The Worst, Most Hysterical Stories About the Climate In 2023
The year when the eco-Left’s brain collectively boiled over
The end of the year makes for a good time to take stock of the stories that had the biggest effect on public policy in 2023. When it comes to the climate cultists, well, this year they ramped up the scientism and hysteria to levels we haven’t seen before. It’s been said before, but the more the voting public fails to take global warming seriously, the more the catastrophists ratchet up their rhetoric to cause panic and force people to demand government DO SOMETHINGTM. There oughtta be a law against bad weather, by golly!
2023 saw some real unhinged rhetoric around the climate. Let’s review the worst of the worst in the year that was.
The Year Global Warming Became Global Boiling
In July, UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierres declared that the era of global warming has ended. Great news, right? Well, no, because it only means the “era of global boiling” has arrived. The earth isn’t just warming, it’s boiling over.
“All this is entirely consistent with predictions and repeated warnings,” Gutierres said, as he announced July 2023 as the hottest month ever recorded in human history (based on computer estimates). “The only surprise is the speed of the change. Climate change is here, it is terrifying, and it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”
“The air is unbreathable,” Gutierres continued as he ratcheted up the fearsome rhetoric. “The heat is unbearable. And the level of fossil fuel profit and climate inaction is unacceptable.”
He probably wasn’t supposed to say that last part out loud.
Al Gore Parrots Anthony Fauci
Anthony Fauci famously said, during his reign over the COVID pandemic, that “attacks on me are attacks on science itself.” Climate prophet Al Gore saw that and must have said to himself, “that will win me some real credibility!”
During a December panel discussion at the COP28 climate meeting in Dubai, Gore said representative democracy worked a lot better before social media, when people “relied on a shared base of knowledge that serves as a basis for reasoning together collectively.” He said America currently suffers from a democracy crisis, especially when Republicans are in power. He then weirdly tried to weave Hitler into the equation, saying, “You know, Hitler’s book, The Triumph of the Will, implies a question: Triumph over what? One thing it triumphs over is the authority of knowledge.” (Of course, Hitler’s book was Mein Kampf, or “My Struggle.” Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens) is the infamous film by Leni Riefenstahl. Not that we go to Al Gore for historical accuracy.)
So there you have it. Opposing viewpoints constitute a crisis of democracy, and a representative democracy can’t survive differences of opinion. Any opinion, especially that of a Republican, that doesn’t conform to the authority of his knowledge is literally Hitler.
The Hockey Stick Got Stuck This Year, and Nobody Noticed
You may be forgiven for not having seen this in the news (because the corporate media complex didn’t care), but Michael Mann’s Hockey Stick graph—published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal in 1999, it purports to show catastrophic temperature rise since 1960—got even more debunked than it already had. The Hockey Stick has been the subject of controversy for decades. Mann hid his methodology for more than 25 years, claiming it as “proprietary,” so no other scientist or statistician could duplicate his historical temperature reconstructions. A mathematician in Sweden figured out Mann’s trick anyway and proved his reconstructions inaccurate (at best). Not to put too fine a point on it, but the climate cultists’ theory that temperatures are rising has been proven false.
Green Energy Going Out of Business Despite Massive Government Subsidies
There were so many green energy failures in 2023, it’s hard to know where to start. We’ve covered several here at Restoration News, including the collapse of offshore wind energy, the collapse of wind in general, charging stations failing to materialize, and the collapse of EV sales in America. Let’s hit some of 2023’s biggest highlights in the failure of green technology.
Offshore wind projects canceled
Several offshore wind projects in New Jersey and Massachusetts got canceled earlier this year, after their European developers realized how much money they were set to lose on the project. In both instances, the companies contracted to build the projects blamed economic conditions and supply chain expenses for the cancelations, calling into serious question the financial viability of offshore wind as a major part of the energy grid in the United States. That’s on top of the growing mountain of evidence that offshore turbines cause serious harm to whales and other sea creatures. Meanwhile, in England, the Royal Air Force has expressed national security concerns over offshore wind farms interfering with its radar defense systems.
French wind farm ordered torn down over bird deaths
For perhaps the first time, a European court has sided with those who claim wind farms are bird blenders. A coalition of environmental groups sued over a wind farm in the south of France, and won their suit based on the number of deaths of protected golden eagles by the wind turbines. The plaintiffs testified they found more than 1,000 birds dead at the site, along with hundreds of bats. Their lawyer noted, “This is a veritable graveyard at the foot of the wind turbines.” The court ordered the wind farm demolished, pending appeal. This could potentially open the door to more lawsuits worldwide over protected birds—if environmental groups stand up for endangered species over “green” energy.
Oklahoma wind farm stopped
In December, the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered a foreign green energy firm to tear down a huge wind farm in Oklahoma after a lawsuit by the Osage Indian Tribe. The firm will also be ordered to pay damages in the penalty phase of the trial. Reports say it’s one of the biggest defeats ever for the wind industry.
Car dealers accept going out of business over selling EVs
According to reports, over 50 percent of Buick dealerships in the United States chose to accept a corporate buy-out and shut their doors instead of continuing to carry EVs that don’t sell. Preparing to switch to an all-EV lineup by 2030, Buick asked its domestic dealers to start selling them now or accept a buyout from General Motors. Half of them took the money and got out of the industry. This is likely due to the market having already reached saturation. Several reports showed demand for EVs taking a nosedive as 2023 progressed. Industry data shows EVs sit far longer on car lots than gasoline powered vehicles. One survey revealed 66 percent of dealerships in America don’t have any EVs for sale, and 45 percent said they would never sell EVs under any circumstances. Ouch.
Charging stations fail to fill the void in America
Across America, the artificial demand for EVs created by governmental intervention in the market has caused a crisis in infrastructure, as nowhere near enough charging stations exist for most of the EVs. Part of the problem is that Tesla has installed lots of new charging stations, but other brands of EV don’t connect to their chargers. Other carmakers and the federal government have tried to build new charging infrastructure… and have failed miserably. Volkswagen, for instance, spent $2 billion to install a network of chargers, only one out of four of which actually work. In 2021, Congress approved an additional $7.5 billion to build tens of thousands of chargers across the nation. Number of chargers installed in two years: zero.
EVs Fail in Hilarious Fashion
Some of the funniest green fails of 2023 happened with electric buses. In Edmonton and Dublin, city officials spent millions on fleets of new electric city buses, only to see them sit idle because they can’t afford to maintain them. Edmonton faces an additional problem—cold temperatures make the buses virtually unusable in the winter. Oslo, Norway spent €100 million on 183 new electric buses in 2023, but they’ve discovered they can’t run in the winter. Meanwhile, an electric bus in San Francisco lost its challenge to a hill and destroyed several cars in its backwards descent.
Diesel Power Saves Green Energy, Again and Again
Great political cartoon from the UK, based on real events:
This calls to mind the hilarious story of the world’s largest EV charging station getting its power from diesel:
Human Breathing Causes Global Warming, Especially Africans
A new study reveals human breath contributes to global warming, proving the frequent observation true: YOU are the carbon they want to reduce. Guess which humans are first in line?
We Can’t Leave 2023 Behind Without One More Look At Failed Green Tech
The inspiration for the graphic for this weekly column comes from some of the most hilarious failed machines in green technology.
First, a wind turbine in Texas appeared to have melted. It actually experienced structural failure due to … high wind.
Then, the German delegation was delayed getting out of Munich to attend the huge UN climate meeting in Dubai because several inches of global warming fell all over Europe, encasing everything in ice and getting jets stuck to the tarmac.
These images will never not be funny.
Here’s hoping the new year sees more climate sanity than 2023, but we’re not holding our breath—even if it would help cool the planet.
