Solar Power’s Overreliance Likely Culprit In Spain And Portugal Blackouts

by M. Oliver, Apr 28, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch 


The large amount of solar power on the Spanish and Portuguese grids may have left the Iberian power grid more vulnerable to faults or cyberattacks, according to one expert. [emphasis, links added]

This is because of the need for “inertia” on the electricity system, which is a byproduct of generators that have spinning parts—such as those running on gas, coal, or hydropower.

These have turbines that can speed up or slow down to help adjust the power frequency, which must be kept within certain limits.

Inertia also helps to protect the system from faults that cause sudden frequency drops, giving grid operators time to switch on alternative generators.

Solar panels do not generate inertia on the system, however, and there are known issues with low inertia on the Iberian grid.

At about 10 am this morning, roughly two hours before the power cuts, almost 60 percent of Spain’s power was being generated by solar farms, according to transparency data.

At lunchtime, power demand tends to drop, meaning there is less demand for gas on the system in Spain, said Kathryn Porter, an independent energy analyst.

Ms Porter said: “If you have a grid fault, it can cause a frequency imbalance, and in a low-inertia environment, the frequency can change much faster.

“If you have had a significant grid fault in one area, or a cyberattack, or whatever it may be, the grid operators therefore have less time to react. That can lead to cascading failures if you cannot get it under control quickly enough.

The growing reliance on solar has pushed inertia on the grid to the point where it [becomes] more difficult to respond to disruptions such as significant transmission faults.

…snip…

The European Union chief said that “at this point, there are no indications of any cyberattack” after a massive blackout hit Spain and Portugal.

Also :

Congrats to Spain! Nation goes 100% renewable as of April 16th 2025! – But…Then Mass Blackouts Hit Spain, Portugal

Climate change and prehistoric human populations: Eastward shift of settlement areas at the end of the last ice age

by University of Cologne, Apr 3, 2025 in ScienceDaily


A new study sheds light on how prehistoric hunter-gatherer populations in Europe coped with climate changes over 12,000 years ago. Led by scientists from the University of Cologne, a team of 25 prehistoric archaeologists from twenty European universities and research institutions revealed significant shifts in population size and density during key periods at the end of the last Ice Age, specifically during the Final Palaeolithic between 14,000 and 11,600 years ago. The study has been published in PLOS One under the title ‘Large scale and regional demographic responses to climatic changes in Europe during the Final Palaeolithic’.

 The results reveal that the first establishment of a larger human population in north-eastern central Europe during the Final Palaeolithic was followed by a dramatic population decline during the last cold period (Greenland Stadial 1) of the Ice Age. This decline reduced the total population of Europe by half. However, the study found that some areas in central Europe show stability or even a slight increase in population size against the general trend. The team interprets this finding as evidence of human migration towards the east in response to worsening climate conditions.

New Study: Corals Thrived When Global Sea Levels Were Meters Higher Than Today 6000 Years Ago

by K. Richard, Apr 3, 2025 in NoTricksZone 


Coral reefs expand and thrive as sea levels rise, whereas they undergo millennia of growth hiatuses and “turn-off” or “mass mortality” phases when sea levels fall.

According to a new global sea level reconstruction (Feldman et al., 2025), global sea levels were meters higher than today 7000 to 5000 years ago. Global sea levels fell thereafter throughout the late Holocene.

From approximately 4500 years ago until 640 years ago, previously thriving coral reefs endured “mass mortality” and “turn-off” phases due to incrementally declining accommodation space in the Red Sea region.

This millennial-scale “turn-off” reef growth period was not just limited to this study area, but coral cover decline has been a global phenomenon associated with global sea level fall throughout the late Holocene.

“A global hiatus in coral reef development […] was largely driven by eustatic sea level drop during the late Holocene and caused a lack of vertical accommodation space…”

“In this study, we propose not just a local sea level condition causing specific reef turn-offs or hiatuses, but rather a global phenomenon of sea level fall.”

“A reduction in accommodation space through receding sea levels resulted in mass mortality or sea level constrained corals.”

Considering rising sea levels are advantageous to corals and falling sea levels largely eliminate the potential for growth, future sea level rise may lead to a “significant increase in coral cover”.

“Future sea level rise could provide additional accommodation space for currently sea level-constrained reef systems, potentially leading to a significant increase in coral cover.”

The Medieval Warm Period In Germany: Inconvenient And very Real

by P. Gosselin, Apr 25, 2025 in NoTricksZone 


Grok AI generated image.

Hans-Joachim Dammschneider has written a book about the climate history of the southern Harz region. In the historical weather data, he discovered climatic fluctuations that, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), should not exist.

Long before industrial CO2 accumulated in the atmosphere, there were already alternating warm and cold phases.

Here is the book description:

The so-called Medieval Warm Period (MWP) has been the subject of scientific debate for years. It is not so much a question of whether this warm period actually took place in Europe, but rather how it took place. Was it a local phenomenon that was limited in time and predominantly restricted to Europe, or was it a period of intense climatic change that also had a global impact?

One thing is certain: from around 950 AD, there was a rise in temperature in Germany lasting at least 300 years, which resulted in a marked warm phase favorable to agriculture and life. However, from the beginning of the 14th century at the latest, this period was replaced by a relatively rapid drop in temperature and climatic turbulence in the direction of the so-called Little Ice Age.

In the early reports, the IPCC (1990, AR1) still devoted relatively much attention to the MWP. Over the years, however, this focus diminished, and in the most recent assessment (2021, AR6) little space was given to the Medieval Warm Period. Studies often even question whether it was a global phenomenon. However, a mapping of the available scientific publications (as of 2022) initiated by S. Lüning shows that the Warm Period certainly left evidence across continents.

State Of The Great Barrier Reef 2024

by P. Homewood, Mar 14, 2024 in NotaLotofPeopleKnowThat 


The Australian Environment foundation (AEF), which is a farmer friendly conservation group, has issued a new report entitled “State of the Great Barrier Reef 2024.”

Peter Ridd, the Chairman of the AEF, said the report shows that the reef is in excellent condition with record amounts of coral. “Despite all the catastrophism about hot water bleaching events in the last decade, the species most susceptible to bleaching, (the plate and staghorn corals), have exploded in number. Sadly, the impact of bleaching is routinely exaggerated by the media and some science organisations.”

“The impact of farm pollution in the Reef is negligible and all 3000 individual reefs have excellent coral. No other Australian ecosystem has shown such little change in modern times” Ridd said.

Peter Ridd added, “Australia spends roughly $500 million each year to “save the reef” but this money could be much better spent on genuine environmental problems such as control of invasive weeds and feral animals, or restoring indigenous fire practices into forests and rangeland”.

He concluded, “The public is being deceived about the reef. How this occurred is a serious issue for the reef-science community which has embraced emotion, ideology, and raw self-interest to maintain funding”.

“This new report distils a great deal of data about the reef” said Ridd “it is time that the reef

science institutions confront this data rather than ignoring it and hoping nobody will notice. I challenge them to a public science duel – any time any place.”

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system in the world, and scientists have been warning of its imminent demise since the 1960s.

The report is here.

‘Electric Vehicles: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’ Exposes The Dark Side Of EVs

by L. Elder, Apr 24, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch


 

A new documentary challenges the claimed environmental benefits of EVs over gas-powered cars.

Electric Vehicles: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly movie
Are electric vehicles better for the planet than gasoline-powered vehicles? This is the question we explore in my new documentary “Electric Vehicles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Whether one agrees with former President Joe Biden, who calls climate change “an existential threat,” or whether one agrees with the late physicist Freeman Dyson, who dismissed Al Gore and his “An Inconvenient Truth” as “lousy science,” this question remains: are electric vehicles better for planet Earth than “gas guzzlers”? [emphasis, links added]

After all, fossil-fuel-generated energy is required to manufacture an electric vehicle and then to transport it to the dealership. The electricity required to charge it comes mostly from fossil-fuel-generated power.

Electric vehicles are a triumph of technology, with incredible features. They are quiet, fast, and fun to drive. The self-driving feature, while not foolproof, will likely save lives because human driving errors are more common. (There are some gas-powered cars with a similar feature.)

There are concerns about the driving range, as well as the availability of charging stations for long drives.

Right now, an EV compared to a gas-powered car of similar size may be more expensive. There are still tax incentives available, but they may be reduced, if not phased out at some point.

With the more expensive purchase price, mandates to buy an EV or to restrict the sale of gas cars stand to hurt those less well off.

Then there is the China factor. The computer chips required for the EV disproportionately come from China.

The minerals in the batteries — lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese — are mined, processed, and manufactured in China or places under China’s control, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Take cobalt in the Congo.

Two years ago, NPR wrote “How ‘modern-day slavery’ in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy.” It featured the work of Siddharth Kara, author of the book “Cobalt Red.” Kara said:

“People (including children) are working in subhuman, grinding, degrading conditions. They use pickaxes, shovels, stretches of rebar to hack and scrounge at the earth in trenches and pits and tunnels to gather cobalt and feed it up the formal supply chain. … Cobalt is toxic to touch and breathe — and there are hundreds of thousands of poor Congolese (workers) touching and breathing it day in and day out. Young mothers with babies strapped to their backs, all breathing in this toxic cobalt dust. … There’s complete cross-contamination between industrial excavator-derived cobalt and cobalt dug by women and children with their bare hands (for $1 or $2 a day).”

Why are Patagonian glaciers rapidly losing mass?

by University of Liège , Apr 23, 2025 in ScienceDaily


Over the past two decades, satellite-based planetary observations have recorded rapid mass loss of Patagonian glaciers, contributing approximately 0.07 mm per year to global sea-level rise. A study published in Nature Communications links this mass loss to a poleward shift of subtropical high-pressure systems. This large-scale atmospheric circulation change brings more warm air to Patagonia, thereby accelerating glacier melt.

Located in the southern Andes between Chile and Argentina, Patagonia hosts the largest and wettest glaciated region in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica. “The Southern Andes act as a natural barrier, blocking moisture-laden westerly winds from the Pacific Ocean,” explains Brice Noël, climatologist at the University of Liège. “As a result, glaciers locally receive over fifteen metres of snowfall annually, particularly on the western flank of the Andes.”

German Droughts Were Much More Common Back In The Old Days, Before 1980!

by P. Gosselin, Apr 23, 2025 in NoTricksZone 


Central Europe has been experiencing a bout of dry weather since February. Germany’s DWD national weather service reported in a recent press release that just 19 liters per square meter (l/m²) fell in March compared to the approx. 60 liters that normally fall in the month. This made last March one of the driest since measurements began in 1881.

“The pronounced drought, which had already lasted in some regions since the beginning or middle of February, was caused by high-pressure areas that repeatedly settled over Central Europe or in the surrounding area,” reports the DWD.

Not surprisingly, the media are making alarmist claims of unprecedented drought, and all hinting it’s due to climate sins by mankind.

Driest years overwhelmingly before 1980

So is drought in rainy Germany something new that we have only begun to experience, like the media and pols suggest?

The historical data show that the answer is clearly NO.

Four of the 5 driest years on record in Germany occurred before 1960. Eight of the top 9 occurred before man-made climate change was ever an issue (before 1980).

Climate Change Myths Part 2: Wildfires, Drought, Rising Sea Level, and Coral Reefs

by J. Stossel, Ar 23, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch

stossel climate myths part2
More climate change myths need debunking.

There’s so much the alarmists get wrong!

Linnea Lueken of the Heartland Institute helps us reveal the data that disproves claims of worsening droughts, worsening wildfires, catastrophic sea level rise, and a dying Great Barrier Reef.

You might be surprised by what’s true and what’s not.

If you missed Part 1, you can watch it here.

via YouTube

WPR Blames Climate Change For ‘Record Start’ Of Wildfire Season. Data Burns That Claim

by H. Sterling Burnett, Ar 23, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch


wisconsin forest fire
Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) ran a story blaming the unusual number of wildfires in the state in January and February on climate change. This is wrong. One year’s early start to the wildfire season can’t be blamed on climate change. [emphasis, links added]

Only a long-term trend of increasing or increasingly early wildfires would suggest climate change as a factor in this year’s fires, but no such trend exists.

A buildup of vegetation due to improved rainfall conditions in previous years, human populations expanding into the urban/forest interface, and more human-sparked fires from carelessness and arson, is the cause unusual number of wildfires starting off the year in 2025.

The WPR story, “Wisconsin sees record start to the fire season as climate change drives more blazes,” which is long on speculation but short on hard data and evidence, says:

“Wisconsin saw a record number of fires in January and February this year due to a lack of snow as climate change has set the stage for more wildfires,” says Danielle Kaeding, WPR’s environment and energy reporter for Northern Wisconsin. “Wisconsin averages 864 wildfires that burn around 1,800 acres each year, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

“The state had already seen more than 470 fires as of Monday, double the average for this time of year. More than 1,900 acres have already been set ablaze,” Kaeding continues.

Kaeding interviewed Jim Bernier, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) forest fire section manager, about the fires, which he blamed on two years of drought caused by climate change.

“With these droughty conditions that we’re experiencing, we’re seeing these fire-staffing needs occurring more and more all year round,” Bernier said. “We’ve never had this many fires in January and February ever in the state of Wisconsin,”

Bernier’s claim is belied by the fact that Wisconsin is not in drought, and especially not an unusually severe drought.

Data from the U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) shows that in January through March of 2025, precipitation was nearly an inch above normal, with 2025 being the 35th wettest year [since] 1895. At present, no counties in Wisconsin are designated as being under Drought Disaster conditions.

Long-term drought data for Wisconsin show that over the past 30 years, drought conditions have been less severe than historically common, with the last decade being particularly wet in general. (See the graph from NIDIS, below.)

The fact that Wisconsin has not suffered unusual degrees of drought or extremely hot temperatures in recent years is confirmed in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Wisconsin State Climate Summary, which reports that the number of very hot days in Wisconsin has declined sharply over the past century, while the amount of winter and summer precipitation has either slightly increased or remained about the same.

Plus ça change, plus ç’est la même chose

by C. Monckton of Brenchley, Apr 23, 2025 in WUWT


Here in England this spring, there was dry, sunny weather through most of March, followed by gentle showers in April. And here is the opening couplet of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Tales of Caunterbury, written more than six centuries ago in 1387:

From the medieval climate optimum to the modern climate optimum, the weather in these islands has changed scarcely at all. The drought of March, the sweet April showers, the birdsong day and night, the bursting forth of primroses, bluebells, daffodils and other spring flowers, all are today just as Chaucer described them in the Middle Ages.

The wine-dark sea

One can even go back to Homer, in the 8th Century BC, who talked of the Mediterranean as “the wine-dark sea”. And here am I, almost three millennia later, recently recovered from a long illness caused by defective medication with no active ingredient in it, having climbed to the 1230ft summit of the Akamas peninsula in Cyprus, doing a Canute and challenging the wine-dark sea not to rise. The sea was wine-dark in Homer’s time. It is still wine-dark today.

Where, then, are the drastic changes in climate and consequent catastrophes and cataclysms so luridly predicted by the climate Communists? Where are the mass extinctions? Why is the climate much as it was in the Middle Ages? Why are ten times as many dying of cold as of heat? Why are crop yields at record highs? Why is the planet greening so fast? Continuer la lecture de Plus ça change, plus ç’est la même chose

New Study Finds The Anthropogenic ‘Pressure’ On Climate Is Too Small To Play A ‘Dominant Role’

by Dr. W. Stankowski, Apr 14, 2025 in NoTricksZone 


Even if the entirety of the modern CO2 concentration increase is due to human activity, the impact (pressure) on global temperatures amounts to no more than 15-18%.

In a new study, geology professor Dr. Wojciech Stankowski  has summarized some of the reasons why the prevailing narrative that says humans can drive climate change by burning more or less fossil fuels cannot be supported by the evidence.

Past natural climate changes such as Greenland’s “temperature increases of up to 10°C within just 50 years” 14,700 and 11,700 years ago confirm that the modern climate change rate (just 0.05°C per decade since 1860) falls well within the range of natural variability.

Further, a CO2 concentration change from 0.03% to 0.04% (300 ppm to 400 ppm) is not significant enough to impact temperature change in the global ocean, which covers 71% of the Earth’s surface.

“If carbon dioxide were the main driver of temperature fluctuations, its concentration variations would have to be enormous.”

“Currently, CO2 levels are around ~400 ppm. If this entire difference [the ~100 ppm CO2 increase since the early 20th century] is attributed to human activity, anthropogenic pressure accounts for no more than 15-18%.”

Natural factors such as tectonics, changes in galactic phenomena, and the Sun’s magnetic fluctuations continue to modulate changes in climate. Human activity can only play a non-dominant modifying role at most.

“The overall trends in climate change rhythms will continue to be determined by the complex nature of galactic phenomena, the energy-magnetic fluctuations of the Sun, and their interactions with Earth’s magnetic field.”

“The ever-increasing intensity of anthropo-pressure does not hold a dominant role in climate change.”

New Study: Plant Remains Embedded In A Modern Glacier Evidence A Warmer Antarctica 1000 Years Ago

by  K. Richard, Apr 21, 2025 in NoTricksZone

Leafy moss dated to the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) has been found embedded in Antarctic glacier ice that today is “permanently snow-covered” with “no evidence of meltwater.” This affirms a warmer MWP and that “the summer melt during the MWP was greater than today.”

According to a new study, moss samples with intact leaves and stems 10 to 13 mm long have been discovered embedded in glacier ice – the Boulder Clay Glacier (BCG) – in Antarctica’s Victoria Land.

The surface of this glacier is currently not undergoing melt. It is instead permanently snow-covered.

“It is also noteworthy that under current climate conditions…there is no evidence of meltwater on the BCG, and the surface of the glacier is permanently snow-covered.”

The leafy moss samples have been dated to about 1,000 years ago, which is consistent with the timing of the Medieval Warm Period.

“…an unprecedented palaeo-erosion event occurred on the surface of an Anarctic glacier (northern Victoria Land, continental Antarctica) during the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) between 900 and 989 cal BP.”

“The period between 831 and 1140 cal BP is characterized by reduced sea ice in northern Victoria Land, which is consistent with the occurrence of a brief event of warmer conditions around 1000 cal BP…”

The presence of thousand-year-old plant remains in a modern glacier strongly suggest the climate was warmer (and thus there was less glacier ice) during the Medieval Warm Period.

Wake Physics: Large Wind Farms Are Making Downstream Turbines Unprofitable

by P. Gosselin, Apr 20, 2025 in NoTricksZone 


A virtual wake-up call for the wind power industry. Two companies are sounding the alarm as they risk losing a lot of money.

Although they are not making losses yet, they are earning less. It’s about the the wake effect on wind farms by other wind farms.

Windmesse.de

The expansion of offshore wind energy in the North Sea is a central component of the European energy transition. However, two of the biggest players in the industry are now warning of negative effects: Ørsted and Equinor have jointly calculated that the planned 1.5 gigawatt wind farm ‘Outer Dowsing’ could cause significant so-called wake losses. These are yield losses that occur when the wind is weakened by upstream wind farms, causing downstream turbines to produce less electricity.

The two companies estimate that their existing wind farm projects in the British part of the North Sea could lose up to 361 million pounds – the equivalent of around 422 million euros – in the long term as a result of the new wind farm. The wind farms already in operation, which are dependent on constant wind conditions in order to achieve their planned output and ensure profitability, will be particularly affected.”

The phenomenon is called the wake effect and it is by no means new, as you can see in the Sciencemediacenter, an article from 2012:

The existence of wind turbine wakes has been known for decades. For smaller wind turbines and onshore wind farms, it for a long time was not considered to be so important. With the increasing size of individual wind turbines (multi-MW turbines) and larger wind farms in recent years, the size and length of the wakes are increasing and becoming increasingly relevant. I pointed this out back in 2010 and developed a simple model that can be used to estimate the length of wind farm wakes. This model shows the dependence of the length of wakes on subsurface roughness and thermal stratification of the air. Wakes of tens of kilometers in length can be predicted for offshore wind farms with stable stratification. Ms. Lundquist’s working group already presented simulation results with the WRF flow model in 2012, some of which show even longer wakes.“

In alarmist imaginations, January 2025 was ‘hottest on record’; in reality, it was darned cold

by J. Robson, March 12, 2025 in ClimateRealistsofBritishColumbia


We continue to be baffled by alarmist claims that the long, cold winter of 2024-25 did not happen, is not happening, and must not happen.

Sometimes things occur that surprise us and run contrary to our general understanding of the world, but when they do we notice them and admit them. (Under which heading file that thus far in 2025 Arctic sea ice extent is at its lowest in a decade, the opposite of 2024.)

But what are we to make of “The Science Behind the Hottest January on Record: What It Means for the Future” or “The Impact of Record-Breaking January Temperatures on Global Climate Trends”?

In fact, as we reported recently, the best available satellite data shows a sharp drop in temperature in January. And we recently learned that Ottawa “just had its coldest February since February 2015.” In which it is far from alone, with harsh conditions from here to Central Asia. And we’re not out of the snowy woods yet. But who are you going to believe, data, headlines or your own eyes and frosty toes?

DESPERATELY SEEKING EXPLANATIONS…

If they do admit that it’s happening, and they look a bit silly trying not to, they produce an explanation-like object that lacks a certain rigour. For instance a piece on the topic in the Hindustan Times (oh what a globalized world we live in as MSN delivers us the Delhi take on cold in Timmins) explains that:

“After last month’s polar vortex collapse, a second one is expected to unleash freezing conditions across North America. With the winter weather phenomenon predictions eyeing a mid-March comeback, parts of Canada and the United States could be submerged in deep freezes, possibly even impacting travel as was seen in the previous cycle. The UK and Europe may also end up facing the brunt of the extreme winter weather.”

OK, so what’s with the dreaded warming? Well, the piece goes on for a while about how weird stuff is happening weirdly:

Is Arctic Amplification an Averaging Error?

by K. Hansen, Apr 15, 2025 in WUWT


Looking over one of my earlier essays, I found a note pointing to a very interesting journal paper whose findings raised an important question.  The paper is not new, it is almost a  decade old:  “Spatiotemporal Divergence of the Warming Hiatus over Land Based on Different Definitions of Mean Temperature”; Zhou & Wang (2016) [ pdf here ].

The paper was looking into this issue, as stated in the introduction:

“Despite the ongoing increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases, the global mean surface temperature (GMST) has remained rather steady and has even decreased in the central and eastern Pacific since 1983. This cooling trend is referred to as the global ‘warming hiatus’.”

We can see what they were concerned about with in this graph:

Bottom Line:

1.  Methods and definitions matter and can change our understanding of claimed rates of change of Global Mean Temperature. As covered in my series “The Laws of Averages”, not all averages give the same result or the same meaning.  Some averages obscure the physical facts.

2.  “…the use of T2 may bias the temperature trend over globe and regions” and “the sharp faster warming in the highest northern latitudes is greatly reduced” by using T24  to calculate warming trends.

3.  Zhou and Wang recommend using the Integrated Surface Database-Hourly (ISD-H, [T24])available from NOAA.

EU Commission Gave NGOs Taxpayer Billions To Lobby Politicians For Leftist Causes

by K. Zindulka, Apr 28, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch 


eu parliament building
Corruption concerns have been raised amid an investigation into the billions handed out from the EU to NGOs, allegedly in exchange for lobbying efforts on behalf of the European Commission to advance left-wing causes such as the green agenda. [emphasis, links added]

The European Court of Auditors has found that between 2021 and 2023, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) received a total of €7.4 billion ($8.4B) from the EU, including 4.8 billion euros from the governing Commission and another 2.6 billion euros from member states.

Thousands of NGOs were funded with taxpayer cash to promote so-called EU values and advance left-wing causes on immigration, environmentalism, and even lobbying for the ban on combustion engine cars, Germany’s Focus magazine reported.

The Court of Auditors report, which found that there was “no reliable overview of EU funding granted to NGOs”, raised concerns that some such organizations were disguising themselves as NGOs to lobby politicians on behalf of their economic interests while claiming to be nonprofits, or by government actors using the groups to advance their endsclandestinely.

An unnamed research facility in the textile and cosmetics industry, which claimed to be an NGO to receive EU funding, was identified by the Court of Auditors as having pursued the “business interests of its predominantly for-profit members” while maintaining a nonprofit status.

“Solar Madness In Germany”: Gigawatt-Hours Of Subsidized Electricity Gets Dumped Abroad For Free”

by  P. Gosselin, Apr 16, 2025 in NoTricksZone


Blackout News here reports on how Germany’s uncontrolled solar production without appropriate storage and consumption models is putting a huge burden on the domestic market and consumers.

At the same time, neighboring countries are benefiting from all the free electricity Germany uncontrollably overproduces and consumers just don’t need!

Image generated by Grok AI

Experts are warning of the collapse of an over-regulated energy system that is increasingly moving away from reality. Germany has significantly expanded its solar PV capacity in recent years. According to the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), the total installed solar PV capacity in Germany reached 99.3 GW at the end of December 2024.

Is the sun responsible for global warming?

by S.B. Park, Apr 12, 2025 in SkepticalScience


Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline.

Is the sun responsible for global warming?

NoGreenhouse gas emissions from human activities, not solar variability, is responsible for the global warming observed since the Industrial Revolution.

Cyclical variations in Earth’s orbit and changes in the amount of energy released by the sun have caused gradual climatic changes over tens of thousands of years. However, total solar activity has been decreasing since the 1980s.

Meanwhile, global average temperatures have been rising at an accelerating rate. The ten hottest years on record were the most recent ten while 2024 was the hottest on record. The last time Earth experienced a cooler-than-average year was 1976.

In 2021, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that solar fluctuations accounted for around 1% of the 1.1°C (2°F) of total global warming since 1850. The panel identified heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use and other human activities as the primary driver.

Go to full rebuttal on Skeptical Science or to the fact brief on Gigafact


This fact brief is responsive to quotes such as the one highlighted here.


Sources

Skeptical Science Solar vs Temperature

NASA What Is the Sun’s Role in Climate Change?

NOAA Couldn’t the Sun be the cause of global warming?

NOAA Climate Change: Incoming Sunlight

NOAA 2024 was the world’s warmest year on record

NASA The Causes of Climate Change

IPCC AR6 Summary for Policymakers

About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact — a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all of our published fact briefs here.

Climate Change Myths Part 1: Polar Bears, Arctic Ice, And Food Shortages

by J. Stossel, Apr 16, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch 


stossel climate myths
Climate zealots tell us the end is near. It’s the era of “global BOILING!” says the UN secretary-general.

Climate alarmists say the Arctic will soon be ice-free and cities underwater!

But what do the facts say?

The facts say that the climate change fanatics’ catastrophic claims are wrong.

In this video and the next, we’ll debunk 7 myths about climate change.

New Study Finds The Anthropogenic ‘Pressure’ On Climate Is Too Small To Play A ‘Dominant Role’

by K. Richard, Apr 14, 2025 in NoTricksZone


Even if the entirety of the modern CO2 concentration increase is due to human activity, the impact (pressure) on global temperatures amounts to no more than 15-18%.

In a new study, geology professor Dr. Wojciech Stankowski  has summarized some of the reasons why the prevailing narrative that says humans can drive climate change by burning more or less fossil fuels cannot be supported by the evidence.

Past natural climate changes such as Greenland’s “temperature increases of up to 10°C within just 50 years” 14,700 and 11,700 years ago confirm that the modern climate change rate (just o.05°C per decade since 1860) falls well within the range of natural variability.

Further, a CO2 concentration change from 0.03% to 0.04% (300 ppm to 400 ppm) is not significant enough to impact temperature change in the global ocean, which covers 71% of the Earth’s surface.

“If carbon dioxide were the main driver of temperature fluctuations, its concentration variations would have to be enormous.”

“Currently, CO2 levels are around ~400 ppm. If this entire difference [the ~100 ppm CO2 increase since the early 20th century] is attributed to human activity, anthropogenic pressure accounts for no more than 15-18%.”

Natural factors such as tectonics, changes in galactic phenomena, and the Sun’s magnetic fluctuations continue to modulate changes in climate. Human activity can only play a non-dominant modifying role at most.

“The overall trends in climate change rhythms will continue to be determined by the complex nature of galactic phenomena, the energy-magnetic fluctuations of the Sun, and their interactions with Earth’s magnetic field.”

“The ever-increasing intensity of anthropo-pressure does not hold a dominant role in climate change.”

Colossal squid filmed in its natural habitat for the first time (SEE VIDEO)

by E. Stokstad, Apr 15, 2025 in Science


For a century, scientists have searched for a titan lurking in the oceans’ depths: a squid that can weigh up to half a ton. Now, a team of researchers has revealed the first video ever taken of this enormous predator, the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), in its natural deep-water habitat—and managed to spot the animal in its youth.

“We get to introduce the live colossal squid to the world as this beautiful, little, delicate animal,” Kat Bolstad, an Auckland University of Technology biologist who helped confirm the squid’s identity, said during a 15 April press conference. She adds that the find “highlights the magnificence of a lot of deep-sea creatures without some of that monster hype.”

The minuteslong footage of the elusive species, the largest known invertebrate, comes from a team of biologists who filmed it on 9 March in the South Atlantic Ocean as part of an expedition to survey marine life aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too). During the vessel’s stop near the South Sandwich Islands, the researchers deployed a remotely operated vehicle to a depth of 600 meters and livestreamed its video feed.

Ocean CO2 Outgassing With Temperature

by W. Eschenbach, Apr 13, 2025 in WUWT


Over at Dr. Jennifer Marohasy’s always interesting blog, she makes an interesting claim about ocean outgassing of CO2.

Picture this: it’s a hot day, and you grab a soda can that’s been in the sun. You crack it open—psssht—and CO₂ fizzes out, tickling your nose, maybe spraying your shirt if you’re slow. It’s a tiny chaos, a burst you can’t control. Now imagine that fizz across the ocean’s sun-warmed surface, covering 71% of Earth, bubbling CO₂ into the air we breathe. Wild, right? A bit mad. I reckon it’s a missing piece of the climate puzzle.

Now, it’s undeniable that warmer ocean water contains less CO2 than colder water. As the temperature rises, the CO2 outgasses from the ocean. But that wasn’t my question. After reading her post, my question was, “How much?”.

How much increase in CO2 do we get from a 1° increase in ocean temperature?

My first step was to look at the Vostok ice core data. It shows that as the globe rose by ~ 5°C, the CO2 level rose by ~ 100 ppmv. This gives us a CO2 outgassing trend of ~20 ppmv per 1°C temperature rise.

However, it’s not quite that simple. More of the ocean was covered by sea ice during the glaciation, reducing the outgassing ocean area. How much? Estimates are on the order of 30 million km^2, which is about 8.2% of the current ice-free ocean. So that would drop the value to ~ 18 ppmv/°C.

Next, I went to my go-to AI, perplexity, which gave me the following:

To estimate the increase in atmospheric CO₂ from a 1°C rise in ocean temperatures, Henry’s law and equilibrium dynamics between the ocean and atmosphere are key. Here’s a synthesis of insights from relevant studies:

• Henry’s Law and Temperature Dependence

Henry’s law states that the concentration of dissolved CO₂ in seawater (C) is proportional to its partial pressure in the atmosphere (p):  C = k_H * p, where(k_H) is Henry’s constant, which decreases with rising temperature (reducing CO₂ solubility). For example, a 1°C increase reduces(k_H) by ~4%[1][6]. This shifts the equilibrium, releasing CO₂ from the ocean to the atmosphere.

• Model Estimates

1. Simplified Ocean Layer Model:  

 Using a 100m-deep surface layer exchanging CO₂ with the atmosphere, a 1°C rise increases atmospheric CO₂ by ~6 ppm[1]. However, this assumes limited vertical mixing and may underestimate the full ocean response.  

   – For deeper layers (e.g., 3800m), the same temperature rise could yield ~20 ppm[1], aligning with glacial-interglacial transitions where a 5°C warming corresponded to ~90 ppm CO₂ rise (~18 ppm/°C) [1][7].

2. Modern Context:  

Recent studies highlight complexities like the ocean’s thermal skin layer and vertical mixing. Correcting for temperature gradients between the ocean surface and sampling depth increases estimated CO₂ uptake by 0.8–0.9 PgC/yr[2], but this focuses on current anthropogenic fluxes rather than equilibrium responses.  

• Key Variables

– Mixed-Layer Depth: Shallow layers (e.g., 100m) show smaller CO₂ releases than deeper layers[1].

– Buffering by Carbonate Chemistry: CO₂ dissolution forms carbonic acid, which dissociates into ions, adding complexity beyond Henry’s law[5][6]. This buffers pH changes but does not prevent long-term CO₂ release as temperatures rise.  

• Synthesis

The estimated increase ranges from 6–20 ppm/°C, depending on assumptions about ocean mixing depth and timescales. The higher end (~18 ppm/°C) aligns with paleoclimate evidence[1][7], while modern models suggest lower values due to ongoing oceanic uptake[2][3]. These estimates exclude feedbacks like biological responses or changes in ocean circulation.

  • Citations

Geothermal electricity generation

by C. Morris, Apr 12, 2025 in WUWT


Geothermal power stations are mature technology with proven performance, reliable operation and ideal for baseload generation. The units are synchronous, so they support the grid.  The production from them is considered by most to be renewable. They do not use fossil fuels to provide the heat. It is not “carbon free”, but no generation truly is. It has a relatively small footprint, environment harm is low, and it can coexist with farming or industrial development. Most developments have a cheaper energy cost than onshore wind, using published accounts for analysis. For countries or areas where the resource is there, geothermal generation is very viable.

The resource

Geothermal power stations are very much a niche generation source (only about 15GW worldwide,  from 673 units at 198 fields according to Google), totally dependent on locality. They are mainly associated with plate boundaries, particularly the Pacific Ring of Fire. Compare the plate boundaries and volcanic activity in Figure 1 with station locations in Figure  2

Associated with the plate boundaries and other weak points in the earth’s crust, the deep underlying heat in the mantle can find its way to the surface easier. “Bubbles” of magma can push up to relatively shallow depths. These may force their way to the actual surface as volcanoes with their lava. With the distortion and earth movement from this activity, the crust’s rock formations are deformed and cracked – earthquakes.  Groundwater can enter all the fault cracking in the rocks. This will be heated up by the hot magma, even if that has solidified.

Geothermal resources exploited for power production are the plumes of hot water formed from the heating of this deep groundwater. In geologic terms, such convection systems are short lived – generally lasting between 200 and 450 thousand years. They end because the heat source has gone or the cracking has been filled by precipitated minerals from the circulating water as it cools. The world is full of solidified magma (granite) and prehistoric geothermal systems. Many of the latter are now mined for gold and other precious materials.

The Top Ten Environmentalist Myths

by E. Ring, Apr 11, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch 


Here are ten issues where environmentalism has been misused and even caused harm.

earth wind crops
The first Earth Day was organized in 1970 in response to growing public concern for the environment. Many of these concerns were entirely justified. [emphasis, links added]

In 1969, for example, an oil slick along an industrialized stretch of the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire, generating national awareness of the need to reduce water pollution.

Similarly, in coastal cities in California, most notably in Los Angeles, the exhaust from unleaded gasoline created air pollution so dense you couldn’t see the hills a few miles away.

We’ve come a long way in 51 years.

This month, as Americans celebrate Earth Day on April 22, we are challenged to differentiate between legitimate environmental priorities and those priorities chosen for us by special interests with ulterior motives for whom environmentalism is a sentiment to be manipulated.

Here are ten issues where environmentalism has been misused, with consequences that have either been of no benefit whatsoever to the environment or have even caused harm.

(1) We are in a climate crisis

We may as well begin with the most controversial environmentalist claim, that our planet is at imminent risk of catastrophic climate change. The problem with this claim is two-fold.

First, there remains vigorous—if suppressed—debate over whether the data actually supports this claim. There is ample evidence that average global temperatures are not rapidly increasing, if they are even increasing at all.

There is also strong evidence that extreme weather events are not increasing but rather that our ability to detect them has improved and that population increases have led more people to live in places that are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather.

Second, even if there is some truth to the claims of climate catastrophists, it is not possible to precipitously transform our entire energy infrastructure. The technology isn’t ready, the funding isn’t available, and most nations will not participate.

Adaptation is our only rational course of action.

(2) There are too many people

(10) …

La géologie, une science plus que passionnante … et diverse