Thursday, September 18, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Driving an electric car is fake environmentalism

The exaggerated climate crisis

Electric cars are causing very real environmental problems, writes former science advisor at the UK Gov. Dept. of Energy and Climate Change and former UN Environment Officer Mark Keenan in a guest analysis.

Published 29 February 2024
EV batteries require a staggering amount of natural resources.
8 minute read

In Sweden there exists an electrified road for Electric Vehicles (EVs) to charge while driving, see endnote i. The 2 km stretch of road is the world’s first of its kind, and an expansion of a further 3,000 km of electric road by 2045 is planned. It all sounds rather cool and futuristic, and I am reminded of a song lyric from the 1980s, the singer Eddie Grant sang “we’re gonna rock onto Electric Avenue”.

A road with an electrified lane where vehicles can charge while driving. Photo: Indiatimes.

However, let us consider whether these expensive EVs are actually environmentally friendly or are yet another mega-corporate marketing scam?

This article demonstrates that the latter is the case. The reality is that the misled environmentalists buying these cars are suckers for mega-corporate advertising, ignorantly proud of their so-called low-carbon eco-cars. Apparently, unaware that the manufacture of millions of electric car batteries, requires huge mining operations to acquire and refine large quantities of rare earth metals, such as lithium, rhodium and cobalt; that these metals have to be mined out of the ground using machinery which is powered by carbon-emitting vehicles powered by diesel or petrol; and importantly, that the mining and refining processes can cause significant and extensive pollution to land, air and water systems, for example in rural China and Mongolia, see endnote ii. Unlike the fake manmade climate change agenda, these are real environmental problems.

Below is a picture of a lithium leach field. This is what your EV batteries are made of. It is so neuro-toxic that a bird landing on this stuff dies in minutes. Take a guess what it does to your nervous system? Pat yourself on the back for saving the environment.

A lithium leach field. Photo: Tom Hegen.

Furthermore, the push to end gasoline or diesel transport by 2035 in favor of e-vehicles is based on a lie as the lithium-ion battery-powered vehicles have a total “carbon footprint” when the effects of mining lithium and producing all parts are included, that is worse than diesel autos.

Furthermore, electric cars are still driven by electricity produced from fossil fuels and will most likely continue to be. Despite decades of government subsidies wind power provides less than 5% of the world’s energy, and solar just 1%. The use of electricity to charge vehicles and devices is also an extremely in-efficient use of energy, according to a study by the European Association for Battery Electric Vehicles commissioned by the European Commission (EC):

“The ‘Well-to-Tank’ energy efficiency (from the primary energy source to the electrical plug), taking into account the energy consumed by the production and distribution of the electricity, is estimated at around 37%”.

Deceptive marketing

Let us take a look at the deceptive marketing for electric vehicles. The first misleading marketing trick that millions of environmentalists fell for was the ‘hybrid’. Hybrid cars are actually gasoline powered cars with a little battery assistance and the little battery has to be charged from the gasoline engine. If the EPA-certified mileage is 55 mpg, then it is no different from a non-hybrid that achieves 55 mpg. A world 100% full of ‘hybrid’ drivers is still 100% addicted to oil.

Now consider a cleverly designed marketing pitch for electric cars by Elon Musk, Co-Founder & CEO of Tesla Motors. In an article published on the Tesla Motors website, see endnote iii, he states:

“The overarching purpose of Tesla Motors… is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy… I’d like to address two repeated arguments against electric vehicles – battery disposal and power plant emissions… the Tesla Motors Lithium-Ion cells are not classified as hazardous and are landfill safe… the battery pack can be sold to recycling companies (unsubsidized) at the end of its greater than 100,000-mile design life…

A common rebuttal to electric vehicles as a solution to carbon emissions is that they simply transfer the CO2 emissions to the power plant. The obvious counter is that one can develop grid electric power from a variety of means, many of which, like hydro, wind, geothermal, nuclear, solar, etc. involve no CO2 emissions. However, let’s assume for the moment that the electricity is generated from a hydrocarbon source like natural gas… the hands down winner is pure electric:

 

Car Energy source CO2 content Efficiency CO2 emissions
Honda CNG Natural gas 14.4 g/MJ 0.32 km/MJ 45.0 g/km
Honda FCX Natural gas-fuel cell 14.4 g/MJ 0.35 km/MJ 41.1 g/km
Toyota Prius Oil 19.9 g/MJ 0.56 km/MJ 35.8 g/km
Tesla Roadster Natural gas electric 14.4 g/MJ 1.14 km/MJ 12.6 g/km

 

we will be offering a modestly sized and priced solar… This system can be… set up as a carport and will generate about 50 miles per day of electricity. If you travel less than 350 miles per week, you will therefore be “energy positive” with respect to your personal transportation… you will actually be putting more energy back into the system than you consume in transportation!”

However, Elon Musk’s narrative is debunked here as he does not mention the fact that:

  • The move from mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy in itself requires a vast expenditure of fossil-fuel energy to re-purpose the entire worldwide industrial system, as well as build vast new energy grids for wind and solar energy, etc, simply to reduce CO2 emissions. A new industrial framework which in itself will still be very polluting to land, air, and water in virtually the same ways as the old framework as it creates more and more ‘product’ to be marketed and sold, such as electric cars, which we are now incorrectly told is okay because its ‘green product’;
  • The Energy Returned on Energy Invested (EROEI) for solar and wind energy is too low to be viable, and therefore to repurpose and rebuild the world energy and industrial system to de-carbonise the economy is a waste of vast amounts of fossils fuels (no wonder the sector seeks subsidies);
  • The manufacture of potentially hundreds of millions of new electric cars and electric car batteries involves a continuation of widespread mining and processing of rare earth metals, such as lithium, rhodium and cobalt, which are a limited resource. The mining and processing of rare earth metals has been shown to be polluting to land, air, and water systems, such as rivers.
  • If you charge the car with solar energy, you may be putting slightly more energy back into the system than you consume in ‘driving the car’. However, driving the electric car is only one small part of the entire energy consuming process from mining to manufacture to distribution, not to mention the embedded energy in the manufactured materials of a new worldwide supply-chain industrial infrastructure, including cars, factories, energy grids, windmills, photovoltaics, etc.
  • And, vitally, that CO2 emissions are not the cause of climate change. This is evidenced in my books: Transcending the Climate Change Deception Toward Real Sustainability and CO2 Climate Hoax – How Bankers Hijacked the Real Environment Movement

Climate change – a natural phenomenon

I have experience in the climate and energy sector as a Science Advisor at the U.K. Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change; and as an Environmental Affairs Officer at the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, Switzerland. At the UN I was responsible for servicing the Pollution Release and Transfer Register Protocol, a Multinational Environmental Agreement, involving the monitoring of thousands of different pollutants to land, air, and water worldwide. Real pollution exists, but the problem is not CO2. CO2 is not actually a pollutant, it is an odorless gas, it is not soot and it is not poisonous. Actually, CO2 has beneficial properties for humankind because it is a fertilizer – without sufficient CO2 plants and crops will not grow. The biology of the earth is driven by CO2. If CO2 is less than 150 ppm, almost all life on Earth will disappear.

The little ice age ended as recently as around 1800, so it is no surprise that we are now experiencing a little warming. However, this warming period will end, and we will move again to a colder phase. That is how the Earth’s climate system has behaved for billions of years.

The Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL) is an independent foundation that operates in the fields of climate change and climate policy. CLINTEL was founded in 2019 by Dutch emeritus professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout. After its launch in 2019, it published the World Climate Declaration (WCD), which has an impressive list of over 1850 signatories worldwide, including Nobel Prize laureates and leading scientists and climate experts.

I am also a signatory of the World Climate Declaration, a declaration that refutes the United Nations narrative on climate change. The reality is the climate changes naturally. Climate change is not manmade due to CO2 emissions, or cow-made due to methane emissions as the UN claim.

Resource-intensive batteries

As an example of why electric cars are fake environmentalism let us consider a Tesla model Y battery in the picture below.

Tesla Model Y battery.

It takes up all of the space under the passenger compartment of the car. To manufacture it seemingly requires about 55 kilograms weight of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese, and during manufacturing about 200 kilograms  of aluminum, steel and/or plastic and 50 kilograms  of graphite. To obtain these is far from easy – it has been estimated that you need to mine around 35 tons of rock, cobalt minerals, nickel ore, and copper ore; and move over 200 tons of soil just to make one battery!

A Caterpillar 994A vehicle is commonly used for the earthmoving to obtain the essential minerals. It has been estimated to consume between 250 and 775 gallons of diesel in 12 hours, see endnote iv. Finally, you get a “zero emissions” car that is not zero-emissions at all in terms of manufacture; and due to the fact that EVs are still driven by electricity produced from fossil fuels and will most likely continue to be.

The cost of Tesla batteries for the Tesla car models ranges from $5,000 to $20,000. It appears that it takes seven years for an electric car to reach net-zero CO2. The average life expectancy of the batteries is 10 years. Only in the last three years would you begin to reduce your carbon footprint. Then the batteries have to be replaced and you lose all the gains you made in those three years.

Term “sustainable” hijacked decades ago

The reality should be distinguished from the lies we are all being told by the UN, the World Economic Forum and mega-corporate advertising. The word “sustainable” was hijacked decades ago, and it is now deceptively used to advance the agendas of mega-corporate financial interests who want to sell countless millions of electric cars and who couldn’t care less about the environment. Are they concerned about the polluting effects of mining and processing rare earth metals to produce tens of millions of large electric car batteries?

As detailed in my book CO2 Climate Hoax – How Bankers Hijacked the Real Environment Movement the aim of the UN and the WEF is to catapult humanity into the ‘fake-sustainable’ totalitarian arms of UN Agenda 2030 and other clever marketing plans entirely designed by the so-called corporate elites of the WEF Davos group.

 

 

Mark-Gerard Keenan

 


1 Source: https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/05/09/sweden-is-building-the-worlds-first-permanent-electrified-road-for-evs-to-charge-while-dri

2 Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/aug/07/china-rare-earth-village-pollution

3 The relevant article written by Elon Musk is available at: https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me

4 Source: https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/cat-994-fuel-consumption.94089/

Mark Gerard Keenan, is a former scientist at the UK Government Dept. of Energy and Climate Change, and at the United Nations Environment Division. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is author of the following books available on Amazon:

Transcending the Climate Change Deception Toward Real Sustainability
CO2 Climate Hoax – How Bankers Hijacked the Real Environment Movement
Godless Fake Science
No Worries No Virus
Demonic Economics and the Tricks of the Bankers

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“Climate catastrophe in computer models”

The exaggerated climate crisis

Computer models warning of Gulf Stream collapse are based on incorrect assumptions about Greenland ice sheet melting. Media worsens the situation by incorrectly calling computer simulations "studies", writes Tege Tornvall.

Published yesterday 16:35
– By Tege Tornvall
Photo: iStock/gorodenkoff
2 minute read

Much of the world’s climate research is conducted using computers. Various hypothetical scenarios (sequences of events) are run with different assumptions about influencing factors. Depending on the chosen assumptions, they naturally produce different results.

Media incorrectly calls such computer runs “studies”. This gives the impression that they would actually happen in reality. But they don’t. They are simply assumptions. Computers calculate based on what they are fed.

A current example concerns the Atlantic’s major ocean current AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation). This includes the Gulf Stream, which gives western Europe a milder climate than we would otherwise have. German professor Stefan Rahmstorf and others have calculated its possible development.

The assumption is that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would cause Greenland’s large ice sheet to melt. Based on this, computer models calculate the possible risk that the Gulf Stream would weaken or even collapse. This would likely give us a colder climate.

The computers seem to have run hot. With continued increasing CO2 levels, 70 percent of model runs show that the Gulf Stream would collapse before 2100. Even with less CO2 input, they calculate a 25 percent risk of collapse.

But the assumption itself is flawed. Partly because higher CO2 levels have marginal and logarithmically decreasing warming effects in the atmosphere. Partly because Greenland’s large ice expanses have annual average temperatures of minus 20-30 degrees Celsius.

Returning researchers find their camps covered with snow and ice. The old US military base Camp Century in northwestern Greenland has been covered with 30 meters of ice since it was closed over 50 years ago.

That surrounding sea ice decreases in summer and grows in winter does not affect sea level and hardly affects currents either.

Even though some researchers warn of a weaker Gulf Stream, others do not. According to ocean researcher Léon Chafik at Stockholm University, Sweden, we should not let ourselves be frightened by speculation that the Gulf Stream will soon collapse. His colleague Frederik Schenk urges us to stop alarming about the Gulf Stream.

 

Tege Tornvall

The Church of Sweden organizes a “march of grief” for the climate

The exaggerated climate crisis

Published 8 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Swedish Bishop Andreas Holmberg is one of the key speakers at the left-wing political event.
3 minute read

The Stockholm diocese of the Church of Sweden will conduct a climate alarmist manifestation later this week where participants are encouraged to express their grief over the ongoing “climate emergency”.

For many, however, the event confirms the image of a church that has abandoned its Christian core and replaced it with left-wing radical activism.

The Church of Sweden in Stockholm is inviting the public to what they describe as a grief march on September 11.

“We invite you to a march where grief over what has been lost or is being lost through the climate emergency is given space. A public manifestation and an opportunity to grieve together with others”, write those responsible for the church in their press release.

The initiative comes at a time when the Church of Sweden has long been receiving harsh criticism from both conservatives and believers for becoming increasingly politicized and non-Christian.

Critics argue that the church has been infiltrated by left-wing radical forces that prioritize climate alarmism, LGBTQ issues, mass immigration and other “leftist issues” over Christian theology and faith in God.

Participants should come “dressed in mourning”

Bishop Andreas Holmberg will lead the march that goes from Nybroplan via Hötorget to St. Clara Church in Stockholm, Sweden. Participants are encouraged to come dressed in black or “mourning clothes” to manifest their climate grief.

“We walk in silence, with drums, without placards and shouts. The demands presented in the march: Listen to climate research, Live up to the Paris Agreement, Make decisions that secure peace and future for children, Act now”, states the invitation.

Among the co-organizers are a number of left-wing radical or climate alarmist groups such as Grand Panthers, Greta’s Elderly (Gretas Gamlingar), Grandparents For Future, Rebel Mothers (Rebellmammorna), Rebel Fathers (Rebellpapporna) and Climate Action – organizations that have previously conducted various forms of climate alarmist protests.

The Equmenia Church, PRO Stockholm County (a Swedish pensioners’ organization) and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation are also behind the event. Professor Nina Wormbs in history of technology will speak together with the bishop.

“Has nothing to do with Christianity”

For many Christians, the “climate march” confirms what they have long warned about: that the Church of Sweden has largely lost its Christian orientation and that the church’s high-ranking representatives today seem to be passionate about completely different issues.

On social media, many express grief and disappointment over the development and wonder how one should actually proceed to “take back” the national church from activists and lobbyists.

“Jesus himself emphasized the difference between politics and religion. What the Swedish Church is doing has nothing to do with Christianity”, states one user on X.

“Due to low voter turnout, politically extreme organizations have been able to take power in the Church of Sweden. The church’s gospels have been replaced with postmodernist and nihilistic messages. Go and vote next week! Banish the activists to the political arena where they belong”, argues another.

The church election takes place September 8–21 and all members of the Church of Sweden over 16 years old can vote in it.

Swedish young bulls receive feed supplement to reduce methane emissions

The exaggerated climate crisis

Published 26 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Anna Hessle from SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) admits herself that it becomes a bit strange
2 minute read

Swedish young bulls are receiving a new feed supplement to reduce their methane emissions. The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is currently testing the product in Skara, Sweden.

In Skara, researchers are investigating whether a new feed additive can reduce young bulls’ methane emissions and make the animals more “environmentally friendly”. The feed supplement is manufactured in Sweden and is reportedly significantly cheaper than other alternatives available on the market.

Anna Hessle from SLU acknowledges that the climate discussion has gotten the “wrong focus” but still hopes for good results.

It has become somewhat the case that ruminants have been portrayed as climate villains, even though I personally perhaps think that’s a bit of the wrong focus since it’s really about us having to reduce our fossil fuel emissions, she tells tax-funded Radio Sweden (SR) and continues:

But then the industry can show its good will by trying to reduce emissions even if one might bluntly think that the problems lie elsewhere.

British anger against Arla

The food industry, particularly regarding dairy cows, has long been singled out and accused of being a so-called environmental villain. Recently, the feed supplement Bovaer was developed, with help from financing by billionaire Bill Gates, which is also supposed to reduce cows’ methane emissions by making them fart and burp less.

Danish-Swedish dairy company Arla, for example, began giving it to British cows last year, which led to very harsh criticism from the public and many calls to boycott the company. Bovaer is also used for Swedish cows, but currently to a lesser extent than in the United Kingdom.

When the bulls are slaughtered at the beginning of next year, the project in Skara will be evaluated, but results are already visible when measuring methane emissions in the animals’ exhaled air.

That can be seen in the preliminary data we’ve received, says Hessle.

Norwegian party leader wants to expel Greta Thunberg

The exaggerated climate crisis

Published 19 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Norwegian Progress Party politician Sylvi Listhaug has grown tired of Greta Thunberg "repeatedly" returning to Norway to participate in climate activist actions.
2 minute read

Climate activist protests at Norway’s largest oil refinery have triggered harsh criticism from opposition leader Sylvi Listhaug, who is now demanding that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg be expelled from the country.

Monday’s blockade at Equinor Mongstad outside Bergen, Norway, gathered approximately 200 demonstrators from the widely media-covered group Extinction Rebellion. The activists blocked roads to the refinery, which is the country’s largest and primarily produces gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel.

Progress Party leader Sylvi Listhaug launches a fierce attack against Thunberg in a podcast with Bergen newspaper Bergens Tidende. She is upset that the Swedish activist repeatedly travels to Norway to participate in protests and actions, and believes that enough is enough.

Listhaug, who often profiles herself as a tough law-and-order politician, believes that Thunberg’s repeated demonstrations constitute a serious problem requiring drastic measures.

— I believe she should be expelled, says Listhaug, who even describes Thunberg as a “Swedish gang criminal”.

Thunberg, who temporarily left the demonstration to return on Tuesday, explained the action’s purpose in a press release:

“We are here because there is no future in oil. Fossil fuels lead to death and destruction”, it states.

“Breaks the rules of the game”

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre tries to navigate between fundamental rights and practical consequences. In Bergen newspaper Bergensavisen, he emphasizes that Norway stands firm on freedom of expression and demonstration, but simultaneously signals that the activists’ methods are unacceptable when they prevent ordinary people from getting to work.

— It breaks the rules of the game. There are people going to work and they shouldn’t have to experience insecurity with that, the prime minister emphasizes.

The view of Thunberg among European leaders has changed markedly since she was celebrated as a teenager at summits around the world.

After she expanded her activism to include criticism of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and other political issues, she has increasingly begun to be regarded as a disruptive element and an “extremist” who must be stopped or restricted – a sharp contrast to how she was previously portrayed as a hero and role model for young Europeans.

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