Worst Climate Stories of the Week (It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas … In August??)

Aug 30, 2024
Jeff Reynolds
Energy & Environment

Santa Claus has brought all sorts of climate absurdities to all the good girls and boys.

The climate crisis bids you fond Christmas greetings from the mountains of the Western United States, which saw the first snow fall of the year—at the height of summer. We’re all dreaming of a white Christmas, no? To celebrate, Kris Kringle has gifted all the kids around the world a bag full of more absurd climate stories.

This week, along with the early start to our holiday weather, we have a credulous story of how climate anxiety harms young people; climate zealots in the Pacific Northwest painting wind turbines to keep them from killing birds, which they swear doesn’t happen anyway; meanwhile, that wind power will cost another state an absurd amount per kilowatt hour; the Kamala Harris campaign making an eye-popping claim about their climate agenda; and a new analysis shows the Biden-Harris green tax credits have gone far more to the rich than the poor in America.  

(Don't Miss Last Week's Column: Are the green fantasies coming apart?)

Actually, this week is a gift in another way, in that we have some good news stories to share that somehow escaped the corporate news cycle. The Glacier of Death™ may not be so deadly after all. And good news for the Obamas, who bought all those coastal mansions despite the risks of global warming, as shorelines have grown—not shrunk.

Let’s see if Santa liked the milk and cookies we left out for him!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

The dog days of summer are upon us, so you know what that means: snow!

Huh??

Wind-River-Pass-snow-in-August.jpg

Mt. Bachelor, in Central Oregon, the Sierra Nevadas in California, and the Wind River Range in Wyoming all got snow this week. It didn’t last long, as high temperatures moved back in to the western U.S., but in Virginia and North Carolina next week, lower than normal temperatures will give everyone a taste of autumn.


Time for pumpkin spice and candy canes!

Climate Anxiety Puts Kids—And the Media—On the Naughty List

Apparently, “climate aware therapists” have become all the rage for teenagers beset by climate anxiety. According to Just The News:

Climate-aware therapists are specialists who treat people whose anxiety about climate change interferes with their enjoyment of life. These specialists are now available in just about every major city across the United States.

Climate skeptics point to the media driving “overwhelming fears of climate change,” ignoring climate reality that would “calm anxieties.” In fact, a 2021 article published in the peer-reviewed journal Lancet debunked this new line of therapy: Climate anxiety does not need a diagnosis of a mental health disorder. One professor told Just The News, “I think this is the first generation where they've their whole lives that the planet is on its way to ending at some point in their lifetime, civilization is going to collapse and the food supply will be destroyed.”

Maybe they should provide therapists to kids who have been lied to their whole lives, solely for the purposes of ginning up these irrational fears?

Dear Santa Claus, We Haven’t Been THAT Naughty, and You Can’t Prove It Anyway

Supporters of alternative energy intended to end our reliance on “fossil fuels” often tell us, “Don’t believe your lying eyes. Nobody has proven that wind turbines kill large numbers of birds and bats.”

Don’t take it as a tacit admission of guilt, then, when Oregon researchers investigate the possibility of painting wind turbine blades black to keep birds away:

A simple coat of black paint on the white blade of a wind turbine could save countless birds from flying into the machines and to their deaths each year.

It’s working in Norway, and now researchers from Oregon State University are trying it in the West. With $400,000 allocated by the state Legislature, Christian Hagen, an associate professor in the university’s Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences, is leading a team that’s painting turbines at a PacifiCorp wind farm in Wyoming.

The article gave a wide range of possible bird kill numbers caused by wind turbines each year. The researchers hope that painting one blade black will allow birds, especially raptors, to see the blades and avoid running into them.

Wind Power Costs How Much?! Bah, Humbug!

Speaking of the unacceptable costs of wind power, the Wall Street Journal reported the anticipated results of New York’s large offshore wind power projects. Beginning in 2026, the Empire State will pay around $155 per megawatt hour for power generated by two large offshore wind farms. That is more than four times what they pay for conventional power. Currently the state’s power generation costs around $36 per megawatt hour. The WSJ writes that the east coast offshore wind industry is in “turmoil.” They explain, “States agree to pay wind-power operators—known as the “offtake price”—based on a project’s “break-even cost,” the estimated bill for building and operating the wind farm over its useful life.”

Sounds like another solid investment by a blue state run by extremists.

Lying Will Get Kamala On the Naughty List

This may come as a surprise, so brace yourself: Kamala Harris has flip-flopped on one of her signature policy issues as she runs for president. She—or her handlers—now claim she does not support mandates for electric vehicles (EVs):



What’s next, support for a border wall?

Green Tax Credits A Gift—To the Wealthy

The Biden-Harris administration has left lots of presents under the Christmas trees of rich people, and gave the poors lumps of coal in their stockings. According to E&E News, an environmental outlet acquired by Politico:

Upper-income homeowners are scooping up billions of dollars in tax credits for making their residences more energy efficient, while the poor are getting almost nothing under the same Biden administration effort.

That’s according to an analysis by POLITICO’s E&E News of a tax credit program that was expanded under President Joe Biden and is designed to spur homeowners to buy solar panels, insulation materials and other items that can reduce energy bills and home emissions.

Now, this of course pencils out when one considers the well-to-do have more disposable income, and better ability to invest in home ownership. They also pay more taxes, so they naturally qualify for more tax credits. But it’s almost as if these tax credits disproportionately favor the rich by design. It also doesn’t do a lot to reduce emissions, according to economists quoted for the story.

Rich people virtue signaling. That seems to be the main constituency of the Biden-Harris administration.

Let’s check out some news from the Nice List.

Santa’s Workshop—On the Move?

Ok, this is the South Pole, not the North Pole, but stick with us here. An enormous ice sheet in West Antarctica has caught the attention of climate zealots, who claim global warming will make it break off, causing seas to rise 100 feet when it melts. Global warming computer models show the Thwaites Glacier could collapse, causing doom around the world.

A recent peer-reviewed journal entry threw some cold water on that hypothesis. The paper, “The West Antarctic Ice Sheet may not be vulnerable to marine ice cliff instability during the 21st century,” says to pump the brakes on all the panic:

Here, we implement a physically motivated parameterization in three ice sheet models and simulate the response of the Amundsen Sea Embayment after a hypothetical collapse of floating ice. All models show that Thwaites Glacier would not retreat further in the 21st century. In another set of simulations, we force the grounding line to retreat into Thwaites’ deeper basin to expose a taller cliff. In these simulations, rapid thinning and velocity increase reduce the calving rate, stabilizing the cliff. These experiments show that Thwaites may be less vulnerable to MICI than previously thought, and model projections that include this process should be re-evaluated.

More Christmas Lights in More Palm Trees

Would you believe shorelines around the world have grown, not shrunk? That’s the conclusion you won’t see on the nightly news. Climate scientist Matthew Wielicki, writing at his Substack, says, “natural variability plays a significant role in modulating sea level changes—a factor often underrepresented in public discourse.”


Expect to see more scenes like this in the future:


(Learn more: How the Left’s Global Warming Ideology Wrecked Science—And How to Stop It)

Jeff Reynolds is Senior Editor for Restoration News, specializing in energy and science policy, as well as dark money. Jeff is an author, editor, strategist, and public speaker. A prolific researcher and writer, he authored the book Behind the Curtain in 2019, which details the billionaires and foundations responsible for the radical left's ascension in American politics. Jeff graduated from Connecticut College with a bachelor's in Zoology. 

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