Food for Thought #1306

 

Lord Christopher Monckton: “The CO2 storyline has purely been the pretext which they are using in order to establish a global government” (2015)

 In 2015, Lord Christopher Monckton exposed that, since the early 1990s, the “evidence” for anthropogenic climate change has been spurious. He also explained the real agenda behind the climate change alarmist narrative.

“This entire process of saying there is a global problem that requires the West to shut down itself and to subsidise the rest of the world is a double whammy … They’ve been trying to achieve this at the UN for a long time,” he said.

“Only four years after the IPCC had been set up … already, the UN was planning to use [climate change] as a way of making itself into a global government … The CO2 storyline has purely been the pretext which they are using in order to establish a global government.” 

 

To be able to establish a One World Government, “They had to say there was a global problem and only global action can solve it. That’s why they chose CO2,” he said....<<<Read More>>>....

Debate Intensifies Over Climate-Focused Environmental Policy and the Role of Carbon Dioxide

 An article published Sept. 11, 2026, by Watts Up With That? examines what it describes as a shift in environmental priorities away from traditional conservation concerns and toward a dominant focus on climate change. According to the article, carbon dioxide is beneficial for plants, and the climate change narrative is misleading. The piece further states that this narrative has been used to restrict domestic energy production.

The article's central argument is that environmentalism has been reframed around a single variable – atmospheric carbon dioxide – at the expense of other priorities such as pollution control, habitat protection, and access to clean water. It cites historical accounts of environmentalism that emphasize conservation and public health and contends that the current framework has narrowed the scope of environmental concern. 

The article states that carbon dioxide is required for photosynthesis and is beneficial to plant growth. According to the article, higher CO2 concentrations can increase plant productivity. A 2011 interim report on the Nongovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that an extra 450 ppm of CO2 increased the fresh weight of spinach shoots by about 67 percent and their dry weight by approximately 57 percent, and boosted soluble sugar concentrations by approximately 29 percent and soluble protein concentrations by about 52 percent.

Mainstream agencies classify CO2 as a pollutant, the article notes, while critics dispute that characterization. In 2009, the EPA issued an Endangerment Finding declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant; on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled "Unleashing American Energy," directing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to reassess that finding. A 2018 article argued that CO2 levels of 800 to 1,200 ppm would unleash reforestation, greening, and food crop production....<<<Read More>>>...

 

‘Supercharged’ Global Greening in African Savannah: CO2 Brings Huge Boost to Grass Growth

 Global greening is being supercharged in the African savannah, new research published in Nature has found, with higher CO2 levels driving a 28% increase in plant growth in just 32 years, writes Andrew Sibley.

More evidence of global greening from carbon dioxide fertilisation has been published in the prestigious publication Nature. The research involved 70 experiments and three decades of field data from many locations in the savannah of South Africa’s Kruger National Park. The international scientific team was led by Dr Kimberley Simpson of the University of Sheffield, the paper entitled ‘Increasing CO₂ levels fertilise C4 grass production‘. Phys.org reported the study as follows: ‘Rising carbon dioxide is supercharging grass growth in African savannas, study finds.’ The latest study challenges the previously held view that the dominant grasses in the savannah (known as ‘C4’) benefit little from rising levels of carbon dioxide...<<<Read More>>>....

ENSO events, not CO2, are a driver of global temperatures

 On the natural climate driver side, we disagree, which fuels debate. No one marches in lockstep toward an agenda-driven goal where the only disagreement is over how to doom-and-gloom each other.

Recently, a movement to discredit the global temperature has arisen on the premise that it’s not truly a physical or thermodynamic process as a climate variable. I see where these people are coming from, and why, but I disagree that statistical measurement is meaningless. The hype is the problem, as it tries to portray the planet as something boiling away and then jumps to man-made emissions without considering other factors, as I will show below.

But to me, and most meteorologists and climate people, [statistical measurement is] far from meaningless; it supplies a view of the scorecard of the duel between warm and cold. And if we know what drives that, then we can conclude heat is being added to the atmosphere.

The upcoming El Niño exposes the idea that it is man-made emissions driving the climate. Those pushing that idea are all drooling at the temperature spike that is coming. So right there, the visible real-world evidence of the oceans warming the air is in front of them. They don’t even know they set up their own circular firing squad.

Here, in a nutshell, is their claim: Man-made emissions warm the atmosphere and trap heat. The oceans warm because of that, and then, El Niño releases the warmth back into the air....<<<Read More>>>...

Cloud cover, not CO2, is a driver of global warming

 

A July 2026 Environmental Research Letters paper authored by Bellocchi et al. attributes ~80% of the rise in Earth’s absorbed solar radiation since 2000 to declining high-reflectivity cloud cover, primarily from circulation-driven contraction of storm-cloud zones.

The study highlights the climate’s “albedo governance,” suggesting a 1% shift in Earth’s albedo corresponds to a 1°C surface temperature change.

With more cloud cover, more solar radiation is reflected and the surface cools. With declining cloud albedo, which has been observed since 1980, less solar radiation is reflected and the surface warms.

Cloud cover changes are driven by natural atmospheric circulation modes and internal variability. This is supported by reconstruction data showing cloud cover decline has for centuries occurred independently from “greenhouse-gas forcing.”....<<<Read More>>>....

The Case for EVs Has Failed

 The pantomime scene called 'CO2 Is Innocent But Let's Blame It For A Non-Existent Crisis" is in full swing but people have woken up and have seen through the deception

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UK Net Zero policy aims at balancing the production and removal of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide by 2050. The primary greenhouse gas from transport is CO2 produced by burning fuels containing carbon such as petrol and diesel in conventional internal combustion vehicles. The entire Vehicle Excise Duty regime pivots on this single metric. Current Government transport policy is aimed at reducing CO2 emissions to help meet Net Zero targets. In addition, Government documents also mention as objectives reducing local pollution from transport, improving connectivity across Britain, growing the economy by enhancing the transport network and increasing the global impact of the UK to boost influence and maximise trade. However, these other objectives are not clearly prioritised, the costs and challenges of implementation are not specified and flagrant contradictions between these different aims are simply ignored.

The scale of the challenge of ‘decarbonising’ transport is very large. Transport accounts for 26% of total UK emissions, which is 0.27% of total global emissions. As a rough guide from Government statistics, the major contributing sectors to transport emissions are road transport (70%), aviation (20%) and marine (8%). In Great Britain, there are around 42 million registered road vehicles – 34 million cars, five million vans and 0.8 million heavy goods vehicles and buses. Of these vehicles, as of March 2025 only 1.5 million were pure battery electric vehicles. Cars and vans account for about half while heavy goods vehicles and buses account for 15% of total transport CO2....<<<Read More>>>...

UN declares every nation has a legal duty to obey its climate decrees – or face the consequences

More and more people recognise that the so-called climate emergency is not about the Earth’s climate but is a vehicle for wealth redistribution, central planning and eroding national borders in favour of supranational governance.

So the UN is trying to muscle in, take control and force its climate scam on all nations. The Globalist organisation has taken it upon itself to declare that its climate decrees are “international law” and nations must obey or face the consequences.

Irrespective of what the UN or any of its puppets say or do, we must never lose sight of the facts: CO2, the gas of life, is not the enemy; centralised power pretending to save the planet at the expense of liberty is....<<<Read More>>>...

Shock New Evidence Showing No Link Between CO2 and Temperature Over Last Three Million Years Stumps Net Zero Activists

 The climate science world (‘settled’ division) is in shock following the discovery in ancient ice cores that levels of carbon dioxide remained stable as the world plunged into an ice age around 2.7 million years ago. Levels of CO2 at around 250 parts per million (ppm) were said to be lower than often assumed with just a 20 ppm movement recorded for the following near three million-year period. In addition, no changes in methane levels were seen in the entire period. Massive decreases in temperature with occasional interglacial rises appear to have occurred without troubling ‘greenhouse’ gas levels, and this revelation has caused near panic in activist circles.

The assumed level three million years ago of CO2 was around 400 ppm, a convenient mark that has been used to explain the subsequent ice age and a drop to 250 ppm. Due to the recently published paper, this explanation has become more problematic and natural climate variation is correctly noted to have occurred with the temperature changes. Alas, similar explanations are mostly ignored in discussing today’s climate changes in the interests of promoting the Net Zero fantasy. Some cling desperately to a dominant CO2 role, including one of the authors of the findings published in Nature. The co-author states that the results suggest even greater climate sensitivity to the warming effect of CO2. In short, there is a great deal of applying the laws of physics and chemistry to one era, but failing to extend the same courtesy to another.The title of the paper, produced by 17 America-based scientists, was enough to set alarm bells ringing in the ‘settled’ science, Net Zero-obsessed community: ‘Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past three million years.’ A related paper examining ocean heat content derived from the ice core record was also published. Carrie Lear, Professor of Past Climates and Earth System Changes at Cardiff University, claimed that the papers “don’t rewrite the role of CO2, they underline how sensitive the climate system is… that is why today’s rapid CO2 rise is so alarming”.

Ah, yes. Even if CO2 movements are minimal, probably within a margin of potential error, they are still responsible for large variations in temperature. The laws of climate science are ‘settled’ – if the trace atmospheric gas CO2 is rising, falling or generally stable, it is almost wholly responsible for large movements in global temperature. Under this rather shaky assumption, humans must stop burning hydrocarbons and return to a neo-Malthusian pre-industrial age...<<<Read More>>>...

Food for Thought #969

 

The Nutty £4 Billion Scheme to Pipe Carbon Dioxide 120 Miles That Risks Asphyxiating Those in its Path

 Only a complete eco-nutter would want to compress carbon dioxide to dangerous asphyxiating levels and then run it through a three foot-wide near-surface metal pipe costing at least half a billion pounds, along a 120-mile path near human conurbations strewn with subsidence-causing, uncharted, ancient mines. 

At a hopefully intact end, the highly pressurised CO₂ is then tipped into a former gas hole in the Irish Sea where over time it is likely to escape as the numerous mining caps start to fail. Add in another £4 billion for the whole pointless and potentially dangerous carbon capture project, and it is all in a day’s spending for the Miliband-led lunatics. Small change, of course, for the lying (‘wind is cheaper than gas’), dishonest (‘grid will be 95% renewables in 46 months’ time’) freaks involved in a political attempt to wreck the British economy on the pretext that ‘settled’ science says we should all freak out about the gas of life.

The Peak Cluster CO₂ pipeline is in early planning and public consultation stages, and it aims to take the gas from four cement and lime factories in Derbyshire and Staffordshire. It will run through Staffordshire, Cheshire and the Wirral and connect to an offshore storage site in depleted gas reserves under Morecambe Bay. The pipeline is said to be the world’s largest cement decarbonisation initiative, capturing three million tonnes of CO₂ a year. This amounts to just 0.00008% of global emissions, or if you prefer fractions, 1/1,266,667. The effect on any global temperature movement can fairly be said to be unmeasurable. In total, the sinister, hard-Left Net Zero minister Miliband plans to spend over £20 billion of borrowed state money to capture equally miniscule amounts of CO₂ in a number of other sites over the next 20 years.

But at least impoverished UK taxpayers can sleep easy in their beds knowing they are leading the world in exciting new green technologies....<<<Read More>>>...

South Korean researchers create electrode that captures carbon from exhaust and converts it to valuable chemical in one step

 South Korean researchers create a three-layer electrode for direct carbon capture and conversion.

It captures CO2 from mixed industrial exhaust or air without needing costly purification.

The device converts the captured CO2 into valuable formic acid in a single step.

This process turns carbon capture from a cost into a potential revenue stream.

It works efficiently with both flue gas and ordinary air, a historic breakthrough.

A team of South Korean researchers has unveiled a novel three-layer electrode that directly captures carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust and even ordinary air, converting it into a useful industrial chemical. This advancement, reported in the journal ACS Energy Letters, moves carbon capture technology from a costly theoretical exercise into the realm of practical, economically viable deployment. The device works efficiently under the messy, mixed-gas conditions of real-world emissions, a historic hurdle that has long stalled scalable solutions.

For years, the promise of carbon capture has been hampered by a fundamental problem: most systems require pure, concentrated streams of CO2 to function. In reality, the flue gas from power plants or factories is a cocktail of nitrogen, oxygen, and other gases. Purifying the CO2 first is an energy-intensive and expensive step, making the entire process inefficient and costly. Furthermore, many technologies merely capture the gas for underground storage, a service with no economic return....<<<Read More>>>...

People who drive electric cars to “save the planet” are hypocrites

 The entire “net-zero” edifice is built on the claim that CO₂ is a pollutant that is causing a climate crisis. This is the greatest deception of our time.

Yet based on this lie, the health of people and ecosystems in Indonesia and China is being ruined to feed one of the centrepieces of the “green” agenda: the electric vehicle industry.

If, after reading Vijay Jaaraj’s article below, you purchase or drive an electric vehicle because you think you are “saving the planet,” not only have you been deceived, but you are a hypocrite.

The silent, gleaming chassis of an electric vehicle (“EV”) glides through a pristine forest or a spotless, futuristic city. The message is simple: The driver is saving the planet. It is a narrative built on a convenient, calculated omission.

Pull back the curtain on the EV supply chain – starting with Indonesian nickel mining and extending through rare-earth mineral processing in China – and there is revealed a far less immaculate picture. The “zero tailpipe emissions” tag is a masterpiece of misdirection, diverting attention away from an environmental hellscape.

In Sulawesi, Indonesia, conveyor belts stretch across once-lush forests belching dust into the air, while smokestacks stain the sky with a toxic haze. The rush to supply the West’s EV appetite has triggered a nickel boom, but the cost lands squarely on the people and ecosystems of Indonesia.

So, why single out nickel? Today’s batteries – the heart of EV propulsion – are built on nickel, of which Indonesia is the largest producer. Without Indonesian nickel, the supply chains for “clean” vehicles grind to a halt. And every new electric SUV delivered to showrooms leaves behind the environmental cost imposed on these Indonesian communities.

What exactly billows from Indonesian smokestacks and seeps from factory discharges into rivers and soils? A partial list includes sulphur dioxide, a corrosive gas; nitrogen oxides and microscopic particulate matter, both constituents of smog; chromium; ammonia; hydrogen sulphide; and heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, cobalt and cadmium. All are pollutants with potential effects on health.

Fishers from Sulawesi and North Maluku lament vanishing shoals and toxic mud spilling into the sea. Even the air is said to taste of metal and ash. These are the lived experiences of thousands of Indonesians, not isolated anecdotes.

The battery is only part of the story. The EV’s electric motor, as well as the machinery of giant wind turbines that might charge the battery, require powerful magnets made from rare-earth minerals. And more than 90% of the world’s supply of these processed minerals comes from China...<<<Read More>>>...

Time to Stop Pretending Renewables Are Cheap

 In the cacophony of voices clamouring for a hasty ‘energy transition’ away from fossil fuels, there are several tropes that are regularly employed by devotees of the Church of Climate. Over the past few decades, these tropes have been weaponised to convince lay people to cede all power to climate bureaucrats to ‘save the planet’. 

One trope that permeates the mass media and writings by ‘climate experts’ like Michael Mann and Bill McKibben is ‘cheap’ solar and wind energy. This is despite the debunking of the magical thinking of the ‘new’ energy economy by those who understand and respect the laws of physics and economics.

Another trope that has gained traction among green ideologues is the ‘primary energy fallacy’. Social media commentary is peppered with references to this fallacy, frequently invoked to show that fossil fuels need not be replaced ‘one-to-one’ by ‘efficient’ renewable energy. This notion, peddled by advocates of wind and solar power such as Dr Jan Rosenow, Senior Research Associate at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, argues that traditional metrics of primary energy consumption — measuring the raw energy extracted from nature before conversion — systematically underestimate the contributions of renewables....<<<Read More>>>....

UN relentlessly propagates fear about man-made climate change to grasp control

 The United Nations has again been spreading misinformation and hyperbole, particularly regarding climate change and carbon dioxide (CO2) levels.

The UN’s weather and climate agency, the World Meteorological Organisation, has recently claimed that atmospheric CO2 was up by a “record amount” in 2024. This is not true says Herb Pinder. Recently, the CO2 levels have declined to near extinction of life levels.

The UN is a power-hungry behemoth, relentlessly propagating fear, he says. These latest mistruths are merely part of the UN’s ongoing grasp for control.

There was another menacing headline in the Toronto Sun on 15 October, providing a cogent example of the thesis of my recent column – the deliberate hyperbole and blatant dishonesty of the United Nations. No doubt widely published, from the World Meteorological Organisation (the UN’s weather and climate agency), “CO2 in the atmosphere is up by a record amount in 2024, the biggest one-year jump since recording began in 1957.” This is misleading and likely, for much of the media and its readers, successfully so.

My recent column reviewed estimated CO2 levels of 800 ppm, 600 million years ago, 20 times higher than today, and 500 million years ago, 10 times higher. For reasons no one can claim with any assurance, more recently, the level of CO2 declined very close to the extinction level of 150 ppm. An important and relevant observation pointed out by my Editor – the end game of Net Zero is, by definition, also the end of life.

Previously explained but worth repeating, the unique mix of water, carbon dioxide and oxygen fosters life on Earth.

Eliminate any of them, and plant, animal and human life terminates. The Net Zero objective is a silly and impossible outcome, also revealing the paucity of science underlying the climate crisis...<<<Read More>>>...

Reexamining the global warming narrative: Insights from “The Satanic Gases” by Patrick J. Michaels and Robert C. Balling Jr.

 Patrick J. Michaels and Robert C. Balling Jr. argue in "The Satanic Gases" that mainstream panic over global warming is politically motivated rather than scientifically sound, criticizing figures like Al Gore for exploiting extreme weather events for political gain.

The authors demonstrate that climate models have consistently overstated warming trends, with real-world data showing minimal temperature increases in over 80 percent of the troposphere — undermining claims of rapid climate change.

Contrary to apocalyptic predictions, rising CO? levels enhance plant growth, agricultural productivity and ecosystem health, with studies confirming a global "greening" effect.

Federal funding and institutional incentives bias research toward alarmism, with scientists incentivized to perpetuate exaggerated narratives despite contradictory evidence.

The Kyoto Protocol and similar mitigation efforts are deemed costly and futile, with the authors advocating instead for adaptation strategies and evidence-based policymaking free from political distortions.

In "The Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air about Global Warming," climatologists Patrick J. Michaels and Robert C. Balling Jr. present a bold challenge to the mainstream narrative on climate change.

They argue that much of the panic surrounding global warming is politically driven rather than scientifically justified. Their book dismantles the alarmist claims often promoted by figures like former Vice President Al Gore, who has built his career on framing extreme weather events as direct consequences of human-caused climate change. Michaels and Balling contend that these incidents are exploited for political gain rather than reflecting genuine scientific consensus....<<<Read More>>>...

UK researcher teams up with Australian tour operator to spread a rumour that “the UK” is considering Carbon Passports

 Over the last week, it has been reported in several outlets that “the UK” is considering implementing “Carbon Passports” to restrict Brits from travelling by aeroplane.

After digging a little deeper, “the UK” turns out to be a lecturer at a UK university, Ross Bennett-Cook, citing a report commissioned by an Australian tour operator, Intrepid Travel.

We have to wonder how Bennett-Cook and Intrepid Travel hope to benefit from spreading this dystopian message because, as Australian Senator Malcom Roberts said last year, the climate fraud “is driven by globalist politicians and directed by parasitic billionaires.” And it is the parasitic billionaires who will profit from this criminal activity....<<<Read More>>>...

Climbing CO2 levels fuel agricultural triumph—and spark a climate debate

 Soaring carbon dioxide emissions, long branded as planetary poison, have paradoxically fueled a global “greening” of Earth’s vegetated areas—and made fruit crops hardier. The findings, analyzed alongside climate skepticism, reveal a scientific and political divide reshaping the climate change discourse. 

A groundbreaking study in Nature Climate Change revealed that up to half of Earth’s vegetated land has greened since 1982, with CO2 fertilization driving 70% of the change. This “greening” equates to an area twice the size of the United States, transforming landscapes from North Carolina strawberry fields to Iceland’s barren highlands.

Rising CO2 levels act as a “carbon fertilizer,” supercharging photosynthesis in plants. In greenhouses, tomato yields jump 80% when CO2 reaches 1,000 ppm—a level far above today’s 430 ppm—and strawberries gain extra sugars. Even space exploration benefits: elevated CO? boosts vitamin content in lettuce grown in simulated Martian conditions.

But the gains aren’t just in labs. Global warming itself aids agriculture. Extended growing seasons cut frost risks for orchards, with U.S. yields benefiting from a two-week longer growing period since the 1910s. Vulnerable crops like grapes and blueberries, which once perished in unseasonal freezes, now survive warmer springs...<<<Read More>>>...

CO2 revolutionizes greenhouse farming revolution globally, decentralizing the food supply

 As governments and corporate elites push draconian climate policies—carbon taxes, energy rationing, and forced deindustrialization—the truth about carbon dioxide (CO2) remains buried under layers of fearmongering. While activists scream about an “existential climate crisis,” farmers and scientists are quietly harnessing CO2 to multiply crop yields, defeat famine, and revolutionize agriculture. A groundbreaking study published in Horticulture Research shatters the mainstream narrative, proving that elevated CO2 levels turbocharge plant growth, delivering bountiful harvests in greenhouses worldwide. But don’t expect Al Gore or the UN climate experts to mention this. The climate industrial complex thrives on deception, not solutions. Meanwhile, CO2 is revolutionizing greenhouse farming, decentralizing the food supply, allowing communities to break free from corporate control over their food supply.

Key points:

• CO2 is a plant nutrient, not a "pollutant," and greenhouse growers deliberately inject it (up to 1000 ppm) to boost yields by 80% or more.
• China, Spain, and the U.S. are leading a greenhouse farming revolution, leveraging CO2 to grow food in deserts and urban wastelands—proof that emissions can feed the world.
• While the EPA shuts down power plants in the name of "climate change," farmers beg for more CO2 to combat global food shortages.
• Rising atmospheric CO2 (now ~420 ppm) is replenishing levels that were far higher during Earth’s most fertile epochs—long before SUVs existed.
• The climate cult’s war on CO2 is a war on human survival, sabotaging food security to advance a globalist control agenda....<<<Read More>>>...
  

The carbon cost of AI reasoning: A new environmental challenge

 As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, its environmental impact is becoming a growing concern. A recent study has revealed that advanced AI reasoning models, designed to provide more accurate responses, can generate up to 50 times more carbon dioxide (CO?) emissions than their less sophisticated counterparts. This finding raises critical questions about the sustainability of AI technologies and their role in contributing to climate change.

The study, conducted by a team of researchers led by Maximilian Dauner at Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences in Germany, was published on June 19 in the journal Frontiers in Communication. The research highlights the environmental trade-offs associated with the quest for more accurate AI models.

The study focused on the carbon emissions produced by different large language models (LLMs) when answering a series of questions across various topics, including algebra and philosophy. The researchers used the Perun framework to analyze the performance and energy consumption of 14 LLMs, ranging from seven to 72 billion parameters, on an NVIDIA A100 GPU. They then converted the energy usage into CO? emissions, assuming each kilowatt-hour of energy produces 480 grams of CO?.

It found that reasoning models, which use a "chain-of-thought" approach to break down complex problems into smaller, logical steps, were significantly more energy-intensive than their more concise counterparts. On average, reasoning models generated 543.5 tokens per question, compared to just 37.7 tokens for concise models. This disparity in token generation led to a substantial increase in CO? emissions....<<<Read More>>>...