This fortnightly Master Resource post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, published every other week by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete MBN for this post can be found here.

Of special interest in this issue is The Deep Optimism Manifesto, by David Siegel, which pays tribute to Julian Simon and explains again the historical basis for his outlook and its implications for our future.

Greed Energy Economics:
Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing
We cannot afford to stop and start society based on the wind blowing
The High Cost of Wind, Solar and Battery Systems in North East US
UK electricity prices now most expensive in Europe (largely due to renewables)
Greenflation: Household bills to soar by more than £1,500 a year, analysts warn
Solar Project Sale Reveals Green Energy Sorcery

Renewable Energy Health and Ecosystem Consequences:
Report: Rise of the Eco-Right
Missouri’s largest wind farm isn’t running at night for fear of killing endangered bats
Wind industry faces its own green dilemma: landfills
EV Battery Fires Won’t Keep Pols from Putting You in Them

Wind Energy:
Wind turbine nuisance test case starts in Australian Supreme court
Oregon farmers allege violations at wind turbine project

Nuclear Energy:
Small Nuclear Reactors Will Power Our Future
China prepares to test thorium-fueled nuclear reactor
Nuclear Fusion: U.S.…

“But in the nearly 4,000-page study, skeptics note, the term “low confidence” — jargon for findings where there is conflicting evidence — occurs almost 1,400 times. The term “likely” — which could mean a degree of certainty as low as 66 percent — appears thousands of times, including as to whether major hurricanes have increased in frequency since the 1980s.” (Jim Osborne, Houston Chronicle below)

The title of the featured story is loaded. The interview started from the premise of climate alarmism. But one Jim Walzel, 84 years young, did just fine in making the point that climate science is quite unsettled and not indicative of crisis–just like previous scares he has witnessed in his long lifetime.

James Osborne’s “These skeptics believe in climate change. Why is it so hard to convince them catastrophe is coming?”…

“… as we suffer through the hellish summer of 2011 … one lesson from the book is clear: Get used to it.” (Andrew Dessler)

A decade ago, the Texas A&M climate alarmist Andrew Dessler, long followed at MasterResource for his exaggerations and bad temperment, wrote an op-ed for the Houston Chronicle: “Texas is Vulnerable to Warming Climate” (July 10, 2011; updated August 17, 2011).

How does Professor Dessler’s op-ed read today? The short answer: not very well. The mad scientist should chill with some A/C (72^o, not 78^o) and focus on the real here-and-now problem: the state’s overbuilt wind and solar capacity that has wounded the Texas electrical grid (as in price spikes and greenouts).

Here is Dessler’s opinion-page editorial with my comments.…

There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. 

The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now.  The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the USSR in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas – parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia – where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon.  —  Newsweek

Another climate-scare article? Yes, but it is from April 28, 1975, almost a half-century ago.

There is nothing wishy-washy about the assertions in popular press stories on the environment.…