Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #408

Researchers, Lawmakers Cry Foul After Harvard Quietly Edits Study Suggesting Pollution Leads To More COVID Deaths

Leftists Fume As Michael Moore Turns On Fraudulent “Green” Movement In Latest Movie

Claim: Dengue Spreading in South America Because Climate Change

Rev. Jesse Jackson Bucks Environmentalists, Pushes Natural Gas Pipeline As Black Neighborhoods Struggle With Sky High Energy Prices

TURNER: The Earth Day Post Mortem — How First World Privilege Sustained A Global Event For 49 Years

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The claim that “Putin wanted Trump” was absolutely fundamental and central to their coup effort — and it was all a lie concocted by former (?) Communist Brennan.

A lot of people need to go to jail.

Concur.

Read it.

Some examples of things I hear all the time:

• I don’t understand why team X isn’t working on feature idea Y. It’s such an obvious thing to do!
• Why is bug Z still present? Hasn’t it been known for a really long time? I don’t understand why they aren’t fixing it?
• I don’t get why HR team still doesn’t offer perk W. So many other companies have that!
• I’ve told my manager that we need a process for thing V but it still hasn’t happened!

Of course, why these things never happened is that something else was more important.

Read it.

Can they stonewall this long enough to get through the convention? If not, who will they pick?

Can they stonewall this long enough to get through the election? If so, Trump’s second term is going to be awesome.

UPDATE: NY Times Op-Ed: Time to Consider Dumping Biden

Read it.

Earlier today, I showed that New York state, the two other states that surround New York City, and nursing homes in the rest of America probably account for around two-thirds of the U.S. coronavirus death total. A focus on New York and nursing homes yields a common denominator: Andrew Cuomo.

Satellites reveal clearest picture of ice-melting in Antarctica

Oil Demand May Never Recover, Green Fantasy Part Deux

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The concept known as “genetic memory” is much less studied and far more controversial than what we know as “regular” memory. Whilst there are a multitude of other examples in animals (see: Gallagher, 2013), according to the decorated psychiatrist and author Dr. Darold Treffert, these mysterious genetic memories may also apply to humans too (Treffert, 2015).

With thanks to Bluebird of Bitterness, who is certainly not letting the virus get her down.

Wind & Solar ‘Industries’ Crushed By COVID-19

Study: High End Model Climate Sensitivities Not Supported by Paleo Evidence

Al Jazeera Climate Change Misanthropy: “Will coronavirus help nature reclaim the Earth?”

NOAA Satellite records second largest 2-month temperature drop in history

As 30 Million Lose Jobs, Robert Redford Sees Environmental Salvation in Lockdown  It always surprises me that people who make their living pretending to be somebody else, no matter how well that is done, seem to think it gives them some expertise in every sphere of human life.

Why Eco-Warriors’ Bid to Ban Natural Gas Appliances Is Wrongheaded

Broadway Star Tells ‘View’: This Lockdown Is a ‘Global Reset’ From ‘Mother Nature’ for ‘Self Care’  I make a point of never taking advice from people wearing pimp glasses.

Kevin Williamson shoots some fish in a barrel.

I’ll get into this at more length later, but there’s a problem with Joe Biden’s naming Chris Dodd to run his vice-presidential search beyond the obvious waitress-sandwich stuff.

The Democrats talk a pretty good “diversity” game, but think about what that really looks like in a party where the bosses are rich and white and the voters are less affluent and less white. Joe Biden, an eternal party hack and white-guy visitor from the age of black-and-white television, pledges to name a woman to the VP spot. Okay — which woman? The woman recommended to him by Chris Dodd, eternal party hack and white-guy visitor from the age of black-and-white television.

The obvious conclusion to be drawn from the various contortions now underway by the Democrats and their mouthpieces in the national ‘press’ is that it’s all bunkum; what they say they do not mean, and what they mean is the same old shell game they always play when it comes to electoral politics. The only surprise is that their shenanigans are as successful as they continually prove to be — one would think that their ‘base’ would eventually wise up to the fact that they are being fleeced and refuse to submit to it.

Read it.

Given her history, I can’t think of a single antibody that Madonna wouldn’t test positive for.

Coronavirus shutdown forces research project to miss critical start of Arctic ice melt

Meeting the terawatt challenge

Mann elected to National Academy of Sciences

“Planet of the Humans”: Climate Activists Scramble to Choose a Corporate Sellout Scapegoat

Climate experts call for ‘dangerous’ Michael Moore film to be taken down

CNN Climate Cop Bill Weir Claims NewsBusters Pushed ‘Malevolent Hoax’ of ‘Climategate’

‘Microplastic Hot Spots’ Are Tainting Deep-Sea Ecosystems  It’s all gone be plastic by ‘n’ bye.

Michael Moore Heresy Watch (2)

Babylon Bee.   (I think this is satire, but it is frequently hard to tell.)

I don’t recall that Karl Marx was ever a ‘worker’ as that term was understood in the 19th century.

Come to think of it, I don’t recall that Bernie Sanders (or Elizabeth Warren) ever were, either.

Read it.

Stacey Abrams, who hopes to become Biden’s vice presidential pick, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) – whose father was involved with the NXIVM sex cult which exploited countless women, have both rushed to Biden’s defense. Now, instead of ‘believe all women,’ they’re saying that women have the ‘right to be heard,’ but that they don’t believe former Biden staffer Tara Reade’s claims that he sexually assaulted her in 1993, according to The Hill.

UPDATE: Alyssa Milano Still ‘Admires’ And ‘Supports’ Joe Biden Despite Sexual Assault Allegation

The Crust takes care of its own, even at the price of justice.

UPDATE: Chris Hayes Briefly Mentions Tara Reade; “#FireChrisHayes” Immediately Trends on Twitter

Read it.

Unless conservatives attain an unlikely victory in the culture war, success in electoral politics will not easily be translated into cultural respect or recognition. The past two decades of Republican electoral victories and simultaneous progressive cultural drift demonstrate the point. Even Donald Trump has been unable to induce respect for conservative culture, though his denigration of elites may serve as a short-lived cultural equalizer of sorts. So here is another idea: conservatives should look to decentralized speech infrastructure, free of the chokepoints so often captured by progressive activists.

Surviving climate change in 6th century Finland

No, Antarctica Is Not ‘Rapidly Melting’

Anti-Auto Nuts Continue to Act Nutty

A history of FLICC: the 5 techniques of science denial

Science made astonishing progress and was hijacked by those with an axe to grind

Apparent Paradoxes in the relationship of Climate ‘Concerns, Skepticism, Activism, and Priority’, explained by Religiosity

Scientists Who Didn’t Predict A Single Thing Accurately For Last Two Months Confident They Know What The Weather Is Going To Be Like In 100 Years  Babylon Bee.

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In our days we need to solve problems harder than ever before and we have a lot of intelligent people to do that. Or do we? You see, even if you are intelligent, there is a prerequisite every single time you wake up which will decide if your intelligence will be used or wasted that day. That prerequisite is focus.

Read it.

All new presidents change the courts by filling vacancies. But what is only now coming into focus is the impact that Trump’s unprecedented number of judicial appointments is having on the courts, ruling by ruling, and on the day-to-day lives of Americans, in areas such as healthcare, voting rights, criminal justice, anti-discrimination efforts and the climate.

This is The Guardian, so they’re awash in Trump Derangment Syndrome, but Trump’s achievement in this area needs to be more widely appreciated.

Read it.

They analysed three brass links as part of continuing scientific investigations into the artefacts recovered during the excavation of the wreck in the Solent. These links have often been found joined to make a sheet or a chain and are most likely to be from a suit of chainmail armour. By using several X-ray techniques available via the XMaS beamline to examine the surface chemistry of the links, the team were able to peer back through time to the armour’s production and reveal that these links were manufactured from an alloy of 73% copper and 27% zinc.

They’re going to be pretty embarrassed when somebody who knows the subject points out that (a) brass wasn’t use for chain mail and (b) chain mail rings were riveted, not butted.

The exceptionally high sensitivity analysis revealed traces of heavy metals, such as lead and gold, on the surface of the links, hinting at further history to the armour yet to be uncovered.

… which means that they were coated and were probably decorative.

I would have thought that they would give this sort of analysis to professionals, somebody who knew something about the period.

Guess not.

Halt destruction of nature or suffer even worse pandemics, say world’s top scientists  The Guardian.

Environmentalists Get Newest Michael Moore Doc Pulled From Distribution Over ‘Misinformation’

U.N. Secretary General: Use Plague Crisis to Make Fossil Fuel Industries ‘Pay’

“Global public tells the United Nations: Take action on climate change and the environment”  And if you believe that one, they’ll tell you another one.

Read it.

But Democrats do that all the time.

Climate Activists Want Michael Moore’s Doc Panning Green Energy Banned, Say It’s Chock Full Of Misinformation

4 Climate Crisis Solutions No One Is Talking About

MSNBC Gives Michael Moore a Forum to Connect Climate to Corona ‘Warning’

Headdesk: CNN Reporter Pens Insane Climate Change Letter to Newborn Son

This timeline shows just how insignificant humans are

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Communist governments don’t do anything that isn’t ‘politicized’.

Read it.

Mexico has almost completely cleared out its migrant centers as a precaution against the coronavirus outbreak, its government announced.

The National Migration Institute (INM), the agency in Mexico that manages immigration, said it has been deporting immigrants from the country’s 65 migrant facilities since March 21, according to Reuters. The actions are being made in order to comply with safety and health guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Which implies that their flooding the U.S. border before the pandemic hit was a political decision on their part. These people are not our friends.

Read it.

Populists on both the Left and Right have a narrative to push. According to this narrative, when economic inequality rises, the middle class suffers and the American dream dissipates. When the government combats inequality, conversely, the middle class rises and the American dream prospers. Let us call this the inequality fable. It is a tale the Left has been telling for over a century, though patriotic Americans on both sides of the aisle have been rallying around it with passionate intensity since the Great Recession of 2007, facts be damned.

All modern discussions of ‘economic inequality’ proceed from the axiom that ‘economic inequality’ is a Bad Thing and that the more of it you have the worse off things are. Nobody every takes the time to explain why this might be so; it’s simply assumed (hence my use of the term ‘axiom’).

UK & German Governments Plan to Turn Covid-19 into a Climate Action Opportunity  “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

Rice genetically engineered to resist heat waves can also produce up to 20% more grain

Climate Activists Want Michael Moore’s Doc Panning Green Energy Banned, Say It’s Chock Full Of Misinformation  Step away from the Party Line and they will Cancel you.

Read it.

I want to go to a restaurant.
I want to wait to be seated.
I want the hostess to ask me if this table is alright.
I want to take a long, deep sip from the water glass, a water glass that is full of ice and has droplets of water running down the side like glacial meltwater.
I want to examine the appetizer list like I’m choosing a college major.
I want to know what the soup of the day is.
I want the server to tell me about the specials. I want them to ask me what sides I want with my meal.
I want to hear the muted clang of the silverware as it rolls out of the napkin, then revel in anticipation as I tuck the napkin into my lap.
I want to savor each bite of my food, knowing that someone was paid good money to make it come out just right.
I want the server to offer me dessert. I want to decline their offer because I am just too full.
I want to sip a cup of coffee as the taste of the meal I just ate lingers in my mouth.
I want to tip my server for providing me this wonderful experience.
I want to smile politely to the hostess as I leave and thank them for an excellent meal.
I want to go back to a restaurant, and I want to go back soon.

Freeberg lays it out.

One month ago, staying at home and abiding by sensible “shelter-in-place” directives was an entirely non-partisan thing. That’s no longer true. There are exceptions to everything, but a sentiment of “That’s enough of this nonsense let’s get back to work” has risen up and it is a political-right thing; continuing with this “whole nation housebound” situation is a political-left thing. What happened?

Read it.

Although we must wait for complete data, modelling by country’s authorities suggests that the infection rate in Stockholm peaked on 8 April. If so, we need to consider the implication, namely that, once basic hygiene and distancing measures are in place, tightening the screw further perhaps makes little difference. Which would be good news for the rest of us. Adopting Sweden’s more laissez-faire response might not restore our economies to full health, but it would at least allow us to bring them out of their induced comas.

Wild horses, of course, won’t get politicians to admit that they over-reacted.

Read it.

The Daily Caller contacted every Democrat in the Senate, asking them if they would even consider the allegations by Biden’s accuser, Tara Reade, who has accused the then-senator of kissing her, touching her and penetrating her with his fingers without her consent in 1993. Each Senate office was given 24 hours to respond but not one did.

Some sexual predators are more equal than others.

WP: “climate change and the pandemic may cool the geopolitical tensions between the United States and China”  I have my doubts.

Climate change may push some species to higher elevations — and out of harm’s way

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Those Georgians who are returning to work have apparently accepted that they’re guinea pigs in a great national experiment with incredibly high stakes.

After weeks of unemployment, often with uneven government help, some said they were happy to be earning paychecks but worry about the ultimate costs of abandoning isolation too soon, according to the Washington Post.

Read it.

We need to Recall Governor Ralph Northam from the office because he is attempting to take away our 2nd amendment rights. He has signed 5 new gun laws to try and limit people from buying and owning guns and has 2 more in pending to be signed very soon. We need to get him out before Virginia citizens can no longer own a gun.. We must fight for our 2nd amendment rights and step up as virginians to make this happen. Please sign the petition and help our declining state from this monster.

He has also made it legal for women to to have an abortion up to 36 weeks pregnant.

He has also allowed Undocumented Citizens the right to vote which could rig the election polls.

Well, that’s what happens when Democrats run your state.

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Envision a scene in which two Renaissance men are hanging out in a bar in Bologna with a prostitute.  Watching this scene, I, with my professional knowledge of the place and period, notice that there are implausibly too many candles burning, way more than this pub could afford, plus what they paid for that meal is about what the landlord probably earns in a month, and the prostitute isn’t wearing the mandatory blue veil required for prostitutes by Bologna’s sumptuary laws.  But if I showed it to twenty other historians they would notice other things: that style of candlestick wasn’t possible with Italian metalwork of the day, that fabric pattern was Flemish, that window wouldn’t have had curtains, that dish they’re eating is a period dish but from Genoa, not Bologna, and no Genoese cook would be in Bologna because feud bla bla bla.  So much we know.  But a person from the period would notice a thousand other things: that nobody made candles in that exact diameter, or they butchered animals differently so that cut of steak is the wrong shape, or no bar of the era would have been without the indispensable who-knows-what: a hat-cleaning lady, a box of kittens, a special shape of bread.  All historical scenes are wrong, as wrong as a scene set now would be which had a classy couple go to a formal steakhouse with paper menus and an all-you-can-eat steak buffet.  All the details are right, but the mix is wrong.

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Stewart Butterfield expanded on this idea when he discussed what he called the “Three Levels of Wealth.”  My colleague, Ben Carlson, beautifully summarized the three levels of wealth as:

• Level 1. I’m not stressed out about debt: People who no longer have to worry about their credit card debt or student loans.
• Level 2. I don’t care what stuff costs in restaurants: How much you spend on a particular meal isn’t impacted by your finances.
• Level 3. I don’t care what a vacation costs: People who don’t care how expensive the hotel is or which flight they go on.

Read it.

Yesterday on my work Facebook page, a reader asked, “Why is it that the places Covid-19 show up the most are in Democrat controlled areas?” As much as I’d like to believe that all the troubles in the world can eventually be traced back to Bill de Blasio, I responded, “Probably because ‘the places it shows up the most’ are large densely-packed cities with a lot of international and domestic air travel and high use of mass transit, where Democrats have been winning elections more than Republicans for at least a generation and in many cases several generations.”

Read it.

After decades of debate and assumptions, archaeologists have picked up their Bronze Age swords to find out whether these soft metal weapons could really hack it in combat.

Mark Krikorian peeks under the hood of the New Feudalism.

The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the hilariously misnamed Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would “modernize” agricultural labor right back to the 17th century.

At the core of the bill are several indentured-labor schemes intended to tie current illegal aliens and future “temporary” workers to farm jobs for four to ten years before giving them green cards. The reason for the indenture system is that farmers know from experience that once the illegal aliens or visa workers get green cards, almost all will flee the medieval labor system that prevails in much of fresh fruit and vegetable agriculture.

Sometimes the old ways aren’t best.

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First, although child-care workers aren’t expensive on an hourly basis—their median hourly wage is less than that of non-farm-animal caretakers and janitors—labor is the biggest line item for child-care facilities. Unlike, say, car companies, they can’t cut spending by moving labor to poorer countries or by replacing human workers with machines. Like health care and education, child care requires lots of domestic salaries, which means that its costs will continuously rise faster than overall inflation.

The industry is highly regulated, perhaps reasonably so, given the vulnerability of the clientele—which is the second key driver of child-care costs. As Jordan Weissmann has reported in The Atlantic, states with strict labor laws tend to have the most expensive facilities. In Massachusetts, which requires one caregiver for every three infants, the average annual cost is more than $16,000. In Mississippi, which allows a one-to-five ratio, the cost is less than $5,000. Thanks to high turnover rates—a result of those low wages—companies have to constantly train new workers to meet regulatory standards. Other costs include insurance to cover damage to the property and worker injuries, as well as legal fees to deal with inevitable parent lawsuits.

Finally, there’s the real estate. The most expensive child-care facilities tend to be situated near high-income neighborhoods or in commercial districts, where the rents are high. And they can’t downsize in a pinch, because most states require them to have ample square footage for each kid.

In other words: (1) Crustian expectations, (2) government regulation, and (3) government regulations.

In the old days, you could get grandma or Aunt Beth to sit with the kids — but nowadays grandma is out kayaking and there is no Aunt Beth in your second-generation single-child family. (No shit … I know a couple, both of whom are single children, who have a single child and probably won’t have any more; that’s four grandparents with one grandchild to go around.)

Read it.

Horizon organic milk, which is what I use, is also ultra-pasturized, so it lasts about a month. The change in taste makes it a bit sweeter. (I still keep it refrigerated.)

Lisa Jackson touts Apple’s environmental initiatives in Earth Day talk  Apple absolutely needs to keep on top of the hipster preference stack.

NY Times Marks Earth Day: ‘I Need Help Arguing With My Denialist Uncle’

An Earth Day Reminder of How the Republicans Have Forsaken the Environment  New Yorker.

Devastating Simulations Say Sea Ice Will Be Completely Gone in Arctic Summers by 2050  And simulations are always right, as you know.

How Did CBS Celebrate Earth Day? Declaring Humans Aren’t Needed

Sad: Michael Moore’s New Movie Is Free Online, Blasts ‘Infinite Growth’ of People

United Nations: The Covid-19 Lockdown CO2 Emissions Fall is “unfortunately (only) short-term good news”

The End of Big Green? The Guardian Praises Michael Moore’s Anti Renewables Flick “Planet of the Humans”