Tidbits

At CDN we are skeptical of many things including the widespread political view that you can surrender on the science of climate change then fight on the policy, which h/t Spike Milligan we call rallying round the white flag. But we’re also skeptical of the widespread political habit of endorsing the “settled science” and the policy it rode in on, then spewing carbon self-indulgently in every direction. For instance the Canadian political insider Hill Times headline “G7 Speakers to gather in Ottawa in September/ Canada hosted the first Group of Seven summit of Lower House Speakers during its 2002 presidency.” Jet airplanes, fancy food, limousines, self-congratulation. Yet is there one among them who would say, into a microphone, that there’s no man-made climate crisis and no need for us all to do our bit including not taking frivolous flights to frivolous gatherings? IF COLLECTED SOURCES PERMIT, PROMOTE TO NH2
The late Alberta premier Ralph Klein famously expressed his view of leadership by saying that if you could show him a big enough parade he’d be happy to lead it. Climate change wasn’t a thing then. But it is now, and many politicians seem to think the trick is to rush to the front of the alarmist parade if it seems big, and then rush to the front of the skeptical parade if someone else with more courage and more principle somehow gets a bigger one going. If you’re wondering where our parade went, well, we’re closing in on 15 million YouTube views and we have over 120,000 subscribers so there it is, T-shirts, hats and all.
Blacklock’s Reporter exposes a Canadian federal government briefing note that says the peasants are too dumb to notice the government hiking the price of gas, which rather undermines the argument that doing so will reduce consumption. According to a May 8th agriculture department briefing note Clean Fuel Regulations “Given the variability in fuel prices paid at the pump, increases in fuel costs due to the Clean Fuel Regulations may not be noticeable by most consumers, including farmers. The Government of Canada is aware the Regulations’ impacts will be higher in some provinces than others.” Yeah. And if the people who live there notice, and aren’t really buying your climate guff, you’re going to look pretty stupid for assuming they were.
Speaking of political naivete, Canary Media is shocked, shocked that “In Ohio, oil and gas industry is steering new carbon capture bill/ Newly obtained public records show that the industry has worked hard to ensure the legislation prioritizes their interests over climate change concerns.” Repeat after us: If you give government, and particularly a specific agency, enormous capacity to help or hurt vested interests, they will devote enormous resources to “agency capture”. Playing make-believe about the pristine translation of good wishes into noble results by invoking Leviathan is no way to get anything good done.
Remember when a storm was just a storm? It’s worst with warming, but nowadays most weather stories on almost any looming event or condition offer lurid predictions of doom and authorities panic. Hence in Britain “Met Office issues thunderstorm alert as stormy conditions to batter south coast and trains suspended”. The real story is that after quite a dry spring, one fairly small part of a fairly small country was predicted to get fairly hard rain for a fairly brief period. Oh, and “As for the rest of the UK today, there will be scattered showers in other southern and western areas with a mix of bright spells and a few light showers elsewhere.” Noah, do not call your office. Especially do not call the Met Office.
Pinch us. The CBC, of all outlets, just ran a story that “Thriving or dying? How the heat wave is impacting local crops/ The weather this summer is affecting the growing season for local farmers. But some say the heat hasn’t been all bad news.” We’re not in need of awakening over the news that summer warmth helps some crops; in fact if you were to compare, say, the growing season in Saskatchewan to that of Kansas you’d learn something… if you were a CBC journalist. What astounds us to the point that we doubt our senses is that Canada’s state broadcaster would concede any such heresy.
So you admit it: Scientific American enthuses that “Superheated Gold Defies ‘Entropy Catastrophe’ Limit, Overturning 40-Year-Old Physics/ Physicists superheated gold to 14 times its melting point, disproving a long-standing prediction about the temperature limits of solids”. So it’s good when science is challenged and nobody should try to enforce orthodoxy and suppress deniers?

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