Worst Climate Stories of the Week–Charles Ponzi Is Rolling Over In His Grave
Meanwhile, some groups suggest taking magic mushrooms will make you feel ok about all this.
Charles Ponzi wasn't the first person to steal people's investments by lying to them about guaranteed returns, but he's the most famous. After all, we named the scheme after him—the Ponzi Scheme. Then Bernie Madoff came along and made Ponzi look like an amateur, defrauding thousands of investors out of over $65 billion.
Impressive total, but even Madoff doesn't hold a candle to the largest Ponzi scheme ever concocted in human history.
That title belongs to the United States government, in the form of Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. Not only did it fail to reduce inflation, indeed it added to inflation by creating over $1.2 trillion in new spending on green initiatives. All of that money was taken from the taxpayer, while raising prices on the taxpayer on the back end in the form of higher inflation. Not only is it a Ponzi scheme to create a slush fund, it's actually double taxation without representation.
And the Democrats hailed it as the triumph of the Green New Deal.
Maybe if we can get enough Americans to take psychedelic drugs, they'll accept it and learn to live in harmony, like a flock of birds.
That's an actual quote from an actual article in an actual scientific periodical. Which only goes to show we're still digging out from the woke insanity that has infested society for the past couple of decades.
We've got several stories this week about slush funds administered by Democrat cronies to give money to other Democrat cronies, and Europe jumping in on the scam train. We also have extreme heat causing accelerated aging; California blaming green energy for high energy prices; plants have lost their appetite for carbon dioxide because of . . . you guessed it . . . global warming; and, yes, climate groups propose psychedelic drugs to make people more receptive to their message.
In our good news segment, we have a grab bag of green energy failure news, which serves to accelerate our return to energy policies that make sense.
Let's get to it.
(DON'T MISS LAST WEEK'S COLUMN: Is the CO2 Endangerment Finding Endangered?)
Ponzi Schemes and Money Laundering Dominate American and European Spending
There are so many breaking stories this week regarding what's been uncovered in American spending on green insanity, we can't cover it all. In addition, we have what's being called the European Commission's biggest scandal in 20 years, again involving green energy. The common theme? Governments funding non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that turn around and undermine cheap and reliable energy that keeps society running. As many have pointed out, if they receive government funding, they don't exactly qualify as non-governmental, now do they?
A headline in the New York Post tells the whole story: $375B EPA slush fund handled by John Podesta gave billions to charities founded only months earlier. You may remember John Podesta as a senior advisor in the Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations. You probably don't remember his brother Tony, whose lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, was under federal investigation for failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for lobbying for Ukraine (an investigation eventually dropped by Attorney General Merrick Garland). After he closed up shop, Tony was hired by Huawei as a lobbyist.
From Bari Weiss of the Free Press (via X):
The Department of Justice is investigating the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion program that was part of Joe Biden’s $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act. Created in the spring of 2023, and managed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the fund was supposed to be a “first-of-its-kind” program to address the climate crisis while revitalizing communities that it considered “historically left behind.” But it appears little of the $27 billion revitalized anything—except the coffers of a range of environmental nonprofits associated with former Obama and Biden administration officials.
Mario Nawfal reports on a "popup nonprofit shell" on X:
TAXPAYER TREASURE IN THE HANDS OF SHADOWS: THE CLIMATE UNITED FUND SCANDAL
A nonprofit no one had heard of, born in obscurity in 2022, reportedly landed the largest nonprofit grant in U.S. history—$7 billion from Biden’s climate war chest by April 2024. The Climate United Fund, a “popup nonprofit shell,” burned through nearly all its initial revenue in just two months, then received billions for vague solar projects.
A headline from the Washington Free Beacon: Biden EPA Gave a Social Justice Group $20 Million To Replace Lead Pipes and Restore Wetlands. The Group Has Experience With Neither.
Europe also got in on that sweet, sweet Ponzi action: The European Commission Faces Its Biggest Scandal in 20 Years. According to a press release from an industry group, "[T]he European Commission had been financing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) lobbying for the policies of former EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans and influencing politicians to push through his 'Green Deal.' It has now come to light that the EU commission gave €1 billion of public funds to green NGOs and lobbyists to promote the policies of the EU Commission."
Global Warming Makes You Old
According to The Science, global warming will accelerate your aging process: "New research my team and I published in the journal Science Advances suggests that long-term exposure to extreme heat may speed up biological aging at the molecular level, raising concerns about the long-term health risks posed by a warming climate." They did this by correlating blood tests with climate records and applying some computer modeling magic to it.
Correlation plus computer modeling = the current state of science these days. Always trust The Science.
California Rages Against the Light
Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Well, talk about your burning and raving! The Golden State has suddenly turned against that golden light. SFGate reports:
For years, California has pushed its residents to install solar panels on their homes with generous payments and tax breaks to boost the spread of the environmentally friendly tech. Hundreds of thousands of people bought in. But amid sky-high electricity rates, the state government is turning those residents into something of a scapegoat.
. . . .
A state ratepayers’ advocacy office argued in a December report that solar owners are being compensated too much for their panels’ excess energy and aren’t paying their “fair share” of the grid’s costs.
Man, the pool of people who need to pay their "fair share" just keeps on expanding, doesn't it?
Plants Don't Like Plant Food Anymore
The Science has discovered that plants can't absorb carbon dioxide anymore:
James Curran, the former chief executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and his son Sam analysed the ups and downs in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, revealing that peak carbon sequestration occurred in 2008, and since then the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by plants has declined by an average of 0.25% a year. “The findings are very stark. Emissions now need to fall by 0.3% per year, just to stand still. That’s a tall order since they typically increase by 1.2% per year,” said James Curran, whose findings are published in the journal Weather.
Who knew plants could commit suicide? Thank goodness for correlation and computer models, the combination that underpins the most important of The Science.
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out for Mother Gaia
If you haven't fully grasped the importance of global boiling and the climate crisis, you probably need to expand your mind, man:
[I]f more people transcend into the psychedelic realm, it could encourage more awe and appreciation of nature and a deeper personal connection to the world.
Psychedelics for Climate Action (PSYCA) hopes that maybe, just maybe, humankind might learn to live in harmony "like a flock of birds."
"Psychedelics teach that we are all one and that we are all family on this planet, and we need to collectively protect our home," said Marissa Feinberg, PYSCA's founder.
PSYCA met in Miami to discuss how resistance to The Science is a lot like a mental condition, and how psychedelic drugs break down that resistance. "It can be a really beautiful, powerful awakening," one speaker said. "When we feel our best we do our best."
This was actually published at Phys.org, a website dedicated to science journalism.
Now for this week's Good News segment.
Green Energy Failures Everywhere
It's always nice to see industries forced to succeed or fail on their own merits, instead of being propped up with exorbitant federal subsidies.
Speaking of which, let's check in on green energy.
From Not the Bee: Michigan's governor gave $900,000 to an EV battery company that packed up and moved to South Carolina.
The Biden administration doled out the largest federal loan to a solar company in history—to the tune of $3 billion—and you'll never guess what happened next. That's right, the company, Sunnova, went bankrupt. On top of that, they're under investigation for their business practices, which apparently included scamming "dementia patients on their deathbeds into signing five-figure, multi-decade solar panel leases."
Who noticed the small announcement that Australia Blue, the first wind farm, is shutting down after 20 years? Situated in Western Victoria the closure is for financial reasons, the turbines have to be replaced and it is unaffordable to do so. The alternative is also unappealing…
— Duchess of Exeter 🌏 (@WhosFibbing) February 20, 2025
The Australia Broadcasting Corporation reports: "One of Australia's first commercial wind farms has been earmarked for decommissioning after its owners ruled out replacing aging turbines due to cost.The Codrington Wind Farm opened near Port Fairy in south-west Victoria in July 2001, marking a new frontier in renewable energy in Australia."
Despite the site being "close to perfect," the turbines failed far faster than expected, and would be prohibitively expensive to replace. Now to try to figure out how to recycle all that wasted material.
(READ MORE ABOUT GREEN CORRUPTION: (EXCLUSIVE: NOAA Caught Manipulating Temperature Data to Advance the Global Warming Narrative)
