Ed. Note: The New York Times is the newspaper of record on climate alarm. The latest, “Scientists Denounce Trump Administration’s Climate Report” (September 3, 2025), brings to mind this paper’s first climate alarm article of note, “‘Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate Today (June 24, 1988). The latter (by environmental reporter Philip Shabecoff) had specific forecasts of anthropogenic activity: 3–9°F and 1–4 feet by 2025–2050. Into this forecast period, some 37 years later, the recorded increase is under 1.5°F and around four inches. The 1,300-word, front-page Times article follows.
…“If the current pace of the buildup of these gases continues, the effect is likely to be a warming of 3 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit from the year 2025 to 2050, according to these projections.
“One wonders if Shell, trying to greenwash best it can, is happy to see the climate outliers within its ranks leave. The company should at least inform employees about the moral case for fossil fuels—past, present, and future—as explained by Alex Epstein to his world audience.”
Richard Plant, self-described “sustainability champion … born at 326.42 ppm,” was obviously working at the wrong company–an oil and gas company, Shell. Shell was not the problem–it has rightly pulled back from the bad economics of wind and solar. Tried and failed, just as happened at Exxon. And at BP, no longer “beyond petroleum.”
Plant describes himself as “an experienced procurement professional … [with] over two decades of experience in global supply chain and category management roles, most of which I’ve spent at Shell.”…
This national holiday weekend presents another opportunity to appreciate the labor-saving qualities of energy, the master resource. The utility of affordable, plentiful, reliable energy is not a partisan issue except to a fringe anti-industrial sect (see below).
Note how leading climate alarmists do not question the importance of energy for the masses. “A reliable and affordable supply of energy,” stated John Holdren, Obama’s two-term science advisor, “is absolutely critical to maintaining and expanding economic prosperity where such prosperity already exists and to creating it where it does not.” [1] The father of climate alarmism, James Hansen, has stated:
Let’s be clear: the frequent comparison of the fossil fuel and tobacco industries is nonsense. Fossil fuels are a valuable energy source that has done yeomen service for humankind. [2]
Energy as Bad?…