Carbon Confusion: How Journalists Forgot Plants Eat CO₂
We recently deplored the ignorance of journalists trusted to write on science without knowing, apparently, that plants absorb carbon.
So how about the ignorance, or whatever it is, of journalists who think they no longer do so? We refer to the BBC, which seems entirely credulous about the UN and unwilling to believe biology.
It said last fall, an alert reader informs us, that “Researchers are also worried that forests are losing their ability to soak up carbon, which could be contributing to record levels of warming gas in the atmosphere.” Researchers here being the climate zealot branch of the WMO. “But the WMO’s scientists also says they have seen some evidence that as the world gets warmer, trees are not able to soak up the same level of CO2 as they once were.”
They says, do them? Yup. CO2 is plant food, so when there’s more of it, plants starve. Or so journalists think.
According to Canary Media, the U.S. faces a weird alternative energy problem. Hydro power is collapsing because older stations need to be relicensed and for some strange reason various layers of bureaucracy are making it so hard and expensive some just shut down instead.
So the unstoppable transition could rush onward. “Or, as has been happening for years, the U.S. could continue to lose gigawatts of power as hydroelectric facilities shut down rather than absorb the high costs of relicensing – especially with cheaper competition from gas, wind, and solar.”
Wait. Gas is cheaper? And all those subsidies for wind and solar are destroying hydro? Dang. This game is hard.
- So is weather forecasting, especially if mixed with zealotry. But let’s see them try to pin this one on global heating: The Weather Network warns that “Portions of seven provinces and all three territories will see flakes fly before Thanksgiving arrives”. Now Thanksgiving in Canada is, we add, considerably earlier than in the United States. Which only makes it worse.
- Continuing our “expert says” watch, the Globe & Mail headlines a Reuters piece “Israel’s interception of aid flotilla unlawful, maritime law expert says”. Well, sure. And another one says not because intercepting blockade-runners on the high seas is standard practice. But we chose this one because it lets us peddle our opinion as the Voice of Science.
- From the hypocrisy file, just how important is it to limit our carbon footprints? Har de har har. “Canada hosts G7 Summit discussing competition issues related to algorithmic pricing“. And how did Konrad Ost, Eiji Chatani, Maria Jaspers, Benoît Cœuré, Roberto Rustichelli, and Chris Prevett get to Ottawa for this photo op, and with how many staff? The irony of meeting in person to discuss modern digital technology instead of videoconferencing was presumably lost on them. As was the hypocrisy. And the futility, since they do it every year.
- As they also hold things like “the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting” so people who flew to Quebec this spring for an identical meeting, and to New York for a UN meeting can fly to Toronto and see one another yet again and eat more canapés somewhere fancy near Niagara Falls while they reassure one another that uttering their usual self-satisfied clichés actually constitutes statespersonship. After all, someone has to do it. As, indeed, someone else has to pay for the plane tickets.
- Also from the how clueless is the Canadian government file, they’re all into “investment” (not spending mind you) to make their ghastly deficit less obvious. But they’re the people who kept “investing” in EV manufacturing ventures that promptly went very publicly bust so it was just spending. And now, Hallelujah! “Canada installs 157 new electric vehicle chargers for Atlantic Canadians”. And so woke, too. “The projects also include funding for two Indigenous organizations to install EV chargers serving a highway retail hub and the Halifax International Airport.” Fully 157. That’s a lot… of hype. Also, “Since 2016, the Government of Canada has allocated more than $1 billion in funding to support the deployment of electric vehicle charging stations across the country.” Just try to find one, though.
- Speaking of the government of Canada, which under Mark Carney is now saving us from ruin by constantly flying places and uttering clichés instead of going to his office and dealing with files, his cherished “Net-Zero Banking Alliance” just abruptly shut down altogether. Doubtless he is good at something besides self-promotion and burning of carbon-intensive jet fuel. We’re just not sure what.
source climatediscussionnexus.com
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