James Delingpole has a new column in The Spectator that combines a few recent Denier Roundup topics: losing bets, global warming odds, and disguised promotion of self-interest. In Delingpole's piece, he drops any pretense of objective journalism and dives headfirst into the world of native advertising with his shameless plugging of a new hedge fund—Cool Futures—that bets against renewables. Interestingly, he fails to mention that his fellow denier-blogger, Jo Nova, and her husband, David Edwards, are involved. (Though he does mention them in his Breitbart write-up.)
In both pieces, Delingpole also fails to mention that Chris Dawson, CEO of the Lord Monckton Foundation, launched the fund. While Monckton’s Foundation has plugged the new effort, JoNova has not. It's possible she is hesitant to reveal that her blog, which regularly attacks renewables, is now functioning as a lobbying effort on behalf of her new work with Cool Futures.
The fund launched just days after several stories were published that underscore the recent warming trend, including NOAA and NASA's confirmation that 2015 was by far the hottest year on record and a new study showing that the odds of post-industrial global warming without human influence are tiny. It also launched a few weeks after deniers lost a 2008 bet that the Earth would be cooling by now. Speaking of bad bets, the fund is betting its existence, and its customers' money, on renewable energy failures.
Meanwhile, here in the real world, reports are finding fossil fuel investments—and specifically coal investments—increasingly risky, as onshore wind becomes as cheap as coal and solar power uptake rises and costs fall. Other recent news includes the announcement that the largest independent Arab bank plans to build a renewable portfolio, and in 2015, China used coal for less than half of its annual electricity need for the first time.
The new “Cool Futures Funds Management” group doesn't just operate in a bizarre bubble when it comes to climate change. It also appears to be unclear on how the Internet works, because its website features a disclaimer that states, “No one may link to this website, or frame it, without Cool Futures Funds Management’s express written permission.”
You can find that statement here: http://www.coolfuturesfundsmanagement.com/disclaimer
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