‘Climate Change’ Is Coming For Your Potato Chips Or Something

By William Teach August 5, 2025 – 3:00 pm

Now they’re trying to hit people in the comfort foods

The snackdown: We need to talk about chips

It’s a cruel irony: the very snacks we reach for in uncertain times could soon be victims of uncertainty themselves. Snack time might not feel like a climate casualty. But it’s heading that way.

And this isn’t a distant worry. Scientists predict global potato yields could plummet by up to 16% by 2035 if temperatures keep rising. That has far-reaching consequences – not just for profits, but for farms, jobs and the supply chains behind the world’s most popular snack. From Lay’s in New York to Calbee in Tokyo, no brand is insulated.

Japan’s biggest snack producer has issued a red alert. Climate change is threatening the very foundation of its business, warned Calbee CEO Makoto Ehara. “Climate change is now a direct threat to our ability to produce snacks,” he told CNBC recently. A dramatic warning, yes, but one that should rattle the entire industry.

The threat isn’t abstract. It’s about potatoes – one of the world’s most essential crops – now faltering under extreme heat, erratic rainfall and disrupted supply chains. If Calbee’s struggling to keep chips on shelves, other snack brands aren’t far behind.

In reality, 2024 had record potato crops all over the globe.

The risks are far from hypothetical. Calbee has lived through a crisis like this before. Back in 2017, after a series of record-breaking typhoons devastated the Hokkaido potato harvest, the company was forced to temporarily suspend the sale of around a dozen chip varieties.

Disasters happen. Was it global warming that caused the big Irish potato famine? How about the lack of wheat in France, leading to the French Revolution? Anyhow, lots more cult yapping through the middle of the piece, ending with

As climate change hits potato production, consumers may soon see the fallout on their shelves. Here’s what might be coming:

Higher prices: As harvests shrink and imported spuds get pricier, chip prices could start creeping up, especially in countries that rely on foreign supply.

More shortages: Typhoons, droughts and freak weather events could lead to empty shelves – again.

New ingredients: To ease pressure on potatoes, expect to see more chips made from corn, lentils or blended bases.

Shifted sourcing: Brands may start highlighting ‘locally grown’ or ‘climate-resilient’ ingredients as a badge of honor.

More transparency: As supply chains come under strain, expect companies to talk more openly about the climate risks they’re facing and how they’re responding.

Here’s the question: when this doesn’t happen who gets fired?

Read: ‘Climate Change’ Is Coming For Your Potato Chips Or Something »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 5, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…is a place flooded by carbon pollution Bad Weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Political Hat, with a post Eastern Vs Western Marxism.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Too Bad: Abbott Orders Arrest Of State Democrats Who Fled

By William Teach August 5, 2025 – 10:30 am

This is great

Woo!

Texas Republicans vote to arrest Democrats blocking redistricting plan

Texas Republicans have voted to track down and arrest dozens of Democratic legislators who have fled the state to block passage of a plan to re-draw electoral boundaries to favour Republicans.

After the vote, Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered state troopers “to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans”.

Abbott has also threatened to charge the absent Democrats with bribery if they raised public money to cover the daily fine they incur for boycotting the chamber.

The redrawn Congressional map would create five more Republican-leaning seats in the US House of Representatives in Washington DC, where Republicans hold a slim majority.

At least two-thirds of the 150-member state legislative body in Texas must be present to proceed with the vote. The quorum became unreachable after more than 50 Democratic lawmakers left the state.

Most of the MIA Democrats flew to Chicago on a fossil fueled airplane, despite many having missives about climate doom on their webpages.

Obviously, the media and other Democrats are incensed over this step, including one of the dumbest members of Congress

Now, I wonder, what happened to get Democrats worked up about the arrest orders?

Oregon Republicans flee, facing fines, state police chasing — Democrats demand they return

Republican state senators in Oregon continued to engage in a high-stakes game of brinksmanship Friday with Democratic lawmakers, saying they are prepared to sue if the Senate president goes through with her threat to impose a $500 fine for each day they delay a vote on a landmark climate plan that would be the second of its kind nationwide.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown deployed the state police Thursday to try to round up 11 Republican senators who fled the Legislature — and in some cases, the state — to thwart the passage of a cap-and-trade proposal that would dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The minority GOP caucus wants the plan to be sent to voters instead of being instituted by lawmakers — but negotiations with Democrats collapsed, leading to the headline-grabbing walkout.

“It’s time for the Senate Republicans to show up and do the job they were elected to do,” Brown, a Democrat, said at a news conference Thursday.

They were also being fined. The media and Democrats were fine with this. Why not now?

Read: Too Bad: Abbott Orders Arrest Of State Democrats Who Fled »

Posted in Current Affairs, Democrats | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

“Scientists” Sorta Maybe Possibly Link Starfish Die-Offs To Climate Doom

By William Teach August 5, 2025 – 7:15 am

Seriously, this is what they call science, and it actually gets published as news

Scientists Pinpoint Cause of Massive Sea Star Die-Offs, and Suspect a Link to Global Warming

After years of scientific sleuthing, a team of West Coast researchers reported that they have identified a particular strain of ocean bacteria that has killed more than 6 billion sea stars since 2013. In a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, they said the die-off was caused by a type of Vibrio bacteria that was previously only known as a pathogen in some shellfish larvae.

Vibrio bacteria are more frequently causing problems in a warming world. The bacteria sometimes cause dangerous infections and intestinal illnesses in humans, including cholera.

The breakthrough finding will help scientists determine possible conservation or adaptation measures in response to the intensifying consequences of the sea star die-off. Sunflower sea stars, which can grow up to 3 feet across and sprout 24 arms, are critical to West Coast kelp ecosystems, where they devour certain types of sea urchins that can eat through the forests of seaweed if the sea stars don’t check their populations.

I mean, I’ll agree that the die-offs are bad. I just wonder, though, if it could possibly have a different cause, or, did they simply say “anthropogenic climate change”?

Human activities are speeding disruptions in many ecosystems and the rapid expansion of the Vibrio-driven sea star die-off shows how the impacts sometimes outpace scientists’ ability to study them.

The sudden spread of the disease caught scientists off guard, and for many years they suspected a viral pathogen, Gehman said. But researchers didn’t have much information about what the ecosystem was like before the outbreak.

“We didn’t know what was normal for the microbes and bacteria and the viruses in these systems,” she said. “When you don’t have a good idea of what used to be there, it’s hard to find what’s new. And that’s part of why we found the wrong thing for a while was because we found a virus and then it turned out to be a normal virus.”

So, they really do not know much, especially a baseline of what is normal.

“It is possible that warmer water temperatures combined with other ecological and evolutionary factors led to this devastating outbreak and die-off,” she wrote in an email, “but we don’t have that evidence definitively yet.”

So, they really do not know much, but, they’re happy to drag ‘climate change’ into it. I wonder though, has this happened in previous warm periods? Or, when the Earth was much, much warmer and the seas much, much higher?

Read: “Scientists” Sorta Maybe Possibly Link Starfish Die-Offs To Climate Doom »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Visitors From High Overstay Countries Could Be Forced To Pay Up To $15K Bond For Entry

By William Teach August 5, 2025 – 7:00 am

This is a fantastic idea, which is surely going to send Democrats into apoplexy

U.S. to Require Some Foreign Visitors to Pay Bonds of Up to $15,000 for Entry

Addressing what it calls “a clear national security threat,” the Trump administration will require that some foreign visitors pay bonds of up to $15,000 to help ensure they do not overstay their visas, under a State Department trial program announced on Monday.

Foreigners seeking to enter the United States on tourist or business visas from countries with high visa overstay rates will be expected to put down no less than $5,000, the department said in a public notice. Visitors who fail to leave the United States before their visa expires will forfeit their bond; those who comply with their visa requirements will get their money back.

The notice did not specify which countries would be subject to the program, saying only that they would be determined based on visa overstay data collected and published by the Department of Homeland Security.

The move is the Trump administration’s latest in a multifront effort to crack down on illegal immigration after President Trump made the issue the centerpiece of his 2024 campaign.

They should apply this to people on school visas, as well.

Citing Department of Homeland Security data from 2023, the notice said that more than 500,000 people admitted to the United States through air or sea ports of entry most likely remained in the country past the end of their authorized stay.

Like that person hired as a police officer who was way over his visa expiration? You know, who was carrying a department issued handgun and was caught trying to buy?

Read: Visitors From High Overstay Countries Could Be Forced To Pay Up To $15K Bond For Entry »

Posted in Illegal Immigration | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Your Fault: More PRC Comrades Will Go To ER From Atmospheric Cancer

By William Teach August 4, 2025 – 4:09 pm

Of course, if this was true, they’d all be waiting a long time due to the illegal aliens jamming up the ERs in the People’s Republik Of California

Climate Change Will Send Many More Californians to the ER

California’s emergency departments will be more clogged than ever as climate change pushes daily temperatures higher, a study finds.

But there is one silver lining to the new research, however: Thousands of fewer deaths in California from extreme cold.

Nevertheless, high temperatures will also be flooding hospitals with patients as heat triggers injuries and worsens chronic health issues.

“Heat can harm health even when it doesn’t kill,” explained study first author Carlos Gould, assistant professor of public health at the University of California San Diego. “Warmer temperatures were consistently associated with more trips to the emergency department, so studies and planning that only consider mortality [death] miss a big slice of the burden.”

It’s on average 1.7F higher than it was in 1850. Can anyone tell the difference?

Working alongside researchers at Stanford University, Gould’s team looked at data on deaths, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations and daily temperatures in California from 2006 to 2017.

The good news: projecting the health-related effects of climate change to 2050, California should expect to see around 53,500 fewer deaths overall due to less cold weather, the data showed.

So, are they say fewer deaths is a good thing or bad thing by 2050?

Of course, heatstroke is the effect that most people might associated with extreme heat. But many ED visits will be due to other heat-linked events or conditions: injuries, mental health issues and poisonings, especially.

“We often think about only the most extreme health impacts of heat waves: deaths. This work is showing that many things that we may not think about being sensitive to extreme heat are, like poisonings, endocrine disorders, injuries and digestive issues,” said study co-author Alexandra Heaney.

“We need to focus on the full spectrum of health impacts when we think about heat waves, now and in the future,” said Heaney, who is assistant professor of public health at UCSD.

So, give us money. For a whopping 1.7F in 175 years.

Read: Your Fault: More PRC Comrades Will Go To ER From Atmospheric Cancer »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 4, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…is grass dying from too much carbon pollution caused heat, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on Democrats fleeing Texas to avoid redistricting.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Moonbats Go Nuts Over Trump Reinstating The Presidential Fitness Test

By William Teach August 4, 2025 – 10:30 am

There are many things that The Donald does and says just to tweak Democrats, send them into apoplexy. On this, he was probably surprised that there is such a freakout

Opinion | Why Trump’s revival of this outdated fitness program is likely to do more harm than good

Everyone knows that American kids — and adults — need more exercise. If President Donald Trump’s recent decision to reinvigorate the federal Presidential Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition and reinstate the Presidential Fitness Test helps get more kids moving, as he promises, it would be a welcome step in the right direction. But what we know so far about this reboot — and Trump’s record on fitness — should make us wary of its ability to actually combat the epidemic of sedentariness that contributes to all kinds of health conditions, from obesity to mental illness.

The executive order re-establishes the council, which Trump had renamed during his first term to place “sports” before “fitness,” a subtle choice that apparently prioritizes competitive athletics over recreational exercise. Much of the language of the new order echoes the initiatives of earlier administrations, highlighting issues of obesity and insufficient military preparedness. Most notably, though, the order hits a competitive note, aiming to “reward excellence in physical education” and to develop criteria for a Presidential Fitness Award, an initiative in keeping with maintaining “America’s global dominance in sports.”

MSNBC’s Natalia Mehlman Petrzela has no idea how this is all going to shake down, what the test will look like, what the plans are for fitness, she (and so many more Liberals) just knows she’s against it. Natalia then offers up 5 paragraphs of whining about Trump and Robert Kennedy, who was probably behind this. Like him or not, he’s in pretty good shape.

Upon this week’s announcement, many took to social media to express how traumatizing they found the Presidential Fitness Test. That is, how the test Trump is resurrecting undermined the council’s goals, in that it celebrated the best athletes and alienated others, turning off many from a future of movement. For this reason, the Obamas retired the Presidential Fitness Test in favor of the Fitnessgram, which was less hierarchical and more focused on holistic lifestyle. And Trump apparently didn’t learn from one of JFK’s key mistakes: While the PCF’s campaigns encouraged citizens to lobby their local communities to spend on these programs, they were not funded with significant federal appropriations, meaning they were never more than an advisory and marketing campaign, albeit a very effective one at shifting Americans’ association with regular exercise in a positive direction.

Oh, good grief. Traumatizing? I would hope no one in Gen X is saying that. Gotta be a liberal Millennial and Gen Z thing. As far as what Obama instituted, did it make any difference? Holistic? Anyhow, Natalia rages for 3 more paragraphs till the end

I too am deeply concerned about the lack of exercise among American children and adults, and am thrilled this is an administration priority. Yet I worry that Trump is bringing back the narrowest version of JFK’s vision, having learned little from fitness culture since, making it unlikely that this endeavor will improve the fitness and overall health of everyday Americans.

“I too am deeply concerned, but, Orange Man Bad, so, I’m against it.” Seriously, as one comment says “Back in the early 70s we all did it , its not a pass or fail it’s to get people to be aware of the benefits of physical Fitness and the health that you get that comes with daily excersize.” Same in the 80s. Gym was for exercise. It’ll be OK, Democrats.

Read: Moonbats Go Nuts Over Trump Reinstating The Presidential Fitness Test »

Posted in Barking Moonbats | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

Fire Ants In Florida Made Worse By ‘Climate Change’ And Urban Sprawl

By William Teach August 4, 2025 – 7:00 am

But, mostly urban sprawl

Fire ants inflame more Floridians, sparked by global warming and urban sprawl

This kind of bites: Climate change is making fire ants an increasingly hot topic in Florida these days. But our efforts to tame them may only be scratching the surface.

Red imported fire ants rank among the world’s most invasive and destructive species. In America, they cause $8.75 billion in yearly economic damages, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They chew on fruits, roots and stems, damaging crops. They swarm, harm and even kill newborn calves and stunt grazing. Their mounds damage mowers, balers, combines and other farm equipment, resulting in costly repairs and downtime.

On the home front, they nest in our air conditioners, sprinkler controls, utility boxes and traffic signals. They gnaw on all kinds of insulation that triggers short circuits, power outages and expensive repairs.

But mostly we know them for their brutal bites that bring pustules of intense itching that sometimes inflict infections, allergic reactions and in extremely rare cases, even death.

The two different types of fire ants were imported to Alabama in the early 1900s. Since then, since there are no natural predators, they’ve spread across the US South from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But, see, now

Mounting scientific evidence suggests problems with imported fire ants are getting worse.

Biologists warn that factors that have long made the Sunshine State a welcoming home to the invaders are accelerating.

Climate change is bringing warmer, wetter weather that favors fire ants. Florida’s urban sprawl also means more disturbed landscapes fire ants seek, with fewer natural predators, and more ants hitching rides in potted plants to new landscapes. Meanwhile, global-warming-fed floods float colonies of clung-together fire ants to new heights

How did they spread back when CO2 was below the safe level of 350ppm? Let’s be honest, this is more cult fearmongering, when the reality is that nothing stops the ants, Florida has been warm and wet with flooding and wetlands for a very, very long time, and all the construction and sprawl roots them up and moves them around.

Like many invasive species, fire ants arrived as stowaways. There are two imported species of fire ants, both introduced into the United States from South America at the port of Mobile, Alabama. The black imported fire ant arrived around 1918. The much more aggressive red fire ant showed up in the late 1930’s. Both ants likely came to the port in soil used as ballast in cargo ships.

Fire ants are easily transported in soil and nursery stock. That’s why all the fresh landscaping in new residential developments helps ants spread.

These Warmists are just so tedious.

Read: Fire Ants In Florida Made Worse By ‘Climate Change’ And Urban Sprawl »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

The Fish Wrap Is Very Concerned Over All The Illegal Alien Chinese In The U.S.

By William Teach August 4, 2025 – 6:45 am

Obviously, the NY Times is going to come to the wrong conclusion, just give a sob story

Some Chinese Weigh Painful Question: Stay or Flee Under Trump?

Ever since immigration raids swept Los Angeles in June, Han Lihua, 46, has spent much of his time hiding in his apartment, skipping his Amazon delivery shifts and scrolling on social media to look for nearby sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

In 2022, he fled China, where he ran an independent student newspaper and taught high school literature. He crossed the treacherous Darién Gap on the border of Colombia and Panama before crossing the southern border of the United States illegally in early 2023.

Now, with the Trump administration carrying out a sweeping immigration crackdown, he is among the Chinese immigrants who say fear has eclipsed their fragile new lives, forcing difficult questions about whether the United States can offer them a better situation after they fled an authoritarian government.

“Everyone is so afraid,” Mr. Han said. “I didn’t expect this would happen in the United States.”

Boo hoo. You’re here in contradiction of federal law. If you’re so scared and hiding how’d the NY Times get your story?

Since China reopened its borders in January 2023 after Covid lockdowns, more than 63,000 Chinese citizens like Mr. Han have fled and crossed the U.S. southern border without authorization, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, making them the fourth-largest group by nationality after migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, and Ecuador. Under President Trump’s policies, however, illegal crossings along the southern border have dropped dramatically, reaching 6,000 arrests in June, a low not seen in decades.

Does anyone else find it concerning that Chinese nationals are spending oodles of money to come into the U.S. illegally? Perhaps creating some anchor babies so China can have more of its citizens in the US, perhaps using them as spies or worse? Has it occurred to the Fish Wrap that China is planting their citizens in the U.S.?

Most Chinese immigrants fled strict censorship, growing political repression or Beijing’s zero-Covid policies, which often shut down entire cities for weeks, if not months, trapping people in their homes with little access to food, medical care or work. Those who spoke out against the policies could face harassment or detention. But with the Trump administration’s escalating immigration enforcement, many Chinese immigrants like Mr. Han now confront a question they never imagined they would face: Should they stay or leave?

And they were just able to, you know, leave Communist China easy peasy? Also, there’s zero introspection on COVID lockdowns which were pretty much a Democrat thing and supported by the NY Times.

Recently, discussions on Chinese social media have centered around questions including “Should I go back?” or “Who has been back?” Users who have left the country often debate the pros and cons of their decisions. They once discussed “runology” — figuring out how to leave China during the lockdowns. Now, they discuss “reverse runology,” or mapping a way back to China.

If they are so concerned they could head to other countries, right?

Meanwhile

ICE recruits former federal workers to join its ranks amid hiring spree

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is recruiting retired federal workers to join its enforcement, legal and investigative units as a part of a broader campaign to beef up hiring.

The requests came in an email, which was shared with NPR and posted on LinkedIn and elsewhere online, and asked them to “serve once more.”

“This is a pivotal moment in our country’s history, and your experience and expertise are vitally needed,” the email states, which includes a message on a new webpage.

I guess they don’t have to learn to code or go work on a farm.

Read: The Fish Wrap Is Very Concerned Over All The Illegal Alien Chinese In The U.S. »

Posted in Illegal Immigration, Wonky Media | 11 Comments | Trackback URL
Pirate's Cove