“Net-Zero Tyranny”

In a little-noticed presentation on Dec. 9, 2023, at COP28 in Dubai, a panel of soil experts presented the case for cows as climate allies, not gas-spewing destroyers. The event, titled “Conscious Livestock Rearing and Soil Health,” discussed “animal rearing’s impact on soil health, and its place as a part of the climate solution.” Contrary to the anti-cow cacophony of the climate crisis crowd, these experts explained the vital role ruminants like cows play in nourishing and rebuilding precious soils. It turns out, grazing cows sequester massive amounts of carbon.

Progressive politicians hoping to triumph over right-leaning political adversaries can only succeed if they can do a better job of bridging their lofty goals with people’s day-to-day struggles.

Who said so? Justin Trudeau, that’s who. The prime minister told a roomful of progressives at a conference in Montreal last fall that politicians who don’t respond to issues affecting the daily lives of citizens are not going to connect with them.

Liberals rebrand Canada’s carbon tax rebate

The federal government is rebranding the carbon tax rebate.

Previously known as the Climate Action Incentive Payment, the Liberals are now calling it the “Canada Carbon Rebate.”

The news of the new name for the existing rebate program was first broken via a Finance Canada press release touting the amount Canadians will be reimbursed this year. It was subsequently announced by a series of ministers in Ottawa on Wednesday.

h/t Mauser

NDP to introduce bill calling for ban of coal exports as Canadian output booms

Canadian exports of the kind of coal used to make electricity hit an eight-year high in 2022, even as the Liberals have promised to work on banning exports completely by the end of the decade.

The Liberals made the promise during the 2021 election and it was listed in Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s mandate letter that December.

The head of Belgium’s central bank urged EU lawmakers to tell the truth about the real costs of “greening” the economy and the loss of wealth that will follow ― because they will face public anger if they don’t.

“This transition is not going to make us collectively richer,” Pierre Wunsch told the European Parliament in Brussels. “We should be more candid … don’t lure people into thinking that greening carries positive opportunities that could augment GDP and create millions of well-paid jobs.”

National governments are in gradual retreat from their “hard promises” to wean their economies off fossil fuels, according to a new report. Since the 2010s the failures of green technologies to become economically viable have prompted nations to dilute or postpone established environmental targets, says British journalist Ross Clark in “The Retreat from Net Zero,” commissioned by research group Net Zero Watch.

Where are we going? Lower! That was the trend for wind power production in Alberta on Monday, Feb. 5, as the 4,481 megawatts of nameplate wind power generation capacity fell to just three megawatts output. That’s less than 0.1 percent, or less than 1 one-thousandth of nameplate capacity. If you want to get really technical, it’s actually 0.07 percent, or 7 ten-thousandths of nameplate capacity.

That’s according to minute-by-minute data from the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO).