By Jo Nova

The energy situation is flipping on a dime around the world

Political entities are waking up to the need for reliable mass power. Consider the whiplash in Taiwan. They closed the last of six nuclear reactors on May 17th, marking the end of a nuclear era that started in 1970. But, hey ho, two weeks later, they’ve decided to hold a referendum on whether to restart the same plant. The vote is set for August 23.

By Tsvetana Paraskov, OilPrice

Taiwan will hold in August a referendum on whether the just-shuttered last nuclear reactor should be restarted once safety checks are completed, in a major reversal of the country’s policy amid energy security concerns. 

Since 2018, Taiwan has shut down four other nuclear reactors and cancelled construction of two others following a referendum in 2021.

Earlier this month, Taiwan’s Parliament amended the country’s nuclear power act to allow plant operators to apply for a 20-year license renewal beyond the existing 40-year limit. This legislative amendment effectively opens the door to restarting nuclear power plants in the country.

The reasons given for reopening the plant are both the escalation in energy needs for Taiwan’s silicon chip industry (is that code for “AI”?), and heightened fears of a military blockade from China. Because the plant needs to be comprehensively checked for safety, apparently it may be three years before it is operational again.

A country torn between Net Zero goals, and aggression from China

Apparently the Taiwanese government was full bore on the sacred green goals in 2016 (and wouldn’t that suit Beijing?) but lately things have got too hot and people are starting to add up the  security risks of being on an island where 97% of the energy is imported.

In the new uncertain world, suddenly coal is better than gas (it’s easier to store).

Jane Rickards, The Strategist, ASPI

Lai’s government is understandably concerned about energy security, as at least 97 percent of the island’s energy is imported. But it also wants to reduce carbon emissions, having established a goal of net-zero by 2050. The Taiwanese government views LNG as a cleaner type of energy and is phasing out the widespread use of coal. Natural gas powered 32 percent of Taiwan’s electricity in 2016. The figure rose to 42 percent last year, and Lai is pushing for it to reach 50 percent by 2030. The drive for LNG grew following Donald Trump’s election as US President. Taiwan plans buy more US LNG over the next decade to help reduce its trade surplus with the United States.

However, LNG is difficult to store long term, which would create problems in the event of a quarantine or blockade. Taiwan is densely populated and has limited space for the fuel’s expensive storage infrastructure. Lu Tsaiying, an energy expert with Taiwan’s Research Institute for Democracy Society and Emerging Technology, notes that Taiwan holds enough LNG for 12 days’ ordinary consumption. In contrast, the coal stock is enough for 42 days and the crude oil stock for 146 days.

Lu predicts that coal, which currently powers 39 percent of Taiwan’s electricity, and renewables, powering 12 percent, would be the main sources of energy during a blockade, quarantine or even a war.

In the world we thought we lived in, trading partners do not do naked industrial sabotage

The Chinese Communist Party appears to be actively cutting and damaging submarine cables around Taiwan — with accidents involving Chinese controlled ships that change names frequently and are registered in foreign countries.

by Gahon Chia-Hung Chiang, staff of Legislator Kuan-Ting Chen, Taiwan

China’s illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive (ICAD) activities pose a mounting threat to global democracies, with subsea cable sabotage emerging as a particularly alarming tactic. These fiber-optic cables, which carry over 99 percent of global internet traffic, form the backbone of modern communication networks—underpinning economic transactions, defense coordination, and digital infrastructure.

In early 2025, the Xingshun 39 (興順39), a Tanzania-flagged vessel controlled by a Chinese entity, deliberately severed subsea cables near Keelung, disrupting Taiwan’s external communications….

Just weeks later, in late February 2025 another incident occurred when the Hongtai 58 (宏泰58)—a Togolese-registered cargo vessel suspected of having a Chinese crew—severed Taiwan’s third subsea cable linking Taiwan and Penghu.

These were not isolated incidents, but rather part of a troubling persistent pattern. According to Chunghwa Telecom, in 2023 cables connecting Taiwan and the Matsu Islands—Taiwan’s off-shore islands near China—were severed 12 times, resulting in repair costs of NTD $96.4 million (USD $2.9 million). [1] While China has consistently denied involvement, the pattern of repeated cable disruptions, which align with its strategy of leveraging civilian assets for military purposes, suggests a concerted effort to degrade Taiwan’s ability to maintain stable digital infrastructure.

The brazen hostility would be enough to make even a crazy nation think about national security instead of fixing the weather 100 years from now.  Given that a Chinese ship recently circumnavigated Australia following our submarine cable network, maybe we should be too?

Despite our massive size and resources Taiwan holds 142 days supply of crude oil, compared to our average of just 53.

In a May 23 article “Climate change could bring insect-borne tropical diseases to UK, scientists warn,” The Guardian asserts that rising global temperatures are making Britain more hospitable to tropical mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, West Nile virus, and chikungunya. This claim is a lie. England’s climate has been suitable for the mosquitos bearing “tropical” diseases for centuries, with malaria, then commonly referred to as “augue” or “march fever,” being endemic across England even during the little ice age from the 15^th through the 19^th centuries. It was largely eradicated in the 20^th century with the draining of wetlands and improved housing. Also, a thorough examination of existing scientific evidence shows that while climate can play a role in the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, the actual drivers of disease spread are primarily human movement, infrastructure, sanitation, and public health responses, not a mild warming trend.

“Climate change could make the UK vulnerable to insect-transmitted tropical diseases that were previously only found in hot countries, scientists have warned, urging ministers to redouble efforts to contain their spread abroad,” writes The Guardian, apparently unaware that malaria and other mosquito-carried illnesses were common in England throughout history until fairly recent times.

The Guardian article leans heavily on speculative projections about future climate conditions, quoting experts who cite worst-case emissions scenarios (temperature increases of 4–5°C) and suggest that “climate change is making the UK more hospitable” to mosquito vectors. Yet even those quoted, such as Dr. Robert Jones of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, admit, “[w]e are unlikely to see a dramatic surge in tropical diseases.” That observation undermines The Guardian’s entire climate alarmist framing of the story.

The article also acknowledges there is currently no human transmission of West Nile virus in the UK, and that the necessary mosquito vectors (e.g., Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus) are not established in sufficient numbers to pose a significant risk. This key fact contradicts the article’s headline and premise.

This isn’t the first time the mainstream media has made wild, unsubstantiated claims about climate change and mosquito-borne disease. Climate Realism has repeatedly debunked this narrative:

The science actually shows that the existence and spread of vector-borne diseases in modern times are more a function of public health breakdowns than any change in climate. As Paul Reiter noted in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, vector diseases such as dengue and malaria thrived in temperate Europe centuries ago and were eradicated due to modern sanitation and mosquito control—not temperature decline. Concerning Dengue fever, its spread today is strongly linked to global trade and travel, particularly via used tires and shipping containers, which harbor mosquito eggs, as noted in Nature Microbiology, June 2019. In that study the authors wrote, “[t]he primary drivers of the global spread of dengue and Aedes mosquitoes have been increased urbanization, international trade (e.g., used tires and plants), and human movement, not simply climate change.”

Importantly, Temperature thresholds alone do not establish mosquito populations, they are a necessary but not a sufficient condition for mosquitos to flourish. According to a second 2019 paper in Nature Microbiology, factors such as rainfall patterns, water storage behavior, and urban development are equally or more decisive. That study warns that focusing solely on temperature creates an overly simplistic and often misleading picture of disease risk projections. It emphasizes that mosquitoes require both suitable climate conditions and specific environmental features, especially stagnant water sources, which are often human-created.

Climate at a Glance: Malaria concisely rebuts the claim that climate change is driving mosquito-borne disease outbreaks. Data, in fact, shows that during the recent period of slight global warming over the past century, Malaria has sharply declined, and it is projected to possibly be entirely wiped out sometime after the year 2040. See the map below from an article in The Economist titled “The shrinking malaria map.”

This story is just one more instance in which The Guardian is irresponsibly promoting a doomsday scenario based on unjustified extrapolations of trends based on extreme model projections, while ignoring real-world epidemiological evidence and historical context. The suggestion that “long-term net zero policies” are somehow our best protection against mosquito-borne disease is false. Direct interventions like removing stagnant pools of water, the judicious use of pesticides and prophylactic medicines, and the possible release of genetically modified sterile mosquitos, are far more effective interventions to prevent present and future mosquito-borne diseases than indirect efforts like cutting fossil fuel use in the hopes of impacting future temperatures. Tropical diseases are not lurking outside British windows waiting for a warmer day—they are controlled through policy, infrastructure, and targeted disease vector management.

For a publication that purports to value science, The Guardian continues to betray that trust with activist journalism masked as evidence-based reporting. If they want to inform rather than incite, they’d do well to start with the facts and drop the fear-mongering.

Anthony Watts

Anthony Watts is a senior fellow for environment and climate at The Heartland Institute. Watts has been in the weather business both in front of, and behind the camera as an on-air television meteorologist since 1978, and currently does daily radio forecasts. He has created weather graphics presentation systems for television, specialized weather instrumentation, as well as co-authored peer-reviewed papers on climate issues. He operates the most viewed website in the world on climate, the award-winning website wattsupwiththat.com.

Originally poste in ClimateREALISM