- From the “if a tree were planted in a forest would anyone hear it?” file, Paul Wells complains that Canadian journalists credulously repeated Canadian Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s tweet that the hapless federal two-billion-tree program (on which you can watch this smug video if you can stand it) had suddenly gone from way behind its targets to way ahead… by suddenly starting to count trees planted by other programs. Being politicians, they lack practical skills like planting trees, but they sure know how to plant stories.
- Remember how extreme heat was ruining summer vacations, Britain was scorching and all that? (Including the self-parodying “Britain set to be warmer than Barcelona with 28C heat blast”.) Well, neither does Simon Jenkins in the far-left, climate-panicked Guardian, writing instead that “If you had booked an August holiday in Britain 10 days ago, then heard the weather forecast, you probably would have taken the first train to Gatwick. The forecast for the following week was awful – for storms, clouds, rain and ‘unseasonably cold’ weather. In other words, another typical August.” And while he actually saw the sun while “on the Welsh coast… It certainly was not hot.” Strange. Doesn’t he read the newspapers?
- Remember how we deniers have all the money? Well, neither do we. And the Friends of Science have published a little list of the tens of millions of dollars Canadian climate alarmist groups get from foreign foundations, while a smattering of donations to the “Freedom Convoy” had official Ottawa panicking and seizing bank accounts.
- From the “they really mean it” file, a kerfuffle has erupted because Rich Kruger, the newish CEO of Canadian oil sand giant Suncor, said his firm had to abandon its trendy “disproportionate” focus on the so-called “energy transition” on the grounds that “Today, we win by creating value through our large integrated asset base underpinned by oilsands”, which in plain English is “we’re an oil company so we should sell oil”. And then because Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s climate-zealot Environment Minister, tried to throw forest fires in Kruger’s face and said “If I was convinced before that we needed to do regulation, I am even more convinced now” which in plain English is “If your firm won’t commit suicide we’ll kill it.” The modern, or postmodern, world always seems astounded when people believe their beliefs. But oil companies better understand what the real energy transition means for them and their customers, because the Steven Guilbeaults of this world are not kidding.
- From the “retreat into verbose fantasy” file, Reuters Sustainable Switch misinforms its readers that “The countdown to Africa Climate Week, set to expand its transformative agenda next week, has begun.” Which apparently involves more pointless bickering over distributing large sums the West won’t be forking over.
- The end of prosecco as we know it: The Daily Telegraph thunders that “Prosecco producers in Italy say they are facing one of their worst harvests in decades as a result of months of wild weather and a lack of labourers to pick the grapes…. The unstable weather, which meteorologists blame on climate change, means that for some vineyards, the quantity of grapes will be significantly reduced this year.” Problems include that famous product of runaway heating, ice falling from the sky. And no farmer ever saw hail before so look out.
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06 Sep 2023 | News Roundup
