- Chris Martz observes that Washington, D.C. went six consecutive days with highs below freezing by Jan. 29, tying a record from 2004, and would almost certainly hit seven and tie 1989. Moreover if as seemed fairly likely it reached 12 days, it would tie the record set in 1936 and also 1895 (since such measurements began in 1872). Media outlets and alarmists do not observe that it’s not much to show for 150 years of relentless heating due to man-made CO2. But let it tie a heat record and you know what they’ll blare.
- Or maybe not, because part of the idiocy of climate alarmists pointing their fingers in 27 directions at once is unfounded, undocumented, untested claims of worsening weather. We do have pretty good statistics on most of it, at least for the last century or so and in the Anglosphere, and it doesn’t justify rubbish like “This is a huge Arctic air leak. As the Arctic warms 3x faster than elsewhere due to rising GHGs, the polar vortex weakens and deforms. Expect more persistent extreme weather, more often as the climate is destabilized further.” Let alone the comment in response that “The dangerous part of climate change is the unpredictability. That’s what will eventually kill 7 to 8 billion of us.” What will kill people is believing such babble instead of focusing on what we’ve always needed to protect us from sudden or typical bad weather, namely reliable affordable energy.
- From the “coincidences that make you paranoid” file, we were emailing ourselves a news item about Toronto, Canada’s largest city, having its “snowiest day ever” on Jan. 26 (and thinking as usual that “ever” is a word used too casually by the press; actually comparable records only date to 1937) and the autocucumber feature tried to change “snowiest” to “snowmelt”. But no, we really are having a winter to remember despite global heating breakdown thingy, exactly as the alarmists did not predict and now don’t want to deal with along, it seems, with the technology.
- The San Bernardino Sun tells us to “Blame the weather for Southern California homes being 122% costlier than US”. Oh great, we thought, here we go again with wildfires and hurricanes and the insurance crisis and… uh, nope: “this past weekend reminded us of an important housing price yardstick often ignored: how pleasant Southern California winters are.” Under a photo of a snowblower in front of the U.S. Capitol, it explained that “We enjoyed seasonally delightful temperatures as most of the country faced Winter Storm Fern. More than a foot of snow fell in many areas, with ice storms elsewhere. Temperatures dropped well below zero in numerous spots.” Alarmists and journalist tell us Americans are fleeing north to escape the ravages of heat. House prices tell us otherwise. (And even Air Canada is now trying to lure us to tropical beaches where we can wear shorts, so never mind tourism withering in the heat.)
- Speaking of which, remember the droughts and wildfires rendering California uninhabitable and it’s all your fault? Well, the San Bernardino Sun also tells us “Wildflower superbloom is a real possibility in Southern California this year, experts say/ A few more winter rainfalls and the region could be ripe for an epic wildflower season, especially if it can avoid an early heatwave, caterpillar damage and invasive Sahara mustard.” Which we bring up not just to sway your travel plans but because that caveat about bad weather, pests and weeds remind us, and should remind everyone, that the climate alarmists’ bucolic vision of what weather and farming were like before the dreaded CO2 are sentimental rubbish. Farming has always been precarious because conditions have always been unstable and hostile.
- Progress of a sort: New Scientist tries to induce us to listen to a podcast about “The 5 worst ideas of the 21st century” which we decline to do partly because with 75 years to go you ain’t seen nothing yet. But we note that the promo says “From social media to carbon offsetting, sometimes an idea sounds great at first but in reality it turns out to be a flop.” Not sure carbon offsetting really sounded great to anyone who understands economics, fanaticism and human frailty. But we’re glad it seems to be falling from trendy favour.
- Told you so: Three weeks ago we took issue with Roger Pielke Jr.’s objection to Donald Trump withdrawing funding from a wide range of international organizations that in our view had been captured by extreme left-wing views. And now we read that “The United Nations is on the verge of “imminent financial collapse,” in large part due to the failure of member states to pay their mandatory dues, Secretary General António Guterres said in a letter sent this week to the 193 U.N. ambassadors. Leading the list of those in arrears is the United States, which owes nearly $2.2 billion in overdue and current assessments for the regular U.N. operating budget, dating back to the end of 2024, and hundreds of millions in funds pledged or assessed to other programs, according to a U.N. official.” Excellent. Because no organization, unless you count its subordinate agencies like UNRWA, is in more desperate need of reform than the UN. And no organization is more certainly not going to reform unless Uncle Sam draws the purse-strings intolerably tight on its obnoxious combination of radicalism and self-indulgence.
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04 Feb 2026 | News Roundup
Air Canada trying to lure us to tropical beaches?Ha!That's a laff!Friends just come back from a week in the Carib.No shorts for them,no swimming in the Gulf.Cold and wet most of the time.We can't predict the weather for our vacation destination a month ahead,even a week ahead of intended trip,but the alarmists think they can predict the climate for the year 2050!And the UN could just go under without a tear shed by most.All they do is take money and waste it,and make the world's problems worse,not better.
When it comes to the UN facing imminent financial collapse, what's the bad news?