Sunday, October 5, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Climeworks’ green billion-dollar venture in Iceland dismissed as a scam

The exaggerated climate crisis

Published 27 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Climework's activities are described as at best pointless - at worst, downright harmful.
3 minute read

Despite promises of groundbreaking climate solutions, Swiss carbon dioxide giant Climeworks’ facility in Iceland has not only captured far less than promised – it has also emitted more carbon dioxide than it has absorbed.

Critics say the whole operation is deeply deceptive and one of many examples of scam projects created to profit from the alleged climate crisis.

Climeworks, a Swiss company that markets itself as a pioneer in direct carbon capture (DAC), has failed to achieve its targets in Iceland despite significant investment and media attention.

According to data from the verification company Puro.Earth and the company’s own annual reports, Climeworks has only captured around 2,400 tons of CO₂ in Iceland since 2021 – far below the promised capacity ceiling of 12,000 tons. In addition, the company’s own emissions from its operations have exceeded its capture: in 2023 alone, Climeworks emitted 1,700 tons of CO₂, significantly more than its total capture.

Climeworks’ first facility, Orca, was unveiled in 2021 with a capacity of 4,000 tons of CO₂ per year. In reality, it has never even reached half that target. The larger Mammoth facility, which could capture 36,000 tons annually, has only managed to collect 105 tons after ten months of operation.

According to CEO Jan Wurzbacher, Mammoth requires 5,000–6,000 kWh per ton of CO₂ captured – a process described as extremely inefficient. To offset Iceland’s total emissions (12.4 million tons in 2024), 72 terawatt hours of energy would be needed – four times the country’s annual electricity production.

Professor: “A scam”

Climeworks’ Icelandic subsidiary has negative equity of ISK 3.6 billion (€25 million) and is entirely dependent on funding from its parent company. The value of the Orca machine has also been written down by €1.25 million due to underperformance.

Despite this, the company has sold future carbon credits equivalent to one-third of Mammoth’s planned capacity for the next 25 years – even though over 21,000 private subscribers who have paid in advance risk having to wait decades for their certificates.

Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of environmental science at Stanford University, calls the entire DAC industry a big scam and fraud.

– Direct capture is a scam, carbon capture is a scam, blue hydrogen is a scam, and electrofuel is a scam. These are all scam technologies that do nothing for the climate or air pollution.

“Semi-magical technology”

Michael de Podesta, a British pensioner who paid ISK 135,000 (€940) for 2.2 tons of CO₂ capture, expresses similar concerns in his blog, and after looking into the company more closely, he believes he has probably been scammed.

This has all the hallmarks of a scam. There are undoubtedly a lot of highly paid people traveling the world to sell their services to large corporations to remove carbon credits in the future. They are using a semi-magical technology that doesn’t work as well as expected (better known as Orca) but will work perfectly in a larger version (Mammoth)”.

“I am urged to convince my friends to join the project. The answers are scarce and full of PR chatter. Climeworks’ operations look like a scam and talk like one. But is it a scam? I don’t know. I think it could work, but the company’s answers are so opaque that it’s hard to say”, he continues.

He will not know for sure until 2027 whether Climeworks has actually captured the 2.2 tons of carbon dioxide he has paid for.

Millions from the US

It is also worth noting that the company has received or been promised around $800 million in public subsidies, including $625 million from the US Department of Energy and $5 million from Switzerland. Despite this, the cost per ton of CO₂ captured remains at $1,000 – ten times higher than the original target.

Due to the failures of DAC, Climeworks has now instead begun to focus on “enhanced weathering”, a highly controversial method in which crushed rock is bound with CO₂. However, researchers believe that this is a sign of desperation to fulfill credits that have already been sold.

In summary, critics point out that Climeworks’ operations have been characterized by exaggerated promises, technical shortcomings, and financial irresponsibility since its inception. Despite being ranked as one of the world’s leading green tech companies by Time Magazine, its contribution to climate action is described as marginal at best and at worst as directly counterproductive and harmful.

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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 17 September 2025
– 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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