Catch the left violating their own “book of rules” in the climate debate

By Tom Harris January 19, 2025

 

If those of us who do not believe in the so-called “climate emergency” are to win the day, we need to take a page out of “Rules for Radicals – A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals.” Written in 1971 by Chicago-based community organizer Saul D. Alinsky, “Rules for Radicals” included the crucially important Rule #4:

“Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.”

As discussed in part 1 of this series, progressives say that their “book of rules” includes basing their assertions on the findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But alarmists’ fears about increasing floods, extreme rainfall, heat waves, intense storms and forest fires are, in fact, not supported by the UN IPCC. So, making them live up to their own rules, we need to call them on this every time.

I also discussed how we must hold leftists to their own book of rules when it comes to social justice, especially caring for the poor, the elderly and those who are disadvantaged in society. We do this by pointing out that, of the $1.27 trillion USD spent on climate finance in 2022/2023, only a paltry 5% went exclusively to helping poor people adapt to climate change, however caused, a clear social justice violation. Similarly, progressives need to be held to account for the violations in social justice that occur as a result of:

1. The huge increase in electricity rates that is the natural result of the transition to wind and solar power, which hurts the poor and those on fixed incomes the most 
2. The diversion of food crops to the production of biofuels, causing food shortages and soaring prices 
3. The human rights abuses in developing countries that accompany the production of electric vehicle batteries as well as wind and solar power equipment 
4. The ruining of well water on farms in the vicinity of wind turbines.

Another item in climate alarmists’ “book of rules” is the requirement that they are helping protect the environment and wildlife when they promote wind and solar power and grid-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). Yet nothing could be further from the truth and we should hold them to account for this in public meetings, etc.

In their 2021 book, “‘Clean’ Energy Exploitations: Helping Citizens Understand the Environmental and Humanity Abuses That Support ‘Clean’ Energy,” authors Ronald Stein and Todd Royal explain:

“Green energy uses materials from some of the worst ecological and human rights offenders that exist on Earth… The volume of wind turbine waste is projected to soar in years to come, with mining and manufacturing waste, service waste, and end-of-life waste being the major sources. It is estimated that there will be 43 million metric tons just of [wind turbine] blade waste worldwide by 2050.”

Lithium ion-based batteries used in BESS systems rely on a mix of materials that require massive amounts of energy to mine, transport, process and refine, far greater than the extraction and transport of oil and natural gas. Consequently, while batteries are often portrayed by manufacturers as generating no greenhouse gases, even the left-leaning Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has pointed out that: “Mining and processing the minerals, plus the battery manufacturing process, involve substantial emissions of carbon.”

The CBC cites Jennifer Dunn at Northwestern University’s Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience, who explained: “The material that helps power the battery is produced from a number of different metals, things like nickel and cobalt and lithium.” And of course, China controls most of the lithium and cobalt, which are often produced with no environmental standards, and often employ child labor and near-slave labor and follow practically no health and safety safeguards. University of Houston Professor Larry Bell reports (“China Targets US Weakness for Afghan Rare Earths, Taiwan Chips,” America out Loud, September 25, 2021):

“China has amassed stunning control over 70% of the world’s lithium supplies and 85% of rare earths supply chains to dominate global industries and jobs that depend on them.”

Mining and mineral processing of lithium also requires large volumes of water and can pose contamination risks from mine drainage and wastewater discharge. Readers are encouraged to watch the 2020 documentary film “Planet of the Humans” by left-wing film producer Michael Moore. This 2-minute clip from Moore’s movie demonstrates that, when you consider how these machines are made, and the huge volumes of toxic waste that is released when they are manufactured, wind and solar power may very well be the dirtiest and most environmentally destructive energy sources on the planet.

But perhaps the greatest lie we hear from “green energy” advocates is that the contribution of Industrial Wind Turbines [IWTs] to bird and bat mortality is negligible. In reality, IWTs cause mass slaughter of these animals, especially raptors such as golden eagles, which the Ontario government labeled as “Endangered.”

Here are some statistics:

According to a 2004 study by leading expert, Dr. Shawn Smallwood, financed by the California Energy Commission, an average of 116 Golden Eagles are killed every year by collisions with turbine blades at Altamont Pass Wind Station in California. Extrapolating that number, well over 3,000 eagles have been destroyed since the wind facility was built in the eighties. Other birds killed at Altamont Pass per year include: 

• 300 hawks 
• 333 kestrels 
• 380 owls 
• 2,526 doves 
• 2,557 meadow larks

And the situation is no better in other countries. Mark Duchamp, President, Save the Eagles International Chairman, World Council for Nature, tells us that birds are killed in Spain at a rate of about 200 birds per turbine per year. It is twice that number for bats, which die simply by flying in the low-pressure zone beside the blades which causes their lungs burst.

The slaughter of birds and bats by wind turbines is a powerful issue to bring up in public meetings with politicians. Click here to watch a superb example of a member of the public—retired teacher Karen Bourdeau—confronting candidates for Ottawa mayor with this issue. Note especially the pathetic answer from the leading candidate for mayor, climate activist Catherine McKenney.

Ms. Bourdeau was so effective because she applied, not only rule #4, “Make opponents live up to their own book of rules,” but also rules #2 and #3 which are:

Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people. The result is confusion, fear, and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.

Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat. Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty of your opponent.

As one would expect of a teacher, Ms. Bourdeau did her homework before asking her question and so knew far more about the issue than any of the candidates for mayor. Consequently, she came across as strong and confident while McKenney looked hopelessly uninformed. 

 

 

Saul Alinsky must be rolling over in his grave that concerned citizens from the right of the political spectrum are using his rules to defeat the left. Let’s keep doing exactly that!

____________________

Note: In part 3 of this series on the use of Alinsky’s rule #4, I will discuss how to take advantage of the left’s supposed support for:

• Tolerance of alternative lifestyles & opinions • Rejection of authority & absolutism

Connecticut Steps Up To Save The Planet

July 26, 2022 Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian

Connecticut is a small state, so you may not be paying sufficient attention to its heroic efforts to save the planet. Count on the Manhattan Contrarian to bring you up to date on the latest developments.

On Friday (July 22) Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed the just-passed bipartisan Clean Air Act for the state. Lamont and other state officials gathered in New Haven in 90+ degree heat to celebrate the great accomplishment. A State Senator named Will Haskell, who is a member of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, took the occasion to make the main point:

We cannot wait for Washington to step up and save the planet!

But how exactly is Connecticut going to accomplish that? After all, it has a population of only about 3.6 million. Its greenhouse gas emissions are in the range of about 41 MMTCO2e per year, which is well less than 0.1% of total world annual emissions of about 49,000 MMTCO2e. You could zero out Connecticut’s emissions entirely, and it wouldn’t even amount to a rounding error in the world total. Indeed, the increase that occurs each year in China’s CO2 emissions is a multiple of Connecticut’s total emissions. (According to Our World in Data here, from 2019 to 2020, latest years given, China’s CO2 emissions went from 10.49 to 10.67 billion tons, a one-year increase of about 180 million tons, or well more than four times the total annual emissions of Connecticut.)

But our heroes in Connecticut are not going to let such mere statistics discourage them. They have a plan. And the plan, included as the central feature in the new Clean Air Act, is to electrify the state’s fleet of vehicles, particularly its city buses and school buses. Here is state Transportation Commissioner Joe Giuletti speaking at the July 22 event, quoted in the New Haven Register:

“There are approximately 800 buses that we are responsible for at the DOT that are being replaced with no-emissions electric models. They’re quieter, they emit no emissions and they last longer,” Giulietti said Friday.

Governor Lamont also issued a statement emphasizing that the new law would bring about conversion of all the state buses to electric within a few years:

In addition to the electric state-run buses, public school buses will also shift to electric models, according to the governor’s statement. The Clean Air Act will also prohibit the procurement of diesel-powered buses after 2023, according to the statement.

I particularly enjoyed this statement from Transportation Commissioner Giuletti, this time quoted at the website of television station WTNH:

Department of Transportation Commissioner Joe Giulietti remarked, “it’s so nice to hear a bus that’s behind you that’s not making the noise or emitting any of the air, either the propane or the diesel fumes.”

Note the clear implication that Giuletti has never actually ridden on one of these city buses himself, nor would he ever deign to do that. City buses are for the little people. It’s just that when he gets near one, he wants it to be more suitable to his elite esthetic.

The New Haven Register added that the new electric bus program represents a build-out of a pilot program that began with the delivery of some 12 electric buses in 2020. The Register quotes Connecticut Transportation Department spokesman Josh Morgan:

“The first battery electric buses came into service in the fall of 2020,” Morgan said. “Today, there are 12 electric buses in Connecticut. . . .”

And then, as luck would have it, on the very next day, July 23, one of those 12 electric buses already in Connecticut’s fleet suddenly exploded into flames while sitting in a parking lot in the town of Hamden. Here is a picture of the event, courtesy of the Hamden Fire Department:

It’s really quite something when one of those big lithium-ion batteries suddenly explodes into flames. As usual with these lithium fires, they couldn’t extinguish it with water or anything else, and they just had to let it burn itself out.

“Lithium ion battery fires are difficult to extinguish due to the thermal chemical process that produces great heat and continually reignites,” Hamden fire officials said.

Fortunately, no one was on the bus, and it was out of service on a Saturday morning.

The Connecticut officials reacted to the incident by immediately pulling the entire electric bus fleet from service. The Register quotes CT Transit spokesman Josh Rickman:

“The importance of rider safety is demonstrated by taking these buses out of service and ensuring a thorough investigation is completed prior to any redeployment of the fleet,” Rickman said.

No word as yet as to when, if ever, the electric buses may go back into service. Perhaps Connecticut may have to look around for some other way to save the planet.

Who Will Tell the Greens There Is No Battery Fairy

January 31, 2021 — Steven Hayward

 

For the longest while I have been asking, “Where do environmentalists and Democrats think all these batteries for our oil-free transportation fleet are going to come from?” It seems they think there is a Battery Fairy out there somewhere who will magically supply the ginormous battery capacity, and additional supply of electricity to charge them, in order to deliver us to our blessed fossil-fuel-free future.

So kudos to Wired magazine on “The Spiraling Environmental Cost of our Lithium Battery Addiction,” which reminds us that there are, you know, tradeoffs between various kinds of energy systems we might use:.....To Read More.....