A Free-Market Energy Blog

Thugocracy: Science in the Postmodern World (Roger Pielke Jr. as victim)

By Richard W. Fulmer -- November 18, 2021

“Scientists try to discover the truth through observation and open inquiry; thugs try to impose their version of the truth through force and intimidation. As Roger Pielke learned, thuggery works.”

There’s an old trope among lawyers: if the law is on your side, pound the law; if the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if neither the law nor the facts are on your side, pound the table. For thugs, the third option is to pound your opponent.

Today, thugs have taken over much of our politics, many of our universities, and much of our science. Their response to dissent is not to assemble facts and logic to support their claims but to slander, intimidate, and muzzle the opposition.

Canadian investigative journalist, Donna Laframboise, has documented one such case in her paper, The Hounding of Roger Pielke Jr.

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Climate Retreat: Thomas Friedman on COP26 (energy density, anyone?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 17, 2021

Two planets are talking to each other. One looks like a beautiful blue marble and the other a dirty brown ball.

“What on earth happened to you?” the beautiful planet asks the brown one.

“I had Homo sapiens,” answers the brown planet.

“Don’t worry,” says the blue planet. “They don’t last long.”

Climate alarmism has turned into a big funny. The above, a joke at COP26 recalled by Thomas Friedman, says much about the stalled-out Church of Deep Ecology. It seems that enough governments are self-interested to slow down the march on road to serfdom–and a lot of Homo sapiens really care about energy affordability and reliability.

So much for the quixotic quest to substitute dilute, intermittent energies for dense mineral energies.

Of course, the energy intelligentsia refused to deal with that stubborn thing called Energy Density, opting for a blank check for wind, solar, and batteries.…

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Requiem for COP26: James Watt (‘the king said sail, but the wind said no…’)

By -- November 16, 2021

“If social justice were the outcome COP26 attendees desired, they would do well to articulate how they meant to replicate the reliable, economical, and land-sparing fossil-fuel-based power generation and transportation now within reach of most of humanity.”

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, (COP26), concluded last week in Glasgow, Scotland. As usual, activists traveled to the event using carbon-fueled vehicles to demand that carbon-based fuels be left in the ground (including those in the developing world) in the name of social justice.

As many readers of this blog and some local climate change activists know, James Watt (1736–1819) was born and performed his first experiments to improve the steam engine not far from where the UN meeting took place. Watt ended up doing his most important work and is buried in Birmingham, where a series of events were organized two years ago to celebrate the bicentenary of his death.…

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Energy and Environmental Review: November 15, 2021

By -- November 15, 2021
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IEA’s Net Zero: Private to Socialist Investment (OPEC, Russia gift?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 11, 2021
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Nuclear Fiasco: Plant Vogtle 3 & 4 ‘Adjustment’ (what’s new?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 10, 2021
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Greenwashing Waste: Exxon’s $350 per Barrel Algae ‘Oil’ (Lee Raymond is Missed)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 9, 2021
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African Energy Chamber: Fossil Fuels, Please

By NJ Ayuk -- November 8, 2021
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CLINTEL to IPCC/COP26: AR6 Summary for Policymakers Flawed

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 4, 2021
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Carl Pope on Energy: Exactly Backwards (old-school alarmist in denial)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 3, 2021
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