Climate Change™ Moves the Green

Start with your tax dollars, launder them through many hands, spread 'em around certain favored folks...what's to fear?

So there it was in the progressive machine’s Pravda…

…on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s website…

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced Thursday it has partnered with a local nonprofit to run the agency’s climate action program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall for the benefit of disadvantaged communities.

Just another episode in local media’s latest bandwagon, Climate Change™ and the certainty, verging on religious belief, that the world is burning up.

Once upon a time a great scientist had something to say about that…

Current journalism allows for no doubt, no questions, no skepticism, no trace of the old journalism adage: If your mother says she loves you, check it out.

Instead, Climate Crisis™ stories are eerily similar to the herd’s coverage of our last big hysteria—Covid, remember that?—in which not one local reporter or editor noticed that there were many credible scientists raising serious questions and cautions and contradictions to the party line on jabs, masks, shooting up kids, heart problems, the inconvenience of the fully-vaxxed getting sick and infecting others, the destruction wrought by lockdowns, stubborn “excess deaths” after widespread vaccinations…that sort of stuff.

And now—with Covid memory-holed—here we are.

Let’s start with the above lede and the weirdly disingenuous phrase, “reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall, for the benefit of disadvantaged communities.”

Any halfway competent copy editor (don’t worry; they’re extinct) might have wondered why the writer, one Monica Samayoa, was dropping standard progressive code into the discourse—”disadvantaged”—without actually explaining or justifying it.

(And let’s step aside and ask: how long will the disadvantaged remain in that state, whatever that means? And how much will be required to “advantage” them? And when will this great event take place? Will GuvTina still be alive to help celebrate?)

Then, there’s the matter of “greenhouse gas emissions.” Perhaps anyone on the Climate Change™ bandwagon might want to read this discussion with Dr. Steven Koonin, former chief scientist at the Department of Energy, science advisor to President Obama, and former Provost at Cal Tech. (Short version: CO2 is important—just not that important.)

Not to pick on the young OPB reporter; the Oregonian—as always the progressive machine’s reliable stenographer—carried the same story on its cluttered website. The propagandist in this case was Gosia Wozniacka. Both young reporters, armed with degrees in journalism, are happy to do battle for the benefit of the planet, suppressing even an itty-bitty bit of skepticism.

God knows doubt is out there—here’s just one example from last week…

…a ‘World Climate Declaration (WCD)’ signed by over 1,100 scientists and professionals. There is no climate emergency, say the authors, who are drawn from across the world and led by the Norwegian physics Nobel Prize laureate Professor Ivar Giaever. Climate science is said to have degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science.

As for the basic idea that the planet is “warming,” it might be worthwhile to investigate this recent dispatch from the Science and Policy Project. Seems there’s a problem with the instruments used to measure temperature, not to mention the way historic records have been massaged.

Golly! This stuff is complicated!

So how is the mighty state of Oregon going to save the planet?

Ms. Samayoa explains…

Every year, the [state] program lowers those limits with a goal of reducing statewide fossil fuel emissions 50% by 2035 and 90% by 2050.¹ One of the ways fossil fuel companies can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions is through the Community Climate Investment program.

If fossil fuel companies choose to buy carbon credits rather than reduce actual emissions, the money goes toward Community Climate Investment projects, which could include creating more renewable energy, retrofitting and weatherizing buildings, and decarbonizing the transportation sector.

Simple version:

The villains in the fossil fuel business can bribe the government to overlook their dreaded greenhouse gas emissions.² All it takes is a magic piece of paper and payoffs to people selected on vague criteria by a web of nonprofits who are responsible to…well, nobody.

How much money are we talking about here? Progressives are notoriously lousy at these estimates, but keep $150-million in mind.

This sort of sleight of hand is typical of the wild west economics of Climate Change.™ Elon Musk sells electric cars, true, but he’s gotten hyper-wealthy on the climate credits he sells to other manufacturers so they can keep F150s and Hummers belching out death-gas, despite those ignored scientists pointing out that actually mining and moving materials and fabricating the electric jalopies belches out tons of CO2.

Keep in mind that the granting of government’s various permissions, permits, and licenses has (to borrow Ms. Wozniacka’s term) a rich legacy of corruption. Probably since the days of Hammurabi.

But not in Oregon—we’re squeaky clean! Just ask our former secretary of state!

Also keep in mind that, in keeping with standard progressive procedure, the articles by Ms. Samoyoa or Wozniacka never get around to mentioning…

how much

…CO2 won’t be released by this dodgy program (or any other); nor how much the global temperature will be reduced, not to mention stopping those scorching hot summer days (hottest “ever,” quoth the Oregonian) which are roasting people alive!³

Forget about the really important questions, such as: what will replace petrochemicals in making plastic, fertilizing crops, powering interstate commerce⁴, shipping junk from China or India or any other third-world sweatshop, paving streets, producing concrete, getting John Kerry to Davos…how will that come to pass?

Who will do it? Here’s where Ms. Samoyoa and Wozniacka introduce us to…

Seeding Justice, a Portland-based nonprofit that deals in social, racial and environmental justice, [that] was selected by DEQ to lead the agency’s Community Climate Investment program.

…which raises yet another journalism-competence question: Did either reporter bother to look at the nonprofit’s website? Or look up their federal form 990s?

If they did, they didn’t share anything with their readers. Here, for example, is the way Seeding Justice expresses its concept of…well, life…

We envision a world of imagination, joy, and abundance where everyone has enough, and no one has too much; where every living being is truly free.

…without bothering to define what “too much” might imply, especially for some of their upper-income (and guilty about it) donors.

Lest you think that Seed’s view of the new post-revolutionary world sounds like people dancing in the streets (paved, unfortunately with asphalt), the nonprofit also has other priorities…

We reject status-quo philanthropic models that are extractive, unaccountable, and undemocratic. We commit to work over generations as we challenge, disrupt, transform philanthropy, and redefine who has power within it. 

…which, given a moment’s thought seems a weird contradiction, since the vast majority of its funding comes from government, which is, tax-wise, the very definition of “extractive.”

While all of Seed’s verbiage is standard neo-Marxist boilerplate—the sort of nonsense that aPSU sophomore might throw around to drive their parents crazy—it begs the question: how will these folks…

…deal with, essentially, collecting ransom from those notoriously hard-eyed fossil fuel outfits? Especially since Ms. Samoyoa glides past this, buried in the 10th graf…

The program is currently being challenged in court by fossil fuel companies.

…without mentioning anything more about the suit.

Seeds may not have much experience beyond lobbying state legislators and serving as cut-out for disbursing state funds (silly question: why can’t the state itself do that?), but there’s no doubt that the nonprofit is major league. Its 2022 annual report—quite colorful—paints a picture of a nonprofit on the go:

…although the difference between $41.3-million received and $3.3-million handed out begs some questions, which only people with lifetime employment in Salem could possibly answer.

The nonprofit’s federal form 990, which the IRS takes its glacial time processing, offers highly generalized, but no less fascinating, numbers.

On their most recent 990 in 2021, executive director Se-Ah-Dom Edmo, pulled down almost $150-thousand yearly (it’s probably gone up, considering the deal she swung with the state). As of that date, the nonprofit chewed through $1.4-million in payroll and various expenses.

In its latest annual report, the nonprofit declared…

Not Funding Overhead is Racist and Classist

…and explained that…

If you have ever donated to an organization or cause, you may have heard that healthy non-profits “keep their administrative costs low.” In other words, for your contribution to really create the change you wish to see in the world, it must only go to the projects or programs, not to the people running them. This has long been considered the perspective of a “smart donor,” but in truth, this practice is harmful and destructive.

…and…

Administrative expenses should not be kept artificially low because the important work of advocating and caring for our impacted communities can’t also be carried out off their backs.

In 2022, Seeding hit its first state-awarded jackpot: it was selected as the cutout for $15-million for the state’s Reproductive Health Equity Fund. The organization says…

The Fund, administered by Seeding Justice, is one of the largest publicly funded abortion funds in the country. Currently, Oregon has the most protective abortion laws of any state.

…which, if you think about it, is yet another contradiction.

Needless to say, the money goes to the standard laundry-list of the progressive protectorate including, oddly, the LGBTQ+ community.

With all of this Climate Change money—formerly ours—slopping around in dizzying circuits, with all those permits to pollute changing hands, with the 2030 (why that year?) deadlines drawing closer, with the media on fire (even if the world isn’t⁵), with the various government “emergencies” teed up—well, you’ve got to wonder.

Which the authors of the respective stories didn’t seem inclined to do. Instead Ms. Samoyoa went seeking impartial third-party comments on the development and found…

Ira Cuello-Martinez, who works on policy with the farmworkers union Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste. Cuello-Martinez said farmworkers are hit first and worst from the byproducts of Climate Change™, like extreme heat and wildfire smoke…

Might you suspect that the farmworkers union might—just might—be in line for dough from Seeds?

The question answers itself.

1. On August 28, the Wall Street Journal headlined, Exxon Predicts World Will Miss Climate-Change Targets. The oil giant—which, let’s stipulate, knows more than an OPB reporter with “a bachelor's degree in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts from San Francisco State University—”said we’ll hit a 26-percent reduction by 2050 at the earliest.

2. Under the headline, 1,200 Scientists and Professionals Declare: There is No Climate Emergency, the British website Daily Skeptic reported: “…the publication of a ‘World Climate Declaration (WCD)’ signed by over 1,100 scientists and professionals. There is no climate emergency, say the authors, who are drawn from across the world and led by the Norwegian physics Nobel Prize laureate Professor Ivar Giaever.” Which might remind readers of the Covid hysteria’s 2020 Great Barrington Declaration Declaration which argued, correctly as it turned out, that the virus wasn’t going to kill everyone.

3. Which, as it turns out, isn’t as much of a problem as the planet’s cold. See: The Myth of an Overheated Planet, which reported, “Study after study has found that deaths from cold outnumber deaths from heat by 5–15 times. On every continent, cold is more dangerous than heat. Even in many countries we think of as especially hot, such as India, cold-related deaths significantly exceed heat-related deaths.”

4. The WSJ on Thursday demolished California’s pretensions to electrify long-haul semi-trucks by observing, “Starting next year, drayage operators that transport goods between state’s ports and distribution centers would be prohibited from registering new diesel trucks. By 2035 almost all package delivery, drayage and box trucks would have to be ‘zero emission.’

“That’s the same year California’s ban on new gas-powered cars takes effect, but electrifying trucks will be even more costly and difficult. A mere 272 electric trucks were registered in California as of last year. Under CARB’s mandates, some 510,000 trucks would have to be zero emission by 2035. Talk about putting the pedal to the metal.”

And…”As of last month, there were fewer than 700 chargers at trucking depots, yet California’s energy commission estimates 157,000 more will be needed for medium- and heavy-duty trucks by 2030. This would require more than 450 to be constructed each week, while grid upgrades to install chargers could take five to 10 years at minimum.”

5. This might be worth a glance: Human-sparked wildfires are more destructive than those caused by nature.