in our political process, they are actually attacking us in a much more effective way, with very little attention being paid to it. [...] There is significant evidence that our country's enemies (esp.  Russia and China) are purposefully subverting our energy sector in a variety of ways.  Of course they are being clandestine about this, in hopes that few citizens will notice.  One of their most effective tactics is for them to support US organizations whose energy agenda is synonymous with theirs.  For example, carefully consider these key energy questions.  Who is it that wants:
  •   US nuclear energy facilities to close down?
  •   US fossil fuel reserves to stay in the ground (onshore and offshore)?
  •   the costs of fossil fuels to go up (e.g. with a carbon tax)?
  •   a high percentage of the US electric grid to be based on unreliable sources?
  •   the US to waste trillions of dollars on unreliable electricity?
  •   our national security weakened by wind energy interference with our military?
If you answered:  "the Sierra Club and their allies," you'd be right.  However the correct answer is also our communist opponents:  Russia and China.

Mass. AG Wants 'Climate Change' Warning Labels At Gas Stations.  Do you know what would be great?  If fossil fuels companies threatened to pull out of areas run by climate change (scam) fanatics.  Perhaps they could develop a plan where they'd shut the gas off for a week (while making sure that gas station owners didn't lose money), and see how many climate change fanatics freak out.  Or, hey, they could refuse to sell their product to those governments.  Or, hey, how about this:  they could have a list of people they do not sell to, much like they use to for those who pass bad checks.

Is Capitalism Killing The Planet?  Every once in a while, environmentalists will let slip that the goal of fighting climate change can't be won unless capitalism is first defeated.  The fact that there's no evidence to support the claim doesn't seem to matter.

Warmist Monbiot:  We Need To Stop Living Modern Lives To Solve 'Climate Change'.  Crazy George Monbiot attempts to couch this in "environmental" terms as a placeholder for his real Belief in anthropogenic climate change, and, he does have a few points regarding over-consumption, let's be honest, but, at the end, it's all about changing the whole system[.]

The Watermelons Are Coming.  President Obama's short-lived Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones, who self-identifies as a "communist," explained why he was not on the streets burning down the system but instead working within it.  "I'm willing to forgo the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose for the deep satisfaction of radical ends," said he.  He had discovered in environmentalism a means to satisfy his need for both the radical pose and Marxist ends because environmentalism serves policies he already believes in.  The ecosocialist current within the Green movement has become a red tide engulfing the planet.  That is presumably why there is often a profusion of hammer and sickle communist party flags proudly flown by Green activists outside climate conferences, while inside leaders like the late Hugo Chavez, the former president of Venezuela, insist that socialism is the path to saving the planet.

The positive hockey stick
All This for .01 Degrees Celsius?  As the president reveals his plan to reduce greenhouse gases to save us from an apocalyptic atmosphere, I wish to remind people of three things:  [#1] The true hockey stick of the fossil fuel era:  Global progress in total population, personal wealth and life expectancy.  This is truly amazing.  To show how fossil fuels played a roll in expanding the global pie, there are many more people alive today living longer and enjoying a higher GDP.  One has to wonder if someone against fossil fuels is simply anti-progress.


UN climate chief candidly admits goal is not environment but to end capitalism.  Anybody reading this website for any significant period of time could have told you this long ago, but it's refreshing that they're finally admitting it out in the open.

The Green War Against the Working Class.  There was a time in America — and it wasn't even so long ago — that liberals actually cared about working class people.  They may have been misguided in many of their policy solutions (i.e., raising the minimum wage) but at least their heart was in the right place.  Then a strange thing happened about a decade ago.  The radical leftwing environmentalists took control.  These are people who care more about the supposed rise of the oceans than the financial survival of the middle class.  The industrial unions made a catastrophic decision to get in bed with these radicals and now they — and all of us — are paying a heavy price.

What's the Real Agenda Behind Climate-change Alarmism?  The world leaders and activists who attended the UN Climate Summit in Paris last December are all about saving the world, saving the environment, right?  That's the standard narrative, isn't it?  Well, critics, ourselves included, have insisted that the UN climate agenda is really about power and wealth.  More precisely, it is about getting the power to redistribute global wealth — through carbon taxes, carbon pricing, carbon trading, and carbon regulation, etc.  But don't take our word for it; the top climateers have said so themselves.  Take, for instance, Dr.  Ottmar Edenhoefer — not exactly a household name in America, however, Dr.  Edenhofer is a big name in climate policy circles.  He says, "We redistribute de facto the world's wealth by climate policy."

Another Climate Alarmist Admits Real Motive Behind Warming Scare.  We have been told now for almost three decades that man has to change his ways or his fossil-fuel emissions will scorch Earth with catastrophic warming.  Scientists, politicians and activists have maintained the narrative that their concern is only about caring for our planet and its inhabitants.  But this is simply not true.  The narrative is a ruse.  They are after something entirely different.  If they were honest, the climate alarmists would admit that they are not working feverishly to hold down global temperatures — they would acknowledge that they are instead consumed with the goal of holding down capitalism and establishing a global welfare state.

It's Not About Warming: Here's Why The U.N. Holds Climate Summits.  The U.N.'s many climate meetings and its interest in climate through the years have nothing to do with warming, climate, weather or the environment.  The goal has always been to wreck capitalism, punish prosperous economies that became rich through free markets, reward poorer nations that are impoverished by policies that starve markets, and reshape the world in the image of left-wing thought.

How the Post-Soviet Left Latched Onto the Climate For Crusade on Capitalism.  The opening of the Paris conference on climate change will be the occasion for the customary lamentations about the imminent demise of life on Earth if we do not pull up our socks as a species and reduce carbon emission levels, and thus avoid the toasting of the world.  The adduced scientific evidence does not justify any such state of alarm.  Every sane and informed person in the world is concerned about pollution and demands vigilance about any clear trends of climate change and any convincing evidence that human behavior influences the climate.  Because the Copenhagen climate Conference of 2009 had promised agreement on imposition of dramatic measures to reduce fossil fuel use and resulting carbon emissions, thus avoiding apprehended rises in world temperature, and broke up in acrimonious farce and recrimination, the Paris conference has been more carefully and less ambitiously prepared.

Bill Gates says that capitalism cannot save us from climate change.  The world's richest man, Bill Gates, has said that the private sector is too selfish and inefficient to produce effective energy alternatives to fossil fuels.

Bill Gates: Only Socialism Can Save Us From Climate Change.  "Representative democracy" has failed; the private sector is "inept"; and only bigger government — led by China and the US — has the power to save the world from climate change.  So says Bill Gates in a dogmatic but somewhat confused interview with The Atlantic in which he simultaneously pours scorn on green tech solutions but insists that more of them are needed — on a scale bigger than the Manhattan Project — if we are to deal successfully with a problem whose nature he admits may well have been exaggerated by environmentalists.

Bill Gates Says Capitalism Can't Save Us from Climate Change.  [Scroll down]  Logical leaps — that greenhouse gases are the primary force behind "global warming," and that man, beast or government can make inroads against such environmental changes — aside, Gates actually goes on to make the case against his own theory, stating that it[']s the regulatory structure that surrounds energy methods development, not necessarily the free market's unwillingness, that keeps alternative fuel sources in the experimental stages.

Climate Change — A Cover for Repealing Capitalism.  The "crisis" it represents gets bigger and scarier with each passing week, and the people who want to save us from it cry out over and over again with more and more claims of how serious this tragic situation is.  The cause has been most recently trumpeted by Naomi Klein in her book and documentary of the same name, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. [...] While Klein wants everyone to think that climate change is her goal, it is clear from her book and documentary that bringing down capitalism and all the evil is stands for is her goal.

Fossil fuel companies risk plague of 'asbestos' lawsuits as tide turns on climate change.  Investors in the City are increasingly concerned that fossil fuel groups and their insurers are on the wrong side of a powerful historical shift and could be swamped with exhorbitant class-action lawsuits along the lines of tobacco and asbestos litigation in the US.

Who Is Greener?  We are seeing an interesting phenomenon in Europe and in the U.S. "Green" candidates and officeholders are vying to outdo one another in boasting of their environmental credentials.  In debates here and abroad, it's not uncommon to hear those office seekers asking voters to give them ever more power because, they claim, the "planet" is in dire need of their help.  Some of our European friends, especially those from the formerly Captive Nations held down for half a century by the power of the USSR, jokingly call the new Greens "watermelons."  Why so?  They may be green on the outside, our newly freed friends say, but they are red (Communist) on the inside.

The Devastating Corporate Response to Carbon Madness.  [Scroll down]  European politicians are too committed to green subsidies and carbon pricing to openly reverse their carbon pricing and green subsidy policies.  But they also can't afford to let energy intensive businesses which are important to their national economies collapse.  European politicians are now being forced to pay subsidies, not only for renewables, but also for unfashionable, energy intensive businesses, to keep them from closing.

Fun with the Green Climate Fund.  The globalists have a problem:  They want money, lots of it.  And they want the prosperous nations to give it to them so they can redistribute it to poor nations.  That would make the world "fair."  But how can the prosperous be separated from their wealth? [...] Armed with a philosophy that favors the environment, or environmentalism, the globalists have done a pretty good job of persuading people that some countries have prospered by driving their gasoline-powered machines all over creation, releasing greenhouse gases that put rich and poor alike in danger from global warming.  The prosperous must be stripped of their earned income.

Sustainability is the Left's New Code Word for Social Justice.  Sustainability is the latest buzzword when it comes to advocating for responsible environmental stewardship.  And why not?  Its proper implementation can have positive results.  But sustainability has become a new religion for the Left and its church is the college campus, where converts — the future leaders of America — have twisted the concept into a catch-all for social justice activism bent on transforming socioeconomic and political foundations.  "Sustainability, it turns out, is the new battle cry in an old war," states Katherine Kersten in a commentary for Minneapolis's Star Tribune.  She means that although what is familiar in the cause is age-old environmentalism, it has been rebranded and redefined to include a broader spectrum of social justice issues like gender neutrality, transgenderism, and addressing white privilege and police brutality.

Anti-capitalist eco-crusader Naomi Klein hosted at Vatican.  The Vatican added yet another strange bedfellow to its expanding ecological alliance Wednesday, hosting anti-capitalist eco-crusader Naomi Klein at a conference on saving the planet.

Pope Francis and Naomi Klein Both Hate Free Markets, Technological Progress, and Economic Growth.  Last week, Pope Francis issued his new encyclical Laudato Si' in which he addresses the problem of man-made climate change.  Unfortunately, the encyclical makes it clear that the Pope completely fails to understand how the spread free markets yielded the technological and economic progress that has lifted billions out of humanity's natural state of abject poverty.  Global life expectancy has more than doubled over the past century; the amount of food per capita has never been higher; literacy has never been more widespread; and the level of violence never lower.  Nearly all of these improving trends can be traced to the spread of sweet commerce.  In Laudato Si' the Pope strongly urges that markets and technology be reined in.  Instead of creating more wealth, the Pope would prefer to redistribute it.  Now, in a not-so-strange-bedfellow alliance, Pope Francis has invited prominent hater of free markets Naomi Klein to advise him and the Vatican on economic and climate policy.

Pope Partners with Anti-Capitalist Activist to Promote Climate Change Encyclical.  Pope Francis' call to action on climate change with his encyclical, Laudato Si', has resulted in some strange and "radical" alliances.  The Guardian (UK) reported on June 27 that the Vatican added pro Occupy Wall Street activist Naomi Klein to a growing list of activists for its upcoming environmental conference.  Klein is an "ferocious critic of capitalism" and a "secular radical," according to the left-wing Guardian newspaper.

Scottish Warmist: Nationalize All Energy.  Of course, this is just one guy writing a letter to the Herald Scotland.  But, if one Warmist is writing it, how many others are bobbing their head in agreement?

U.N. Official Reveals Real Reason Behind Warming Scare.  The alarmists keep telling us their concern about global warming is all about man's stewardship of the environment.  But we know that's not true.  A United Nations official has now confirmed this.  At a news conference last week in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism.

Pope Francis, Put a Lid On It. Please.  Pope Francis has already caused consternation among knowledgeable Catholics with his criticisms of economic freedom.  Some have tried to defend him or reinterpret his words, but it is hard to sugarcoat the fact that he is instinctively hostile to free enterprise.  Perhaps this is because, as a native of Argentina, he has never seen free enterprise at work and doesn't understand what it can do for the average citizen.  Now Francis has taken on the global warming cause.  Again, it is hard to interpret his words as representing anything but ignorance of the relevant science.

Climate Rhetoric vs. Reality.  Sure, some 300,000 people showed up in Manhattan to express their desire for action on carbon dioxide emissions.  But if the marchers and the organizers behind the march are serious about addressing climate change, then they should be holding a march against coal use.  Instead, according to a key observation on the march made by Ed Crooks, a reporter for the Financial Times, the marchers were overwhelmingly demonstrating against [...] natural gas.

The Empire of Progressive Poverty.  Global Warming rhetoric is still couched in the usual social justice rhetoric, aimed at the poorer kleptocracies who are eager to join the line for a handout, but its logic is poverty driven.  It is not out to create wealth, but to eliminate it, on the grounds that cheaply available food or electricity is an immoral activity that damages the planet.  The Empire of Poverty is chiefly concerned with the impoverishing of the West, to maintain the manufactured scarcities of its water empire it has gone beyond taxation to entirely shutting down or crippling entire branches of human activity.  This could not be justified by appeals to class or race alone.  Social justice could not shut down power plants or decrease food production.  Its impact was not sufficient to maintain a state of permanent poverty.  For the water empire to succeed, it is necessary to destroy any form of social mobility not dependent on the centralized system.

White House using global warming as a tool against capitalism?  [Scroll down]  However, the real core of 350.org's mobilization is more bluntly stated in a cover article [Naomi] Klein wrote for the November 2011 issue of The Nation (the self-described "flagship of the left)." [...] [S]he admitted that the left really is using global warming as a tool in its campaign against capitalism, and urged leftists to stop denying and trying to hide the fact. [...] Her shredding machine is adapted from standard Leftist Utopia dogma:  government will pay for everything with seized corporate profits, it will dismantle the fossil fuel infrastructure, mandate public transit instead of cars, allow only no-carbon energy sources, pretend to feed 318 million Americans from community organic farms, create make-work jobs for the disemployed, regulate personal incomes with caps and subsidies, and so on.

Idiocracy on Parade.  After reviewing all the photos and articles written about last week's Climate March in Manhattan, I have come to the conclusion that there were only two main elements on parade — communism and Idiocracy. [...] It was not hard to figure out who the communists were as they waving the anti-capitalism signs and wearing Karl Marx t-shirts while passing out the communist newsletters.  The very fact that it was called the 'People's" Climate March should have been a giveaway; according to these marchers, capitalism is the main cause of climate change or as it was formerly known in an earlier life-Global Warming.

Global Citizen Festival Fights Poverty By Leaving A Mess.  If you caught any of the Global Citizen Festival on MSNBC Saturday night, you saw millionaires and billionaires decry "extreme poverty" around the world.  The concert was held in New York City's Central Park and involved an elaborate stage and light show by the likes of No Doubt, Jay-Z and Beyoncé.  They could easily end a lot of poverty if they wanted, but...  Since the hypocrisy of people who made their fortunes through capitalism complaining about it is obvious, I'll just say this on that:  Capitalism is so awesome that you can even get rich by telling people it's awful.

The It Girl Of Climate Change Doesn't Get It.  Ms. Klein and her new book are being written up everywhere.  Its publication brilliantly coincides with today's big UN climate-change gabfest in New York, which has been billed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a last chance (yet another one!) to save the planet.  Just one problem.  The leaders of three of four of the world's top carbon polluters — China, India and Russia — didn't bother to show up.  Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel stayed home.  Stephen Harper has been widely excoriated for his failure to attend, but it turns out he's got lots of company.  The thesis of This Changes Everything is that global warming is a war of capitalism against the planet, and that we need a people's uprising to reclaim true democracy from the venal and corrupt politicians who have been co-opted by Big Oil.  If this sounds like the Occupy movement all over again, you're right.

Climate Movement Drops Mask, Admits Communist Agenda.  Communists along with a few environmental groups staged a "People's Climate Rally" in Oakland, California on Sunday, September 21, in conjunction with the larger "People's Climate March" in New York City on the same day.  Wait — did I say communists?  Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?  Well... no.

'Save the Environment'... from Obama, Strong & Gore.  We all now know about [Al Gore's] predictions about the sea rising to swallow the sea coast didn't come true and about how the gas and electric bills for his 20-room home and pool house in Tennessee devoured 20 times the power of an average home.  But for Sunday's People's Climate March, Gore arrived in a GM SUV gas guzzler in time to pose for a picture linking arms with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, environmentalist Jane Goodall and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who led the garbage strewing protest along with tens of thousands of marchers, including recycled rent-a-mob Occupy Wall Streeters (OWS), this time posing as "concerned environmentalists who came together to SAVE THE PLANET.

Activists plan to shut down NY stock exchange.  Hundreds of environmentalists marched in New York's financial district on Monday to protest the relationship between global warming and Big Business.  The protesters blocked traffic as they staged a sit-in and shouted slogans on climate change.  But they couldn't march on the actual Wall Street after running into barricades and had to abandon plans to "shut down" the New York Stock Exchange.

'Flood Wall Street' protesters will try to shut down Stock Exchange.  The group will be dressed in blue and meet at 9 a.m. [9/22/2014] in Battery Park to listen to speakers such as writer Naomi Klein before gathering for a mass sit-in on the steps of the [New York Stock] exchange.  The protesters will carry a 300-foot banner that says "Capitalism = Climate Chaos.  Flood Wall Street."

Thousands March in New York to End Industrialized Civilization.  Tens of thousands of marchers from all over the world came to New York City to protest inaction on climate change.  A "wake up call" they are calling it.  In fact, at 12:58 Eastern time, there was to be a moment of silence followed by "a blare of noise — a symbolic sounding of the alarm on climate change — from horns, whistles and cellphone alarms.  More than 20 marching bands and tolling church bells were expected contribute to the cacophony."  A perfect way to sum up the march:  a lot of noise signifying nothing.

Full-Frontal Environmentalism: We Knew It All Along.  [E]nvironmentalists resist being called socialists.  But next week Naomi Klein is coming out with a book called This Changes Everything. [...] Klein is the author of The Shock Doctrine, a book ragingly popular with the far left that is so far gone into absurd conspiracizing and looney renderings of "neoliberalism" that it makes Lyndon LaRouche look positively staid by comparison.  What is the "this" that "changes everything" in her title?  Why climate change, don't you know?  And what does it "change"?  Why capitalism, of course.  The argument of the book in one sentence is that only overthrowing capitalism can solve climate change.

Luvvies unite against shale gas, jobs, cheap energy and economic growth.  A bunch of self-important luvvies has signed a letter calling for a moratorium on Britain's barely nascent fracking industry.  The list of contributors is like a Who's Who from Hell.

Environmentalists Cheer California's Latest Plan to Sink Its Economy.  Environmentalists are gleeful at the news reported last week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration that the amount of recoverable oil from California's Monterey Shale formation — predicted to be the nation's largest reserve of oil — is a whopping 96-percent below original production estimates.  In response, more than 100 environmental groups signed a letter to the California Legislature calling for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing and other "stimulation" techniques that ultimately would be needed to develop this oil field.  They say the new estimates are "undercutting the misguided rationale" for allowing fracking before more studies are done.

Prince Charles: Save the World From Global Warming by Ending Capitalism.  It must be hard to be Prince Charles, and know that you're the royal that nobody likes.  The fact that he constantly spews drivel like this, saying that the world should abolish capitalism to prevent global warming, probably doesn't help much. [...] Apparently, Charles hasn't gotten the memo that global warming is a complete myth yet.

The New Totalitarianism and the Logic of Civil War.  [Christopher] Hayes' article is notably noxious, attempting as it does to draw a parallel between the fossil fuel industry and slavery and arguing that efforts to destroy the fossil fuel industry amount to a "New Abolitionism" in that as the Abolitionists of old argued for the destruction of the wealth represented by the slaves held in the Antebellum South, today's "New Abolitionists" now must argue for destruction of the accumulated wealth represented by fossil fuels.  This radical course of action in setting out to deliberately destroy $10 Trillion in wealth is justified, he argues, by the requirement to stop climate change and thereby "save the planet."

Stuart Varney Rips The Fig Leaf Away From Socialists Masquerading As Environmentalists.  It's an open secret that all of the policy prescriptions from the warming alarmists just happens to coincidentally and by accident transfer wealth.  They punish the producers of goods, and reward the parasitic organizations of the left.  They take prosperity from prosperous nations and redistribute it to third world economies.  Stuart Varney isn't fooled.  Neither should we be.

Greens Are Reds.  I would like to modestly propose that it is time for conservatives to combat the most economically dangerous and statist movement in the world today, and it is not socialism.  It is the modern-day green movement, which is not run by people who primarily want to keep the air we breathe and the water we drink clean, or safeguard endangered species like tigers and bald eagles, or prevent urban blight — every sane person is for those things.  Its guiding principle is instead to impede economic growth, material progress, and capitalism.

MSNBC host pens radical 'climate justice' manifesto.  "What the climate justice movement is demanding is the ultimate abolition of fossil fuels," writes MSNBC's Chris Hayes in a lengthy new call for action against global warming.  To drive home the point, Hayes' piece, published in The Nation, is titled "The New Abolitionism," and its message is that a way must be found to "convince or coerce" the world's energy companies and energy-producing nations to give up the multi-trillion dollar business of powering the planet.

Chevron Gets Justice From Environmentalist Frauds.  A federal judge has ruled that a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in Ecuador was won through fraud.  It's a victory for Chevron, but at a cost of millions.  So why isn't someone in this environmental predator racket in jail?

Smoking Gun: Disgraced Obama EPA Official Testifies to Anti-Capitalist Plan.  The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has released a transcript of former senior EPA official John Beale's testimony.  The Committee deposed Beale in connection with his recent fraud conviction.  He was sentenced to prison for posing as a CIA agent, and defrauding the government of about $900,000.  Beale told the Committee that under President Barack Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency is being used for a purpose far beyond protecting the environment.

Emails Show Extensive Collaboration Between EPA, Environmentalist Orgs.  Internal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emails show extensive collaboration between top agency officials and leading environmentalist groups, including overt efforts to coordinate messaging and pressure the fossil fuel industry.  The emails, obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (EELI) through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, could fuel an ongoing controversy over EPA policies that critics say are biased against traditional sources of energy.  Emails show EPA used official events to help environmentalist groups gather signatures for petitions on agency rulemaking, incorporated advance copies of letters drafted by those groups into official statements, and worked with environmentalists to publicly pressure executives of at least one energy company.

Global Warming [is] A Back Door To Socialism — And Now Even The UN Admits It.  As evidence discredits global warming, resistance to such facts by green elites reveals their real aim is bringing socialism in through the back door.  But don't take our word for it.  Listen to the climate change boss at the U.N.  Christiana Figueres, with the lumpy title of executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), came right out and said it:  Democracy is a poor political system for fighting global warming.  The really good model is communist China.

UN climate chief: Communism is best to fight global warming.  United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres said that democracy is a poor political system for fighting global warming.  Communist China, she says, is the best model.  China may be the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide and struggling with major pollution problems of their own, but the country is "doing it right" when it comes to fighting global warming says Figueres.  "They actually want to breathe air that they don't have to look at," she said.  "They're not doing this because they want to save the planet.  They're doing it because it's in their national interest."

Our Fragile Planet: Man is the Fragile Animal That Must Be Must Be Protected.  Occasionally, environmentalists spill the beans and reveal their true agenda.  Barry Commoner said, "Capitalism is the earth's number one enemy."  Amherst College professor Leo Marx said, "On ecological grounds, the case for world government is beyond argument."  With the decline of the USSR, communism has lost considerable respectability and is now repackaged as environmentalism and progressivism.

Obama Is Laying the Groundwork to Move Without, Around, and Outside Congress.  "Climate change" suggests that Obama intends to ramp up his war on coal in the remaining years of his presidency, via the EPA and perhaps executive actions similar to those he has used with regard to Obamacare and immigration.  Obama came into office threatening to bankrupt the coal industry, wanting to impose a cap and trade regime, but could not get one passed by Congress even when Democrats controlled both houses.  Obama is aware that his actions will force energy prices skyward.  His actions come at a time when evidence for global warming has disappeared.  That has not changed his intention to impose cap and trade.

Australian ministers: We've had just about enough of this "socialism masquerading as environmentalism".  The oh-so-august bureaucrats gathering in Warsaw, Poland for yet another United Nations climate conference this week usually turn up their noses at such tacky, backwards notions as fiscal sustainability, but Australia is already putting the word out that they have no intention of participating in whatever globalist, redistributive, and ostensibly "green" cockamamie scheme the UN comes up with next.

Chevron Vindicated As Evidence Points To 'Green Fraud' By Environmentalists.  So what happened to the $19 billion judgment against Chevron over rainforest pollution in Ecuador?  Seems the leftist lawyer behind it all now finds himself in the dock on a RICO rap for a massive fraud.

Lindbergh, Nazism, and Environmental Fascism.  Although Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) is known as the first pilot to cross the Atlantic solo in 1927 piloting the Spirit of St. Louis, his Nazi sympathies are often downplayed, and few know that he was an extreme environmentalist.  Strangely enough, the very man who helped kick-start the space age became less interested in aviation late in life.  In fact, he came to believe that technology and machines were the enemies and destroyers of the natural world.

New Rules On Power Plants Will Kill Coal Industry.  The administration finally has released its rules for curbing CO2 emissions from U.S. power plants.  Far from being a plan to clean up the environment, it is in fact a road map to de-industrialization and poverty.

Environmentalism: The Road To A Primitive Existence.  The environmental movement is remarkably backward.  It prefers to push back man's achievements in return for some vague environmental gain.  Today's environmentalists are arguably anti-energy.  As others have said, they see energy as a problem, not a solution.  Sure, they like taxpayer-funded energy.  But it is too expensive for the market, too undeveloped, too unreliable for practical use, and is harder to produce than the energy we easily get from fossil fuels.  We can't run a modern and growing economy on costly experimental energy.

My constituents are complaining about eco-protesters, not drilling.  This isn't a protest about pollution; it's a protest about capitalism.  If your sole concern were for the environment, you'd be delighted about shale.  Here is an energy source that doesn't emit soot (as coal does), nor jam estuaries (as tidal turbines do), nor starve Africans (as biofuels do), nor slaughter rare birds (as wind farms do).  It doesn't soak up public subsidies (as both nuclear and renewables do); on the contrary, it will generate a healthy stream of tax revenue for the Exchequer.  Oh, and it will reduce our carbon emissions, by displacing coal in electricity generators.  Why, then, are the greenies so glum?

Climate Change 'Experts': You should be dead by now.  Why is it that global warming "experts" claim to be concerned about humanity, but seem to find glee in contemplating its destruction?  Actually, my belief is that they hate capitalism with such passion that its elimination is their singular focus.  Their weapons of war are pseudo-scientific scare tactics and outright lies.  Humanity is just collateral damage.

Greens don't like fracking because they don't like prosperity.  You'd think Greens would be delighted by the shale gas bounty under our feet.  Here is a plentiful energy supply which does not emit soot (as coal does), nor jam estuaries (as tidal turbines do), nor starve Africans (as biofuels do), nor slaughter rare birds (as wind farms do).  It does not require public subsidies (as both nuclear and renewables do).  On the contrary, it will generate a healthy stream of tax revenue for the Exchequer.  It will diminish our reliance on nasty regimes, from Tehran to Moscow — precisely the sorts of regimes that Greens march against.  Oh, and it will reduce our carbon emissions, by displacing coal in electricity generators.  What, then, is the problem?  Some campaigners talk of water pollution; others, a touch histrionically, of earthquakes.  If either was a remotely serious prospect, we'd know by now.

President Obama's recently proposed policies will do little to combat climate change — but they will do much for his political and economic objectives.
"Carbon Pollution" and Wealth Redistribution.  No crisis should go to waste, an eternal truth highlighted in bold by a purported climate change apocalypse that is now the target of actions newly proposed by President Obama.  This so-called "crisis" will flood not various coastlines, but instead the front pages, replacing other, less flattering political headlines for the administration.  And if the proposed actions offer the potential of sizeable wealth transfers to political allies?  That is far more than mere icing on the cake.  Whatever the weakness of the evidence on greenhouse gases and climate effects, the real goal of carbon policy is a regional redistribution of wealth [...]

Misguided Energy Policy: Alone, Enough to Cause American Failure.  Nowhere is the threat to America's future more clear, and more easily avoided, than in the energy sector.  Therein, fairytale fears about climate change have grown to the point that the U.S. is now on the verge of committing suicide by turning off many of its most important energy sources to appease loud, misinformed climate activists.

Web of environmental rules threatens Gulf Coast businesses with jail, steep fines.  According to a new report by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, thousands of people are being prosecuted for environmental crimes every day they didn't know were even on the books.  They've been threatened, fined and thrown in jail.  The trend is especially prominent along the Gulf Coast, but is becoming a national issue.

Ramping Up Government Control of the Energy Sector.  To understand the president's thinking, or what passes for thought, all that's necessary is to grasp one simple fact:  that for the left, profits are evil, and therefore businesses that make a profit and succeed are evil.  Only businesses that fail are virtuous.  A corollary of this is, of course, that all businesses must be made to fail.  The function of government, as the left sees it, is to transfer control of the economy from the private sector to government.

The WWF's Supermarket Offensive.  The more I learn about the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the more perplexed I become. [...] The Romanian arm of the WWF has just released a 38-page report.  Is it concerned about a rare species of bird on the verge of extinction?  Does it advocate the establishment of more nature preserves?  Nope.  Instead, this is a scorecard that claims to assess the environmental performance of supermarket chains. [...] WWF Romania director Magor Csibi makes it clear, at the beginning of this report, that the fact that large supermarket chains are expanding the size of their market is a big concern.  How is that any of the WWF's business?

Alaska Attorney General Stands Up Against EPA.  Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty has written a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promising the state will employ "all available legal options" if the federal agency blocks development of Pebble Mine, a gold and copper mine opposed by environmental activist groups.

China-style dictatorship of climatologists.  November's election made it quite clear that the people of the United States do not want to radically change our society in the name of global warming.  Pretty much every close House race went to the Republicans, while the Democrats won all the Senate squeakers.  The difference?  The House on June 26, 2009, passed a bill limiting carbon-dioxide emissions and getting into just about every aspect of our lives.  The Senate did nothing of the sort.  The nation's most prominent publicly funded climatologist is officially angry about this, blaming democracy and citing the Chinese government as the "best hope" to save the world from global warming.  He also wants an economic boycott of the U.S. sufficient to bend us to China's will.

Capitalism Under Fire From Highly Self-Interested Dictators And Diplomats.  [Scroll down]  The so-called "climate change" agenda has essentially nothing to do with trying to change the climate or "saving the planet," and everything to do with self-interested politicians trying to control the world's economic resources.

A convenient lie.  Radical environmentalists are forging a new socialist post-democracy that is slowly undermining representative government. ... The 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall should have exposed the failure of socialism.  It didn't.  Instead, the left simply moved from championing the class struggle to global-warming alarmism.  Its goal, however, remains the same:  to smash free markets and impose economic collectivism.  The revolution continues, only today it is being fought under the green banner.

Where's the Beef?  This slogan did not sit well with many on the Left, either; there had been a movement for decades to do away with beef.  Vegetarianism had been a part of some Asian religions for centuries (and liberals love to push alternatives to our Judea-Christian ethos), and meat avoidance had its place among left-leaning Protestant sects during the 19th Century.  Environmentalists hated beef because it used land which the tree-huggers wanted to return to pasture or forest; anti-capitalists hated beef because it was a symbol of the triumph of wealth over poverty.

The Environmentalists' Real Agenda:  Once in a while the truth accidentally tumbles out on global warming activists' real agenda.  That's exactly what happened at the U.N., when Bolivia's leader called for ending capitalism to save the planet.

Enviro-Harassment:  The environmental movement, which has largely become a loose league of global warming hysteria peddlers, is almost rabidly anti-business and tends to be offended by corporate profits.  Think of how they respond when oil companies announce record profits.  Take note of the venom they routinely spew toward business and commerce, portraying honest businesses as eco-villains out to despoil the Earth.

When green was easy:  Now that the Soviet Union has collapsed and socialism in general has miserably failed, the left has been reenergized by New Age environmentalism, like Marxism a quasireligion that provides an even more comprehensive justification for restricting individual freedom and its economic expression in the form of market capitalism.  The leftist project of replacing socialism with environmentalism as an ideological organizing principle has culminated with global warming theory, an apocalyptic scenario that has proved much more salable than anything Karl Marx could come up with.

Going Green = $4 per Gallon.  Going green (its real name is sustainable development) has led to Orwellian regulations resulting in the destruction of American businesses and the jobs that go with them, including manufacturing and industry; the locking away of American natural resources like oil, timber and minerals, forcing expensive imports; the near abolishment of private property, the bedrock of any economy's source of wealth; and massive invasion of the farming industry to assure it is "sustainable," including the mandated use of corn for the making of ethanol, leading to food shortages and higher prices.

The Eco-Radicals' Real Motives:  The driving force behind the eco-radicals' fierce efforts to strangle the free market with environmental regulations is their virulent hatred for a free, prosperous economy.  Yet behind this hatred is an even deeper one.  To understand why they try to wreck our economy, you have to grasp the shocking fact that many eco-radicals hate the human race and Western civilization.

Obama Supporters for $10 Gas.  "The people at this rally made the mistake of telling the truth about the left's energy policy," [Ed] Frank told Townhall in an email.  "From the ban on American oil drilling to proposed global warming legislation, the entire point is to drive up the cost of oil and gas so Americans are forced against their will to use alternative energy sources that by and large aren't viable.

For Greens, the Energy Crisis Is Not a Problem, It's the Solution.  Two of the problems our presidential candidates are being called upon to solve are the spiraling cost of energy and the "crisis" of man-made global warming. … "The notion that these two issues can be addressed simultaneously is nonsense," said Dr. Keith Lockitch, resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute.  "No policy aimed at 'fighting global warming' can help solve the energy crisis.  An energy crisis is the proposed 'solution' to global warming.




This is where environmentalism is headed:
Environmentalists want to wipe out the human race.

To save bandwidth, this subtopic has been moved to this page.



"Human beings, as a species, have no more value than slugs."

John Davis,    
editor of Earth First! Journal    



Gates, Rockefeller Seek Global Population Reduction.  The global elite has launched a world-wide operation against an unaware population to reduce and control fertility.  Vaccines and even staple food crops have been modified to achieve these goals.

Gore promoting fewer children to curb pollution.  In an appearance Monday [6/20/2011] in New York City, former Vice President Al Gore, prominently known for his climate change activism, took on the subject of population size and the role of society in controlling it to reduce pollution.  He offered some ideas about what might be done for females in the name of stabilizing population growth.

Al Gore, father of 4, wants to fight global warming with population control.  Anyone want to guess what Al Gore is talking about here?  Here, let me help.  The subject is population control.  The buzzwords are choice and women's empowerment.  Seems obvious.

Al Gore's Reproductive Footprint.  [Al] Gore and the other population doomsayers continue to argue that the planet would be better off with fewer people.  To them, people are the equivalent of bacteria that's making the Earth sick.  The Earth's fever is global warming.  Every new baby is not a blessing to these modern day Malthusians — it is a curse.  They are wrong.  In fact, depopulation, not overpopulation, is a greater threat.

Al Gore's next crusade: in your bed.  Not content with pocketing a fortune by scaring his fellow citizens with the imaginary boogeyman of "man-made climate change," the prophet of doom now wants everybody to save the planet by ... halting population growth.  You heard that right:  To save mother Gaia, it's imperative that we kill ourselves as a species.  Let a thousand flowers bloom, but be sure to have only one or two kids, lest you make "climate change" worse.

Environmentalist Schizophrenia.  [Scroll down]  Then there are enviros who predict (nay, yearn for!) an imminent economic collapse because we are running out of fossil fuels.  They feel that such a collapse will both punish wicked humanity and cut the number of homo sapiens down to size.  (Some enviros have put their dream number of people on the planet at 400,000 — meaning that their dream is the nightmare scenario in which 99.99% of all humans just die.)

The Gore Who Stole Christmas.  Yesterday's foes of the free market were socialists, communists, and Keynesians.  Today's are greens who want government engineering to "stabilize" the climate and ensure "sustainability."

Climate ideology control:  America's vital traditions of free speech, association and debate are under assault.  Al Gore bristles at anyone who raises inconvenient truths about climate alarmism.  Greenpeace calls us "climate criminals."  Grist magazine wants "Nuremberg-style war crimes trials" for climate disaster skeptics, probably followed by hangings, since burning at the stake would release greenhouse gases.

Democrats Prepare Global Warming Push.  Newly empowered Democrats in the 110th Congress appear ready to make a major push to solidify their "global warming mantra" on the American people.  Get ready for a new Democratic barrage asserting that there is "scientific consensus" the earth is getting warmer because of greenhouse gas emissions from burning hydrocarbon fuels.

New York's 'green' mayor gets ride to subway.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg's regular trips on the New York subway, which he has boasted are environmentally friendly and a sign he is an ordinary guy, are not quite as straightforward as they seem. … A five-week undercover investigation by the New York Times has revealed that a quarter of his journey takes place in a large sports utility vehicle.

Environmental activists' suits damage wildlife in the long term.  Environmental groups are unwittingly destroying forests and killing wildlife with lawsuits.  Ironically, they are doing so while claiming to save them.  Activists again are filing lawsuits to stop forest management, and the government pays them to do it.  They craft settlements that pay them handsomely with taxpayer money so that they can live well and file the next lawsuit.  No wonder they are inflexible.

Greens Reveal their Plan for Global Domination.  According to the Greens behind this plan, "Increased transport also uses drastically increased fossil fuels, adding to the problems of climate change, ozone depletion, and ocean, air, and soil pollution."  There is a very big problem with the assertion quoted above.  None of it is true.  If the US, let alone the rest of the world, did not have airports, seaports, roads, rail-lines, pipelines, dams and electric grids, you would not be reading this, nor would there be too many goods in your local supermarket or mall.

Losing the Greens.  As Democrats take control of Congress, once firm opposition to the green lobby's campaign of imposing carbon emission controls is weak.  Panicky captains of industry have themselves largely to blame for failing to respond to the environmentalists' well-financed propaganda operation.  One government official says "industry appears utterly helpless and utterly clueless as to how to respond."

Make poverty history:  first by getting rid of the greens.  As protesters and green activists gather in Melbourne this weekend to lay the usual blame for poverty on the greed of developed nations, a powerful new documentary shines light on a different villain.  Mine Your Own Business, which opens this week, shows that the "powerful group telling the world's poor how to live, how to work, even how to think" are not the world leaders gathered in Melbourne.  They're not even wealthy multinational corporations, but wealthy multinational environment groups such as Greenpeace.

Save the planet, eat a vegan.  According to new research, power stations and transport produce lots of carbon dioxide, but in addition they also produce lots of aerosols that, in the short term at least, help keep the planet as cool as a deodorant model's armpits.  So who has come up with this new theory?  Some half-crazed nitwit with a motoring show to protect?  George Bush?  A bloke in the pub?  No.  In fact it comes from an organisation called EarthSave, which is run and funded, so far as I can tell, by the usual array of free-range communists and fair trade hippies.

Green CEOs Bad for Business.  Bill Ford just announced that he would step down as CEO after a disastrous 5-year reign during which company shares lost two-thirds of their market value.  While Ford Motor's woes can't entirely be blamed on Ford, you have to wonder what Ford Motor's board was thinking when it selected him as CEO. … Ford always appeared more concerned about being green than being profitable.  In May 2000, he declared that SUVs — his company's most profitable product — harmed the environment.

What Happens to Companies That 'Go Green':  Mutual fund manager explains why consumers, shareholders and business leaders should be skeptical of global warming regulation lobbying and 'market-based' solutions.

Incumbents Supported by Environmental Groups Lose in August 8 Primaries.  Incumbent politicians rarely lose elections in the United States, so when they do, it's significant.  It is even more newsworthy when an incumbent loses a primary election.  On August 8, three incumbent members of Congress lost their primary elections.  All three were seen as supporters of environmental activist groups.

Al Gore visits Berkeley, charges up Prop. 87 rally.  Former Vice President Al Gore appeared in Berkeley on Monday [10/23/2006] to lend his celebrity and reputation as a crusader against global warming to a measure on California's Nov. 7 ballot that would tax oil companies to raise $4 billion for green energy projects.

Plastic bag levy failing.  Ireland's levy on plastic bags, once heralded as a market solution to an environmental problem, has failed to curb the country's plastic addiction, prompting calls from Australian environment groups for a total ban here.  The number of bags used in Ireland dropped to 85 million in a year after the levy was introduced in 2002, but was back up to 115 million in 2005 and has risen steadily since.

Kit Bond goes into battle on a lawn mower.  Environmental groups heralded California's move three years ago to adopt new pollution standards for small engines.  The standards could require use of catalytic converters, which have cleaned up cars and trucks, to be added to lawn mowers as well.

Al Gore's Green Money Machine:  As Al Gore's global warming alarm tour winds down for the summer, let's pull back the curtain and see the real wizard.  After you get past all the scare mongering, what is left is a giant scheme to tax the air we breathe.  No wonder the tax and spend liberals are so enthralled with big Al.

Has John Kerry Morphed into Al Gore?  The British author and critic, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) said that a phony kind of patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel.  These days it's environmentalism.  When a candidate for president really doesn't have any good ideas on how to keep the economy going strong, deal with America's enemies, or any of the other practical necessities to insure our future, they always rely on the "environment" as their pitch for votes.

What Scriptures Tell Us About Environmental Stewardship:  Now that secular liberalism has all but driven orthodox religion out of public life, it should come as no surprise that heterodox spirituality has become the latest battering ram of the left.  In a time when the Bible has been expunged from schoolrooms as an icon of Western bigotry, biblical arguments are now oddly on the comeback, recast as a fashionable means of pushing a leftist agenda.  What is not to be expected is the degree to which well-meaning Christians have become the spokesmen of these distortions.

Town Battles Army Corps Over Permafrost.  Challenging an Army Corps of Engineers assertion that permafrost 20 inches thick is a "navigable water" of the United States, an Alaskan borough attempting to build public playgrounds and athletic fields on a two-acre parcel of permafrost has sued the Corps over its enforcement of the Clean Water Act.  "This case is a classic example of the Corps operating without boundaries, limits, or common sense in its application of the Clean Water Act," said Russell Brooks, managing attorney of Pacific Legal Foundation's (PLF) Northwest Center.

NJ Clean Energy Program Under Investigation.  New Jersey's Clean Energy Program (CEP), responsible for promoting energy conservation and the use of renewable energy in the state, is coming under heavy criticism for accounting irregularities, apparent cronyism, and gross mismanagement.  The latest salvo was fired on October 16 when Bob Ingle, the Trenton bureau chief for Gannett New Jersey newspapers, called for a stepped-up investigation of financial irregularities associated with the program.

Property Rights Improve Environment, Book Says.  The American public has shown significant concern for environmental quality since the first Earth Day in 1970, yet the maze of environmental laws and regulations enacted since then has fostered huge government bureaucracies better known for waste and failure than for innovation and success.

New Book Examines Maze of Failed Environmental Policies.  The maze of government regulations and environment laws enacted since the 1970's has created more waste and failure than innovation and success, say the book's contributors.  They point out that many current environmental policies fly in the face of American liberal legal and political traditions.

Missouri Town Hikes Taxes for Green City Hall.  Citizens of Cottleville, Missouri will be forced to pay an extra one-half percent sales tax to finance a "green" city hall. … Costly environmental gestures include solar collectors, wind turbines, and rainwater collectors.

My pick for the court:  John Rapanos is a 70-year-old grandfather who lives in Michigan.  The Bush administration wants to put him in jail for five years.  His crime?  He moved sand around on a farm he owns.  Last week, the Supreme Court took up his case.  Rapanos is being prosecuted by the Bush Justice Department for an alleged violation of the federal freshwater wetlands law.

The Earth Day before yesterday:  "Earth Day" [was founded] by former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson.  It's also V.I. Lenin's birthday — which is no coincidence.  Nelson modeled his anti-capitalist protests after anti-Vietnam War demonstrations of that era.  Today, the so-called "environmental movement" he helped spawn has devolved from a gaggle of unwashed adolescent peaceniks into a slick cadre of leftists, lobbyists and lawyers.

Environmentalism is dead — Long live environmentalism!  Even though recycling is often a monstrous waste of time, energy and money, the Greens have insisted that if you don't separate your plastic from your paper you are "against" the environment.  The truth is that nobody is anti-environment.

Green versus Black:  Denying other people the same rights that you claim for yourself is the essence of bigotry.  People who call themselves environmentalists could more accurately be called green bigots.  Selfishness is never a pretty thing but it is at its ugliest when it masquerades as some kind of lofty nobility.  That pose not only gets the green bigots good press, it also helps recruit the young and uninformed to their movement — especially the young who have been misinformed on college and university campuses.

It's a Wonderful Life, So Far.  The single-family home with the white picket fence, two cars in the garage, and a couple kids in the backyard has everything wrong with it, according to some environmentalists.  The home is made completely or in part of wood … but logging is a bad thing.  That little yard in a small suburban or rural community contributes to "urban sprawl."  When those two cars leave the garage for work or the grocery store or to take the kids to school, they burn unacceptable quantities of fossil fuels traveling paved roads which, in all too many cases, prevent animals from migrating (apparently only chickens are able to cross the road).  Oh, those two kids?  They are a problem, too.  Overpopulation, you know.  Enjoy America while you can.

Aquatic Weeds Overwhelming the Nation's Lakes.  Milfoil, sometimes known as Eurasian Watermilfoil, has grown significantly in Lake Minnetonka.  According to Minneapolis television station WCCO, the lake is so thick with milfoil that experienced divers find the lake frightening.  Some communities have sought to control aquatic weeds such as milfoil through the use of herbicides.  Environmental groups, however, are strenuously opposing those plans.

Cement Production Hits a Concrete Wall.  U.S. businesses and households are feeling the brunt of short-sighted environmental activism as America's supply of cement dries up.  If you couldn't get cement to pour the new patio you had planned in August [2004], or if the increase in the price of concrete added several thousand dollars to the final cost of your new home, you can blame China or the Sierra Club or the federal government or your state government.  Or all of the above.

The Dangerous Greening of American Foreign Policy.  Foreign aid funds are actually being used to undermine market economies abroad and put American businesses at a competitive disadvantage.  In Indonesia, for example, the Agency for International Development (AID) gave more than $1.3 million to the local chapter of Friends of the Earth (virtually its entire operating budget) for its campaign against New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.  The environmental organization accused the mining company of grossly polluting an Indonesian river, destroying crops, and inciting military attacks on civilians — but none of those accusations has been substantiated.

Documentary:
Mine Your Own Business  exposes the dark side of environmentalism.  The documentary hacks away at the cosy image of environmentalists' as well meaning, harmless activists.  Mine Your Own Business is the first documentary which asks the hard questions of foreigners who lead campaigns to "save" remote areas from development.  Their answers are often disturbing, with racist overtones, but we, in the west, blindly support such campaigns that want to keep people in poverty.

Review:
The Forgotten Mammal.  "Mine Your Own Business" tells story of the one animal environmentalists forget.

Environmentalists are AWOL on Saddam.  Saddam Hussein has committed some of the biggest environmental crimes of all time.  During the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam's troops set 600 Kuwaiti oil wells ablaze "creating a toxic smoke that choked the atmosphere and blocked the sun," according to news reports.  However, most environmental groups have gone absent-without-leave when it comes to removing Saddam — even without the use of force.  A few are protesting the war.

Environmental Activists Cannot Use Courts To Micromanage Federal Agencies.  On June 15 [2004], the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected efforts by environmental groups to give courts greater authority over the day-to-day management of federal administrative agencies.

State Legislatures Face Anti-Pesticide Bills.  Anti-chemical activists have pushed several state governments in recent years to pass laws to eliminate or drastically reduce the use of pesticides in schools and daycare centers.  To date, about 20 states have enacted such laws.  [However] pesticides are used to control roaches, molds, mice, rats, wasps, lice, fleas, mosquitoes, spiders, fire ants, poison ivy, and other pests.  The public health implications of allowing them to get out of control are substantial.  Children will suffer if schools and daycare centers are not able to control these pests.

National Histrionic: People Are the Problem.  A couple of years ago, I let my National Geographic subscription lapse because of the magazine's relentless earth worship. ... After perusing the May issue, I'm once again ashamed to be human.  People, people, people!  We're carbonizing the clouds!  We're wrecking the coral reefs!  We're reducing the polar bear's habitat to the size of a McDonald's parking lot!  We're scooping sand off beaches to build more McDonald's parking lots!  Worst of all, we keep having ... children!




Volcanos

See this page.



Greens Against the Poor.  Pitched battles over ideology and public policy certainly are not confined to classrooms or legislative chambers.  They are also fought in poor communities of Africa, Asia and Latin America, often pitting multinational corporations against multinational activist groups.

Why Socialism Causes Pollution:  If the profit motive is the primary cause of pollution, one would not expect to find much pollution in socialist countries, such as the former Soviet Union, China, and in the former Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe.  That is, in theory.  In reality exactly the opposite is true:  The socialist world suffers from the worst pollution on earth.  Could it be that free enterprise is not so incompatible with environmental protection after all?

Left-Leaning Donors Skewing Climate Change Research.  While new environmental regulations might be an annoyance for private industry, the fact is that the bulk of any new environmental-related costs to those industries are simply passed on to the public through more expensive goods and services.  By contrast, spearheading environmental issues is the only reason for the existence of environmental organizations.  Since all organizations have self-preservation as their number one priority, it is the environmental groups that are the most vulnerable to a loss of public interest, and thus funding.

The American Flag Itself Angers "Environmentalists".  "I'm a patriot, but I'm not a gun-toting, flag-waving, Bush-loving patriot," huffs one "green" after Georgia dares to put U.S. symbols on a license plate.

NIMBYS, BANANAS and Greens:  Americans support programs to lock away land to keep wilderness pristine, free of human development, power lines and cell towers.  Yet they want to use their cell phones and computers wherever they go.  They want three car garages to house the family van, the daughter's little bug and the husband's sports car; but don't blight the landscape with filling stations, refineries or power plants.

Regulations: The Untold Story.  Regulatory costs, like consumption taxes, consume a larger portion of the poor's income, leaving fewer resources for adequate housing, medical care, proper diet and other crucial needs.  Environmental regulations are particularly regressive.

Controlling Pests or Controlling Competition?  The Pacific Legal Foundation challenges a California licensing law that would require a 30-year business veteran to become an apprentice.

Environmentalists Attempt to Kill America's Most Environmentally-Friendly Major Energy Source.  Anti-nuclear activists now are filing lawsuits in the hope of forcing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny the U.S. Department of Energy the construction permit it needs to complete the Yucca Mountain project.

Environmentalism:  A Globalist Tool for Tyranny.  There are plenty of good reasons for a freedom loving people to steer clear of the United Nations, one of the chief ones being the fanatical zeal with which the UN and Friends grasp hold of every worry and woe, make it their own, blow it out of proportion, and insist that they and only they can provide a solution, a solution which must be imposed by force upon the world.

Polls Show Little Interest in Green Agenda.  American voters are generally happy with the condition of their local environment and the performance of their elected representatives on environment issues, according to several recent public opinion polls.  As a result, the polls show, environment issues rank near the bottom of concerns for American voters this election season.

America's New Dark Ages:  Today's environmental movement has little to do with protecting the environment and everything to do with imposing a radical agenda to derail human progress, destroy free enterprise, and diminish individual liberty.

October 2004 Environment & Climate News.  Page 1 stories in this issue report on … a new study confirming the unreliability of global warming computer models; and charges against Greenpeace for violating environmental regulations it lobbied to impose on ships in Alaskan waters.

Greens Attack America:  The one abiding goal of both the Greens and "animal rights" lunatics is to attack America's economic base in every way possible.  This is why, for the past few decades, they have sought to undermine every kind of industry in the nation, from timber to energy, from agriculture to fast foods, from mining to ranching.

Red-Tape Conservationists:  Environmentalists are up in arms about a recent Bush administration proposal to reduce red tape on logging in federal lands.  But what this controversy is really about is not just the "conservation" of forests, but the conservation of the vast, arbitrary authority of federal regulatory agencies — an authority environmentalists are accustomed to exploiting for their agenda.

The Top 5 "Human Costs" of Environmental Extremism:  Inflexible environmental laws and overregulation are dramatically impacting people's lives and livelihoods every day, often for species protections that are illegal or unnecessary.  The top five human costs of environmental extremism are:
    • Separating people from nature.
    • Cutting people off from water to give to fish.
    • Extinguishing hundreds of thousands of jobs.
    • Diminishing the American dream of home ownership, and
    • Blocking forest fire prevention that saves lives and homes.

Solar Power Statists:  Blinded by the Light.  The idea that improving the livability of human homes requires political coercion is repellent and serves as yet another indictment of the environmentalism movement.

The Environmentalist Crusade Against Progress and Technology:  We are fortunate enough to live in the US at the beginning of the 21st century and enjoy all the benefits of modern science and technology.  Human life is now longer, healthier and richer than ever before.  But not everybody is happy about it.  Some people would rather have us go back in time and sacrifice it all.  They are the advocates of Environmentalism.

Environmentalism is Bad Medicine for Humans.  On Earth Day, environmentalists should celebrate the latest consequence of their ideas: skyrocketing gasoline prices.

Environmentalism vs. Human Life:  Although most environmentalists are emphatic in their professions of how deeply they care about every little earthworm and gnat on the planet, environmentalism is, at its core, the hatred of human life.

Environmentalists Excluding People from Parks:  Human enjoyment of the parks — sightseeing, golfing, hiking, skiing, biking, canoeing, camping — is being systematically sacrificed to environmentalist ideology.  As long people believe that environmentalism is compatible with human enjoyment of nature (or anything), environmentalists will continue to prevent people from enjoying the parks.  What makes these environmentalists tick?

Africans Starve Rather than Accept Bounty of GM Corn:  I grow poison on my farm, feed it to my family, and sell it to unsuspecting consumers in the U.S. and around the world.  That's what the president of Zambia seems to think.  As 3 million people in his country face starvation, Levy Mwanawasa has let some 15 million metric tons of donated corn sit untouched in storage because some of it is genetically modified.

EPA Seeks Faith-Based Grants For Green Causes:  The director of an Environmental Protection Agency energy program told a meeting of environmentalists Thursday [12/19/2002] that the White House's faith-based initiative should include federal grants for religious groups that advocate green causes.

Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism.  Eco-Sanity means applying reason, sound science, and a respect for the rights of others to environmental issues.  A commitment to eco-sanity necessarily means abandoning scare tactics and relying instead on the good judgment of individual environmentalists and the general public.



Environmental quality is improving steadily and in some cases dramatically in key areas:
•    Average vehicle emissions are dropping about 10 percent per year as the fleet turns over to inherently cleaner vehicles, including modern SUVs.

•    Ninety-four percent of the population is served by water systems that have reported no violations of any health-based standards.

•    There has been a 55-percent decline in toxic releases since 1988, even while total output of the industries covered by this measurement has increased 40 percent.

•    Despite most popular assumptions, U.S. air quality trends are found to be at least equal, if not slightly better, than in Europe.


Our posterity will laugh at us.  How profoundly arrogant is it to think that public policy can, or should, "preserve" the environment as it was at some point in the past?  Suppose the policy-makers at the turn of the 20th century had decided to "preserve" the environment as it was before America was discovered.  Had government been enlightened then, as it seems to be now, and prohibited mining, oil drilling, grazing and logging, would the world be a better place?

Environmentalists are new foes of some of the world's poorest.  This threat is not from cigar-sucking, champagne-swilling robber barons.  Mining is now one of the most regulated businesses in the world.  Banks will not lend to, insurance companies will not cover and governments will not give licenses to companies that want to open unsafe or polluting mines.  Instead I have discovered that the biggest threat to miners and their families comes from upper-class Western environmentalists.

It's time to reclaim our rights.  Once again, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has proven itself to be subservient to radical environmental groups, stopping the salvage of dead and dying trees in northern Idaho and eastern Washington.  Bark beetle and tussock moth infestations, in epidemic proportions, have invaded prime timber.  It would be logical to salvage those valuable trees, but radicals have sued the U.S. Forest Service preventing that from happening — preferring, apparently, to allow a valuable resource to rot in the forest.

Not In the Driver's Seat:  Isn't carbon dioxide a key component of the air we breathe and a compound absolutely vital to plant growth?  Well, yes, you're right, but…  Gray Davis, as it turns out, is embroiled in a surprisingly tight governor's race with upstart Republican candidate Bill Simon and he desperately needs to patch fences with California's large and affluent environmental community.

Cold warriors never die, they just turn green:  In a February [2000] interview with Environment & Climate News, Dr. Walter E. Williams, chairman of the economics department at George Mason University, noted, "Now that communism and socialism have lost all respectability, I think in general those people who have those inclinations have changed their agenda and call themselves environmentalists."

Hard Choices:  Environmentalists and the Forests:  Greenpeace once prided itself on subscribing to a philosophy that was "transpolitical, trans-ideological, and trans-national" in character.  Truth mattered and science was respected for the knowledge it brought to the debate.  That tradition was abandoned by many environmental groups during the 1990s.  A new brand of environmental extremism has emerged that rejects science, diversity of opinion, and even democracy.

Playing with fire:  Environmental rules fuel a massive inferno by undermining the efforts of the men on the line.

Texans Won't Be Driven to California's CO2 Craziness:  SUV-driving California legislators passed a bill on July 1 to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new vehicles.  How is California going to meet these requirements?  Well, the politicians there don't really care; the automobile industry will have to figure it out and consumers will have to pay for it.

California Makes Cars Less Affordable:  California today became the first state in the nation to restrict automobile emissions of carbon dioxide, the same gas humans exhale.  The auto industry pointed out, to no avail, that the measure would make cars even more expensive and pressure people to buy death traps they don't feel safe driving.

Asbestos Absurdity in New Jersey:  Could the asbestos quagmire possibly get even deeper, stickier and more dangerous than it's been up until now?  Well, that is exactly what is about to happen in a New Jersey courtroom, where Sealed Air Corporation is scheduled to begin defending itself against an asbestos lawsuit.

Green Group Includes U.S. In "Axis of Environmental Evil":  The environmental group Friends of the Earth International (FoE) called the U.S., Canada and Australia the "axis of environmental evil" for not supporting international environmental agreements.

The American Taliban is All Green:  Until Americans understand how Greens really think, they will never understand that they are united against everything that has made America great.

American Citizens Are Left to Swim in Government Cesspool:  This is not supposed to be happening.  Not in America, at least.  Not after Congress passed the expansive Clean Water Act that predicted water pollution would be entirely "eliminated by 1985."  Yet it does happen, and quite often.  And federal officials don't just know about it; they are actively rewarding the worst offenders with more tax dollars.

Bush Fights Fire-Fueling "Greens":  To the dismay of environment-destroying "environmentalists," President Bush today [8/22/2002] shifted federal policy toward thinning national forests to reduce the risk of wildfires.  "The forest policy of our government is misguided policy.  It doesn't work," Bush told cheering residents outside Medford, Ore., near the state's largest fire on record.

Environmental Group's "Dirty Dozen" Labeled Tool to "Elect Democrats":  An environmental advocacy group is releasing more names of politicians it describes as Congress' "Dirty Dozen," based on their votes on issues dealing with water quality, energy, family planning and international trade.  But one critic says the listing of the dirty dozen is intended "to elect as many Democrats as possible."

Burned Out:  If only those who could make changes in foolish, ill-conceived and often ludicrous environmental polices thought things through and listened to people who know what they are talking about rather than a movement that is way past its best days.

"Environmentalists" Abet Wildfires:  Nuisance lawsuits filed by self-styled "environmentalists" have sabotaged half of the U.S. Forest Service's attempts to cut the underbrush that fuels the West's catastrophic wildfires.

Clean Water – The Tip of a Radical Green Iceberg.

Feds decline private assistance – again!  Rick Stanley, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, was characteristically blunt.  "Two years ago, when the fire started at Mesa Verde National Park, local volunteers showed up with bulldozers and water trucks.  They could have put the fire out in a matter of hours.  But the National Park Service was unwilling to accept private assistance.  Twenty-four-thousand acres of beautiful forest land was incinerated before that fire burned itself out."

Utah Senate strikes back at frivolous environmental suits:  The Utah state senate on March 6 passed Senate Bill 183, allowing ranchers, miners, and oil developers to file countersuits and recover damages against persons or organizations who delay projects on state or federal lands through "improper" litigation.

Environmentalist slams "lunatic fringe":  Jan Michael Jacobson, an environmentalist and Everglades expert who is part of a battle against the government's habitat policies in South Florida, claims the leadership of the environmental movement has betrayed both its core constituency and the U.S. Constitution.


"Unfortunately, the environmental leaders are what could be described as hard-core socialist psychotics.  They are the lunatic fringes of socialism, and they are killing the American dream."

– Jan Michael Jacobson, environmentalist.   



Animal Rescues Bring in Big Bucks to Special Interests:  Each year, several thousand dogs and cats are put to death because there's not enough money to build adequate animal shelter space.  In the meantime, saving a whale in the Puget Sound is costing $500,000, with taxpayers picking up half the tab.

Greenpeace Serves "No Public Benefit":  Revenue Canada has refused to recognize the Greenpeace Environmental Foundation as a charity, saying its activities had "no public benefit" and that lobbying to close polluting industries could send people "into poverty."

Do I Hear Jackboots?  "When I helped to create Greenpeace from a church basement in Vancouver in 1971 I had no idea that I would spend the next 15 years as an international director and leader of many Greenpeace campaigns.  I also had no idea that after I left in 1986 they would evolve into a band of scientific illiterates who use Gestapo tactics to silence people who wish to express their views in a civilized forum."

Green Thumb Al:  Al Gore and the environmental mafia surface to celebrate Earth Day while attacking George W. Bush.

Unnecessary Threats to Freedom:  An old adage says that to a hammer, everything seems like a nail.  Likewise, to an environmentalist, everything is related to excessive American consumption.

Christine Whitman's Folly:  Dredging the Hudson will be half a billion dollars down the drain for not even a trivial public health gain.

The Green Taliban Of America:  The hubris of the Greens has allowed them to dictate to everyone just how we should conduct our lives for decades.  That is why you can't build a home, an office building, a factory, a hospital or a school, without an "environmental" study.  That is why Americans have been steadily deprived of pesticides, many used safely for decades, to protect us against the diseases spread by insect and rodent pests.  That's why millions of acres of our national forests burned this year because Greens won't let them be managed through selective logging or to allow roads to be built into those forests.  The list goes on and on because the Greens have been responsible for one third of every law and regulation in the Federal Register today.



Note:  The material about "Environmentalists vs. Military Preparedness" has moved here.

Intended Consequences:  Over the years, the phrase "unintended consequences" has come up with increasing frequency, as more and more wonderful-sounding ideas have led to disastrous results.

Carbon offsets that couldn't be less green:  Food-price inflation so severe that central banks are forced to raise interest rates to growth-stifling levels; corn prices so high that poor Mexicans can't afford their tortillas; massive deforestation to make way for more corn and palm oil; poor farmers pushed off their land to make room for carbon-offsetting plantings paid for by rich jet-setters; and Al Gore for president.  These are some of the unintended consequences of hastily conceived environmental policies.

A Really Bad Case of Gas:  After campaigning to restore sound science, reason and responsiveness to the regulatory process, the "Reformer with Results" is now standing by one of the dumbest, top-down environmental edicts on the books.

GOP Lawmakers Join Democrats in Aiding Enviro Left:  About half the Republicans in Congress are joining a united Democrat party in promoting the interests of a left-wing movement that is also (not incidentally) out to defeat the GOP majority in Congress.  "A multilayered fraud" is the way Mike Hardiman, lobbyist for the American Land Rights Association (ALRA), describes the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA).  The bill is better known among its critics as the "Condemnation and Relocation Act."

Tax status of environment group questioned.  In a move that could hobble environmental protests, a conservative lobbying organization has petitioned the Internal Revenue Service to rescind nonprofit status for a San Francisco environmental group.

Environmental Fringe Exposed A public policy specialist for the American Farm Bureau Federation worries that the environmental fringe is shifting mainstream environmentalism further to the left with its extreme actions.

New Novel Exposes Eco-Fanatics, Neo-Pagans, and Eco-Terrorists!  A review of Jack R. Stevens's new novel, Spark's Tract, a satire of environmental extremism — which Stevens terms "deep ecology."

Zoning Board Gives Golf Range Owner the Birdie While it's not uncommon to hear news stories about local zoning boards run amok, one Northern Virginia board has jailed a golf-range owner and possibly made an interstate fugitive of his wife in an ongoing fight over what may ultimately boil down to the placement of a few trees.

Book review
Re-thinking Green:  Alternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy.  Environmental quality has been a major public concern since the first Earth Day in 1970, yet the maze of environmental laws and regulations enacted since then has fostered huge government bureaucracies better known for waste and failure than for innovation and success.

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Document location http://akdart.com/environ.html
Updated April 5, 2024.

 Entire contents Copyright 2024 by Andrew K. Dart