The 2024 environMENTAL Awards
Western "environmentalism" is a laugh machine that produces lemons. Once a year, we make lemonade.
“Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.” – George Carlin
The events of 2024 leave little doubt that the environmental and energy policy pendulum is swinging in America, Europe, and Canada. While it is too early to tell how far and how lasting the shifts will be, we are cautiously optimistic that future historians will record that 2024 was the apex of peak Green insanity.
We cover serious topics. But in doing so we try to bring a bit of levity and entertainment value to every post.
The absurdity on display by the world’s “environmentalists” is a never-ending, self-perpetuating laugh machine, probably worthy of its own full time Substack. Each January, we take a look in the rear-view mirror and “reward” the best of the worst from the year just ended.
We pick ten stories from the previous year that stand out as symbolic of an ideology gone off the deep end. To each of these glorious examples we award a Green Dog Pile.
Picking “winners” of Green Dog Pile Awards is always fun, but somewhat difficult given the sheer tsunami of daily examples from which to choose each year. We are sure to have overlooked a worthy performance (and reading your admonitions to that effect in your comments each year is thoroughly enjoying!).
To counter our ten Green Dog Pile recipients and end on a positive note, we award three Green Jacket Awards for the developments that gave us the most hope for a return to a more human-oriented energy, environmental and economic pragmatism and balance.
A baker’s dozen. Ten awards for the ones who stepped in it the most in 2024; three for the ones who came out smelling like roses and gave us optimism heading into 2025.
Congratulations to the Green Jacket winners. And to the recipients of the Green Dog Piles for stepping in it in spectacular fashion, thank you for your contribution to this year’s edition, and please leave your shoes outside.
The Green Dog Piles
Tackling Dummy of the Year Award – winner: Climate Defiance
After spending the last few years toiling in relative obscurity in the minor leagues of climate activism, the group Climate Defiance came out swinging for the fences in 2024. As American University sociologist and expert on “climate activism” Dana Fisher noted in this April Guardian article (emphasis added):
“They are seen as the hot climate group right now, which is amazing given how small they are. They are obnoxious, but they are having some success in being outrageous enough to get attention, and in an election year that is important.”
How obnoxious?
In March, a pencil necked Climate Defiance activist confronted U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia – a Democrat – at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. Manchin tolerated the distraction with a smile up to the point at which his confronter said:
“Joe Manchin, you sold our futures and got rich doing it. You sick fuck…”
Upon which Senator Manchin ceases smiling, gets up from his seat and starts towards the loudmouth with a look and manner suggesting the enlightened kid was about to be shown how real men in West Virginia still settle such insults. But before that occurred, a member of Manchin’s security detail steps between the Senator and his verbal assailant, turns him towards an open doorway, and shoves him down like a rag doll.
The next month, Climate Defiance activists disrupted a gala event where Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was being honored. Rushing the stage (as they had done to Exxon CEO Darren Woods while he was receiving an award four months earlier), the group’s members were attempting to unfurl an embarrassing banner of some sorts when the first team defense arrived for tackling practice. Kudos to whoever captured the dogpile that spilled off the edge of the stage.
As American University’s Dana Fisher further noted about the group:
“Another soup toss at a painting isn’t going to get attention now, and so cursing is something new they are doing. It’s designed to be provocative but is very performative. It’s designed for younger people who are scrolling through videos.”
Performative, indeed. Enough to earn Climate Defiance a 2024 Dog Pile Award.
The Green Mile Award – winner: (tie) Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion
This year’s Tackling Dummy Award winners should take note: if you’re an aggressive, obnoxious climate activist, breaking laws as you go, and you’re not prepared to do the time, don’t do the crime.
After several years of stunts by well-known climate activist groups Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, ranging from blocking busy city streets to throwing paint and soup on precious works of art, the long arm of the law finally caught up with both groups.
In July, five Just Stop Oilers were convicted in a UK court for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for protests that blocked the M25 motorway over four days in November 2022. Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil co-founder Roger Hallam received the stiffest sentence – five years.
And in September, the two JSO activists who threw soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in 2023 were sentenced to two years and twenty months respectively for their role in the publicity seeking incident.
The Orange Men Bad Award – winner: Just Stop Oil
Roger Hallam being jailed for five years for disrupting the M25 motorway apparently being of no concern, JSO cretins posing as planetary saviors proceeded to paint Stonehenge orange in November, right after Trump’s election.
Not to be outdone by their brethren in the English countryside, JSO protesters also sprayed paint on the U.S. Embassy in London upon the news Trump had won a second term. And their choice of paint color? What else..orange!
The Not All Methane Is Equal Award – winner: European Tauros
By now just about everyone knows that your filet mignon, hamburgers, and corned beef are killing the planet. Bovine burping and flatulence are major sources of methane emissions and that, while short lived by comparison, methane is ~30 times as powerful a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.
Enter Scottish charity Trees for Life, which plans to introduce up to fifteen wild tauros into the Scottish Highlands next year. Tauros are a wild breed of cattle close in genetics to the aurochs that roamed Europe for thousands of years.
According to this Euronews story, the grazing tauros will help rebuild soil quality through their dung and grazing. Wait… dung!? What about the methane emissions? No mention of such concerns in the Euronews story; it’s all about other “climate” and “biodiversity” benefits:
The introduction of tauros in the Highlands holds great promise for climate and biodiversity.
Due to their size and behavior, tauros interact with their environment more than other cattle that are smaller and less active, European studies have found. As large grazers, they contribute to the growth of native plants and create habitats for wildlife. These boost species diversity and soak up carbon dioxide.
So, not all methane is equal. We love wild animals but with regard to the “climate” benefit, we call bullshit (or is it tauroshit?!?)
The Sorry Pard(o)ner Award – winner: Steve Donziger
In Spring of 2011, attorney Steve Donziger was riding high, a hero reaching celebrity status to the environmental movement worldwide after winning an $18 billion judgment against Chevron in a provincial Ecuadorean court., The court returned the massive award for locals affected by contamination left behind by Texaco (acquired by Chevron in 2001) in the Oriente region’s Lago Agrio oil fields in the 1970s.
Chevron wasn’t done. In 2011 it filed a federal RICO lawsuit in New York accusing Donziger of a variety of improprieties in achieving the Ecuadorean verdict (which was later reduced to $9.5 billion by the country’s highest court). Judge Lewis Kaplan, who described Donziger’s actions as “criminal,” wrote the following in his March 2014 ruling in the RICO case:
In the end, however, he and the Ecuadorian lawyers he led corrupted the Lago Agrio case. They submitted fraudulent evidence. They coerced one judge, first to use a court-appointed, supposedly impartial, “global expert” to make an overall damages assessment and, then, to appoint to that important role a man whom Donziger hand-picked and paid to “totally play ball” with the Lago Agrio Plaintiffs. They then paid a Colorado consulting firm secretly to write all or most of the global expert's report, falsely presented the report as the work of the court-appointed and supposedly impartial expert, and told half-truths or worse to U.S. courts in attempts to prevent exposure of that and other wrongdoing. Ultimately, the LAP team wrote the Lago Agrio court's Judgment themselves and promised $500,000 to the Ecuadorian judge to rule in their favor and sign their judgment. If ever there were a case warranting equitable relief with respect to a judgment procured by fraud, this is it.
When the smoke cleared, Donziger was disbarred in New York, spent nearly 1,000 days under house arrest and 45 days in prison. He remains a hero to “environmentalists” despite (or because of?) his “by any means necessary” actions as an officer of the court.
Fast forward to President Biden’s Parting Pardonorama™. Steve Donziger appealed to the Biden administration for a pardon. Not once or twice, but relentlessly in the weeks after Biden was defeated.
In the end, Donziger’s pleas fell on deaf (some might add dumb) ears.
Sorry, Pard(o)ner.
The Puppet Award – winner: The Volcano Group
Speaking of fallen heroes, in Tesla’s early years, Elon Musk was a savior of the planet to “environmentalists.” His revolutionary electric vehicles would surely render the internal combustion engine obsolete, destroying a foundation of the oil and gas industry’s cash flows in the process.
In a matter of a few years, Musk has somehow been transformed from environmental savior into the target of ecoterrorist sabotage. We surmise his purchase and management of Twitter as well as his newfound political interests just might have something to do with it.
In March last year, EcoTerrrorists intent on shutting down Tesla’s Gruenheide factory outside Berlin set fire to a high voltage electric line and support pylon. The plant was shut down for several days.
On X, Musk wrote that the Volcano Group terrorists were either “the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth or they’re puppets of those who don’t have good environmental goals.”
We went with option b), but upon further consideration have concluded that “or both” was the right answer.
The Hephaestus Award – winner: The entire western EV industry
In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the god of fire. (His Roman counterpart was Vulcan). That makes him the perfect symbol for this award to American and European electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers for 2024.
Whether it was a sea of red ink or unexploded batteries (UXBs) pretending to be personal and commercial vehicles, in 2024 the financial bloodletting and microvolcanoes just kept coming. Indeed, every day in America now has the chance to be the 4th of July!
We stopped counting after the aggregate amount of capital incinerated by major U.S. and European automotive companies in pursuit of EVs exceeded $10 billion, but Substack’s Robert Bryce is doing a fine job of keeping up with it. They do not seem to have learned much of a lesson. But don’t worry, they’ll make it up in volume!
The Gold Submariner Award – winner: Brent Effron
It was said of King Midas that everything he touched turned to gold. It’s a damn good thing he didn’t have Brett Effron working for him.
In early December, Project Veritas broke another story of incredible government chutzpah. One of its undercover agents caught U.S. EPA staffer Brent Effron explaining how the agency is shoveling money from Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act out the door as fast as possible before Trump takes office. Jettisoning borrowed money off of a sinking ship into the abyss where it has no chance to benefit anyone or anything. That‘s Effron’s choice of metaphor, not ours. But we find the choice instructive and satisfying, nonetheless.
The King Flubbert Award – winner: Joe Biden
Joe Biden got his signature accomplishment – the Green New Deal Inflation Reduction Act – albeit on the back(stab) of a tricked Joe Manchin and a tie-breaking vote by the vacuous Vice President America did not want as his successor. That said, his EcoLeftist supporters were counting on Joe Biden to dramatically reduce U.S. oil and gas production.
And on that measure, he really flubbed it. Spectacularly so.
The history books will record that King Flubbert presided over record U.S. oil and natural gas production.
While it is fair to say that Biden had little power to stop that outcome, it stands as quite the juxtaposition to his rhetoric that “climate change is the greatest threat to humanity.”
Take a bow, King! You did that!
The Ferry Tale Award – winner: The EcoFerry Vessel Missunde III
The small town of Missunde lies in Germany’s northernmost state Schleswig-Holstein, on the Schwansen peninsula adjacent to a narrow inlet of the Baltic Sea known as the Schlei. There is no bridge across the Schlei at Missunde. A ferry shuttles ~100,000 vehicles across the inlet annually connecting them to the road north to Brodersby. In our younger days we could have easily carried the ~135-yard-wide water hazard with a 9 iron.
Since 2003, that shuttle has been a diesel-powered ship with the name Missunde II. Other than the fact that she ran on a dreaded “fossil fuel”, there was nothing wrong with Missunde II. But in their infinite green wisdom, the EcoLeftist bureaucrats at the State Office for Coastal Protection commissioned a newer, quieter, much more environmentally friendly (read: no diesel) vessel – a solar powered electric ferry, to be named Missunde III.
In January 2024, after numerous delays, and at a cost of €3.3 million, the splashy new, “carbon-neutral” Missunde III was delivered.
The geniuses at the authority that owned Missunde II sold it for the fire sale price of €17,000. The vessel sat unused, unmaintained and rusting at Maasholm, near the mouth of the Schlei at the Baltic.
The new “Green” Missunde III was beset with problems from the start. The vessel’s high solar roof catches air, acting like a sail in the strong winds common in the area. Her small electric motors struggle to overcome the force and trips across the ~100 meter Schlei into the wind took twice as long as her evil fossil fuel powered predecessor.
Her greater weight put strain on her guidance cables, and the Missunde III had difficulty mooring. A “solution” for the chubbier Missunde III would require driving “dolphins” (wooden piling in groups) into the bed of the Schlei. This would mean ramming pilings into bed of a fjord that happens to also be in a nature reserve which (sigh) doesn’t sound very “environmentally friendly.”
The “Green” Missunde III languished in harbor for around two months while the authorities figured out what to do. Meanwhile, former ferry riders had to take a 30-kilometer detour to reach a bridge.
The Mayor of Brodersby-Goltoft, Joschka Buhmann, had all he could take. He demanded that authorities buy back and recommission the Missunde II. The Office of Coastal Protection went back hat in hand to the party they sold it to for €17,000, and when the smoke had cleared the authorities bought back the vessel, which needed work, for €100,000.
For now, all is well. The diesel, CO2 belching, noisy and dependable Missunde II is back, working normally as it had for years. In fact, it was given a permit to operate until 2028, with the expectation that Missunde III would have its “issues” worked out by then. Good luck with that. (h/t to Substacker Eugyppius: a plague chronicle)
The Green Jackets
This year’s Green Jack Award winners salute three leaders (two people and a group of companies) directly impacting the pendulum swing taking place in energy and environmental policy in America and Europe.
Just In Time Award – winner: Chris Wright
After four years of lawyer Jennifer Granholm pretending to be U.S. Energy Secretary, this one needs no explanation. For detractors and cynics crying that Wright’s appointment is just an oil and gas industry executive looking to enrich his personal and corporate fortunes, we recommend you do two things. First read his Bettering Human Lives counter to traditional corporate “sustainability” reporting. Then, research Wright’s Bettering Human Lives Foundation. Contrast those to Jennifer Granholm’s record with respect to human prosperity.
The Brandeis in Media Award – winner: Juice the Series (Docuseries by Robert Bryce, directed by Tyson Culver)
Most of the citizens living in America or other G7 member nations take their constant access to affordable, reliable, abundant, and on-demand electricity and transport fuels for granted. The lights go on when they hit the switch. The beer is cold when I grab one out of the fridge.
Too many of the lucky one billion have the mistaken belief that “nonreliables” like wind and solar energy can simply be plugged in somewhere to replace the forms of energy they have been taught not to like. As if these beliefs weren’t delusional enough, many believe fairy tales (we’re talking to you “Levelized Cost of Electricity”) that wind and solar are “cheaper.”
In the absence of some catastrophic grid blackout(s), bringing energy sobriety back to the electorates in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia, and the UK is going to be a heavy lift. But we have to start somewhere.
Credit long-time energy writer and Substack powerhouse Robert Bryce with grabbing the bull by the horns. The five part docuseries Bryce produced with director Tyson Culver last January shined a bright light on the dangers of a forced energy transition and overreliance on “nonreliables.” As of this writing, the outstanding series has over 3 million views on YouTube.
If electorates in America, Europe, Canada, and the UK are to understand the consequences of bad energy policy and the impact it will have on their lives without suffering the worst of those consequences first, it will take more efforts like Juice. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants”. We salute Bryce’s work and hope he and Culver produce more like it.
The Religious Awakening Award – winner: U.S. Big Tech
For more than a decade, Big Tech companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, others) have been burnishing their climate credentials by purchasing “Renewable Energy Certificates” (RECs). On paper RECs provide the optics allowing Big Tech (and others) to claim they are “carbon neutral,” or something directionally like it.
But in 2024, projected electricity demand to support Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data centers ripped the “sustainable” mask off of Big Tech.
Appearing on Jordan Peterson’s podcast earlier this month, Alex Epstein described a recent conversation with the CEO of a utility who described the recent shift in Big Tech’s attitudes about electricity at industry conferences:
“Before, these tech companies said to us if it’s not 100% renewable, don’t even talk to us. Now, they said they’ll burn anything from bunnies to puppies to get electricity.”
Elon Musk’s rapid and allegedly unpermitted construction of 18 natural gas turbines behind the fence line to support X’s Grok AI buildout should leave no doubt about the religious awakening in Big Tech about “nonreliables”. If you’re still not sure, consider Microsoft’s deal at Three Mile Island and any of the other attempts to be first in line for any new nuclear power generation capacity.
The message is clear: Big Tech coughed up billions to look green and pay to build a little intermittent power with low capacity factors, burnish their “Sustainabilchemy” reports, and impress those easily persuaded by such optics. But they know the pot of gold at the end of their AI rainbow is impossible without 24/7/365/8,760 hours of high-quality electricity, and they will do whatever it takes to get it.
Because Big Tech has big political power, that reality cements the beginning of the end of the wind and solar craze and is an explicit admission that natural gas to nuclear (the latter over 2-3 decades, unfortunately) is the best alternative for reducing CO2 emissions from electricity generation. For its religious awakening on energy that is bulldozing “nonreliable” energy fallacies, we salute Big Tech with this award.
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Leave us a comment with your favorite examples of “environmentalism” gone awry in 2024 that topped these. And be an information scout in 2025 and send them to us!
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Wow. Thanks, ‘Mental. That’s very kind. I’m proud of our docuseries. It’s going to be relevant for a long time to come.
We need WAY more than 67 people reading this. Concise and brilliant!