Climate News Round-Up

• “Wind farm boss caught with child porn after trying to wipe hard drives” – Alexander Hensher, 48, the director of a renewables firm, was exposed after attempting to have his hard drives wiped at a computer shop in Bournemouth while under active police investigation, says the Mail.

• “What hope is there for farming when the man in charge faints?” – Farming Minister Stephen Morgan’s funny turn at a meat-processing plant has done little to convince Britain’s beleaguered farmers that Labour understands them, writes William Sitwell in the Telegraph.

• “Labour plans multi-billion-pound gas subsidies to keep lights on” – Taxpayers face a double burden of funding both renewables and fossil fuel backup as Labour’s plans for multi-billion-pound gas subsidies are exposed, says the Telegraph.

• “Labour’s Net Zero dogma is costing cash-strapped families £540 a year” – A major analysis finds that pursuing Net Zero will cost the country £320 billion by 2050, with families bearing a £540-a-year burden that would vanish if Ed Miliband’s plans were scrapped, reports the Mail.

• “No, Climate Central, warmer summer proves urban heat islands, not climate change” – In ClimateRealism, Anthony Watts argues that Climate Central’s claim that human-caused climate change is driving warmer summer nights in U.S. cities is “highly misleading if not outright false”, pointing instead to urban heat island effects that the analysis ignores.

• “Wind and solar’s dirty secret: mountains of waste with nowhere to go” – Ageing turbine blades and solar panels are piling up in landfills, with costly recycling challenges exposing a growing environmental crisis at the heart of the green energy transition, writes Thomas Richard in Climate Change Dispatch.

• “NY Dem wants to keep energy bills high to push green energy hoax” – Democrat Cait Conley, running to unseat New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, has offered no real solutions to soaring energy costs while backing policies that keep bills high, says Thomas Richard in Climate Change Dispatch.

• “Thom Yorke, Romy and Brian Eno among 200 musicians urging PM to reject new North Sea drilling” – Over 200 musicians, including Robert Smith, Olly Alexander and Paris Paloma, have signed a letter insisting that exploitation of the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields defies climate reality, notes the Guardian.

• “First the fires, now prepare for floods as torrential rain forecast” – Forecasters warn that flash flooding is likely as thundery downpours sweep south across a parched Britain, with ground too hard to absorb the water, says the Mail.

“The Times They Are a-Blobbin’” – No, Hugo Rifkind. Climate contrarians have not gone quiet because of the hot summer, writes Ben Pile. Few contrarians dispute the climate is changing. The argument is about the cause of that change and how best to mitigate the risks – which Rifkind would know if he bothered to listen to the other side.