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As you know, “For amber waves of grain” is a lyric from the patriotic song “America the Beautiful”. As I travel Michigan’s highways I am appalled at the number of former crop producing fields that have been converted to “solar farms”. These fields previously produced food for both people and livestock, as well as fuel. As the world’s population continues to grow, taking millions of acres of prime farmland out of production will result in the starvation of millions of people in poor countries. Sadly, starving children are nothing but collateral damage to the globalists at the World Economic Forum (WEF) who have publicly called for reducing the world’s population. It is all part of their plan to make common people poorer and more dependent on their socialist global governance. “You will own nothing and you’ll be happy,” is a phrase published by the WEF. We can all be comfortable knowing the elite billionaires in the WEF will take good care of us.

I thought it might be interesting to reflect on the genesis of the climate movement beginning in the 1970s. (Being able to remember the irrationality of government, and self-enriching paid scientists over time is one of the few advantages of getting old). In the 1970s, backed by the leading scientific minds of their time, periodicals such as Newsweek, Time, Science Digest, Popular Science, National Geographic, and others, were predicting a “little ice age”. A Newsweek cover in 1975 warned that “The Cooling World” would result in global starvation as grain crops would not have a long enough growing season in places like the northern USA and Canada. Like today, their dire warnings were predicted to occur in just 10 years.

It wasn’t long after that nonsense was debunked that the scientific world was enlisted to support the new boogie man, global warming. Global warming was the term put forth by any number of people from scientists to politicians. Scientists swore their computer modeling was far more sophisticated than those they had used in the 70s. I’m sure that is true, but the models are only as accurate as the data fed into them. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Politicians looking to tax/steal more of our hard-earned paychecks pretended to be scientists. The term global warming didn’t have the desired result the marketers wanted. That lead them to try a new, perhaps more acceptable title: “climate change”. Along the way we heard new terms like greenhouse gases, greenhouse effect, climate crisis, climate emergency, and in a true “chicken little” moment a UN Representative in 2022 used the term climate disaster. Each of the new terms came with a warning giving the world 10 years to do something drastic or risk the end of humankind. We are now 40 years into the first 10 year warning.

The “Green New Deal” was introduced in the U.S. a few years ago by big government socialists. That turned out to be a bridge too far. That portion of our population capable of reasoning and using common sense recognized its absurdity. A free and prosperous population will not give up their ability to choose what kind of car it may drive. We realize the claim that cow farts will ultimately doom the human race is ridiculous. Reasonable people will not be frightened into giving up beef for “equally nutritious” insects or lab grown meat. People in some parts of the world who are dependent on their government may be convinced, or coerced, into such behavior. They will most likely be the first to starve. Here, in the U.S., we must fight to push back against those trying to force the illusion of a carbon free society down our throats.

I don’t pretend to be a scientist. Having said that, there are a couple of lessons I remember from high school Biology that the “follow the science” people seem to have forgotten. 1. It is possible for a male to pretend he is a female. It is NOT possible for him to actually become one. 2. Mammals inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Plants take in carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. Therefore, one would be correct to call carbon dioxide a form of plant food. A report compiled in a journal titled, Nature Climate Change said that from 1/4 to 1/2 of Earth’s vegetated land has undergone significant greening over the last 35 years. (That dates back to about the time the global warming fear mongers began their existential warnings). To be sure, there are other factors that contribute to the greening of vegetation. But studies suggest that as much as 70% of the greening is directly attributable to carbon dioxide fertilization. Growing things thrive on it.

Now for some remedial Economics and Environment reminders for those bleeding-heart environmentalists who can’t wait to replace productive farmland with butt ugly solar fields. China is currently responsible for over 80% of the manufacturing of all stages in the production of solar panels. Leaders in the U.S. have been responsible for shuttering 290 coal-fired generators, 40% of our capacity, since 2010. We have not built a new one since 2013. Conversely China issued permits to build 50 new coal-fired plants in the first 6 months of 2023. That’s 2 a week! They currently have more than 300 additional plants under construction, already permitted, or waiting for permits. Our government replaces the most cost-efficient electric generation plants with solar panels in their irrational attempt to save the world. That caused our utility prices to skyrocket. Meanwhile, the biggest polluter in the world, China, continues to take our orders for solar panels and build new dirty power plants to produce the electricity to build them. I could say that the political leaders pushing the Green New Deal are mind numbingly stupid. They are not. They are following the WEF socialist playbook. Greenies on the other hand. . . Perhaps the greenies haven’t thought about, and the socialists don’t care about, what will happen to the solar panels when they reach the end of their lifecycles? Forecasters suggest that as much as 8 million metric tons of solar panels will do so by 2030. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports only about 10% of decommissioned panels are currently recycled. That must change if we want our drinking water to be safe. Recycling these panels will be extremely expensive.

You think you’ve seen the end of solar farm encroachment? Think again. It is estimated that about 1.25 million farmland acres have already been converted to solar farms. They are currently providing about 4% of our electricity needs. The Biden government’s goal was to increase that amount to 45% by 2050. It will take something over 10 million acres of land to reach that goal. A lot of that growth will come in the Midwest because the land is mostly flat, and relatively inexpensive. As the amount of arable land is reduced, we should expect to pay more for the produce that used to be grown on that land. We should expect to purchase more of our foodstuffs from foreign producers. Because evil people are consumed with ruling every aspect of our lives we must either refuse to comply with their edicts, or prepare to say goodbye to “Amber waves of grain”.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. Bob