The Week That Was: 2025-08-16 (August 16, 2025)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” — Richard Feynman
Number of the Week: 93% pre-industrial?
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: TWTW begins with the highlights of Andrew Bolt’s interview of Steven Koonin then continues with a discussion of key issues in the report by the Climate Working Group to the Secretary of Energy. TWTW concludes with a discussion of increasing greenhouse gases today. *********************
Koonin Interviews: John Robson posted his long interview of Steven Koonin on Climate Change Nexus. Also, Paul Homewood posted an interview of Koonin by Andrew Bolt. Koonin is one of the five independent scientists who participated in the Climate Working Group that produced special report prepared for the US Department of Energy (DOE) titled ‘A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate.’ Koonin was formerly Obama’s Under Secretary for Science, Department of Energy:
The Bolt interview is short and succinct. Among the key points Koonin made are:
- Excessively aggressive mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial.
- The authors long felt that the science is misrepresented and wanted to do their best to correct this error.
- The global climate models are demonstrably deficient.
- Impacts in the models do not forecast extreme events.
- The authors estimated a warming of 1 °C by 2100: less that what IPCC says. We don’t predict, but we assess and cite the work of others.
- The public has short memory of disastrous events; we need to look at the long-term record.
- We really don’t understand why the 1930s were so much warmer than in many subsequent decades.
- We have poor understanding of why the climate varies.
- We need to balance the certainties and uncertainties of a changing climate against other certainties like the world needs more energy.
- Hothouse [commercial greenhouse] CO2 levels are up to three times that of Earth.
- Bolt: What criticisms have you seen that substantial?
- The typographical error in one of the footnotes will be fixed.
- We are refraining from looking at the criticisms for the next few weeks, then like good scientists we will modify, and correct errors as warranted.
TWTW has reviewed independent comments from three of the five scientists comprising the Climate Working Group concerning their report. Thus far, there appears to be no comments from John Christy or Ross McKitrick. No one has suggested that anyone in the Department of Energy interfered with the preparation or publication of the report. As the preface of the report states:
‘This document originated in late March 2025 when Secretary Wright assembled an independent group to write a report on issues in climate science relevant for energy policymaking, including evidence and perspectives that challenge the mainstream consensus. We agreed to undertake the work on the condition that there would be no editorial oversight by the Secretary, the Department of Energy, or any other government personnel. This condition has been honored throughout the process, and the writing team has worked with full independence.’[Boldface added]
See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
*********************
Review of the Climate Working Group Report (Part 1): The body of “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate” opens with:
‘Part I: Direct Human Influence On Ecosystems and the Climate
I Carbon Dioxide as a Pollutant
Chapter summary:
Carbon dioxide (CO2) differs in many ways from the so-called Criteria Air Pollutants. It does not affect local air quality and has no human toxicological implications at ambient levels. It is an issue of concern because of its effects on the global climate.’
After discussing the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the six so-called Criteria Air Contaminants subject to EPA regulation the chapter concludes with:
‘Ambient outdoor air today contains about 430 parts per million (ppm) CO2, increasing at about 2 ppm per year. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration issues guidelines for indoor workplaces in which elevated CO2 might be encountered, such as where dry ice is used. The Permissible Exposure Limit is 5,000 ppm over 8 hours (OSHA, 2024). Allen et al. (2015) reported evidence of diminished performance on some cognitive tasks among workers in office cubicles when exposed to CO2 levels above 1,000-1,500 ppm. These levels are far larger than any plausible ambient outdoor value through the end of the 22nd century.
The growing amount of CO2 in the atmosphere directly influences the earth system by promoting plant growth (global greening), thereby enhancing agricultural yields, and by neutralizing ocean alkalinity. But the primary concern about CO2 is its role as a greenhouse gas (GHG) that alters the earth’s energy balance, warming the planet. How the climate will respond to that influence is a complex question that will occupy much of this report.’ [Boldface added]
The next chapter starts with:
‘2 Direct Impacts of CO2 on the Environment
Chapter summary:
CO2 enhances photosynthesis and improves plant water use efficiency, thereby promoting plant growth. Global greening is due in part to increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere is well-established on all continents.
CO2 absorption in sea water makes the oceans less alkaline. The recent decline in pH is within the range of natural variability on millennial time scales. Most ocean life evolved when the oceans were mildly acidic. Decreasing pH might adversely affect corals, although the Australian Great Barrier Reef has shown considerable growth in recent years.
TWTW is uncertain about the statement “Most ocean life evolved when the oceans were mildly acidic” with a pH slightly below 7. Most ocean life may have may have evolved with a pH slightly above 7, mildly alkaline. But this is a minor point of uncertainty, not a contention. The chapter continues with:
2.1 CO2 as a contributor to global greening
The growing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has the important positive effect of promoting plant growth by enhancing photosynthesis and improving water use efficiency. That is evident in the ‘global greening’ phenomenon discussed below, as well as in the improving agricultural yields discussed in Chapter 10. Here we focus just on CO2 fertilization; research on combined effects due to temperature and precipitation changes are discussed in Chapter 10.
2.1.1 Measurement of global greening
‘Greening’ refers to an increase in the fraction of the Earth’s surface covered by plants. It can be quantified by the ‘Leaf Area Index’ (LAI) measured by satellite. Many studies over the past decade have confirmed a global greening pattern (increase in LAI) attributable in part to rising CO2 levels. Zhu et al. (2016) was one of the first studies to report that global greening was detectable using satellite sensors. From 1982 to 2011 they detected greening over 25-50 percent of the Earth versus ‘browning’ over only four percent and attributed 70 percent of the greening to rising CO2 levels (see Figure 2.1). Other contributors included land-use changes, warming and nitrogen. The fraction attributable to CO2 was largest in the tropics; other factors played more dominant roles in CONUS.’
Here we see the tremendous difference between this report and the UN IPCC and US National Climate Assessment reports. Reports on the effects of CO2 that ignore the importance of global greening have major omissions that are a form of “cherry picking” leading to highly biased conclusions. As the Climate Working Group report states:
2.1.4 CO2 fertilization benefits in IPCC Reports
“The IPCC has only minimally discussed global greening and CO2 fertilization of agricultural crops. The topic is briefly acknowledged in a few places in the body of the IPCC 6th and earlier Assessment Reports but is omitted in all Summary documents. Section 2.3.4.3.3 of the AR6 Working Group I report, entitled “global greening and browning,” points out that the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land had concluded with high confidence that greening had increased globally over the past 2-3 decades. It then discusses that there are variations in the greening trend among data sets, concluding that while they have high confidence greening has occurred, they have low confidence in the magnitude of the trend. There are also brief mentions of CO2 fertilization effects and improvements in water use efficiency in a few other chapters in the AR6 Working Groups I and II Reports.
Overall, however, the Policymaker Summaries, Technical Summaries, and Synthesis Reports of AR5 and AR6 do not discuss the topic.” [Boldface added]
The chapter continues with:
“2.2 The Alkaline Oceans
2.2.1 Changing pH.
A neutral aqueous solution has a pH of 7.0, while one with pH greater than 7.0 is alkaline (also termed basic) and with pH less than 7.0 is acidic. The modern-day global average pH of surface sea water is estimated to be 8.04 (Copernicus Marine Service 2025, Figure 2.3), down from an estimated value of 8.2 in pre-Industrial times (Gattuso and Hansson, 2011). As CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere increased, the oceans absorbed more, which decreases their pH. Depending upon the oceans’ buffering capacity, they are expected to become somewhat less alkaline over time, consistent with the observed decrease in pH.”
Figure 2.3 is omitted here but in the text.
“While this process is often called ‘ocean acidification,’ that is a misnomer because the oceans are not expected to become acidic; ‘ocean neutralization’ would be more accurate. Even if the water were to turn acidic, it is believed that life in the oceans evolved when the oceans were mildly acidic with pH 6.5 to 7.0 (Krissansen-Totton et al., 2018). On the time scale of thousands of years, boron isotope proxy measurements show that ocean pH was around 7.4 or 7.5 during the last glaciation (up to about 20,000 years ago) increasing to present-day values as the world warmed during deglaciation (Rae et al., 2018). Thus, ocean biota appears to be resilient to natural long-term changes in ocean pH since marine organisms were exposed to wide ranges in pH.”
The Climate Working Group refutes the fear of “ocean acidification” promoted by NOAA during the Obama administration. Indeed, there are sections of the oceans above geothermal vents where the waters are acidic, pH below 7, where shellfish and other marine life live. The chapter concludes with:
“In summary, ocean life is complex and much of it evolved when the oceans were acidic relative to the present. The ancestors of modern coral first appeared about 245 million years ago. CO2 levels for more than 200 million years afterward were many times higher than they are today. Much of the public discussion of the effects of ocean ‘acidification’ on marine biota has been one-sided and exaggerated.” [Boldface added]
Chapter 3 begins with:
“3 Human Influences on the Climate
Chapter Summary:
The global climate is naturally variable on all time scales. Anthropogenic CO2 emissions add to that variability by changing the total radiative energy balance in the atmosphere.
The IPCC has downplayed the role of the sun in climate change but there are plausible solar irradiance reconstructions that imply it contributed to recent warming.
Climate projections are based on IPCC emission scenarios that have tended to exceed observed trends.
Most academic climate impact studies in recent years are based upon the extreme RCP 8.5 scenario that is now considered implausible; its use as a business-as-usual scenario has been misleading.
Carbon cycle models connect annual emissions to growth in the atmospheric CO2 stock. While models disagree over the rate of land and ocean CO2 uptake, all agree that it has been increasing since 1959.
There is evidence that urbanization biases in the land warming record have not been completely removed from climate data sets.
3.1 Components of radiative forcing and their history
3.1.1 Historical radiative forcing
A changing climate has been the norm throughout the Earth’s 4.6-billion-year history. The Earth’s temperature and weather patterns change naturally over timescales ranging from decades to millions of years. Natural variations in the surface climate originate in two ways. Internal climate fluctuations associated with circulations in the atmosphere and ocean exchange energy, water, and carbon between the atmosphere, oceans, land, and ice. External influences on the climate system include variations in the energy received from the sun and the effects of volcanic eruptions. Human activities influence climate through changing land use and land cover. Humans are also changing the composition of the atmosphere by emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases and by altering the concentration of aerosol particles in the atmosphere.
The earth is warmed by the sunlight it absorbs and is cooled by the heat it radiates to space. Averaged over the Earth’s surface, each of these processes involve power flows of about 240 Watts per square meter (W/m2). When they are in balance, there are no net external causes of warming or cooling. Both human and natural influences on the climate alter this balance and so cause the climate to change.”
The Climate Working Group report presents graphs from the UN IPCC report AR6 (2021) [not shown here] then states:
“These graphs show that the total radiative forcing is comprised of both natural and anthropogenic components. Carbon dioxide is the largest human influence on the climate and the one most relevant to the influence of fossil fuel use. It exerts a warming influence by decreasing the cooling power of the atmosphere. Emissions of CO2 are accumulating in the atmosphere, as described in the following section, so that the warming influence is growing. Other greenhouse gases (methane, nitrous oxide, halogens, and ozone) act similarly, currently adding another 75 percent to CO2’s warming. Aerosols exert an overall cooling effect, although with large uncertainties in the way they catalyze the formation of reflective clouds. As a result, understanding the causes of recent warming requires not just identifying the warming effects of CO2, but also the more uncertain cooling effects of aerosols.” [Boldface added]
It should be noted here that the Climate Working Group is discussing what the UN IPCC asserts, not what it necessarily accepts. As stated in the last TWTW, the global climate modelers assert that the modest warming from CO2 will be amplified by an equal warming from increasing water vapor and other warming such as methane, nitrous oxide, etc. The modelers have failed to produce the physical evidence demonstrating that this additional warming from other atmospheric gases is taking place. Periods of strong warming may be due to changes in the intensity of the sunlight hitting the surface of Earth, changes in ocean circulation, or other natural changes. This section of Chapter 3 concludes with:
“Figure 3.1.1 [not shown here] shows that the anthropogenic forcing component was negligible before about 1900 and has increased steadily since, rising to almost 3 W/m2 today. However, this is still only about 1 percent of the unperturbed radiation flows, making it a challenge to isolate the effects of anthropogenic forcing; state of-the-art satellite estimates of global radiative energy flows are only accurate to a few W/m2.
.
Natural sources of global energy imbalance other than volcanoes and total solar irradiance (TSI) are not included in these [UN IPCC] graphs because they remain largely unknown.” [Boldface added]
The Climate Working Group report continues with discussions of changes in atmospheric CO2 since 1958 as measured by Mauna Loa observatory and Future emission scenarios and the carbon cycle. A key paragraph in the discussion of the carbon cycle is:
“The main processes that remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere are increased growth of land vegetation (especially at high latitudes), some increase in the sequestering of carbon in soils, and uptake of CO2 by the ocean due to the increasing partial pressure of atmospheric CO2 over that of CO2 dissolved in the ocean. All twenty land carbon cycle models tracked by the Global Carbon Project (Friedlingstein et al., 2024) show land processes have been removing excess CO2 at an increasing rate since 1959. This is consistent with a ‘global greening’ phenomenon (Chapter 2.1) observed by satellites since monitoring of global greenness began in 1982.” [Boldface added]
In the section Urbanization influence on temperature trends, the Climate Working Group states the UN IPCC reports largely ignore the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) despite increasing evidence and reports that they are significant. The section and chapter conclude with:
“The challenge in measuring UHI bias is relating local temperature change to a corresponding change in population or urbanization, rather than to a static classification variable such as rural or urban. Spencer et al. (2025) used newly available historical population archives to undertake such an analysis and found evidence of significant UHI bias in U.S. summertime temperature data.
In summary, while there is clear warming in the land record, there is also evidence that it is biased upward by patterns of urbanization and that these biases have not been completely removed by the data processing algorithms used to produce climate data sets.”
The next TWTW will discuss the Climate Working Group report on Climate Response to CO2 Emissions to include Climate Sensitivity to CO2 Forcing and Discrepancies Between Models and Instrumental Observations.
*********************
Towards Understanding the Importance of Increasing Greenhouse Gases: Kenneth Richard of No Tricks Zone discusses the paper “Unsettling the settled: simple musings on the complex climatic system” by Demetris Koutsoyiannis and George Tsakalias. The paper is an interesting thought experiment presenting physical evidence, not a hypothesis. In part, the abstract states:
Our revisit of fundamental issues of climate challenges the notion and term of the “greenhouse effect,” and attempts a scientific reevaluation using minimal assumptions, such as Newton’s laws, maximum entropy, and gas spectroscopy. It replaces terms like “greenhouse gas” with “radiatively active gas” (RAG) and “greenhouse effect” with “atmospheric radiative effect” (ARE). While ARE exist in several planets’ atmospheres, on Earth it is primarily driven by water vapor and clouds, with CO2 playing a minor role (especially anthropogenic CO2 which represents 4% of total emissions).
The paper discusses the works of van Wijngaarden and Happer. Then it later states:
“3.5 What factors can explain the observed temperature profile?
Given the analysis of the previous subsection, it becomes clear that it is not the ARE that creates and maintains the temperature gradient. Rather the mechanisms responsible for the temperature gradient are:
• the warming of the soil and liquid water by the sunshine during the day and their cooling during the night;
• the water evaporation and transpiration at the surface level and condensation aloft;
• the convection, and the implied vertical transfer of sensible and latent heat;
• the winds caused by spatial temperature differences and influenced by Coriolis forces.
These are not static forcings, but processes, i.e., perpetual changes in the climatic system. The processes occur on different time scales, some of which are too small to drive the atmosphere to the equilibrium (isothermal) state. It is noted that the processes occur at a macroscopic level, with the motion of masses of air, typically referred to as parcels. And as noted by van Wijngaarden and Happer (2023), because of the very small thermal conductivity of air, it takes a very long time for appreciable heat to flow into or out of a parcel of reasonable size.
The driving mechanisms of these processes are the following:
1. Clouds form and disappear, strongly affecting the SW and LW radiation processes.
2. The Earth’s surface is not homogeneous in terms of radiation absorption and reflection (varying albedo). The massive presence of water in liquid and solid phases with different albedo values, both on the Earth’s surface (hydrosphere, cryosphere) and in the atmosphere (clouds) is responsible for spatial and temporal variations in the albedo, as well as in the thermodynamic properties of different parts of the Earth.
3. Earth is round (not flat) and the sunrays come with different slopes at different places.
4. Earth rotates around its axis on a daily basis.
5. Earth rotates around the Sun on an annual basis.
6. Earth’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical, resulting in changes in the distance between the two bodies.
7. The climatic system is complex and is subject to irregular changes.”
The paper ends with:
“4 Discussion and conclusions
The research presented here challenges the ideas that we live in a greenhouse and that science can be settled and revisits the most fundamental topics related to climate. This is attempted in the simplest possible way and using the fewest premises, such as Newton’s laws, the principle of maximum entropy and the spectroscopic properties of gases. Additionally, the study proposes that commonly used vocabulary should be replaced by rigorous scientific terminology, the main examples being “greenhouse gas” and “greenhouse effect”, which could be replaced by “radiatively active gas” (RAG, comprising water vapor—WV—and non-condensing radiatively active gases—NC-RAGs) and “atmospheric radiative effect” (ARE), respectively.
The conclusions of the analyses presented here can be summarized as follows:
• There is an empirically verified ARE in the atmosphere, not only on Earth but also on the other planets. On Earth, ARE is dominated by WV and clouds, with CO2 playing a very minor role—let alone human added CO2 which represents only 4% of the total emissions to the atmosphere. [Boldface added]
• Equilibrium thermodynamics clearly show (either using the principle of maximum entropy, or stochastic simulation of molecule collisions) that Earth’s atmosphere would be isothermal at the equilibrium, with or without RAGs. In an isothermal atmosphere the temperature would be slightly higher than 250 K, a value which represents the vertically average temperature of the standard atmosphere over the troposphere and stratosphere.
• The fact is that the atmosphere is not isothermal. Rather, the troposphere has a vertical temperature gradient of about 6.5 K/km, which is imprinted in the standard atmosphere. The gradient is resultant of macroscopic changes that drive the atmosphere out of equilibrium. While the moist adiabatic changes play a role in shaping this gradient, they cannot fully predict real atmospheric conditions.
• The mean surface temperature of 288 K, also imprinted in the standard atmosphere, is much higher than the equilibrium temperature. While RAGs (mostly WV and clouds) play a role in yielding this temperature, the critical factor is the vertical temperature gradient, without which the ARE alone would not be able to increase the equilibrium temperature.
• Given the importance of the atmospheric temperature gradient, which is described by large-scale atmospheric thermodynamics, rather than radiative physics, it is puzzling that the emphasis in climate research has been on the latter. This gradient is not a universal constant, but it varies with space and time. It is therefore useful to monitor and analyze its changes. The data show that since 1950 the gradient has weakened in the tropics and grown in the polar areas resulting in decrease of the surface equator-to-pole gradient, as expected in global warming conditions.
A final point worth stressing is that in complex systems, such as the climatic system, observational data are the only scientific test bed for making hypotheses and assessing their validity. Focusing on one of the factors affecting the climatic system, namely, the anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and basing on models that emphasize this factor, may distort our perception of the big picture and be detrimental to science, whose objective is to pursue the truth.” [Boldface added]
TWTW disagrees with “let alone human added CO2 which represents only 4% of the total emissions to the atmosphere.” The estimated CO2 level during the last interglacial warm period 130,000 to 115,000 years ago was 260 to 280 ppmv, Since 1958, the atmospheric CO2 as measured at Mauna Loa has increased from less than 320 ppmv to over 420 ppmv. Other than human emissions, there is no satisfactory explanation for this increase.
However, TWTW agrees with the substance of the paper and the importance of CO2 on weather is overemphasized by politicians and others who claim that by controlling CO2 emissions they can control the weather and climate. They cannot. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
*********************
Number of the Week: 93% pre-industrial? Many commentators seem to be confused by the concept of saturation as discussed in the works of van Wijngaarden and Happer. Discussed in last week’s TWTW, Howard Hayden’s paper has an excellent graph depicting saturation (Figure 14: Net IR blockage (seen from top of atmosphere) by CO2 versus CO2 concentration, adapted from van Wijngaarden & Happer.)
A very small amount of CO2 accounts for the first 10 W/m2 of blocking and less than 50 ppmv accounts for more than 20 W/m2 of blocking. The effectiveness of additional units declines as the number of units increases. At less than 100 ppmv of CO2 in the atmosphere it is said to be saturated. This means that virtually all the radiative energy in the particular frequencies (or wavelengths) that CO2 most readily absorbs and emits radiation is being absorbed and emitted. CO2’s effectiveness is limited, and higher concentrations of CO2 have limited effectiveness.
If we accept that the pre-industrial CO2 was about 280 ppmv, using Hayden’s figure we can estimate that by 280 ppmv about 93% of today’s warming effect of CO2 was occurring in pre-industrial times. The human influence is small. Note that these calculations are for clear skies. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer and Challenging the Orthodoxy.
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Commentary: Is the Sun Rising?
Solar Cycles in 150 Years of Global Sea Surface Temperature Data?
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Aug 4, 2025
Link to: Solar Cycles in 150 Years of Global Sea Surface Temperature Data
By Jiansong Zhou and Ka-Kit Tung, Journal of Climate, June 15, 2010
Censorship
Carney Limits Canadians’ Access to News
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Aug 9, 2025
Challenging the Orthodoxy — NIPCC
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science
Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2013
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/CCR/CCR-II/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Idso, Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2014
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-biological-impacts/
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-fossil-fuels/
Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
The NIPCC Report on the Scientific Consensus
By Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), Nov 23, 2015
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/why-scientists-disagree-about-global-warming/
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer
The Role of Greenhouse Gases in Energy Transfer in the Earth’s Atmosphere
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Preprint, Mar 3, 2023
Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Preprint, December 22, 2020
Radiation Transport in Clouds
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Klimarealistene, Science of Climate Change, January 2025
Challenging the Orthodoxy
A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate
By Climate Working Group, United States Department of Energy, July 23, 2025 https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/DOE_Critical_Review_of_Impacts_of_GHG_Emissions_on_the_US_Climate_July_2025.pdf
Steven Koonin On The Unsettled Science Of Climate
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 10, 2025
57-minute Video
‘Grossly exaggerated’: Media gives ‘little attention’ to new bombshell climate report
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 15, 2025
Here, Andrew Bolt interviews Steve Koonin, one of the report’s authors and formerly Obama’s Under Secretary for Science, Department of Energy:
Ten-minute Video
A Few Notes about Climate and the Greenhouse Effect
By Howard “Cork” Hayden, SEPP, July 15, 2025
http://www.sepp.org/science_papers/A%20Few%20Notes%20about%20Climate.pdf
New Study Thoroughly Disassembles The CO2-Drives-Climate Assumption In One Fell Swoop
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Aug 15, 2025
Link to paper: Unsettling the settled: simple musings on the complex climatic system
By Demetris Koutsoyiannis and George Tsakalias, Complex Systems, Aug 11, 2025
Short Summary of Observations Until July 2025
By Ole Humlum, Climate4you, Accessed Aug 15, 2025
[SEPP Comment: No significant changes.]
Texas and Climate Change: No Climate Crisis in the Lone Star State
By Staff, CO2 Coalition, Aug 12, 2025
From Executive Summary: The Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) report (USGCRP, 2023) says that climate change is “putting us at risk from climate hazards that degrade our lands and waters, quality of life, health and well-being, and cultural interconnectedness.”
In addition, Texas A&M University has published a Texas-specific report, Future Trends of Extreme Weather in Texas (Nielsen-Gammon et al., 2024), which warns of future harm to the citizens of Texas from man-made climate change. Predicted effects include increasing temperature, precipitation, drought, floods, storms, sea-level rise and wildfires
Surprise! Study says Late Jurassic CO2 was 1,200 ppm, dipped to 750 ppm in the Cretaceous
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Aug 11, 2025
Link to paper: Mesozoic atmospheric CO2 concentrations reconstructed from dinosaur tooth enamel
By Dingsu Feng, et al., PNAS, Aug 4, 2025
Defending the Orthodoxy
State of the Climate in 2024
Special Supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Vol. 106 No. 8, August 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
By J. Blunden, J. and J. Reagan, Eds., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, August 2025
Resignation letter: On The Hijacking of the American Meteorological Society (AMS)
By Bill Gray Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University (AMS Fellow, Charney Award recipient, and over 50-year member), June 2011 [H/t Chuck Wiese]
Resignation letter: Hal Lewis: My Resignation From The American Physical Society – an important moment in science history
By Hal Lewis, Via WUWT, October 16, 2010 [H/t Chuck Wiese]
Why are heatwaves getting worse? An expert explains
Reuters Videos, Aug 11, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Text included.
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
CLAIM: North Atlantic faces more hurricane clusters as climate warms
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Aug 12, 2025
Link to paper: Shifting hotspot of tropical cyclone clusters in a warming climate
By Zheng-Hang Fu, et al., Nature Climate Change, July 31, 2025
From abstract: Here we use observations and high-resolution climate model simulations to develop a probabilistic model, assuming that tropical cyclones are mutually independent and occur randomly.
[SEPP Comment: Climate models fail testing against physical evidence, so the “probabilistic model” is speculation.]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
US set for ‘battle royale’ as Trump admin takes aim at carbon dioxide regulations
Eleven-minute video interview of Tom Harris, The Gunn Show, July 11, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Canadian Tom Harris is the Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition and understands the US issues involved.]
Addressing misconceptions about Climate Sensitivity research: a Response to recent Criticisms
By Nic Lewis, Climate Etc., Aug 13, 2025
[Acting NASA Administrator Sean] Duffy says climate science will ‘move aside,’ with NASA only focusing on space exploration
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Aug 14, 2025
Too Big to Fail: A major new scandal in climate science
By Roger Pielke Jr., The Honest Broker, Aug 15, 2025
Link to: The economic commitment of climate change
By Maximilian Kotz, et al., Nature, April 17, 2024
Study: Europeans can easily adapt to rising temperatures.
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Aug 13, 2025
Link to paper, Outpacing climate change: adaptation to heatwaves in Europe
By Marcin Piotr Walkowiak, et al., International Journal of Biometeorology, Feb 19, 2025
The findings shed light on the mechanisms driving the observed reduction in heatwave mortality despite the warming climate trend, offering a more plausible basis for extrapolation than assuming a lack of adaptation. The model emphasizes the role of long-term economic growth and addressing energy poverty.
Why Climate Doomsters Can’t Recant
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Aug 14, 2025
From: Why I Stopped Being a Climate Catastrophist
And why so many climate pragmatists can’t quit catastrophism
By Ted Nordhaus, The EcoModernist, Aug 11, 2025
Peak hyperbole: Government leaks anonymous rumors of “intense”, “dire”, “diabolical” new secret climate modeling
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 13, 2025
Could it get more vacuous? We used to think climate simulations were bad. Now we don’t even have the modeling, we have unverified, imaginary, rumors of modeling…
[SEPP Comment: An answer to why the report has not been released?]
Angry Outbursts, But No Facts–The Climate Alarmists’ Playbook
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 9, 2025
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
On the CO2 Fertilization Effect (real science for EPA)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Aug 11, 2025
Problems in the Orthodoxy
UK’s AI ambitions clash with its climate goals
By Staff, DYNYUZ.com, Aug 10, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Britain’s net-zero scheme is being derailed by opposition to solar and wind projects
By Robert Bryce, The Hill, Aug 15, 2025
Seeking a Common Ground
The Importance Of Good Tools
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Aug 15, 2025
3-minute video
Time Of Observation Bias
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Aug 11, 2025
Nine-minute video using visitech.ai
Models v. Observations
Climate change-induced amplification of extreme temperatures in large lakes
By Hazem U. Abdelhady, et al., Nature, Communications Earth & Environment, May 15, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Heatwave and cold-spell intensities, measured via annual degree days, showed strong coherence with the Arctic Oscillation (period: 2.5 years), Southern Oscillation Index (4 years), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (6.5 years), indicating significant links between lake surface temperature extremes and both interannual and decadal climate teleconnections.
[SEPP Comment: Does the UN IPCC ignore such oscillations because they don’t fit the models?]
Model Issues
From Weather to Climate: Why Tribune’s News Service AI Leap is a Logic Fail
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Aug 11, 2025
Climate models reveal how human activity may be locking the Southwest into permanent drought
By Pedro DiNezio and Timothy Shanahan, The Conversation, [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
[SEPP Comment: Features a graph of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation from 1854 to 2024 (PDO) since the 1850s. However, the UN IPCC ignores the PDO claiming it can’t be modeled. Failure to model it does not justify ignoring it.]
Measurement Issues — Surface
Looks like man-made global warming mainly applies to airports and industrial areas (8 degrees in 20 years!)
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 15, 2025
Link to: Urban Microclimates in a Warming World: Land Surface Temperature (LST) Trends Across Ten Major Cities on Seven Continents
By Yiğitalp Kara and Veli Yavuz, Urban Science, Apr 5, 2025
Changing Weather
Japan Meteorological Agency Data Show Number Of Pacific Typhoons Has Dropped!
By P Gosselin, Data by Kirye. No Tricks Zone, Aug 10, 2025
Microscale Temperature Variations During the Summer
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Aug 11, 2025
Have you ever experienced an unexpected breeze of cool air during an evening stroll after a warm day–like yesterday or today?
On such evenings, temperatures can remain warm on hilltops or broad, level areas, but on lower portions of slopes or downstream of terrain gaps, temperatures can be significantly cooler.
Even during the day, it can be much cooler beneath vegetated slopes, particularly shaded ones. We are talking about 1-10°F cooler.
Changing Climate
Study: Ocean sediments support theory that comet impact triggered Younger Dryas cool-off
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Aug 12, 2025
Link to paper: A 12,800-year-old layer with cometary dust, microspherules, and platinum anomaly recorded in multiple cores from Baffin Bay
By Christopher R. Moore, et al., PLOS One, Aug 6, 2025
[SEPP Comment: A potential explanation for the sudden cooling? Baffin Bay is between Greenland and Baffin Island, Canada.]
Changing Seas
Florida has a seaweed problem. We have to hold China accountable. | Opinion
By Toby Overdorf, The Palm Beach Post, Aug 14, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
[SEPP Comment: How much is due to CO2 and how much is due to nutrient overload from inadequately treated sewage, etc.?]
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
New Study: No Decline In Arctic Sea Ice Extent – ‘No Long-Term Trend’ – Since 2007
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Aug 11, 2025
Link to letter: Regime Shift in Arctic Ocean Sea‐Ice Extent
By Harry I. Stern, Geophysical Research Letters,
From plain language summary: After declining from 1979 to 2006, there was a huge loss of sea ice in September 2007, followed by 18 years of ups and downs but no long‐term trend. We say that a regime shift occurred in 2007 because the behavior of the September sea‐ice area changed from declining to stable.
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
US counties with animal feedlots have more air pollution, less health insurance: Study
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, Aug 12, 2025
Link to paper: Geography of animal feeding operations and their contribution to fine particulate matter pollution in vulnerable communities in the United States
By Sanaz Chamanara, et al., Nature, Communications, Earth & Environment, Aug 12, 2025
From the abstract: Animal Feeding Operations or AFOs, such as beef feedlots, dairy farms, and hog farms, are associated with elevated levels of harmful fine particulate matter (e.g., PM2.5).
PM2.5 levels are significantly higher in census tracts with these operations than in those without: 28% higher in tracts with cattle operations and 11% higher in tracts with hog farms. Pollution burdens disproportionately affect socially vulnerable, minority populations with limited health insurance coverage, underscoring the need for targeted interventions.
[SEPP Comment: Where is the quality-controlled evidence that death rates are higher in these census tracts?]
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
“Die Welt’ Journalist Axel Bojanowski: Apocalypticism Is “A Code Of Belonging” Among Journalists
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Aug 13, 2025
BBC: Feeding your Toddler Vegetables Protects them from Climate Change
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Aug 15, 2025
Texas Deserves Better Than Bloomberg’s Climate Fearmongering
By Jason Isaac, WUWT, Aug 11, 2025
Wrong, Los Angeles Times, Declining Academic Rigor Is Responsible for Falling Test Scores, Not Climate Change
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, Aug 13, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Not all the children are above average?]
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Five key things about heatwaves in Europe
By Olivier Thibault, Phys.org, Aug 13, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Here are five things to know about the heatwaves in Europe, which the EU climate monitor Copernicus says is the “fastest-warming continent on Earth.”
[SEPP Comment: The fastest warming continent bounces by season; Arctic, Antarctic, and now Europe?]
Communicating Better to the Public – Do a Poll?
The Role of Renewable Energy in Achieving National Security
By Will White, Real Clear Energy, August 11, 2025
A recent survey of solar OEMs, technicians, and installers found that 63% believe solar will be the primary driver of their nation’s energy transition. Solar, when combined with battery storage, can provide resiliency and energy independence with its ability to operate independently during outages. [Boldface added]
[SEPP Comment: An unbiased poll? When placed on the grid, solar power can trigger blackouts.]
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Turns Out Major Climate Study Peddled By Media Relied On Bunk Data
By Audrey Streb, Daily Caller, Aug 7, 20225
Expanding the Orthodoxy
No end in sight to plastic pollution crisis as treaty negotiations in Geneva fail
By Jennifer McDermott, AP, Aug 15, 2025
That draft, released early Friday, did not include a limit on plastic production, but recognized that current levels of production and consumption are “unsustainable” and global action is needed.
Questioning European Green
Choosing the Positive Reality of Hydrocarbons Over ‘Green’ Fantasies
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Aug 14, 2025
British multinational BP has announced its largest oil and gas discovery in 25 years in Brazil’s Santos Basin. By 2030, daily production is expected to be 2.3 to 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent, which leaves little doubt that the company is solidly committed to hydrocarbons after a brief flirtation with alternatives like wind and solar energy.
UK’s AI ambitions clash with its climate goals
By Staff, DYNYUZ.com, Aug 10, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Climate Ghouls
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 12, 2025
13-minute Video
Litigation Issues
Green groups sue Trump administration over report downplaying climate damage
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Aug 12, 2025
In a new lawsuit filed Tuesday, the Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists challenge a new federal report that claimed climate models contain “exaggerated projections of future warming” and that “CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed.”
“They have done so through a plan hatched and carried out in secret. In March 2025, shortly after being confirmed to office, Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright quietly arranged for five hand-picked skeptics of the effects of climate change to form a Climate Working Group,” the suit alleged.
[SEPP Comment: A phony issue. The Paris Agreement, signed by Obama, was not publicly debated or submitted to the Senate for approval. No interested parties could participate, yet interested parties can make comments to the Climate Working Group report.]
Cap-and-Trade and Carbon Taxes
Grangemouth Chemical Plant At Risk Due To Net Zero Costs
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 11, 2025
The problem of carbon taxes could be resolved with the stroke of a pen tomorrow – either abolish the scheme entirely or flood the market with permits, forcing the price down to a few pence.
The Hidden Net Zero Tax
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 13, 2025
The Telegraph has finally woken up to the damage to the economy being wrought by the pernicious carbon tax:
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
Treasury Department sets limits on remaining wind and solar tax credits
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Aug 15, 2025
The Trump administration’s new guidance, however, sets further restrictions on which projects are considered having begun construction.
It says that construction of these projects must be “continuous.” It also defines “having begun construction” as having done “physical work of a significant nature.” This includes activities like manufacturing equipment and excavating land to begin placing equipment in it. But it excludes activities like only having done surveys, test drilling or excavation for purposes of altering the landscape.
[SEPP Comment: You cannot pour one foundation of a 200-unit project, then walk away for ten years hoping the market conditions improve?]
EPA and other Regulators on the March
Ending the Climate Confessional: Trump Administration Brings Sanity to EPA’s Emissions Database
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Aug 10, 2025
“The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to stop updating its ‘Supply Chain Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors’ database marks a turning point away from the ritualized burden of corporate ‘climate confessions’ toward a more streamlined, reality-based approach to governance.”
Energy Issues – Non-US
EMBER Electricity Price Data Tool
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 14, 2025
EMBER, let me stress, is a left wing, pro-renewable think tank, as their website makes clear:
“We’re a global energy think tank that accelerates the clean energy transition with data and policy.”
What makes this EMBER tool so valuable is that it is authoritative and can be simply wheeled out every time the renewable lobby claims that wind power costing £117/MWh is somehow cheaper than gas.
The Folly of Climate Leadership: Britain’s Net Zero Masochism and the China Mirage
By Tilak Doshi, The Daily Sceptic, Aug 14, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
China Daily: Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill will Allow Chinese Companies to Dominate Renewable Energy
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Aug 10, 2025
In the parallel universe of Nick Robbins and the Grantham Institute, business opportunities require massive state subsidies.
[SEPP Comment: Doubt renewables are the near future of energy.]
Stark Staring Mad!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 10, 2025
Chris Stark, the Energy Secretary’s “Head of Mission Control for Clean Power by 2030”, said the UK needed to match the speed of electrification seen in China in order to become a new global super-power as the world moves towards net zero.
Homewood: His [Stark’s] degree at Glasgow University was in Finance & Law, and his career since leaving there has always been in the public sector.
He knows nothing about energy.
Nigerian Oil Tainted By Corruption
By Craig Shirley, Real Clear Energy, August 14, 2025
Energy Issues – Australia
Australia’s energy grid is in reverse
Originally published in Spectator Australia, August 2025
By Alan Moran, Regulatory Review, Aug 14, 2025
The Productivity Commission is not what it used to be. Most governments decide what they want to hear and pick the people who will tell them just that.
Renewables Investment “falls off a cliff” in Australia — down 64% this year
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 12, 2025
Household renewables pose cybersecurity risk: “If you want to make a hackers life easy…”
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 14, 2025
Energy Issues — US
Record US power usage predicted in 2025, 2026
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Aug 12, 2025
Link to: Short-Term Energy Outlook
By Staff, EIA, Aug 12, 2025
From EIA: We expect electricity sales to the commercial sector to rise by 3.0% in 2025 and 4.5% in 2026, driven largely by more demand from data centers, while electricity sales to industrial consumers rise by 2.0% in 2025 and 3.5% in 2026.
FERC Must Seize the Supreme Court’s Energy Opportunity
By Dan Brouillette, Real Clear Energy, August 12, 2025
Environmental groups have weaponized NEPA reviews to block industrial projects across the board—fossil fuels, nuclear, wind, solar, and battery storage alike—using speculative consequences that stretch far beyond any reasonable connection to the actual proposal. The Court has now told federal judges to stop enabling this abuse.
U.S. Exports Nearly One-Third of Its Energy Production, EIA Reports
By Staff, Finance and Money, Aug 15, 2025
Power-Bill Crisis Spreads From Maryland To New Jersey, May Doom Democrats As ‘Green’ Implodes
By Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, Aug 14, 2025 [Bernie Kepshire]
Electric power fantasies collide out West
By David Wojick, CFACT, Aug 11, 2025
New York’s Official Energy Plan Is No Plan
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Aug 11, 2025
Link to: Power Trends 2025
By Staff, New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), 2025
From Menton: But then NYISO is the one agency here that actually has the responsibility to keep the system up and running. Deeply buried on page 14 as the last paragraph of a section headed “A diverse resource mix supports grid reliability,” we find these two sentences:
“Simply put, as New York seeks to retire more fossil fuel units in the coming years it will be essential to deploy new energy resources with the same reliability attributes to maintain grid reliability. Until new, non-emitting alternatives like hydrogen or advanced nuclear generation are developed and commercialized, fossil resources are needed to fill an essential role in preserving reliable grid operations.”
Well as of today grid-scale hydrogen and advanced nuclear generation have not been “commercialized.” So, the only answer is to keep the fossil fuel generation going. Perhaps they should tell some of their co-bureaucrats, like NYSERDA, or the Energy Planning Board, or maybe even the Legislature or the New York City Council. But as of now NYISO’s strategy seems to be to put a warning somewhere deep in their reports just so they can say “I told you so” when the whole thing falls apart. They owe the New York citizenry much better.
Caterpillar Among Groups Working on Massive Utah Data Center Campus
By Darrell Proctor, Power Mag, Aug 7, 2025
The groups in a news release wrote, “The project will deliver groundbreaking prime power and integrated combined cooling heat and power [CCHP] solutions with a by-design liquid cooling architecture. Powered by a fleet of Caterpillar’s latest G3520K generator sets and support equipment, the distributed generation system produces electricity and captures waste heat to power and cool next-generation, high-density server systems.”
[SEPP Comment: Not mentioned in the article is that the G3520K generator is powered by natural gas.]
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Meta-Analysis of Over 100 Studies Shows Gas Stoves Pose No Increased Risks of Asthma
It turns out, pushing unrealistic green energy schemes onto low- and middle-income people at the expense of a safer fuel source was not only bad science, it was dangerous propaganda.
By Leslie Eastman, Legal Insurrection, Aug 8, 2025
Norway Restarts North Sea Drilling
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 15, 2025
Norway became Britain’s primary source of gas last year as UK output shrank in the wake of the windfall tax and a ban on new licenses.
The latest move is likely to see Norway sell even more supplies to the UK after its energy minister, Terje Aasland, said new licenses would allow it to be “a long-term supplier of oil and gas to Europe”.
BP Reopen “Uneconomic” North Sea Oil Field
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 10, 2025
What is significant is here is the introduction of new technologies to make all this possible. How many other abandoned fields can be brought back into production in this way.
Return of King Coal?
Out With the Old
Powering AI without crowding out grid demand.
By Doomberg Blog, Aug 13, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Fifty years ago, emissions from coal-fired power plants were environmentally harmful. Today emissions from modern plants with scrubbers and other filters are environmentally beneficial by adding CO2 to the atmosphere. Environmental beliefs and regulating organizations are mentally stagnant.]
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Russia Flexing Nuclear Energy Muscles in Africa
By Duggan Flanakin, Real Clear Energy, August 12, 2025
Through its state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom, Russia under Vladimir Putin has extended its tentacles deep into Africa. Early in this century, Russia began escalating its outreach, offering its significant expertise in nuclear energy to emerging African nations eager to utilize the continent’s ample uranium resources to power their futures.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Solar Blasphemy in India’s Thar Desert
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Aug 13, 2025
India Cancels Offshore Wind Tender–Due To Lack Of Interest
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 13, 2025
Update Aug. 11: Relieving US Grid from Wind and Solar Risks
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Aug 11, 2025
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Trump administration invalidates California’s emissions reduction agreement with truck manufacturers
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, Aug 13, 2025
Health, Energy, and Climate
Farmers vs. Environmentalists: The Dicamba Battle
By Susan Goldhaber MPH, ACSH, Aug 11, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Aerial spraying of DDT was environmentally harmful by killing insects widely, but the practice could have been controlled without banning of DDT. Spraying the herbicide Dicamba may or not be environmentally harmful, but it is applied by spraying equipment on the ground in the targeted area.]
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Another Eye-Roller of a Climate Study
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Aug 11, 2025
Link to paper: Carbon dioxide drives oviposition in Helicoverpa armigera.
By Qiuyan Chen, et al., National Science Review, July 10, 2025
[SEPP Comment: CO2 disrupts the egg laying of agriculture and floral pests known as cotton bollworm, corn earworm, etc.?]
Net Zero Nutters Suggest a Plague of Ticks Whose Bite Leads to a Potentially Fatal Red Meat Allergy
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Aug 12, 2025
Link to paper: Beneficial Bloodsucking
By Parker Crutchfield, Blake Hereth, Bioethics, July 22, 2025
From abstract: The bite of the lone star tick spreads alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a condition whose only effect is the creation of a severe but nonfatal red meat allergy.
Herein, we argue that if eating meat is morally impermissible, then efforts to prevent the spread of tickborne AGS are also morally impermissible.
[SEPP Comment: Is this a joke?]
Popular Mechanics Unhinged: “Scientists Are Mapping the End of the World”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Aug 12, 2025
From the Popular Mechanics article:
- “Scientists are aware of planetary boundaries—a series of climate change thresholds that, once crossed, could cause a cascade of negative environmental effects.
- Now, scientists are developing a methodology to discover “positive tipping points”— a series of actionable green energy goals that could similarly compound in benefit once crossed.
- While we’re already well on the way to reaching some of these tipping points—i.e. lowering the cost of wind and solar energy—there’s still lots of work to be done to stay within the two degrees Celsius range stipulate by the 2015 Paris Climate Accords.”
[SEPP Comment: Feed the offenders to the ticks? See links immediately above.]
Nutty Professor Warns Of Firewaves
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 14, 2025
The Climate Cult Takes On “Resiliency” In Manhattan
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Aug 8, 2025
Here in New York City, in the grip of the hysterical climate cult, we are undertaking a massive transformation of our energy system without anyone in authority having done the simple arithmetic to check whether the plans have any chance of succeeding.
So, if the sea level were to rise up, how is that 400 feet of raised [shoreline] land going to prevent the water from coming inland along the rest of the 10 or so miles of waterfront?
ARTICLES
1. Climate Lawyers Try a New Approach
Heatstroke killed Julie Leon on a 108-degree day. A lawsuit blames oil companies.
By Mike Toth, WSJ, Aug. 11, 2025
TWTW Summary; The research fellow at the Civitas Institute of the University of Texas Austin begins with:
“Stung by a recent losing streak in state courts, the foundations, academics and trial lawyers behind the climate lawfare movement are now trying a new tactic: wrongful-death lawsuits against oil and gas companies based on the alleged connection between carbon emissions and weather-related deaths. Such efforts won’t stop until the Supreme Court affirms the federal government’s exclusive regulatory authority over interstate emissions.
The leading such case, Leon v. Exxon Mobil, seeks to hold energy companies liable for the death of Julie Leon, who suffered heatstroke in her car in June 2021 after driving almost 100 miles without air conditioning on a day when temperatures hit a record-breaking 108 degrees in western Washington state. The complaint was filed in state court in May on behalf of Leon’s estate. [Boldface added]
Climate lawfare previously centered on lawsuits by blue states and municipalities, which sought to transform the nation by forcing energy companies to make sweeping changes or bankrupting them with damages. These cases were based on state tort theories like public nuisance and consumer fraud. The plaintiffs maintained that energy companies deceived the public about the environmental consequences of their products, which accelerated climate change and caused harms such as wildfires and floods, which adversely affected states and cities.
Even assuming these allegations are true, this theory turns the Constitution on its head. The federal government—not the states—regulates interstate activity. This means that Honolulu, Boulder, Colo., and other municipal climate-change plaintiffs can dictate local carbon policies, but they can’t decide energy policy for the U.S. as a whole. That’s Congress’s job.
Judges around the country agreed. State judges in Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania have dismissed climate claims this year on jurisdictional grounds. As the Pennsylvania court noted: “Today we join a growing chorus of state and federal courts across the United States singing from the same hymnal, in concluding that the claims raised by Bucks County are not judiciable by any state court in Pennsylvania.”
The Supreme Court has yet to close the door on such misuse of state-law claims. In January the justices declined to take up an appeal from the city of Honolulu’s lawsuit seeking to hold oil and gas companies liable for out-of-state conduct under state tort and consumer-protection law. With the justices so far unwilling to pre-empt the use of state tort law to regulate emissions nationwide, climate litigants are ginning up new legal claims like wrongful death.
Plaintiffs who assert a link between extreme weather events and climate change still need to prove causation, which may never happen.”
The article discusses issues with proving causation, then continues with.
“Days before the lawsuit was filed, the Leon estate’s lawyer, Timothy Bechtold, helped the left-wing impact litigators at Our Children’s Trust seek millions in fees from a landmark Montana state court ruling that 16 youth plaintiffs were injured by climate change. Beyond wrongful-death claims, which can result only in money damages, influential climate advocates are already making the case that energy executives should face homicide prosecutions for deaths purportedly caused by climate change.
Whether or not the Leon estate’s claims prevail, enterprising climate lawyers will continue to bring state claims over extreme weather events until the Supreme Court affirms the federal government’s regulatory authority of interstate emissions. Meantime, an industry vital to the nation’s economy and security will continue to operate at the whim of left-wing state courts.”
TWTW Comment: The Montana case relied on a clause in the Montana constitution claiming a right to a stable climate, which has never existed, an example of illusory rights.
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August 18, 2025 at 04:01AM
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