It’s been interesting, it’s been challenging, and it’s been exhausting. It has also been a bit surreal. What follows is a combination of my experiences and events taken from news reports and social media.

Let’s start with my arrival at the airport Monday morning after a red-eye flight. Leaving baggage claim, the first thing I see is a TV reporter doing a report from in front of an information kiosk for COP25.

Then on ride from the airport to the hotel, a couple of billboards touting “climate emergency” or “climate crisis”. I didn’t get photos of those since I could not get a clear shot from the shuttle, but there’s this one from Greenpeace covering up some legitimate and paid for advertising. I guess they don’t like cars.

Here are some other photos. The policia were everywhere, they really put the “Cop” in COP25.

Inside, they really lay out the welcome mat for you. I have no idea what “climate debt” is, but it’s probably just another excuse to extract money.

The world on ice….nice imagery, but just as stupid as the previous photo.

Time for action? Hmm seems like every conference says that. Yet, the world is unmoved it seems:

These kids apparently didn’t get the action memo:

Here, some extinction rebellion people did something. This report from AFP will have to suffice because I didn’t want to get close to any of these people:

They like to hand out awards at these events, here’s some kids getting awards on behalf of their countries for daring to keep the lights on:

Then, there were the ubiquitous polar bears. I’m not sure how they fit into nuclear energy, but I’ll take it:

Nancy Pelosi and Sheldon Whitehouse showed up with an entourage of like minded political simpletons and made some blah blah claims to make it look like the U.S. really hasn’t left the 2015 Paris Climate Accord:

Here is what she said:

“Today, our delegation concluded a successful two-day visit to COP25 in Madrid with a message on behalf of the U.S. Congress of ‘We’re still in,’” Speaker Pelosi said.  “Combating the climate crisis is the existential threat of our time and it was essential that our delegation stand with international partners, who are continuing to build upon and solidify their commitments to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals.”

source: https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/12319-1

Ummm, riiiight. That ship didn’t sail, it already sank. And for the record, President Trump did in fact start the process to pull the U.S. out of that quagmire. I think Pelosi is holding onto the hope that Trump will be impeached or un-elected before the one-year withdrawal deadline is up.

Sheldon Whitehouse had to get his licks in too, citing the imaginary funding from “big oil”.

Then there was Greta Thunberg, and the media frenzy around all that. This video from Euronews sums up the non-event of fossil fueled chase boats trying to get a glimpse of the eco-saint-in-waiting pretty well:

There was lots of shouting from the McKibbenites too:

While all this circus action was going on, I was involved in a live video feed sponsored by The Heartland Institute. Here is Dr. Will Happer, former science adviser to President Trump:

And, we made the news in the local newspaper in Madrid, the “El Confidencial” ran an in-depth piece on The Heartland Institute live feed.

I somehow managed to capture front-and-center:

In the photo above, Heartland’s James Taylor is on the left, and on the right is hurricane researcher Stanley Goldenberg who has his head down because he’s typing a response to some troll on the YouTube Q&A feed.

This is what they had to say about me:

Translated:

Some, such as Anthony Watts, a former television meteorologist who became a successful blogger within the skeptical sphere, supported the existence of climate change although they claimed that the homogenization of data by scientists was nothing more than a manipulation to present temperature rises. as much more pronounced in the name of the algorithm. “Where is the climatic emergency?”, He asked himself, “there really isn’t one: they take pristine data and modify it in the name of homogenization, thus moving from a mild warming to an alarming warming.”

Where is the weather emergency? There really isn’t.

Watts wondered why all those scientists and activists at COP25 insisted on denying this evidence of theirs: “They think they are on a mission.”

source: https://www.elconfidencial.com/tecnologia/ciencia/2019-12-04/contracumbre-escepticos-negacionistas-cop25_2363471/

When my live feed presentation is ready on YouTube, I’ll add it.

In short, here’s my impression of COP25:

It was a whole lot of hot air talking about cooling the planet, shouting it is “time for action”, while putting out hands asking for money.

The conference seemed subdued compared to the bigger shindigs of Copenhagen in 2009 (which ClimateGate successfully skewered) and Paris in 2015 which got hamstrung by Donald Trump a year later.

Perhaps it was due to the last-minute switch from Chile, perhaps people are realizing these conferences are pointless.

For certain, we live in interesting times.

Next week I’m off to the AGU convention in San Francisco. But, I have to shop for galoshes first.