Newsletter, 9/22/25
charlie Kirk Event, Biomedical, 4IR
["Truth Coming Out of Her Well," the world-famous 1896 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme. Image via Today's Art Magazine]
First of all, today, 9/22/25, the September Equinox took place at 2:20 p.m. EDT (1820 GMT). This meant that the sun moved southward across the celestial equator. The celestial equator is an imaginary projection of Earth's equator into space, forming a circle around the sky that divides the northern and southern celestial hemispheres. The sun's drop across the equator is due to a 23.5° tilt in Earth's rotational axis, which shifts our star's apparent path in the sky as our planet goes about its yearly orbit. The occasion was greeted in Berkeley with a n short earthquake at 2:56AM local time, i woke up just seconds before it. Centered by the Claremont Hotel, in the hills straddling the Berkeley/Oakland city line. It was Magnitude 4.3, a moderate tremor but sure felt sharp. Starting with the Charlie Kirk Event.
Charlie Kirk Event. Like the Planet Waves team in general, i am giving this matter a LOT of attention. First of all, it is yet another key tool being used to divide the populace. But beyond this, it points out a rather alarming aspect of the digital conditions we live in. Most people are having their entire perceptions field being created by digital media, and have acquired a stake in what and why think Charlie Kirk was actually assassinated be true, as well as the event itself being real.. Having Kirk be dead serves certain agendas for them. Right wingers want to believe that the radical left killed him as part of silencing opposition to the radical left’s “communist” transgender agenda. Leftists want to believe that the radical right and its advocacy of violence led to “the chickens coming home to roost.” And Anti-Zionists, be they left or right, want to believe that the Israeli state killed him for deviating too much from a pro-Israel line and have a stake in him being dead in order to advance their own anti-Zionist agenda. All these people would have a hard time were it to turn out that in fact there was no assassination. This would render the Charlie Kirk event yet another event which would demonstrate how utterly gullible they (and we all) have become.
This is so much like the case with past events. Most people still wanna believe 9/11 was a real attack by Islamic fighters against the US, be it to justify making war on the Islamic world, or to see it as the “downtrodden of the world” striking back at the Empire. What, admit that they saw 3 steal frame hi rises blown up on live TV and believed it to be the result of plane impacts? Most people still wanna believe there was a real disease called “COVID-19” which led to a global pandemic and which was caused by a new specific virus. They got sick, they knew someone who got sick, and they know that it was either a case of zoonotic transfer from the animal world to humans or the result of a lab-leaked bio-weapon. What, admit that this was all made up, a pay-op, and that they got suckered? And people for one reason or another wanna believe that Hamas surprised the IDF and caught Israeli defenses off-guard, whether you view Hamas as terrorists or as heroes.
I will continue to challenge everyone to provide answers to this small package of questions because they are about some basic evidence involved in a criminal case, and it is downright criminal how people are not asking these questions or are refusing to answer them when they are posed. Here they are again.
Where's the splattered blood on stage? Where's the bullet? Why did Kirk's stage crew dismantle the stage setup within minutes, destroying evidence, in violation of state laws? Why was the alleged body taken to a hospital in a private car (SUV) by his crew rather than EMT crew in an ambulance? Why did Erika thank alleged medical personnel for their assistance when no such involvement happened? Why was his body removed out of state after about 24 hours?
A story about The Naked Truth. I thank my friend Wendy for finding it and letting me know about it.
According to a 19th-century legend, Truth and Lie meet one day. Lie tells Truth, "It's a marvelous day today!” Truth looks up to the skies and sighs, for the day is indeed beautiful. They spend a lot of time together, ultimately arriving beside a well.
Lie tells Truth, "The water is very nice, let's take a bath together!" Truth, once again suspicious, tests the water and discovers that it is indeed very nice. They undress and start bathing. Suddenly, Lie comes out of the water, takes Truth's clothes, and runs away, leaving Truth naked.
The furious Truth comes out of the well and runs everywhere to find Lie and to get her clothes back. The world, seeing Truth naked, turns its gaze away in contempt and anger.
The poor Truth returns to the well and disappears forever, hiding in shame. Since then, Lie travels around the world, dressed as Truth, satisfying the needs of society, because the world prefers the clothed Lie to the naked Truth.
AI is now being employed to create a resurrection. The believers no longer need to imagine one. I thank my friend Jesse Zurawell for this.
Charlie Kirk’s AI resurrection ushers in a new era of digital grief, By JACK JENKINS, 9/19/25.
(RNS) — Megachurch pastor Jack Graham was in the middle of his Sunday message to Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, this past weekend when he paused to cue up an unusual sermon illustration. After encouraging people to respond to the killing of conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk by turning to God, he instructed the congregation to listen to a roughly minute-long audio clip of what sounded like Kirk delivering a short speech.
“Hear what Charlie is saying regarding what happened to him this past week,” Graham said. As the clip, which encouraged listeners to “pick up your cross, and get back in the fight,” ended, the congregation burst into applause. A few seconds later, they rose to their feet in a standing ovation. But the clip they listened to was not, in fact, Charlie Kirk from beyond the grave. As Graham made clear when he introduced the segment, the congregation was listening to a production generated entirely by artificial intelligence: The clip, which has gone viral online, was a cloned version of Kirk’s voice delivering what appeared to be an AI-generated response from a chatbot asked what Kirk would say in the wake of his own death.
It’s unclear where the video originated, but at least two other large evangelical Protestant churches — Dream City Church in Arizona and Awaken Church, San Marcos in California — also played it during their services that day. Pastors at both churches made clear the clips were AI; even so, the segment triggered applause each time.
The message was part of a wave of AI-generated content that flooded social media in the wake of Kirk’s killing, with supporters and even Kirk’s former colleagues sharing images, videos and audio messages that featured the felled activist and that were made by artificial intelligence. Amid outrage over Kirk’s killing and debate about his legacy, the surge, which has been most visible on social media platforms, showcased a new form of public mourning and remembrance, one in which the dead are grieved with hyperreal but entirely fictional reconstructions crafted in seconds by AI services.
AI-generated images and videos of Kirk appeared within hours of his death, some growing in popularity over the next few days. Many featured religious themes, a byproduct of Kirk’s own personal and political shift toward evangelical Christianity near the end of his life. Imagining Kirk in heaven was a common theme. In one clip, which has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on Facebook and X, Kirk stares into a camera as soft piano music plays.
“I’m Charlie. My faith cost me my life, but now I stand forever in glory,” the AI-generated Kirk says. The fictional Kirk then introduces four historical Christian martyrs and saints — Paul, Stephen, Andrew and Peter. These, also AI-generated characters, briefly recount their own stories of martyrdom before the AI Kirk urges listeners to root themselves in a “Bible-believing church,” join in a “spiritual” battle and “overwhelm the world with Jesus.”
Other clips are shorter, but more direct. One depicts an AI-generated Kirk taking selfies in heaven with prominent Americans who were assassinated, such as Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy as well as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. As the digital Kirk poses with the historical icons in a cloudy vista, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” plays in the background.
Many AI-generated clips depict Kirk with Jesus Christ. One shows Kirk sitting in the same tent where he was shot and killed, but then suddenly leaping out of his chair and running up a staircase to a smiling Jesus. Another features an AI-generated Kirk praying on a park bench as Scripture is flashed across the screen and “Come Jesus Come” by CeCe Winans plays in the background. Eventually, a radiant Jesus arrives, and the two embrace. Yet another shows Jesus and Kirk, holding a Make America Great Again hat, walking toward the camera among the clouds. ”Welcome, my son,” Jesus says, embracing the AI Kirk. “Your work is done. Come rest.”
Apparent AI-generated images have even been used by Kirk’s former co-workers. Andrew Kolvet, who produced “The Charlie Kirk Show” and has hosted the program multiple times since Kirk’s killing, posted what appears to be an AI-generated image of Kirk alongside other assassinated Americans from U.S. history such as King and Lincoln, as well as Jesus Christ. [Kolvet appears again in this edition of LT, see below]
(The image sparked criticism, with detractors noting that the real-life Kirk criticized King. The Rev. Bernice King, one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughters, said of the image, “there are so many things wrong with this.”)
Depictions of famous figures in heaven, or even in relationship with Jesus, are hardly unusual. But the particular utilization of AI to commemorate Kirk — with content flooding the internet within hours of his death — may be an outgrowth of the technology’s wide use among devotees of President Donald Trump. That includes the Trump administration itself: On several occasions, AI-generated images and memes have appeared on official government accounts.
As Charlie Warzel, who writes on technology and media, observed in The Atlantic in August, the “high-resolution, low-budget look of generative-AI images appears to be fusing with the meme-loving aesthetic of the MAGA movement.” Warzel added: “At least in the fever swamps of social media, AI art is becoming MAGA-coded. The GOP is becoming the party of AI slop.”
Kirk, of course, was an avid Trump supporter who played a significant role in helping the president return to power, and some of the AI-generated content that proliferated after the activist’s death has been tied to conservative causes. Many images, for instance, linked Kirk’s death to the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee whose slaying on a bus in Charlotte, North Carolina, became a source of outrage for Kirk and other conservatives shortly before Kirk’s own assassination. One widely shared image shows an AI-generated Kirk comforting Zarutska as she sits on the bus where she was killed, bleeding. At least one person created a video version of the image that features the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” A similar AI-generated video shows Kirk embracing Zarutska on the bus as they both flap newly grown angel wings.
Another AI-generated video pushed a pro-Israel message — a topic that has sparked division among conservatives, and which Kirk was reportedly trying to mitigate shortly before his death.
In the video, an AI-generated Kirk, adorned with angel wings and a white robe, speaks from heaven as he declares: “I’m in a better place now, but America and Israel will never be the same.” The AI Kirk insists that the U.S. and Israel are both based on “faith, on freedom, on family,” shortly before a bald eagle is shown landing on his head as he stands in front of Israeli and U.S. flags.
Despite their viral nature, it’s unclear precisely what role these virtually enhanced remembrances play in the lives of those who mourn Kirk’s death. But social media boosters of the creations often frame them as a form of catharsis: On TikTok, influencer Taylor Diazmercado posted a short video of herself last week reacting to the AI-generated audio clip of Kirk — which she clearly labeled as such — that would later be used in churches. As an entirely fabricated voice speaks lines Kirk never said in life, Diazmercado can be seen visibly weeping, frequently wiping away tears as she nods along in-between sobs. Beneath the video, which had 123,000 likes as of Wednesday (Sept. 17), she added a short caption: “What a man.”
Several of my friends reacted.
Christine Massey: . "This is scary. Apparently "AI" has been used in court cases as well!"
Michael Bryant: "Mega-MAGA-Martyr The US of A is an open air insane asylum circa 2025. I think it's fair to say it's been heading in this direction for quite some time but now we're in the rapids."
Eric Francis Coppolino: "It was also the Telethon for TPUSA.. I am amused by his fans on my substack objecting to my saying that he was not killed. They should be happy!
Bryant (responding) "Note that when Trump made the comment concerning tomorrow's announcement re:cause of autism as the camera panned to RFK he looked down and seemed a bit abject. Does this mean that the tylenol-as-culprit gambit goes into full effect tomorrow and pharma's poison needles will be off the hook?
And, yesterday’s mass memorial ceremony in Glendale, Arizona a city of 250,000 which adjoins Phoenix and is just northwest of, had shades of German mass rallies in the 1030s.
Truth Seeker @_TruthZone_ , 9/21/25.
Why are there fireworks at the "memorial service" for Charlie Kirk? This is a WWE script...
]Video from the ceremony]
My comment:"Looks like the stage in.... Phoenix on 8/23/24, when RFK Jr got on stage with Trump, already on stage, to endorse him.”
More,
Sense Receptor @SenseReceptor, 9/21/25.
Why is Daddy Warp Speed talking about autism at Charlie Kirk's memorial? Oh right—because this event is about hardcore MAGA/MAHA cult brainwashing, nothing to do with honoring someone's life. This whole event is just one giant cult gathering aimed at reinforcing the cult.
And,
This wasn’t about honoring a young man’s life of political service. It was a rally. It was mass conditioning through weaponized faith, with death repackaged as a “turning point.” A 10 hour stadium revival stitched together from nationalism, the glorification of military enlistment and biblical martyrdom. This is the machine. It even had pyrotechnics.
And, Andrew Kolvet hs tried to explain off one of the key questions being asked. People are not buying it.
DC@_03O, 9/20/25.
Let’s Dissect Andrew Kolvet’s “Miracle” Statement
Andrew Kolvet, a Turning Point USA media handler, released a statement that reads like it was written by a crisis PR firm scrambling to patch up a failing narrative. Let’s break it down, line by line:
1. “I’m usually not interested in delving into online chatter…”
Translation: “I don’t usually respond to conspiracy drivel… but let me make an exception this time.”
This is the classic defensive opener: discredit public speculation while subtly signaling moral authority — as if his involvement should automatically be trusted.
2. “I just spoke with the surgeon who worked on Charlie in the hospital…”
Problem: Charlie died instantly from a gunshot wound that caused decerebrate posturing, massive arterial bleeding, and catastrophic CNS trauma.
Let’s be clear: he wasn’t “worked on”. He was dead on arrival — if not at the scene, then certainly before any meaningful medical intervention. Unless Kolvet thinks surgeons perform autopsies, this claim is either fabricated or a willful misuse of medical terminology to sell emotional closure.
3. “The bullet should’ve gone through… it would’ve killed a moose… but it didn’t…”
This is the “trust me bro” forensic analysis from someone with no background in terminal ballistics, gunshot trauma, or even basic anatomy.
If the bullet lodged beneath the skin, that suggests low velocity, deflection, or inconsistency in caliber used — none of which support the idea of a clean high-powered rifle kill.
Also: where’s the actual ballistics report?
4. “His bones were so strong, like the man of steel.”
Now we’re just fully in the realm of myth-making. Turning a human corpse into Superman doesn’t just defy science — it tells you exactly what this is:
A psychological operation meant to close the book on forensic doubt and redirect the public into emotional worship of the martyr.
5. “Even in death, Charlie managed to save others. Remarkable. Miraculous.”
This is narrative closure layered on top of miracle-language. In legal or psychological terms, this is called “preemptive emotional closure” — used to block further questioning by dressing tragedy in divine finality.
When a known TPUSA employee uses miracle-language, contradictory medical claims, and a triple “trust me” format — all without forensic transparency — it’s not just cringe. It’s coordinated damage control.
The truth doesn’t require miracles. It leaves evidence.
And this video complete the shredding of Kolvet’s BS “explanation.” The Gist: the alleged bullet (used by the alleged weapon) can break through the bone of an elk from 400 yards out. Kirk was shot from 150 years out. And all that a human neck has in the way of bone material are thin neck vertebrae.
Charlie Kirk Declared "Man of Steel" By Surgeon. Literally RIDICULOUS, Valhalla VFT, 9/21/25, 16 minutes.
And lastly for this segment, i’m posting this not because of the Charlie Kirk content, which i consider problematic, as you can tell from my comments below, but because for the most part it featured the three participants vocalize their continued anger with the “left” over what ensued in 2020 and since, and how they see the problem of communicating and working with people whom you disagree with in order to create a different world.
Who Killed Charlie Kirk? What’s Left, 9/20/25., an hour and 27 minutes.
"What’s Left? discusses some of the issues that come up as people try and make sense of the murder of Charlie Kirk? Who did it? Who benefits from it? And what are the consequences for the movement to fight back against Capitalist tyranny. Check us out!"
Some comments.
@r.w.4311
Nobody. The whole schtick since he was 17 , including the family, as fictional character he played on tv, created and scripted by intelligence, and the character was a imply “killed off” by the same dark forces, presented as a real in the media to inflame division and manufacture consent for more online censorship and thought control. The actor, whoever he is, is almost certainly alive and well and handsomely rewarded for his role in the Spectacle. It was as fake and staged as the Butler event.
@whatsleftpodcast
I share your cyncism but I struggle with your conclusion. Both the Trump thing and this are false flags but in Trump's case there were people killed in the CIA staged theater, Trump's ear injury was fake but other elements were not. Also, the staging in Trump's event created a much more plausible story for people to rally around: "Trump so frightens the deep state that they are trying to kill him". This theater (if complete theater...wbere even CK is not killed) does not come with the same useful story of supporting Israel and exposing anti-zionism and even anti-imperialism as deeply violent and needed to be censored. The whole Turning Point shift CK was making and the clues about Israel's irritation with him are not helpful to their script. WHy include that if the whole thing is an operation. Also, where is he now? Will he be living out his life in a plush bunker knowing that the ruling class is going to blow up the world in a decade or so anyway...so his family is promised a first class seat on the underground Noah's Ark being constructed by our rulers? I think it just seems easier to just shoot the guy and be done with him...and then construct their narrative around that. Imo at least.[Plausibility is brought up, vs addressing questions. For 24 years, i’ve been hearing leftists say that the notion that 9/11 was an inside job is .. implausible. Some regarding COVID. “How could hundreds of thousands of virologists all be wrong?”]
@jeffreystrahl9274
No splattered blood, no bullet, crime scene scrubbed by Charlie Kirk's people, him taken to a hospital in a car, not an ambulance,, his body then moved to Arizona, Incredible how much faking they're able to get away with.
1
@r.w.4311
@jeffreystrahl9274 Remember the JFK autopsy and body swap? And the complicated legend they created for Oswald? They’ve been doing this shit for over 50 years only the techniques are only much more refined and technologies much more sophisticated. Luckily people are just as skeptical about this and they were about that, the big problem being there’s no attempt or possible avenue to actually do anything about it.
@r.w.4311
@whatsleftpodcast The main problem with that theory is that the narrative that he was actually shot is incompatible with all the actual evidence, which all points to “movie magic”. Do you think his “wife” would really be behaving that way if she just witnessed her “husband” get blown away in broad daylight? And you miss the important point that they want people blaming Israel because that’s precisely what will allow them to further clamp down on “anti-semitism” and “conspiracy theorists”! The real threat to them would be the revelation that all these “assassinations” and “school shootings” and “terrorist attacks”, not to mention “pandemics”, are completely fake and staged by intelligence using crisis actors as both victims and witnesses presented as real by controlled media, law enforcement, and politicians to instill fear in a gullible public that believes what they see on the news is true in order to manufacture consent for tyrannical policies and nefarious agendas.
@jeffreystrahl9274
@r.w.4311 : well, i wish people were more skeptical, about the story itself , about "it" rather than :"who done it," And deal with the evidence. I've talked in places about a "false apocalypse.”
@kilgorehoffman
The idea that the whole thing was staged just seems much less likely than someone just killed him. [PLAUSIBILITY AGAIN]The US and its proxies have many trained snipers that could have done it. Staging a fake assassination in front of a crowd of people who then give numerous testimonies that match the video, seems like a much more difficult and less likely thing to do than what they’re clearly very good at: murder. We do not have perfect information and we know the state lies so certainly, perhaps it was completely staged and maybe Charlie Kirk never even existed! Or maybe he’s now on permanent vacation somewhere with Tupac. Non-evidence is not the same as evidence, so the best we can do is piece together a model for the situation that fits with as much data as we have available. It just seems much less probable it was a complete hoax, and I have seen no convincing evidence that makes the hoax claim more credible than the idea someone just shot him. More importantly is to focus on how the event will be used. Whether a hoax or not is less important than what it will now allow the state to do.
@jeffreystrahl9274
@jeffreystrahl9274 [Responding]
Why was the crime scene scrubbed clean within minutes, by Kirk's own stage team? Why was his body taken by crew people in a private car rather than by an ambulance with medics? What explains the absence of splattered blood? BTW, the blood matter is not "non-evidence," There is no reason why there is no splattered blood. Likewise why there is no bullet. How can any conclusions be based regarding a weapon when there is no bullet to match?
Biomedical. Mike Stone has an update on his challenge to virologists. This one was posted on both his Substack as well as his older page, ViroLIEgy, today. Check it out.
Update: An Open Challenge to Virologists, Mike Stone, 9/22/25.
4IR. More signs of deflation, as “foreign” interests have brought a net of t $400B in US Treasury bonds. A flight to safety is on.
Foreigners Buying RECORD Amounts of Treasuries (Something Big is Happening), Jeff Snider/Eurodollar University, 9/21/25, 21 minutes.
"Foreigners continue their epic buying binge in USTs and US$ assets, totally defying the narrative everyone around the world is ditching America. Despite the intent of so many to make this political, there is nothing political about this, purely economics (small "e"). We keep more evidence and data showing what those really are, and foreigners know it only too well. Eurodollar University's conversation w/Steve Van Metre"
And while attention is focused on the meaningless recognitions of a Palestine state by various European state/business entities. Bib has other things on his mind.
'We need to destroy the Iranian axis': Netanyahu signals future fighting with Tehran. Prime minister vows to extend the war into the new year, declaring a fight to destroy Iran’s axis and praising the IDF’s resolve as fighting continues. Itamar Eichner, 9/22/25.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in front of the IDF General Staff Forum, alongside Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Defense Minister Israel Katz, ahead of Rosh Hashanah eve, honoring the military’s efforts in the passing year. Netanyahu signaled the war will extend into the new Hebrew year, declaring, “We need to destroy the Iranian axis—and we have the power to do so.” He described the coming year as potentially historic for Israel’s security following Operation Rising Lion in June.
“I want to salute the tremendous effort you’re making, the great successes you’ve achieved, and the immense sacrifice and heroism of this generation, which many wrote off, doubting its commitment and fighting ability. It has proven to be a mighty generation enduring painful battles,” he said. Netanyahu reaffirmed his resolve to meet all war goals, not just in Gaza—eliminating Hamas, freeing hostages and ensuring Gaza no longer threatens Israel—but also across other fronts, opening paths to security, victory and peace. “This requires two fundamental traits: unity in moments of trial and determination at all times. May this be a year of security, victory and unity. Happy New Year,” he added.
Simultaneously, Zamir addressed all IDF soldiers across combat zones via radio, expressing gratitude on behalf of the nation. “At the end of another year of fighting, as you stand at the forefront defending our communities and children, bolstering the security of Israel’s citizens, I convey the thanks of an entire people who, thanks to you, sit at the holiday table tonight with a sense of security and deep appreciation for your sacrifice and dedication,” he said.
Zamir urged soldiers to carry this pride, calling them “Israel’s iron wall, the eternity of Israel, the guarantee of victory.” He noted the ongoing intense and strategic combat aimed at Israel’s security, the return of hostages, and defeating the enemy. “We never forget, not for a moment, the priceless cost we pay as a nation with the loss of our heroes and heroines in battle and the bereaved families whose pain resonates within us all,” he added.
And, on the Eastern Front.
UK and Poland vow to confront Russian aircraft violating Nato airspace. Russia shrugs off criticism as Poland and Estonia speak about incursions at emergency meeting of UN security council. Pjotr Sauer, 9/22/25.
European allies have vowed to shoot down any Russian aircraft violating their airspace after Nato members accused Moscow of repeated incursions into the alliance’s territory in recent weeks.
“If another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake, and gets shot down and the wreckage falls on Nato territory, please don’t come here to whine about it,” Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, told an emergency meeting of the UN security council in New York on Monday that was called to discuss a Russian airspace incursion over Estonia. His warning was echoed by Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, who told reporters earlier in the day: “I want to be very clear. We will make a decision to shoot down flying objects without discussion when they violate our territory and fly over Poland. There is no room for debate here.” [SNIP]...
Ending this segment and this edition. a shredding of yet another BS idea which we’re being told will save us., carbon capture and sequestration.
Shell Games. Rearranging the deck chairs: carbon capture systems, full speed ahead. Geoffrey Deihl, 9/20/25.
This article is not a diatribe against Shell Oil per se. My revulsion with Big Oil isn’t limited to just one company. Shell just happens to be a convenient word play on an industry-wide scam being rolled out with your tax dollars — CCS (carbon capture & storage) and CCUS (carbon capture, utilization & storage). It’s cousin, DAC (direct air capture) another scam differs, but is based on the same premise; that we can capture all that naughty CO2 and store it underground or under our oceans forever. Forever is quite a long time, don’t you think?
Proponents claim these technologies can mitigate globally soaring CO2 levels without deindustrialization. And I can lose weight by eating double cheeseburgers. This cynical tech is a fatal scam, central to justify the continued burning of oil with impunity.
The flawed 1997 Kyoto Protocol (international emissions trading anyone?, no room for hanky-panky there) was delayed until 2005, brilliant, and the largely unspoken of impending failure of limiting global warming to 1.5° C as per the 2015 Paris Climate Accords have been ignored. Our hope for 1.5° C was predicated on reducing the burning of fossil fuels, not on mechanically removing green house gases before their release or by vacuuming the atmosphere with enormous fossil fuel powered facilities. That’s a rather inefficient approach at best, wouldn’t you say?
And pumping billions of tons of odorless CO2 through thousands of miles of pipelines that inevitably leak and pass near your community or through your yard is simple disregard for human lives. On April 3, 2,548 barrels of carbon dioxide leaked from Exxon pipelines in Louisiana. Just months later, Exxon is planning on laying more pipe, endangering the people of St. James Parish. Known as cancer alley, Louisiana has long been home to oil industry activity and its coast is defined by seventeen LNG terminals. It is also one of the most vulnerable coastlines as sea level rises. Here’s a bonus: Louisiana reports five deaths from flesh-eating bacterium in coastal waters, a result of sea surface temperatures rising.
This is bogus technology, a subterfuge and proven failure in the coal industry, where it was tested and abandoned with billions of taxpayer dollars invested. Don’t worry, it’s baaack like a zombie in a George A. Romero movie. They call it clean coal. LMAO. 1.5° C is dead, as is limiting warming to 2.0° C. In fact, it grows ever more likely we’re on track for as much as 3.0° C of warming by 2050. Only Hell knows beyond that. Our irresponsibility is now completely unleashed by the Trump administration’s denial of science, attack on educational institutions and filling of the EPA, NOA and DOA (Department of Agriculture, not dead on arrival) with oil industry lackeys and straight up climate change denying morons.
Although the carbon intensity of our economy has improved, the sheer size of it guarantees failure. Without cutting consumption and with it fossil fuel burning we’re on a fast track to disaster. …..
In their 2022 Assessment Report 6 (AR6), the IPCC calculated that for just a 50 percent chance of restricting global warming to less than 1.5°C, total cumulative CO2 released into the atmosphere since 1850 must be kept below 2,900 billion tons. Ironically, the same weight as a Lincoln Navigator SUV bumbling through the burbs on a critical five-mile errand to procure a 64 ounce bag of Doritos and 48 ounce Mountain Dew in its heroic quest to save the planet.
Between 1850 and 2019, GHG emissions totaled 2,400 billion tons. A stunning 42 percent of that total occurred in just 20 years, between 1990 and 2019. This means that from 2020, our maximum carbon budget was just 500 billion tons. An 83 percent chance of staying below 1.5° C requires a budget of just 100 billion tons. Ain’t gonna happen. That budget increasing to 1,150 billion tons presents a 67 percent chance of global warming increasing to 2°C by 2030. These stats are courtesy of Our World in Data, but they may be optimistic. Science Direct has a more dire take.[SNIP]…...