IN THIS ISSUE:
- Two More Climate Disasters Delayed: Rice Up, Amazonian Wildfires Down
- Offshore Wind Facilities Are Poisoning the Seas
- Electric School Buses Being Replaced by Reliable Diesel
- Corals Thrived Under Warmer Conditions
Two More Climate Disasters Delayed: Rice Up, Amazonian Wildfires Down
Not a day goes by without the mainstream media attributing a disaster or problem, global and/or regional, to human-caused climate change. Claims that human greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for crop failures or rising wildfires are among the most frequently told lies.
Climate Realism has posted more than 200 articles debunking claims that climate change is harming crop yields and production, covering a wide array of important fruits, grains, and vegetables grown all around the world. These articles demonstrate uniformly that, contrary to repeated claims of decline, crops have set new records repeatedly over the past few decades of modest warming, in large part due to the beneficial effect of carbon dioxide for plant growth and health.
In addition, Climate Realism has posted dozens of articles refuting claims that climate change has caused an increase in wildfires, instead showing that as the Earth has warmed the number, severity, and acreage lost to wildfires have declined in the United States and globally. It’s not just analysts writing for Climate Realism who say this; it’s the data from NASA and the European Space Agency, for example, and for crops, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
New proof that climate change is benefitting crop production, in this case rice, one of the critical staple crops for people around the world, comes from research and data cited in recent articles at Bloomberg and the Good News Network showing rice yields per acre have doubled since 1975, resulting in the lowest global prices for rice in 18 years even as acreage devoted to rice production has declined. The Bloomberg article specifically says the price of rice “suggests the climate crisis won’t starve the world.” Beyond rice, the Good News Network story reports that even amid yearly ups and downs due to sometimes inclement weather, pest invasions, and market conditions, corn production has increased by about two bushels per year in recent years, more than double the yield that was produced in 1975.
The same week the Good News Network published its story touting gains in rice yields and associated price declines, it published a story about the sharp decline in the amount of Amazonian rainforest lost to fires (both wildfires and those intentionally set to clear land for various uses) in 2025 so far. Data from the satellite monitoring program called MapBiomas show Brazil’s amazonian rainforest had a 65 percent drop in acreage burned from 2024, the sharpest drop in wildfire losses there since recordkeeping began.
Parts of the Amazon had a sharp increase in acreage burned in 2024 due to a particularly severe drought. This drought and the associated wildfires were wrongly blamed on climate change despite there being no long-term trend suggesting the drought in question and resulting wildfires were anything more than a temporary, natural blip in the long-term trend, meaning weather, not climate, was to blame for 2024’s conditions. With better rain conditions returning, fire losses in Brazil declined sharply. Should human-caused climate change be credited for the record decline in Amazonian wildfire losses, based on the short-term focus of climate alarmists? One would have to say so.
In truth, the decline in Amazonian acreage lost to wildfires was even greater. The Amazon spans countries beyond Brazil; across the amazonian basin as a whole, wildfire losses declined by 54 percent year over year.
One year’s bad or good weather in a region, or a year’s acreage lost to wildfires, or a single year’s increase or decrease in a particular crop’s yield or production can’t be blamed on long-term human-caused climate change; only a long-term trend can support such an attribution. The data for crops, wildfires, and even most types of extreme weather show long-term improvements or no identifiable trend, meaning whatever impacts climate change might be having, and whatever the cause, it isn’t resulting in catastrophic or existential harm.
Based on real-world data, as opposed to climate model outputs, there is no reason to believe these facts will change in the foreseeable future. Vis-à-vis climate change, the world’s future seems as bright as the Sun, which is the main driver of climate and weather.
Sources: Good News Network; Good News Network; Bloomberg; Climate Realism
Offshore Wind Facilities Are Poisoning the Seas
Offshore wind turbines are polluting surrounding waters with more than 220 chemicals, metals, and materials, according to new research published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, conducted by an international team of 21 researchers at universities and research institutes in Germany (lead author), Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The study, partly a review of existing literature, found offshore wind turbines emit or slough off at least 228 organic and artificial chemical substances, many of which European regulators consider toxic, potentially cancer-causing, endocrine-disrupting, or “forever chemicals,” with as-yet little-understood impacts on the marine environment.
The substances include metals such as copper and zinc, with known toxicity; marine vertebrates and fish; chemicals used to fight corrosion and fouling from algae; oils and other lubricants; and chemicals used for fire suppression.
The scientists write,
Major gaps in assessing the impact of the compounds are identified, including challenges in environmental monitoring, numerical modelling and assessing the toxicity of individual and mixtures of chemical contaminants on marine organisms and humans consuming potential OWF aquaculture products. A risk-based prioritisation is essential to target the compounds of higher concern and overcome costs linked to assessing a wide variety of chemical contaminants.
This study doesn’t even include the microplastics and fiberglass shed from blade edges as weather and wind erode them. Research from Scotland and Scandinavia has detailed the thousands of tons of microplastics polluting the ground around industrial wind facilities. With the wind and other conditions being even harsher at sea, it is estimated the volume of microplastic shedding will be 40 percent greater.
Sources: Marine Pollution Bulletin; The Fisherman; Yahoo News
Electric School Buses Being Replaced by Reliable Diesel
School systems that bought into the green ideology claiming a need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and incentivized with federal dollars to buy electric buses are quickly coming to regret their decision. Quebec pulled 1,200 Lion electric school buses out of service after one of the buses in Montreal spontaneously erupted in flames with six children and the driver on board, all of whom got off the bus safely.
Quebec wants every bus inspected, but in the meantime the shutdown left thousands of students along 110 routes without their normal transportation to school. Some schools cancelled classes entirely in the aftermath.
It may be difficult to have the buses inspected properly and repaired if problems are identified: the manufacturer, Lion, has filed for bankruptcy amid contract cancellations and myriad problems being identified with its fleet. (During the bankruptcy proceedings, Lion sold for just $6 million after being valued at $4.7 billion in June of 2021.) Lion’s troubles arose despite receiving more than $159 million in federal funds from former President Joe Biden’s Clean School Bus program between 2022 and 2024. Lion was unable to produce all the buses it received funding for, and the buses it has delivered have not lived up to their hype.
As explained in an article published by the Institute for Energy Research (IER), many schools that bought into the federal government’s push to replace their existing diesel bus fleet with electric buses are now going back to diesel because the electric buses struggle in inclement weather and need to be charged more often than was claimed. Students have been stranded as a result. In addition, with EV companies struggling financially and going out of business, in part because the buses break down so often, the buses aren’t being serviced and the warranties not honored.
As The Heartland Institute has noted before, electric buses in general and electric school buses in particular are boondoggles, an expensive, dangerous, failed solution to a nonexistent problem.
On the current state of the industry, IER writes,
- Electric buses . . . cost more than $350,000 on average, whereas new diesel-powered buses typically cost around $100,000.
- School districts must also invest in high-powered charging infrastructure and new training for drivers.
- Electric bus company, Proterra, filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and was bought by Phoenix Motors in 2024.
- A report from Clean Trucking, … found … electric buses … were not of comparable quality to diesel buses in that they would not heat up in cold weather; lost steering and braking ability at times; had defective frames; and regularly displayed error messages that forced drivers to reset the vehicles.
- In one school district, a bus lost its brakes and ran into a snowbank during its first year in operation. The districts also found that they needed repair after operating for a month or less. The electric school buses have spent months in repair shops, faced parts recalls, and failed state inspections.
- One school district found that its electric buses were operational for a total of one month over two years.
These failures make it difficult if not impossible for school districts to resell their buses or trade them in. There are often no alternative service providers to provide maintenance and repairs for the buses after the manufacturers cease operations.
Sources: Institute for Energy Research; Globe and Mail
Corals Thrived Under Warmer Conditions
Research recently published in the peer-reviewed journal The Holocene finds coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific, one of the most diverse coral regions on Earth, expanded dramatically as seas rose during a period of significant temperature rise.
The researchers examined past trends, when seas were rising, to determine whether coral colonies in the Indo-Pacific region would necessarily be threatened by rising seas now.
The international team of scientists applied radiocarbon dating to 16 cores from two islands of different reef zones from the Spermonde Archipelago, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The reefs in this area have among the highest coral diversity on Earth.
They compared reef accretion, that is rates of growth, with proxy data suggesting relative sea levels, rates of rise, and temperatures. The team found that between 7,200 and 5,500 years before present, during a period when seas were rising fast and were as much as two meters higher in the region than today, the coral colonies adapted well to higher seas and warmer temperatures, growing relatively rapidly, by approximately 6 mm per year. By contrast, during the mid-Holocene, as temperatures cooled and sea levels fell, coral growth slowed considerably, to less than 3 mm per year. Currently coral are growing at a rate of just 1 mm per year as water depths are too low to allow upward reef expansion.
The authors say the data they collected suggests that corals are more adaptable than believed and should be able to not just withstand but possibly even thrive in expected continued warming and sea level rise.
This study confirms the findings of research published in Climate at a Glance: Coral Reefs, which notes,
- Coral has existed continuously for the past 60 million years, surviving temperatures and carbon dioxide levels significantly higher than what is occurring today.
- Coral thrive in warm water, not cold water.
- Recent warming has allowed coral to expand their range poleward, while still thriving near the equator.
Sources: No Tricks Zone; The Holocene; Climate at a Glance: Coral Reefs
