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climate-debate

No, Washington Post, Climate Change Isn’t Killing Washington, DC’s Trees—Urban Stress Is

by A. Watts, Oct 27, 2025 in WUWT

In The Washington Post’s (WaPo) article, “Climate change is coming for D.C.’s trees, and the city won’t look the same,” the authors claim that climate change is killing off Washington, DC’s tree canopy. This is false. While the article mentions other effects that contribute to the decline of the urban tree canopy, they miss or dismiss the primary causes, preferring to blame climate change instead.

The authors argue that rising temperatures and erratic weather patterns are forcing arborists to abandon native species in favor of more “climate-tolerant” trees from the southern United States. The Post asserts that without urgent adaptation, the District’s iconic maples, lindens, and elms could “vanish by 2100.” It also states that “urban development and climate change have contributed to the annual loss of thousands of D.C. trees and threaten the long-term survival of some of the region’s native tree populations.” That may sound convincing, however, in fact, it is deeply misleading.

The majority of DC’s tree stress has little to do with global climate change. Rather, urbanization is the culprit. The city’s heat, pollution, and dense infrastructure have transformed what was once a temperate forest into an artificial microclimate. This is the urban heat island effect (UHI) at work. As Christy and Spencer demonstrated in their peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, as much as 65 percent of apparent “warming” in urban areas is attributable solely to human development, not global greenhouse gases. Pavement, buildings, and waste heat raise nighttime temperatures, putting added stress on trees that evolved in cooler, more permeable soils.

As Climate at a Glance: Urban Heat Islands notes, “most of the apparent warming in U.S. cities results from localized effects of urbanization, not global climate change.” This localized heating can be several degrees higher than in nearby rural areas, making it a huge stressor for trees already dealing with limited water and root space.

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better to know...?, climate-debate

U.S Surface Temperature

by WUWT, Oct 2025

August ’25 | 0.54°F (0.30°C)

US Climate Reference Network (Updated when Gov shutdown ends)

Click for description of the data/larger graph

The US Climate Reference Network record from 2005 shows no obvious warming during this period. The graph above is created monthly by NOAA.

The graph shows the Average Surface Temperature Anomaly for the contiguous United States since 2005. The data comes from the U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) which is a properly sited (away from human influences and infrastructure) and state-of-the-art weather network consisting of 114 stations in the USA.

These station locations were chosen to avoid warm biases from Urban Heat Islands (UHI) effects as well as microsite effects as documented in the 2022 report Corrupted Climate Stations: The Official U.S. Surface Temperature Record Remains Fatally Flawed. Unfortunately, NOAA never reports this data in their monthly or yearly “state of the climate report.” And, mainstream media either is entirely unaware of the existence of this data set or has chosen not to report on this U.S. temperature record.

The national USCRN data, updated monthly as shown in the above graph can be viewed here and clicking on ClimDiv to remove that data display in the graph: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/national-temperature-index/time-series/anom-tavg/1/0

24-hour precipitation and temperature data for individual stations can be viewed with graphs, by clicking ‘PLOT’ on the Current Observations page: ncei.noaa.gov/access/crn/current-observations

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Is Public Criticism of Climate Claims a Criminal Offence in Today’s Britain and Europe?

by E. Worrall, Oct 26, 2025 in WUWT

“… It is perfectly OK to have different opinions on climate change. What becomes problematic is when a society can no longer agree on facts …”

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My point is, to declare some facts are beyond challenge, especially “facts” produced by artefacts as flimsy as climate models, is to strike at the foundations of freedom of expression and scientific inquiry. Forcing broadcasters to embrace a uniform, government approved version of unassailable facts, then claiming they still somehow have freedom of expression, is utter nonsense.

better to know...?, Cooling

Antarctic Amundsen-Scott Station Sees Coldest October in 44 Years…Mainstream Media Silent!

by P. Gosselin, Oct 24, 2025 in NoTricksZone 

This is not supposed to be happening, according to the climate models.

While the headlines relentlessly holler about “exploding global warming” and “dramatic melting” of the polar caps, the South Pole is telling a starkly different story.

Here reports Germany’s Report 24.

On October 15, the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station registered an astonishing temperature of minus 61.3 degrees Celsius and it isn’t even winter there. It’s springtime and temperatures  should be on the rise.

Coldest October since 1981

According to Report 24, the numbers are clear: It was the coldest October measured at the station since 1981.

This extreme cold is not an isolated event. As the article points out, even CNN reported in 2021 that the continent had experienced its coldest winter since records began.

The data from stations like Amundsen-Scott, Vostok, and Dome C show that instead of a linear, CO₂-driven heating trend, the South Pole is dominated by naturally occurring, extreme temperature fluctuations, including pronounced cold snaps.

Natural factors dominate

This directly contradicts the dominant narrative that “extreme heat is the new normal” and challenges the core assumption that the trace gas CO₂ is the overwhelming, all-determining factor in our climate system. Climatological mechanisms like stratospheric waves, polar vortex stability, and cloud cover appear to be the actual drivers of weather events.

Even growing colder

For decades, we’ve been told that polar regions would experience the strongest warming. Yet, the Antarctic region has stubbornly resisted, in some parts even growing colder.

The Report 24 article argues that this recurring cold record is a “nail in the coffin of the CO₂ dogma.” If carbon dioxide were truly the dominant climate control knob, such an extreme, decades-long cold minimum shouldn’t be happening.

The underlying models—like the IPCC forecasts from the 1990s—have systematically overestimated temperature trends. When faced with such real-world deviations, one must ask: are the climate models flawed, or is the CO₂-centric theory of climate incomplete?

For those politicians and policymakers who are basing sweeping, economy-altering decisions on the idea that the “science is settled,” the stubborn cold of the South Pole presents a critical challenge that can no longer be ignored.

See full article at report 24 

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17 Republican AGs Urge Trump Admin To Skip COP30 Over Green Energy Policies

by A. Streb, Oct 24, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch 

COP30 Amazon
Seventeen Republican attorneys general urged the Trump administration Thursday to skip the major U.N. climate conference this year over concerns that participation would validate the aggressive green policies that align with the conference’s talking points. [emphasis, links added]

Though the Trump administration has not announced that it will send a delegation to attend COP30 this year, some GOP senators have reportedly floated the idea of participating in the conference on Oct. 10.

The letter, led by West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey, warned three energy cabinet secretaries that the administration’s attendance may signal endorsement of COP-aligned green policies that the Republican attorneys general argue have dire consequences.

“Sitting out the COP-30 conference sends a strong message that America will no longer be part of the green new scam. Renewables are not reliable and are expensive – just look at California – but yet, this gathering will continue to push these climate initiatives with their grandiose declarations, while ignoring reality,” McCuskey told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In this country, we finally have an administration taking bold action to secure the Nation’s energy interests by investing in traditional fuels and undoing harmful regulations. Skipping COP-30 signals that America will pursue energy policies based on what provides the most affordable and reliable energy to the American people, not international pressure.”

Letter Re COP30 From AGs by audreystreb

McCuskey and the 16 other attorneys general argued in the letter that COP-aligned policies like net-zero have major consequences and run counter to the Trump administration’s goals, addressing the warning to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin.

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New Study Determines It Is ‘Impossible’ For CO2 To Be The Driving Mechanism In Global Warming

by K. Richard,  Oct 24, 2025 in NoTricksZone 

Approximately 75% of the increase in the global ocean heat content must be natural, or attributed to an increase in solar forcing.

The manifestation of what is commonly referred to as “global warming” is predominantly (93%) depicted as an increase in ocean heat content (OHC). Only 1% is indicated by an increase in surface air temperatures. Rising OHC is the parameter of modern warming.

According to Levitus et al. (2012) the 1955-2010 temperature increase corresponding to the rise in OHC amounts to just 0.09°C in the 0-2000 m layer.

A new study calls attention to the abrupt warming and cooling OHC trends since 1955 in this dataset that cannot be attributed to linearly-rising CO2 emissions.

The OHC changes manifest short-term “periods with a very strong +0.8 W/m² (1970-1980) as well as a very strong negative -0.7 W/m² radiation imbalance (1963-1970). But also a period with an almost perfect radiation balance (1980-1990).”

In contrast, the increase in forcing from the gradual rise in CO2 is wholly inconsistent with these dramatic decadal-scale fluctuations.

“[T]he almost constant forcing rate from GHGs [greenhouse gases] cannot have triggered these abrupt radiation imbalance shifts [and therefore] the dramatic radiation balance shifts must have been triggered by natural events.”

It is estimated that ¾ of the rising ocean heat content (OHC) trend since 1955 must be natural, or due to the “rising solar input” associated with the decline in cloud (and aerosol) albedo. In sum, rising CO2 “cannot explain the observed [OHC] trends.”

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unclassified

Green Transition? Coal Use Hits Record High

by E. Worrall, Oct 24, 2025 in WUWT

Sustainability Magazine laments despite the success of green energy, the world is burning a lot of coal.

Coal Use Hits All-Time High Despite Renewable Energy Boom

 

A report from the World Resources Institute shows global coal consumption reached record levels in 2024, threatening 1.5°C warming target as emissions rise

Global coal consumption reached a record high in 2024, according to the World Resources Institute’s annual State of Climate Action report published this week.

The increase occurred despite rapid expansion of renewable energy capacity worldwide.

While coal’s share of electricity generation declined as clean energy surged, overall power demand grew sufficiently to push total coal use to unprecedented levels.

The findings cast doubt on whether countries can meet their climate commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

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“The message on this is crystal clear. We simply will not limit warming to 1.5C if coal use keeps breaking records.”

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India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, celebrated surpassing one billion tonnes of coal production this year.

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Read more: https://sustainabilitymag.com/news/coal-use-hits-all-time-high-despite-renewable-energy-boom

The World Resources State of Climate Action 2025 report is available here, though you need to supply a lot of personal details to download a copy.

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See also:

Aussie Climate Minister Slams Queensland’s Reliance on Intermittent Coal
energy and fields

Europe’s Energy Crisis Shows Net Zero Dogma Comes At A Cost

by V. Jayaraj, Oct 23, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch 

The China threat calls for an ideologically free energy policy.

Shipping port near power plant
Whether China’s threat to restrict the export of rare earth minerals materializes or is resolved through trade negotiations, the episode underscores the fragility of U.S. supply chains and the importance of developing domestic sources. [emphasis, links added]

Nowhere is this more evident than in the energy sector, where climate policies have made dozens of countries more reliant on imports than ever before.

Adherence to climate orthodoxy has repeatedly exposed countries to avoidable risks, each instance demonstrating the cost of subordinating real-world utility to the pseudoscience of theoretical models and the grifting of special interests.

The reshuffling of the global flow of oil and coal after 2022 exposed the foolishness of the anti-fossil fuel agenda.

European nations, led by Germany and the United Kingdom, embarked on aggressive phaseouts of fossil fuels, dismantling coal plants and shrinking domestic natural gas output in favor of wind and solar.

Domestic production of hydrocarbons collapsed, and reliance on imported energy spiked, particularly for the Germans and British.

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