Tidbits

This just in: climate change ate my shark. At least so says ABC, after showing dramatic footage of an orca blitzing a great white shark. Now it’s worth noting that Jaws is between 11 and 16 feet (females are typically bigger than males) and weighs 1,500 to 4,200 lbs. No wonder they win fights with people. And that scary immensity would make them apex predators were it not that orcas are vastly bigger, from 16 to 26 feet and between three and six tons. As the footage in question makes plain with the shark having no chance, to the point that it’s actually unfair and one feels pity though when sharks eat fish they don’t apologize either. But here’s the silly part: “Scientists believe an orca hunting as a lone wolf could be an adaptation caused by climate change.” Based on what? This particular orca is clearly being tracked, as the story identifies it as “Sophia, a 60-year-old grandmother orca”, and if you believe after six decades of hunting with a pack this creature suddenly went “Man, it’s half a degree hotter than when I was born, think I’ll solo a great white” as opposed to it being the first time we happened to capture on camera something that’s been happening for millions of years, you will believe anything. Which is pretty much the credo of climate alarmists, come to think of it.
Now here’s one for the recycling blue bin: New Scientist warns us “How a shift in the Gulf Stream could signal the collapse of a major ocean current system”. And yes, it’s AMOC again and yes, it’s “unless it doesn’t” again. How can people make a career of warning that things that might be happening but probably aren’t could possibly be signs that something else which might be happening but probably isn’t could matter if it did happen but probably won’t?
Meanwhile a self-proclaimed “Battle-hardened geopolitical communicator” retweets (re-Xs?) a piece from Grist complaining that “The planet is overheating. Why is the news looking away?” Well, one possibility is that the planet is not overheating and people don’t like to pay money to read things that make them less rather than more informed. The Grist item adds that “Since its peak in 2021, global news coverage of climate change has dropped 38 percent, according to data from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Media and Climate Change Observatory.” Which is a lovely piece of mathiness. How would you actually meaningfully quantify “global news coverage of climate change” especially in a world where non-traditional media are increasingly eating the MSM’s lunch? Not all articles are the same, even if they’re the same length. But we digress. The point is, or Grist thinks the point is, “Blame wars, political chaos, and Jeffrey Epstein.” Or an audience that gets tired of people crying “Wolf” and there is no wolf.
A crucial lesson of history is that people believe their beliefs. Aka Richard Weaver’s “Ideas have consequences.” Including that many leaders truly think words can take the place of deeds. And so we note with derision that, with Canada’s productivity a long-standing disaster, our energy industry staggering under repeated government blows in a dangerous world, talk of us as an “energy superpower” clinical delusion, and our Prime Minister Mark Carney the proud possessor of a vast pile of billowy, pretentious statements of vague intent from foreign leaders and provincial premiers, that same Mark Carney has hopped onto yet another jet airplane to have, we kid you not, yet another conversation with Sir Keir Starmer about how grand it would be if progressive bloviation did anything but add CO2 to the atmosphere both in transit and while gabbing. Note especially that “During his visit, the Prime Minister will also engage with business leaders to position Canada as a premier destination for global capital and investment”. The actual way to “position Canada” as a good place to invest is to go to the office, sit and your desk and cut taxes and regulations. But those are deeds and Carney really, truly, fundamentally thinks words work better and actions are for proles and losers. Hence “Prime Minister Carney speaks with Amir of Qatar His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani” instead of telling his finance minister to balance the budget or find a new job.
While we resolutely reject the notion that climate alarmism is a hoax or a fraud, we do not deny that when there’s money to be made jiggery-pokery can occur. So be very wary of carbon offsets, which combine regulatory misjudgement with dubious accounting on a massive scale. Including a Daily Mail story about the clearcutting of vast wetlands that end up “eerily reminiscent of photographs of No Man’s Land at the Battle of the Somme” in order to feed… what? The greed of capitalists? No. By no means. Instead it’s to provide “pellets” for Britain’s Drax power station. As the Mail explains, both the firm doing the clear-cutting and Drax “have for years been lucratively exploiting a scientifically flawed loophole in the carbon accounting rules of Britain and the European Union that counts forest wood as a renewable energy resource, thereby enabling pellet-burning power producers to claim billions in subsidies.” Climate zealotry is not grift. But if you want to attract grifters, especially that most dangerous class who start by fooling themselves, putting billions of dollars in subsidies at the service of misplaced incentives is exactly what you’d do.
Speaking of which, David Blackmon of the excellent Substack “Energy Additions” makes what we consider a plausible error when he writes “EU Elites’ Private Jet Splurge Proves Their “Climate Emergency” Is Nothing But a Grift”. Now it does stick in the craw to read that “According to a tender document revealed by Politico, the European Union is considering allocating up to 16 million euros over four years for private jet travel by its highest-ranking officials”, about a 50% increase. But it doesn’t mean they’re hypocrites. On the contrary, it means they are very sincere egotists with a saviour complex. As with John Kerry who justified taking a private jet to Iceland to save the planet from carbon pollution by informing the insolent questioner that he was too important to travel steerage with the rest of us peasants, they honestly see themselves as doing such vital work that it’s well worth our sacrificing to facilitate it. Why they think these endless meetings are worth anything we do not know. But then, we’re not their kind, dahling.

Related Posts:

One comment on “Tidbits”

Leave a Reply to Roger Caiazza Cancel reply