Posted on 25 August 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom, John Hartz

Story of the week

Our Story of the Week is another stab at "connecting the dots," drawing a line between two different stories sharing common foundations.

First there's Emily Atkin writing for HEATED with a critical commentary on Elon Musk, in Why vilify the oil and gas industry?.  As detailed by Atkin, in a recent interview with the current US presidential GOP party nominee Musk made an odd statement, one that with all charity can only be interpreted as remarkably chumpish and naive. Musk asserted in connection with climate change that "I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry." Unsurprisingly this article generated a lot of buzz in social media. Musk's assertion is starkly at odds with the fossil fuel industry's amply documented footprints of concerted, effective deception as recorded in public perception, public policy— and certainly not least— investigative journalism.

Assuming for a moment that Musk is somehow genuinely ignorant of a rich and obvious historical record, his information and cogitation could be improved by reading another article we shared this week, Oil firms and dark money fund push by Republican states to block climate laws by Peter Stone, writing for The Guardian. Stone's piece is certainly important in terms of ongoing situational awareness. But except in terms of details there's fundamentally little new in this article for anybody generally familiar with the struggle between the fossil fuel industry's desperate effort to prolong monetization of its outmoded and dangerous resouces versus modernization and cleanup of our energy systems. How a person of Musk's wide curiosity can remain oblivious to such activities is a true mystery— and beggars belief.

For decades the fossil fuel industry has been fighting tooth and nail to preserve the anachronistic revenue stream it enjoys. Against the trillions of dollars of revenue at stake, a few hundred milllions spent on paying for favorable legislation and judicial bench-stuffing is not even noise on the bottom line. It doesn't need Musk's genius to see this but rather only a few minutes of attention and an easy Google search, by any person of average intelligence.

It's hard to credit that anybody of Musk's intelligence and insight into the materiality of energy supplies could truly be so ignorant. But ignorance is innocent, so let's be generous and call Elon Musk ignorant rather than a liar.

Elon Musk can also fairly be seen as a brutally pragmatic technological visionary, a person with a strong record of success as defined by context. In company with Nissan (first to offer a practical and affordable mass market EV) his automotive company has delivered a powerful and largely positive object lesson to the entire transport sector. Meanwhile, Musk's SpaceX is littering the skies with a reasonably useful but also problematic constellation of communications satellites. The latter system's impacts on astronomy and (more urgently) a burgeoning orbtal debris threat create a puzzling inconsistency in terms of Musk's avowed inclinations toward sustainability. 

Musk also seems increasingly burderned by counterproductive ideological baggage, much along the lines of Henry Ford who was another earth-shaking titan of industry, Henry Ford. Elon Musk and Henry Ford share some strong resemblances in terms of single-handed upheaval of large segments of the industrial sector. Yet for all his brilliance at efficient vertically integrated manufacturing, Ford stepped outside of his lane of competence and ultimately was heard apologizing for and disclaiming his own publications, which diverged far from matters of industrial prowess and dived into a sewer of bigotry. 

Although far removed from Ford's particular fallibility, Musk seems to be following a roughly parallel path of plutocratic downfall as did Ford, dabbling in matters outside his core skill set. Unlike Ford, Musk's extracurricular inclinations are not expressed as feelings of hatred of a population but rather by displays of expediently  selective or truly genuine ignorance, as exemplified in his facile or shallow exculpation of the fossil fuel indiustry for its truly baroque record of deceptions and prevarications. 

When Elon Musk says we shouldn't vilify the fossil fuel industry, everybody can agree he's right about the working class members of that sector. But Musk is plainly completely wrong about this industry's leadership. He has only to scrolll a wee bit or pick up a newspaper to learn better. After all, Stone's exposé is part of a practically daily sunrise of dayllight shed on the dark doings of oil, gas and coal commerce. One need not be a rocket scientist to join the clue train. 

Before August 18

• Carbon Removals Aren`t Just About Getting the Science Right, Inside Climate News, By Mathilde Augustin. Carbon removal technologies are essential to meet Paris Agreement targets, but they’re facing serious challenges beyond engineering and chemistry.
• `Nobody ever saw anything like this before`: how methane emissions are pushing the Amazon towards environmental catastrophe, Health The Guardian, Rob Jackson. As the world heats up, methane released from thawing permafrost and warming tropical wetlands is intensifying climate breakdown. But curbing it is achievable
• The threat of climate change demands something more than thoughts, prayers and excuses, CBC, Aaron Wherry. Adaptation or mitigation? It's a false choice — we need both
• The Aspen Institute Is Calling for a Systemic Approach to Climate Education at the University Level, Science, Inside Climate News, Caroline Marshall Reinhart. "Arizona State and UC San Diego will begin requiring climate courses this academic year. Columbia, Harvard and Stanford are going even further, creating schools devoted to climate change."
• NOAA: July 2024 was Earth’s hottest month on record, Eye on the Storm, Yale Climate Connections, Jeff Masters & Bob Henson. "A stunning streak of global record warmth is now 14 months long, according to the agency."
• Meeting 1.5C warming limit hinges on governments more than technology, study says, Carbon Brief, Ayesha Tandon. "The ability of governments to implement climate policies effectively is the “most important” factor in the feasibility of limiting global warming to 1.5C, a new study says. "

August 18

• 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #33, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, Doug Bostrom & John Hartz. A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, August 11, 2024 thru Sat, August 17, 2024.
• Harris Stirs Hope for a New Chapter in Climate Action, Politics, Inside Climate News, Marianne Lavelle. "Although expected to follow in Biden's pragmatic footsteps, her record as a prosecutor and voice for justice has environmentalists looking to the future."

August 19

• "Hairdryer winds" drive Antarctic ice shelf collapse, Dr Gilbz on Youtube, Ella Gilbert.
• Why vilify the oil and gas industry?, HEATED, Emily Atkin. A response to Elon Musk's latest climate talking point.
• When will climate change turn life in the U.S. upside down?, Yale Climate Connections, Jeff Masters. Intensifying extreme weather events and an insurance crisis are likely to cause significant economic and political disruption in the U.S. sometime in the next 15 years.

August 20

• Collision course: polar bears forced into people`s path by climate crisis, The Guardian, Leyland Cecco. Recent encounters – one fatal – in Canada highlight how sea ice changes have disrupted Arctic predator’s search for food
• What should you do to prepare for the climate change storm?, Eye on the Storm, Jeff Masters. "https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/08/noaa-july-2024-was-earths-hottest-month-on-record/"
• Can Pulling Carbon from Thin Air Slow Climate Change?, Scientific American, Alec Luhn. "Tech firms, oil companies and the U.S. government are investing billions of dollars in carbon capture technology to suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Can it save the warming world?"
• Climate change is making it too hot for bumblebees to adapt, threatening their existence, Salon, Matthew Rozsa. "A new study reveals that climate change is devastating bumblebee populations that need it colder"
• 2024 Democratic platform emphasizes economic case for climate action, Energy & Environment, The Hill, Zack Budryk.
• New forecast reveals when and where hurricane season could get active after Ernesto, Weather, CNN, Mary Gilbert.

August 21

• Millions of Americans face blistering temperatures as heat dome blankets Gulf Coast states, Nation, USA TODAY, Thao Nguyen. "Sweltering conditions were expected this week with near record to record temperatures forecast for portions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas."
• Oil firms and dark money fund push by Republican states to block climate laws, The Guardian, Peter Stone. Association of attorneys general has received millions from Koch Industries, fossil fuel lobby and fund linked to billionaire Leonard Leo
• Grapefruit-sized hail? Climate change could bring giant ice stones, Nation, USA TODAY, Dinah Voyles Pulver. "The study sees an increase in hailstones larger than two inches in size, but a decrease in the smaller hail because it’s more likely to melt before it hits the ground."
• Worst-Case’ Disaster for Antarctic Ice Looks Less Likely, Study Finds, Climate, New York Times, Raymond Zhong. "Global warming is putting the continent’s ice at risk of destruction in many forms. But one especially calamitous scenario might be a less pressing concern, a new study found."

August 22

• Rubbish and disease could disrupt Antarctic ecosystems as ice buffers melt, study finds, World, The Guardian, Luca Ittimani. "Simulated study shows southern ecosystems could be compromised by objects from South Africa, South America, New Zealand and Australia as global heating continues"
• Billions of crabs suddenly vanished, likely due to climate change, study says, Nation, USA TODAY, Jeanine Santucci,.
• Scientists Closely Watching These 3 Disastrous Climate Change Scenarios, USA Today, Doyle Rice. A host of potential climate change catastrophes worry scientists, but some scenarios are so dire that experts are constantly monitoring how close we are to disaster.

August 23

• The Pacific comes alive: Tropical cyclone threats to Hawai‘i and Japan, Eye on the Storm, Yale Climate Connections, Jeff Masters & Bob Henson. "Tropical Storm Hone could sideswipe the Big Island, while ultra-warm oceans may stoke a fierce landfalling typhoon in Japan"
• AI analysed 1,500 policies to cut emissions. These ones worked, Nature, Xiaoying You. Lede: "Only 63 climate change interventions led to significant reductions in carbon emissions."
• Can coral reefs survive climate change?, ClimateAdam on Youtube, Adam Levy.

August 24

• Oil firms and dark money fund push by Republican states to block climate laws, US News, The Guardian, Peter Stone. "Association of attorneys general has received millions from Koch Industries, fossil fuel lobby and fund linked to billionaire Leonard Leo"
• Recent Supreme Court decisions are already slowing climate progress, Climate-Energy, Grist,, Akielly Hu. "Supreme Court rulings limiting federal authority have upended the legal landscape — and could discourage bold climate policies."
• Fact brief - Is decreased cosmic ray activity driving global warming?, Skeptical Science, Sue Bin Park and John Mason.