Why the U.S. Should Skip the UN’s COP30 Climate Summit — Interview with James Taylor
Download MP3Joining us is the president of the Heartland Institute, James Taylor, not the musician, but the very esteemed gentleman. Perhaps we will get him to sing at the end of this if we're kind to him, but if not, it'll be up to him. Mister Taylor, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us.
James Taylor:Hey, Kayla. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. Thank you for for coming. And I didn't mean to be too pithy about your name, but I feel like if I don't add humor to this kind of stuff, I'll cry. Because it's just one thing after another when it comes to climate change. What about
James Taylor:when I was young and single, it came in handy, so there's nothing to go pilot this for.
Speaker 1:Fabul I'm so glad to hear that. Congratulations, sir. Well, let's talk about this summit. This UN climate conference is coming up. It's a COP thirty.
Speaker 1:And your organization, the Heartland Institute, has actually signed on to a, a joint letter with a number of other groups, including the American Energy Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, lots of other other, groups. And you've sent it to the secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, among others. You're saying that The United States should not send a delegation a delegation to the UN COP thirty climate summit coming up in Brazil. Tell us what the COP thirty climate summit is, and tell us why you think we should skip it.
James Taylor:Yeah. So COP thirty, COP thirty, this is a it's an annual event. This is the thirtieth time they've done it. The United Nations, they select some extravagant locale and an exotic destination where all the bureaucrats from the UN and from various governments and all the NGOs that like to lecture us about how we're destroying the planet through carbon dioxide emissions. They choose a place where they can all get on their jets and fly all over the world to have a nice confab, even though Zoom would do fine.
James Taylor:And so this year, it's in Bali, Brazil. It's in the Amazon Rainforest. And, you know, it's amazing because they chose Brazil and not Rio, but Balin for a reason. They wanted to highlight what they say is how carbon dioxide emissions, climate change is destroying the Amazon. This has been something that has been a talking point for climate activists for decades.
James Taylor:And what's amazing, first of all, is just this week, a peer reviewed study published in the peer reviewed journal Nature Plants. Over 100 scientists authored the the paper. And what they found is that in the Amazon rainforest, directly as a result of carbon dioxide emissions, trees are growing substantially thicker in their tree trunk, in the diameter of the tree trunk, and they're growing much taller. In other words, trees in the Amazon love carbon dioxide. And it stands to reason because carbon dioxide's plant food.
James Taylor:That's what people pump into greenhouses when they want to grow plants, flowers, fruits, vegetables. So number one, right when they're having this this climate conference to talk about how climate change is destroying the Amazon rainforest, we know for a fact that just the opposite is happening. The Amazon Rainforest is thriving because of carbon dioxide emissions. Point number two, you mentioned earlier how despite all the billions of dollars that have been funneled into the high speed rail pipe dream in California, not a single inch of rail has been built. You know what has been built?
James Taylor:In Mhmm. In Brazil, through the outskirts of Boliv, the Brazilian government has leveled, has bulldozed literally tens of thousands of acres of the Amazon Rainforest to build a road so that all the NGO participants and bureaucrats can have better transportation, more roads to get them to and from the venue. They're literally killing the rainforest that they're pledging to create, and they know they know not to build rail, which would have fewer emissions and which if you believe all the hype about public transportation, no. They built a road. So it's amazing the hypocrisy going on.
James Taylor:So we at the Heartland Institute with other organizations, we sent a letter to the Trump administration and key personnel. So this is ridiculous. The best thing you can do for the Amazon Rainforest, the best thing you can do for the climate change concern, you really think it is a concern, if not, is just simply not to send anybody. Because all the other nations in the world are spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It's not a bad thing, but they they preach to us about it.
James Taylor:They're spewing all the carbon dioxide emissions. They're causing the bulldozing of the rainforest for this event, and it's for absolutely no good purpose.
Speaker 1:It does feel like it would be a bit of a flex if we didn't go, you know, to say, you know, no. We're we're not going to waste these, you know well, just to use their language, we're not gonna waste these these carbon emissions and, you know, we're we're looking after the environment. And I it feels like that would sort of be a thumb in the eye of the international community. What would it gain us to go?
James Taylor:Well, it gains us nothing other than perhaps highlighting the fact that the so called climate crisis is a town job as president Trump said. This is a grift. The members of the United Nations, very high ranking officials have said straight up, this is not about climate change. It's about redistributing the world's resources. It's a Trojan horse for international socialism and taking money and power from nations that honor freedom and are prosperous and giving it to the dictatorships, to the authoritarian governments that don't have market economies, and their economies are failing as a result.
James Taylor:But what we do offer at the Heartland Institute, you mentioned these other groups, CFACT and others that have signed on, We will be going. Heartland, we're gonna send a delegation. We're gonna team up with CFACT and a few others. So we offer to be the unofficial American delegation. Now the reason we're going is because, first of all, we we realize that our carbon dioxide emissions flying to Brazil are actually benefiting the environment, not harming it.
James Taylor:And second, we can rattle the cage of the UN establishment, which we do at these conferences every year, pointing out facts, inconvenient facts that they're not going to mention in their press releases, such as the bulldozing of the rainforest for this conference, such as the fact that the Amazon rainforest is scientifically proven benefiting from carbon dioxide emissions. So really, why set why spend all the taxpayer dollars to go to Berlin, to listen to the UN rail about how everybody else needs to sacrifice and is causing climate change when they're the ones that are doing the most harm?
Speaker 1:What were your thoughts, James, on the on president Trump's address to the UN? He did talk about climate change and the green energy scam, and he was very blunt about it. He was very blunt about a lot of things in that speech. But one of the one of the things that stood out to me, I'm the I I'm the daughter of godless hippies. That's why I was raised.
Speaker 1:Like, my mom's a big environmentalist. We were always protesting. When I was growing up, it was just a thing. I just was raised to be terrified of acid rain, all of that. So this climate change stuff is really near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 1:And when I became a conservative, it was one of the biggest relief, like, reliefs to find out that, oh, no. The planet isn't actually dying. I that was such a big relief to me, but it I I think and what what Trump really talked about how Europe is killing themselves with their commitment to green energy even as they're having to buy oil and gas from places like China and Russia. And he was very blunt about it, and, of course, he's been very straightforward about his goals to bring America back to coal and natural gas and all of those the big energy giants. What did you think about his his comments at the UN?
James Taylor:They were fantastic. Listen. Donald Trump, 47, is he he his eyes are wide open. Donald Trump, president number 45, thought that it was important to try to get the world to like him. He did many wonderful things, but he he wasted some opportunities, I think, because he was okay.
James Taylor:For good intent, he was trying to say, hey. I'm gonna reach out across the aisle. I'm going to build bridges. I'm going to try to get other nations to like me and all that. The fact of the matter is, the other nations, the socialist nations, the globalist nations, and the United Nations are always going to hate anything that Donald Trump does.
James Taylor:This time around, he said, no. I'm gonna call it like it is, and that's what he's doing. And especially regarding energy. So, you know, oftentimes, we hear the term, and the left has conditioned people to refer to wind and solar power as either clean energy or green energy like it's environmentally friendly. It's simply not the case.
James Taylor:Every energy source has its own environmental impacts, and many are unique to the particular energy source. Wind power and solar power. The climate change activists, the wind power industry, the solar power industry, they want people to believe that the only environmental issue that matters is carbon dioxide emissions. But back when your parents were growing up, the biggest issue was land conservation, species protection, clean water, clean air. Now we at the Heartland Institute, we published a study.
James Taylor:It's called the affordable, reliable, clean scorecard. Listeners, do an Internet search. Heartland Institute affordable, reliable, clean. And we break down as objectively as possible. We give a scorecard for affordability, reliability, and environmental impact, the clean impact.
James Taylor:What we found is that wind power and solar power, not only are they the most expensive and the least reliable, they're also the worst for the environment when you factor in the entire spectrum of environmental issues. Okay. They don't have air emissions, carbon dioxide emissions. But you have to for example, for wind turbines, if we were to replace conventional energy for electricity with wind power, we would have to cover literally one third of the American land mass with wind turbines. That would destroy forests, open plains, entire ecosystems, species, etcetera.
James Taylor:For the manufacture and refining of wind turbines and solar panels, you have to engage in substantial large scale mining of rare earth minerals. And the mining of rare earth minerals is the most environmentally destructive practice on the planet. That includes all sorts of water and soil pollution, etcetera. So really, what Donald Trump is doing is he's called out people, first of all, for pretending that energy sources like wind and solar are affordable. They're not.
James Taylor:There's a reason why California has the highest electricity prices in the country. There's a reason why European energy cry prices, electricity prices average about three times more expensive than ours. But he's also called out this fake notion of a climate crisis. And what we're doing is we are trashing our environment in so many ways through wind and solar power under the guise of this fictitious clean, green, wind, solar power to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Really, all we're doing is we're trashing our own country in the process.
Speaker 1:Agreed. What do you think before I let you go, what do you think the odds are of the administration taking your advice and bowing out?
James Taylor:I think it's pretty decent. I suspect right now, they're having an internal discussion. And I think they're thinking on the one hand, if we're there, we can call attention like Donald Trump did at the United Nations. We can call attention to this global warming scam. On the other hand, it makes a point to say we're not going to be there and participate.
James Taylor:We encourage them not to participate. We'll be there. The Heartland Institute will be there rattling cages. We can serve as the unofficial American delegation. But whether they're there or not, the Trump administration has been fantastic, especially in Trump '47, about calling things the way they are.
James Taylor:So congratulations, Donald Trump. Keep it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I would love it for you I would love for them to see that we roll deep here in The US. We don't have to send the a team over. We don't have to send the White House over. America is filled with a teamers.
Speaker 1:Like, you should be scared of everybody. I love it. James, thank you for stopping by. Tell people where they can find the Heartland Institute online and follow you so we can see how this whole thing goes.
James Taylor:Alright. Well, you can find this online at heartland.org, heart,land.org. And please look forward to an Internet search for Heartland Institute affordable, reliable, clean scorecard. You'll get all the information that I was just telling you about. You'll have all the backup citations, etcetera, to know it's true.
James Taylor:And finally, Kara, it's just been a it's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1:It's my pleasure. I guess I'm gonna let you get out of here without a song, but that's okay. If you go to the climate summit, you can make up for it.
James Taylor:I will do that. I'll sing in Portuguese for the Brazilians.
Speaker 1:That sounds great. Thanks, James. You take care. God bless you out there.
James Taylor:You too.
Speaker 1:Thank James Taylor, the president of the Heartland Institute.
