The Environment & Climate News Podcast, part of the Heartland Institute's family of daily podcasts.

Environment and Climate News Podcast

More than a billion people suffer from energy poverty around the world and plans proposed by the Democratic candidates for the party's nomination for President, like various version of the Green New Deal, would bring poverty and death for millions in the United States. The rapid economic transition from required by the rapid elimination of fossil fuel would require totalitarian political institutions. Replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar, is impossible as a matter of physics.

Environment & Climate News

The Push for Energy Socialism in the United States (Guest: Charles Steele)

The book Energy Made Easy by Ronald Stein attempts to help citizens become energy literate, in part by explaining the continuing critical function and value of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels make modern life possible, both through the energy they produce and in the products which require them. Foreign adversaries China and Russia are waging energy war on the U.S. threatening our, and our allies national security.

Explaining Energy Reality to the General Public (Guest: Ronald Stein)

Christopher Horner, an attorney who founded Government Accountability and Oversight and Climate Litigation Watch, joins Senior Fellow Anthony Watts for today's podcast. He has been following the Exxon litigation with Bill McKibben and other Attorneys General have been doing to pin global warming upon the company.

The various common players in the global warming scare has been looking for an investigation into fossil fuel companies, Exxon especially. He lays out the PR strategy behind world wide student climate movements, such as those by Greta Thunberg, and the power players behind it to show it is not as organic as the media spins it. These suits are made not to change the law, but the settle for huge payouts because they know Exxon and other gas companies are near-if-not-mandatory for modern life.

Examining Climate Change Litigation (Guest: Christopher Horner)

Director of Communications Jim Lakely reports in live from the State Policy Network's annual meeting where dozens of think tanks meet and discuss the issues of the day. He hosts alongside the Texas Public Policy Foundation's (TPPF) Jason Isaac, former state legislator and senior manager for Life: Powered - a project by TPPF to educate people about the reliability of fossil fuels and the necessity for it to power out electrical grids.

In an effort to "raise America's energy IQ", Isaac highlights the every day necessities we would not have without the power of fossil fuels. From clean water to even renewable energy sources like solar panels, fossil fuels power our modern society and keep us wealthy. Visit them at lifepowered.org.

Energy Freedom Live from SPN (Guest: Jason Isaac)

Climate change is a political issue that has polarized the nation. Some people believe we’re nearing a climate catastrophe, but their claims never pan out. Sterling Burnett and Andy Singer cover many of the claims made over the last century and explain why they were wrong. Topics include climate refugees, food scarcity, a coming ice age, and more.

Exposing the False Climate Horror Stories

Climategate came from the release of thousands of emails showing prominent climate scientists hiding inconvenient facts, and fudging data to argue humans were causing dangerous climate change when the facts didn't show it. Despite the publicity surrounding it, the investigations were whitewashes, largely exonerating the scientists involved of wrongdoing. Since then, climate scientists have continued to manipulate data and hide research from the light of day in order to push socialism.

Climategate: Lessons on the 10th anniversary (Guest: Paul Driessen)

A new paper by Dr. Patrick Frank demonstrates climate models have inherent, systematic errors which undermine their temperature and other climate projections. Because all models make the same errors of physics, although their outputs are relatively precise, they are inaccurate, projecting far too much warming and other extreme climate responses to carbon dioxide than are actually in evidence. Frank concludes no climate crisis exists, and the future is bright.

Systematic Errors in Climate Models Make Their Predictions Worthless (Guest: Patrick Frank, Ph.D.)

Two recent studies once again confirmed that fracking has benefited America. It has created thousands of well paying jobs and lowered energy costs by billions annually, naturally helping consumers, homeowners and businesses. In addition, fracking has helped make American energy independent and a net energy exporter helping our balance of trade and benefiting our allies.

Fracking Delivers the Economic Goods (Guest: Tim Benson)

Experts play critical roles in complex modern societies and peoples lives but rule by experts undermines pluralistic democracies, so while we should value experts opinions, we should limit the amount of power they have over personal lives and public policy. To ensure the best outcomes from expert advice, experts in no field of endeavor should be given monopoly status, there should be competition among experts, and the areas where they have direct power to enforce their will should be limited. Roger Koppl examines this in his latest book "Expert Failure."

Value Expertise but Fear Expert Power and Monopoly (Guest: Roger Koppl)

The Heartland Institute's Climate Reality Forum provided a powerful counterweight to COP 25, with speakers ranging from Dr. Will Happer, former science advisor to President Trump, to Chilean engineer Douglas Pollock, to youth climate realist, and foil to Greta Thunberg, Naomi Seibt. Listen to Senior Fellow Anthony Watts go over his time there and his has conclusion that UN climate conferences are not about saving the environment, but rather about transferring money from developed countries to developing countries.

Heartland Brings Climate Reality to COP 25

German Youth and YouTube presence Naomi Seibt went from fearing climate catastrophe, to understanding the earth isn't ending. She is building an online presence defending freedom of speech from her young misguided peers who would impose socialism, purportedly with the goal of preventing dangerous climate change. Seibt says if more people had open minds, they would come to understand, science doesn't show human caused climate change is ending the world.

I'm a Climate Realist, and You Should Be Too! (Guest: Naomi Seibt)

While at the COP25 counter-conference in Madrid, Wolfgang Müller, General Secretary at the European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE), discusses the latest developments into energy issues within the European Union. The insistence to implement their own version of a 'Green New Deal' keeps certain countries from wanting to join, such as Poland who relies up to 80% on coal for their energy production. He delves into further detail about new laws being pushed through looking to alleviate the member states from other reliable sources, such as natural gas, and towards renewables, such as wind and solar, but they fail to lay out a plan on how to get there.

Wolfgang Müller Debunks Alarmism During COP25

Human caused climate change is not ending the world, indeed human health, quality of life, and environmental quality has improved dramatically in just the past 10 years, thanks in large part to development and innovation driven by  the use of fossil fuels. Schools and the media are lying to kids when they say the humans and capitalism are destroying the earth. By almost any measure, the world is improving, with rates of poverty, hunger, infant mortality declining dramatically, and life spans, crop yield, forest regrowth, health all growing dramatically, all led by market innovations driven by the increased use of fossil fuels.

The World is Getting Better Thanks to Fossil Fuels! (Guest: Merril Matthews)

Australia is a largely arid continent with drought and wildfires, usually human set, not being unusual historically. Twenty-five years of above average rainfall, followed by a severe drought, combined with bad government policies that have banned logging and even the clearing of brush around homes, set up tinder box conditions. Many of the fires started due to the actions of bad or careless people. In short, humans contributed to the wildfires but not because they've changed the climate. Policy advisor Gregory Wrightstone joins host H. Sterling Burnett to examine what is happening down under and why it may be more human-focused than we are told.

Humans, not Climate Change, Fed Australia's Wildfires (Guest: Gregory Wrightstone)

Appearing on The John Steigerwald Show (full program here:https://omny.fm/shows/the-john-steigerwald-show/the-john-steigerwald-show-thursday-january-16-2020), Senior Fellow Anthony Watts goes into detail about why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's latest report claiming that 2019 was the second hottest year on record should be scrutinized. As it is impossible to measure the 'temperature' of Earth as a whole, many reports take sets of data and come up with their own claims for shocking headlines when in the report it takes a more nuanced approach, showing multiple analyses. Watts says that there has to be this constant attention to crisis, as without something to combat funding would come to a halt.

For further reading: https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/while-noaanasa-claims-2019-as-the-second-warmest-year-ever-other-data-show-2019-cooler-than-2005-for-us

Heartland on the Air: Watts Discussing NOAA Warming Claims

Attorney Peter Ferrara notes, cities, kids, and states have brought multiple lawsuits against corporations and the federal government attempting to impose energy and climate policy through the judiciary. Courts have dismissed them all, saying the legislature and the executive, not the judiciary, are the proper branches of government to shape national energy and environmental policy. Ferrara explains that these lawsuits are based on bad science and if successful would harm the U.S. economically.

Climate Lawsuits: Bad Science, Bad Law, Wrong Forum (Guest: Peter Ferrara)

In two new papers for The Heartland Institute, Paul Driessen, explains the Green New Deal would require an authoritarian take over of the economy and result in untold environmental devastation as vast numbers wildlife and huge swaths of wildlands are destroyed to mine minerals for and erect industrial wind and solar facilities. The Green New Deal is neither green nor new, but rather is warmed over communism.

Green New Deal: Warmed Over Environmentally Destructive Authoritarianism

Led by President Donald Trump, Jeffrey Tucker says the public should rise up and demand the federal government stop imposing energy and water efficiency requirements on household appliances. Federal appliance mandates have produced a whole generation of appliances that don't clean, take too much time, undermine the livability of our homes, and threaten our health.

Federal Appliance Mandates: Bad for Everything (Guest: Jeffrey Tucker)

Overtime federal agencies have used the vagueness of the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to expand their authority beyond legitimate bounds over peoples lives and properties. The Trump administration is upholding the rule of law with reforms to the  Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to clarify what waters fall under federal power and what that only acts which intentionally harm  migratory birds are criminal. These reforms make clearer when a person or company is not violating federal law or needs regulatory approval to act.

Water and Bird Protection Reforms Bring Clarity (Guest: Darren Bakst)

Models previously used by the Obama administration to account for the economic impact of increasing carbon dioxide levels either intentionally ignored or undercounted the benefits of carbon dioxide. When the impact on plants alone, especially staple crops, are properly accounted for in "Social Cost of Carbon" models, is turns out increasing levels of carbon dioxide produce net benefits.

Plants grow faster, larger, and use water more efficiently, increasing crop yields and decreasing hunger and malnutrition. "Social Cost of Carbon" models cannot be trusted to provide policy guidance because their outputs are a result of assumptions manipulated to produce the policy results the modelers desire.

Government's Social Cost of Carbon Calculations Can't be Trusted (Guest: Kevin Dayaratna)

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Environment and Climate News Podcast

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