{"id":426117,"date":"2026-02-14T15:18:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=426117"},"modified":"2026-02-14T15:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:18:51","slug":"the-last-fool-standing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=426117","title":{"rendered":"The Last Fool\u00a0Standing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t Doug Brodie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Matt Ridley in the Telegraph:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

So, Donald Trump\u00a0plans to reverse the \u201cendangerment finding\u201d<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that underpins most climate-related regulation in America. This is further proof that Britain is being increasingly left behind by a global rush to dismantle the climate scare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Miliband is now almost alone in accelerating towards decarbonisation. Even if you think he is brave to jump out of the trench and go over the top, you have to admit it makes no sense to go alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step outside Britain and you realise just how isolated we are becoming on climate policy. America is abandoning most of its climate change subsidies and rules. Stellantis, formerly known as Chrysler, is the latest car manufacturer to take a massive write-down as it\u00a0backs out of trying to switch to electric cars<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AI industry is embracing gas-fired power to quench its insatiable thirst for electricity. The oil industry is abandoning renewables. The finance industry has disbanded many of its climate initiatives. Even the Democrat party has stopped talking about climate. China and India are building coal plants galore. Europe is watering down its climate targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are soon going to be the only soldier still charging across no-man\u2019s land towards the enemy. Everyone else is safely back in the trench. To put it another way, the effects of carbon dioxide on the world are going to happen anyway so we would be better off adapting to them than trying to reduce our own contribution. About 99.2 per cent of global emissions originate outside Britain, so what we do here has almost no effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, people like me were told that we did not understand. Britain was setting an example to the world, you see. We had a duty to lead and if we got to net zero first, we would reap rich rewards selling the dream to those who followed. Instead, we find ourselves dependent on imported gas and oil and relying on unreliable wind and solar power. We are thus saddled with\u00a0stratospherically high electricity prices<\/em><\/a>, ensuring that we will largely miss out on the real economic opportunities of the late 2020s: in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In seeking to persuade us that carbon dioxide was a danger, Britain cooked the scientific books. The technical term for the net harm done by carbon dioxide is the \u201csocial cost of carbon\u201d. But if you\u00a0<\/em>look up the Government\u2019s position<\/em><\/a>, it says \u201ccarbon valuation for policy appraisal no longer uses the social cost of carbon\u201d. The reason for this is that however hard they tried, economists could not make the social cost of carbon greater than the social cost of decarbonisation. So instead, they just decided to cut emissions at any cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, the endangerment finding was a politically motivated action by the Environmental Protection Agency under Barack Obama. The Supreme Court ruled that the EPA could consider carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gave it the green light to deem carbon dioxide a danger to public health \u2013 despite CO2 being an odourless, invisible, non-toxic plant food produced by human lungs at far higher concentrations than found in normal air. If it\u2019s a danger, then so is dihydrogen monoxide, which regularly kills people (i.e., H2O).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientifically, the only justification for the endangerment finding was that a child in Chad, say, might die of heat stroke in 50 years\u2019 time as a result of carbon dioxide-induced global warming. But that makes no sense when we know that the same child might not die of starvation today as a result of carbon dioxide-induced global greening \u2013 an effect that has increased crop yields and goat fodder by roughly 15-20 per cent in 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Miliband take note: unilateral economic disarmament never makes sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Miliband is the last fool standing on net zero – Yahoo News UK<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what Matt is talking about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Header
Valuation of greenhouse gas emissions: for policy appraisal and evaluation – GOV.UK<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prior to 2021, the Government used carbon values based on \u201cthe monetary value society places\u201d on CO emissions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

And these carbon values were used in cost-benefit analysis for government policy decisions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In 2021, this policy was changed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

IIn short, to achieve Net Zero, carbon values would have to set high enough to offset \u201cmarginal abatement costs\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without this change, most of the actions required to hit Net Zero would not pass any Cost-Benefit Analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

So, Donald Trump\u00a0plans to reverse the \u201cendangerment finding\u201d\u00a0that underpins most climate-related regulation in America. This is further proof that Britain is being increasingly left behind by a global rush to dismantle the climate scare. <\/p>\n

Ed Miliband is now almost alone in accelerating towards decarbonisation. Even if you think he is brave to jump out of the trench and go over the top, you have to admit it makes no sense to go alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":426129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvY2xpbWF0ZS1zY2llbmNlLnByZXNzXC93cC1jb250ZW50XC91cGxvYWRzXC8yMDI2XC8wMlwvMC1UaGUtTGFzdC1Gb29sLVN0YW5kaW5nMS0xMDI0eDY0MC5qcGciLCJ0eHQiOiJUaGUgTGFzdCBGb29sXHUwMGEwU3RhbmRpbmciLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTU1ODEyNDQ5fQ.cBmesRiLAFT0RbeJEDKq_7-FgPiGbm8cGpuRqwc6YioMQ"},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829997,691826913,691818424,691819716,691819809,691819635,691833542,691831484,691841379,691822252,691818154,691819148,691833487],"class_list":["post-426117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-carbon-dioxide-co","tag-china-and-india","tag-clean-air-act","tag-climate-policy","tag-climate-targets","tag-coal","tag-endangerment-finding","tag-energy-secretary-ed-miliband","tag-environmental-protection-agency-under-barack-obama","tag-global-greening","tag-net-zero","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-us-president-donald-j-trump","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-The-Last-Fool-Standing1.jpg?fit=1280%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1MQR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":427384,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=427384","url_meta":{"origin":426117,"position":0},"title":"Climate and Energy Experts Praise Trump\u2019s Endangerment Finding Repeal","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/22\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and President Trump have rescinded the greenhouse gas Endangerment Finding for vehicles.\u00a0Climate Realism\u00a0has long maintained that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, and we applaud this decision.","rel":"","context":"In \"American Energy Institute\"","block_context":{"text":"American Energy Institute","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=american-energy-institute"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-353.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-353.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-353.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-353.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-353.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":426043,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=426043","url_meta":{"origin":426117,"position":1},"title":"The Endangerment Finding Is Dead. 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Championed by Miliband, climate and energy policies have undermined the UK\u2019s industrial capacity, agricultural production and economy. 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The idiot Miliband has warned President Trump that Net Zero is unstoppable.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate Change Committee\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Change Committee","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change-committee"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Net-Zero-City-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Net-Zero-City-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Net-Zero-City-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Net-Zero-City-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0Net-Zero-City-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=426117"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426132,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426117\/revisions\/426132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/426129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=426117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=426117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=426117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}