Climate Change

Damn the climate science, full speed ahead! – UPDATED

A massive heat dome has settled over the central and eastern United States, exposing more than 120 million people to dangerous temperatures. Heat-index readings could reach 100°F to 115°F across much of the region, threatening public health and straining electricity systems already struggling to meet surging demand.

Meanwhile, the desert Southwest and Four Corners region face severe fire weather. Spring 2026 was among the warmest ever recorded, and exceptionally high temperatures erased already depleted mountain snowpacks across the West. The early disappearance of snow is leaving lands dangerously dry, setting the stage for a more destructive wildfire season.

Europe has endured two deadly, record-shattering heat waves in a matter of weeks, with a third on the way next week.

David Eby is spending Canada Day in China. He leads a trade mission that is seeking Chinese support for expansion of fossil fuel production in BC. Eby will return on July 2 to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney about federal support for major projects, including a new bitumen pipeline from Alberta and expansion of LNG production.

Both leaders speak of economic opportunity but disregard the scientific warning that continued fossil-fuel expansion will intensify climate disruption. They are pursuing immediate economic advantage, knowing that the fires, floods, heat, environmental damage, and enormous public costs will fall on future governments—and future generations.

END OF UPDATE


During the 1864 American Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay, Rear Admiral Farragut ordered his fleet forward after the vessel Tecumseh struck a torpedo—and sank. The admiral said something like, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

David Eby is desperate for any kind of achievement, so the premier left yesterday for China, where he will promote a gigantic expansion of the LNG plant that is now polluting Kitimat and spewing methane into the atmosphere.

Eby is in effect saying, “Damn the climate science, full speed ahead!

All parts of Europe are this year enduring a record-breaking heat wave that is straining electricity systems. France recorded its hottest day since national record-keeping began in 1947, with temperatures reaching 44.3°C (112°F). The prolonged heat warmed major rivers used to cool nuclear reactors. To prevent discharged water from further damaging aquatic ecosystems, several reactors shut down or reduced output. Supplies of badly needed electricity are constrained.

Other forms of electricity generation face challenges. The output of hydropower drops when dry conditions reduce available water needed to generate energy. European hydropower has dipped significantly in the first five months of 2026. Coal and gas-fired plants also suffer because hot weather can stress equipment and reduce output.

Extreme heat has caused major problems across other areas of Europe and in Asia, Australia, and parts of South America. In several countries, temperature records have fallen. Heat measurements in Australia during the summer of 2026 reached almost 50°C.

The pattern is especially alarming: extreme heat drives electricity demand sharply upward while simultaneously reducing supply by warming cooling water, lowering river flows, impairing thermal-plant efficiency, and sometimes weakening wind generation.

David Eby’s NDP government is not judging LNG by its full climate impact.

They are judging LNG through the lenses of investment, employment, and energy security. However, the lens of revenue is obscured because the BC government has reduced its share of natural gas revenues and provided huge tax breaks and subsidies to LNG Canada.

BC gave benefits worth billions of dollars to the foreign-owned company. The government

  • repealed the LNG income tax;
  • created a natural-gas corporate tax credit;
  • granted LNG Canada a long-term PST deferral;
  • heavily subsidized the gas pipeline to Kitimat;
  • contributed huge funding for LNG Canada’s grid connection;
  • allows LNG Canada to purchase power well below the incremental cost of new electricity.

Beyond temporary income taxes generated during construction, British Columbia’s direct return from LNG is modest.

Compared to the days of Gordon Campbell, the BC government has reduced natural gas revenues by billions of dollars. The province has encouraged rising gas production while surrendering much of the public’s share of the resource’s value.

The cost of doing this is serious damage to the earth’s environment.

Categories: Climate Change

3 replies »

  1. With high gasoline prices the public has lost interest in AGW.
    Whilst social worker Eby does well with such issues he is out of touch with real issues such as AGW and the economy of BC.
    Eby is much like his counterparts across Canada , who after decades of relying upon the USA to prop up our economy is now like those others scrambling to find sources of taxation to keep things running which leaves them abandoning any pretense of climate concern and succumbing to the ever powerful oil companies.

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  2. At once. Let’s admit it. At first it might seem a crazy conjecture, but since his Iran War commenced no leader has done more to accelerate and boost China’s economy than, Hair Furor, Donald J Trump.

    Sez who? You ask?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/30/china-clear-winner-trump-war-middle-east-report-iran-strait-of-hormuz

    China is a clear winner from Trump’s war in Middle East, report concludes

    Beijing, whose stockpiles and renewables industry allowed it to withstand energy shock, is now gaining from global solar and EV push

    The country’s large stockpiles of oil and the hugely ambitious rollout of renewable energy mean it has been less exposed to the energy shock than other countries.

    China has long maintained strategic reserves of energy, and last year took advantage of cheap prices to build up even bigger stockpiles. Its crude imports grew from 11.1m barrels a day to 11.6m in 2025, with over 80% of that increase being sent to stockpiles, according to analysis by Erica Downs, a senior research scholar at the Centre on Global Energy Policy. As of January, China had enough stockpiled to cover 104 days of imports at the 2025 level.

    The country has also been building massive amounts of renewable energy infrastructure in recent years. Last year it installed 315GW of new solar capacity, more than half of the world’s new solar.

    The year before, it added 277GW. Beijing is aiming for half of China’s energy to come from non-fossil sources by 2030, with the share from wind and solar reaching 30%, up from 22% in 2025.
    The Asia Group’s report said: “With 1.4 terawatts of operating renewable capacity already online and a reported 90-110 days of crude import cover in reserve, China weathered the initial shock better than any regional peer.”

    China has also benefited from other countries reacting to the crisis by accelerating its clean energy buildout. Beijing dominates the global supply chain in solar and other clean technology industries and in recent years has been pushing much of this production overseas at low prices, to the chagrin of western leaders worried about their own industries.

    China’s electric vehicle exports soared by more than 110% in May compared with the previous year, while solar shipments in April increased by 60%.

    ========================================================================

    For The West the competitive comparison just gets worse.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/05/china-green-energy-sector-investment-growth

    Green energy sector drove more than 90% of China’s investment growth last year, analysis finds
    Industry bigger than all but seven world economies, and accounts for more than third of China’s economic growth

    For the second time in three years, the report showed the manufacture, installation and export of batteries, electric cars, solar, wind and related technologies accounted for more than a third of China’s economic growth.

    Despite the chilling effect of Donald Trump’s tariffs and support for fossil fuels, the new data highlighted the continuing momentum behind the shift towards renewables.

    The new analysis, produced by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and published in Carbon Brief, found that China’s clean-energy sectors nearly doubled in real value between 2022 and 2025.

    Last year, they generated a record 15.4tn yuan ($2.2tn/£1.6tn) of business, comparable with the GDPs of Brazil or Canada. This accounted for 11.4% of China’s gross domestic product, up from 7.3% in 2022.

    Most of the extra capacity is being used to meet domestic demand for a rollout of wind and solar that has recently been double that in the rest of the world combined.

    Chinese government advisers say this is no longer just a transition of power generation, but a system-wide change in how the country is wired and made mobile. The most spectacular investment growth last year was in the battery sector, where ever more efficient technology is being used for electric vehicles (EVs) and grid storage upgrades.

    Exports are also surging. Thanks to expanding output in the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, solar power has been credited by the International Energy Agency for providing “the cheapest electricity in history” and is now affordable in many global south nations.

    “In a lot of other countries things are accelerating,” said the report’s lead author, Lauri Myllyvirta.
    “Many of the African countries have imported a lot of solar. EVs are just starting to be bought in places where no one had an EV breakthrough on their bingo card for last year or maybe not even this decade.”

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    Finally in policy lockstep with DJ Trump and in perfect solidarity who is marching backwards?

    Mark Carney and David Eby. That’s who.

    Because? LNG and toxic Bitumen must make Canada an Energy Superpower, So really really soon we’ll leave puny backward unbelieving countries like China far behind!

    You bet.

    [Roll credits. Sound up. Cue “Land of Hope and Glory” theme.]

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