Andrew Dessler Adaptation as a Joke
Motoko Rich and Josephine de La Bruyère “Many Italians Long Resisted Air-Conditioning. Then Europe Got Hotter,” New York Times (September 4, 2026)
Amid record-breaking temperatures on the continent, households and businesses in Italy are increasingly installing cooling units.
The proportion of households in Italy that have installed air-conditioning grew to 56 percent in 2024, the last year for which data is available, from just under 30 percent in 2013, according to government statistics.
The rise in air-conditioning in Italy also reflects the units’ increasing affordability.
“It used to be a luxury product,” said Vincenzo Principato, 52, owner of an electronics shop in Agrigento. Now, an influx of Chinese-made units has helped to lower the average cost of a fuel-efficient air-conditioner to less than $350, Mr.…
Continue ReadingEd. note: This letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and key members of Congress from Consumer Action for a Strong Economy and other free market energy groups is reproduced below. At issue is a legal loophole allowing Chinese-owned battery component manufacturers to receive taxpayer funded incentives. More information can be found here.
“American taxpayers should not finance the expansion of Chinese-controlled battery companies inside the United States.”
Dear Secretary Bessent:
Consumer Action for a Strong Economy and the undersigned organizations urge the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to fully enforce the foreign-entity restrictions enacted through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and prevent Chinese-controlled battery companies from accessing American manufacturing and energy tax incentives, including the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit and the Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit, through U.S.…
Continue Reading“Rob Bradley the freedom to lie about our very real #climateemergency should be outlawed for crimes against nature- aka ecocide—as well as crimes against humanity.” (Rosenberg to Bradley. August 31, 2026)
“Please She/Her Rosenberg. Don’t assume, debate. Don’t pretend, research. Check the emotions and politics at the door and open your mind. There is good news about climate and energy if you are suffering from ‘climate anxiety’.” (below)
“It is a classic notion on the left in general, and of environmentalist zealots in particular,” noted Thomas Sowell, “that no one can disagree with them unless they are either uniformed or dishonest.” A salient example of this came with comments to a social media post by Laura Clarke, CEO of Client Earth, who wrote:
… Continue ReadingToday’s news from New Zealand is a significant setback for climate accountability.