{"id":362849,"date":"2025-01-21T09:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T08:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=362849"},"modified":"2025-01-21T09:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T08:04:12","slug":"left-coast-climate-delusion-ends-in-flames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=362849","title":{"rendered":"Left Coast Climate Delusion Ends in\u00a0Flames"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Satellite images of wildfires burning in Southern California by NBC Staff \u2022 Published January 11, 2025<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Science Matters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Ron Clutz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. writes in Wall Street Journal End of a Climate Delusion.  Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid California\u2019s fires, voters wake up from the dream that green pork is a solution.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CO2 emitted<\/strong> into the atmosphere is rapidly and, for all practical purposes, uniformly distributed around the planet.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I may be stating the obvious, but it needs to be pointed out.\u00a0Voters and even political leaders are surprisingly poorly informed on this point<\/strong>.\u00a0Emissions cuts in California<\/strong>\u00a0don\u2019t have<\/strong>\u00a0any significant\u00a0effect on California\u2019s climate.<\/strong>\u00a0They also have no global effect. California\u2019s cuts are\u00a0too small<\/strong>\u00a0relative to the global whole; they also are\u00a0largely illusory.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Emitting industries leave the state. They don\u2019t stop emitting.<\/strong>\u00a0If California imports Canadian hydro to charge its electric vehicles, consumers elsewhere have to burn more coal and gas. If Californians drive EVs, more gasoline is free to be burned by others, releasing more CO2 that influences climate change in California and everywhere else.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Green-energy subsidies do not reduce emissions<\/strong>. This will be news to millions of California voters. It contradicts a central tenet of state policy. It isn\u2019t news to the actual enactors of these subsidies. A\u00a0National Research Council study sponsored by congressional Democrats in 2008<\/strong>\u00a0concluded that such handouts were a \u201cpoor tool for reducing greenhouse gases\u201d and called for carbon taxes instead.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the incoming Obama administration quickly discovered it favored climate taxes only when Republicans were in charge. Backers would later engage in\u00a0flagrant lying to promote Joe Biden\u2019s Inflation Reduction Act,<\/strong>\u00a0knowingly citing bogus predictions that its trillion-dollar spending profusion would reduce emissions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A\u00a02019 University of Oregon study<\/strong>\u00a0had already revealed\u00a0the empirical truth: Green energy doesn\u2019t replace fossil fuels,<\/strong>\u00a0it enables more energy consumption overall. That same year the EPA calculated that the potential emissions savings from subsidizing electric vehicles had been offset five times over by the pickup truck and SUV boom Team Obama facilitated to assure the success of its auto bailout.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
American Association for the Advancement of Science study finds that of 1,500 \u201cclimate\u201d policies announced around the world, a mere 63, or 4%, produce any reduction in emissions.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the premier journal Science<\/strong> put a nail in the question: 96% of policies supported worldwide as \u201creducing\u201d emissions failed to do so<\/strong>, consisting mostly of handouts to green-energy interests.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet certain Journal readers still assail me with the epithet \u201cdenier.\u201d They confuse my criticism of Democratic hypocrisy with my imagined views on climate science.<\/strong> As I\u2019ve written back to many, \u201cDon\u2019t think politicians<\/strong> haven\u2019t figured this out about you. That\u2019s why they can give us unsustainable corporate welfare boondoggles and call it climate policy.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A\u00a0CNN<\/strong>\u00a0moderator Saturday urged viewers to vote in an online poll on whether the California disaster should be blamed on climate change or poor leadership. Notice the non sequitur:\u00a0as if climate change is an excuse for not acting against fire risk.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By all means, let politicians proclaim a \u201cclimate crisis\u201d or any other rhetorical flourish if it helps mobilize support for public actions that actually serve a useful purpose. But a prerevolutionary situation has been building in California for two decades, starting with the Third World blackouts in late 2000 not because of any shortage of power but because of\u00a0large helpings of political cowardice.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A decision in 2019 authorized\u00a0yet more Third World blackouts<\/strong>\u00a0instead of reasonably shielding utilities from lawsuit risk over fires their power lines might be accused of contributing to. One result, predictably, has been a proliferation of backyard generators, which increase fire risk.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Californians are stuck adapting in the ways left open to them. Since 2017, half a million have fled Los Angeles County.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two social technologies might help<\/strong> but the state has been intent on denying itself their advantages. One is a functioning insurance market<\/strong>. If you can\u2019t afford the insurance, you can\u2019t afford the house. Get ready, instead,<\/strong> for a torrent of federal and state money<\/strong> to<\/strong> help residents, some of them wealthy, rebuild in high-risk fire zones.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The other is a functioning market in water.<\/strong> Five gallons to produce a walnut probably isn\u2019t tenable under any realistic system of water pricing. If water were properly valued, municipalities would also rapidly discover the logic of building aquifers to capture seasonal runoff. A thousand things would change if water were priced to flow to its most highly valued uses.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another concept: Climate change can exist and yet be an insignificant variable.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Southern California\u2019s Mediterranean climate, anytime 100-mile-an-hour winds start blowing<\/strong> embers toward densely packed housing developments, a conflagration is certain. The only answer<\/strong> then is to have the manpower and resources ready<\/strong> to put fires out as quickly as they start.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve written repeatedly about climate and energy policies in the Western world<\/strong> being a colossal example of \u201csophisticated state failure,<\/strong>\u201d in which attempts to address complex problems yield only a succession of boondoggles and economic crises. If California voters don\u2019t wise up now, they never will.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid California\u2019s fires, voters wake up from the dream that green pork is a solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":362850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691832755,691832758,691832757,691821977,691832756,691818576],"class_list":{"0":"post-362849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-californias-climate","9":"tag-californias-fires","10":"tag-democratic-hypocrisy","11":"tag-electric-vehicles-evs","12":"tag-green-energy-subsidies-2","13":"tag-inflation-reduction-act","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/005_swir-image-of-burning-fires-in-altadena_08jan2025_1041am_wv3.jpg?fit=8113%2C5613&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1wop","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":410806,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=410806","url_meta":{"origin":362849,"position":0},"title":"Green delusionists attending COP30 are clueless of their renewable idealism","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place from November 10-21, 2025, in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, with an expected attendance of 70,000.","rel":"","context":"In \"California Governor Gavin Newsom\"","block_context":{"text":"California Governor Gavin Newsom","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=california-governor-gavin-newsom"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/548718316_796608383535195_8273900725296774622_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/548718316_796608383535195_8273900725296774622_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/548718316_796608383535195_8273900725296774622_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/548718316_796608383535195_8273900725296774622_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/548718316_796608383535195_8273900725296774622_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C796&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":220660,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=220660","url_meta":{"origin":362849,"position":1},"title":"Green California Governor on Skyrocketing Prices: \u201cWe\u2019re Just Getting Started\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"25\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Whatever their expectations, the next decade will be a painful test of their resolve and patience.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1225.png?fit=800%2C558&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1225.png?fit=800%2C558&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1225.png?fit=800%2C558&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1225.png?fit=800%2C558&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":414715,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=414715","url_meta":{"origin":362849,"position":2},"title":"Gavin Newsom\u2019s war on the poor goes global at COP30","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"26\/11\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"California Gov. 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