March 20, 2024 • 48 mins
Businessman and author Jon Pepper has written a series of books that explores the trials and tribulations of the energy industry in a highly politicized age, the newest of which, "Missy's Twitch," explores a young woman's passage from indoctrination and climate alarm induced spasms, to awareness of the lack of compelling evidence for climate alarm, and the toxic politics surrounding the issue.
The book is at turns hilarious and disturbing in the picture it paints of the current state of energy and climate politics, along the way presenting some caricatures of politicians and business interests who even the casual reader should be able to identify from real life, mocking them appropriately.
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Missys-Twitch-Fossil-Feuds-Pepper-ebook/dp/B0CKM4VJFB
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Episode Transcript
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Announcer (00:00):
This is the Heartland Daily Podcast.
H. Sterling Burnett (00:09):
Hello. Welcome to the Hartman Institute
Daily Podcast. I'm SterlingBurnett, director of the Arthur
b Robinson Center on Climate andEnvironmental Policy and
Managing Editor of EnvironmentClimate News. I'm doing
something a little bit differenttoday. Instead of talking to a
policy wonk about the lateststudy or a politician about
pending bills or votes, I'minterviewing a writer of a work
of fiction.
(00:30):
The book is called Missy'sTwitch, and the author is John
Pepper. I was offered a reviewcopy of the book about a month
and about a month after I gotit, I found the time to read it
and knocked it out in 3 days.Though a work of fiction, it
could have been ripped from theheadlines and private diaries of
people intimately involved inclimate in the climate hype and
(00:52):
politics today. I cannotrecommend the book highly
enough, and I'm pleased to haveits author with us today to
discuss it. John, thanks forjoining
Jon Pepper (01:02):
us. Oh, thanks so much, Sterling. Pleasure to be
with
H. Sterling Burnett (01:05):
you. John, before we jump into the details
of Missy's Twitch, for ourlisteners who may not be
familiar with you, Please giveus a little bit of your
background and previous work,and what prompted you to write
not 1, not 2 as it turns out,but 4 works of fiction about
characters and issuessurrounding fossil fuels and
climate change.
Jon Pepper (01:24):
Okay. Glad to, Sterling. First of all, for
those who don't know me, I amthe author of 4 novels, and,
they're all tied together. It'scalled this the series is called
Fossil Fuze, and there's plentyof fighting over fossil fuels in
these books. In addition tobeing an author, I'm an agency
president.
I have a small communicationsfirm based in New York City with
(01:45):
an office in Washington DC. It'scalled Indelible, and we deal
largely in crisiscommunications. I was also a
journalist for a number of yearsin Detroit. I was national
reporter for 4 years for theDetroit News, then a columnist
for 10 years, where I focusedlargely on business and
politics. And often, they cametogether as we'll probably
(02:06):
discuss, I think, through thecourse of this of this podcast.
In addition to all that, I'vebeen an executive in corporate
America. I worked 13 years as anexecutive in fortune 100
companies in the energy businessand also in the automotive
space. Obviously, energy andclimate were a big part of my
life there and, what I had tofocus on a fair amount because
(02:27):
they were constantly issues thatwere coming up especially from
the media. So you ask about whatinspired me to write books and I
would say a few things. One isthat I thought I had some
entertaining stories to tellbased on some of the experiences
that I've had, some of theinsights I had, observations of
people, and what's going on inthe world.
(02:47):
I also wanted to use fiction asa vehicle
H. Sterling Burnett (02:50):
for social commentary, which you alluded to
in your in
Jon Pepper (02:50):
your opening remarks there, Sterling. And Sterling.
And I thought the territory waswide open because so much of
literature and popularentertainment comes from one
side of the of the spectrum, andthere's very little that
critiques some of the,absurdities and the excesses
from the other side. So Ithought this would be a good way
(03:12):
to expose some of that and bringit to life, get it off, you
know, I I draw a lot of myknowledge from knowledgeable
scientists and and authors whowrite, nonfiction books, but I
wanted to take a different, steptoward showing people what it's
really like by bringing some ofthese characters to life. And
when you talk about corporatelife, there's very little in the
(03:34):
way of satire other than showslike Succession, movies like
Office Space, which is one of myfavorites.
Very few satires about businessgenerally that I thought have
been successful and there havebeen even fewer books about
climate change and climatealarmism that come from, the
point of view that I would have.And, most of the books, as you
(03:55):
know, Sterling, and climatechange, and there are a lot of
them out there tend to bedystopian tales from the other
side. Oh my gosh. The world isending. The climate change
climate has been destroyed bythese greedy, fossil fuel
companies and so forth.
We have to head for the hillsbecause the water is gonna rise
or or, you know, vegetation isgonna disappear. On and on. You
(04:17):
know all the stories. They'retold constantly, and it's a
concerted effort by a lot offolks to make sure that we are
constantly made aware of what'sgoing what they think is going
on with the climate.
H. Sterling Burnett (04:30):
Right.
Jon Pepper (04:31):
So, after my 3rd book, which is called Green
Goddess, I was really inspiredby a project in my neighborhood.
That's where the government waspushing hard to sign up a bunch
of contractors to rip up ourshorefront and protect us from
supposedly high waters that werecoming because of climate
(04:53):
change. They're spending upwardsof a $1,000,000,000 maybe
2,000,000,000, the end is not insight and I just I would go to
community meetings and askquestions like why are we doing
this? What are your assumptions?How high is the water supposed
to rise exactly?
And I got a lot of mumbledanswers, and sometimes I was
actually sent to one communitymeeting, I was sent to the back
(05:14):
of the room. They said, look.These these are inappropriate
questions to ask becauseeveryone
H. Sterling Burnett (05:19):
stand in the quest go stand in the
corner, put on your dunce cap.
Jon Pepper (05:23):
Exactly. If they'd had a dunce cap, they would have
made me wear it. That's forsure. And, so what I I went
back, and I kept pressing thisengineer who was the head of
this project and said, what areyou basing this on? How high do
you think the water is supposedto rise in New York Harbor?
Now New York Harbor, as you canenvision, is around the Statue
of Liberty. It's right out off,you know, Manhattan here, leads
(05:44):
out to the ocean, and they said,well, 3 feet by 2050. And I
would, this caused me to diginto the science and to look up
the the, the IPCC reports andthe the contrarian reports and
filings by lots of other people.I thought, we're not even close
to that. That's not even notpossible it's gonna happen.
H. Sterling Burnett (06:02):
Not in the not in the realm of possibility.
You know, if they really believesomething like that, I've I've
I've not been to New York in awhile Mhmm. But I haven't heard
about the great project movingthe Statue of Liberty from, the
island to a mountain topsomewhere.
Jon Pepper (06:18):
Exactly. Well, I think with with the you know how
our arm is up out stretched. Ithink that's how high they think
the water is gonna rise.
H. Sterling Burnett (06:25):
Well, there were images of that. I think, I
forget. There were images ofthat. Maybe an Al Gore's film,
you know, that was, like,advertising poster or something.
But Yeah.
You talk about preview you know,has has anyone from our side
taken this on before? And, ofcourse, the late Michael
(06:50):
Crichton. Doctor, MichaelCrichton, who was also a really
good writer.
Jon Pepper (06:55):
Oh, yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (06:56):
Did State of Fear, and that's just about
the only one I can think of, andit was more of a, I guess, an an
adventure story, an action storythan Missy's Twist is. But they
both dealt with, 8, they dealtwith hard climate science,
looking at it, taking data to bethe most important thing, as
(07:22):
opposed to climate models. Andthey both showed sort of the
inner workings of real politicsgoing on. So that, you know, to
the extent there's something incommon besides just both being
skeptical fiction works onclimate change, I think those
they have those things incommon.
Jon Pepper (07:42):
Yeah. Yeah. Michael Crichton's book was was
groundbreaking in that sense.And unfortunately, as you say,
it was the last of the last ofits breed, and I think it was
2004 when it came out. So we'retalking 20 years, 2,004, 2005.
And it was it was a it was aterrific book, a thriller, had a
really interesting point of viewon it. I didn't actually read it
(08:03):
until after I'd read I'd writtenMissy's Twitch, and a number of
people said, hey. Wait a second.You gotta you gotta you know,
read this book. It was it wasodd.
And so I I I went back and readand thought, you know, well,
good. I'm I I'd read otherMichael Crichton stuff in the
past, but for some reason, Ihadn't I hadn't seen it. Years.
Yeah. Yeah.
By the way, if if you if anyonebuys Michael Creighton's, book
(08:25):
on State of Fear, it's still outthere. And the electronic
version that I bought had 3 ofhis speeches at the front, and
they were fantastic. They werethey were terrific. Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (08:34):
Crichton was really bright. And and not
just bright, but he had aninquisitive mind. Mhmm. You
know, he he was always searchingfor answers, not not believing
he had answers, and and I thinkthat's a credit to him.
Jon Pepper (08:51):
Well, yeah. And it's interesting you say that,
Sterling, because I I find that,some of the people around this
climate industry who areespousing the most certain views
about science and how settled itis Yeah. Are the most suspect,
because as you know, there's somuch that is uncertain, so much
we don't understand that westill need to understand and
(09:13):
research. But you watch some ofthese characters out there and
say, you know, pay no attentionto that science behind the
curtain. Yeah.
Exactly. You know, just justlisten to us.
H. Sterling Burnett (09:22):
Yeah. Look, I know a famous climate
researcher. I have published inthe same Cambridge publication
as him and book. Mhmm. We wentto the same we were at the
Cambridge.
I finally asked him. I said,what would it take I said, I
know what it would take toconvince me that humans are
causing catastrophic climatechange. Not that climate change
is happening, mind you, I don'tdoubt that, and not that humans
(09:43):
may be playing a role, but thatit's catastrophic, that it's
that it's that's that it'ssomething we have to respond to
now. And I asked him, what wouldtake convince you that you're
wrong about that?
Jon Pepper (09:53):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (09:53):
Because that's what he said.
Jon Pepper (09:54):
Mhmm.
H. Sterling Burnett (09:55):
And he said all of physics would have to be
overturned. I said, really? Thelaw of conservation of energy,
entropy, all of that has to gofor you to be wrong about
climate change? He said, yes.Everything I ever learned about
physics.
Wow. You know, it was an answer.It was extreme hubris on his
part, I think. But, in any caseso, John, before we get into the
(10:18):
details of Missy's Twitch,you've written, as we've already
discussed, a book series calledFossil Feuds. Mhmm.
Now please describe you'vealready you've already told us a
little bit what what promptedyou to write the series. I'm not
sure what prompted you. It'slike I'm not sure what the
(10:38):
precipitating event is that I'vegotta write this first book.
Mhmm. But describe the differentbooks in this series.
And if you wanna get into whatit was that just like, today,
that's it. I've gotta write thisbook.
Jon Pepper (10:50):
Yeah. So they all, first of all, I was inspired, as
I mentioned. I had seen andheard and, so many things that
have gone on in business andpolitics over the years and I
thought at this point in mycareer, it'd be a shame to just
kinda kinda you know, go awaywith these stories still
H. Sterling Burnett (11:07):
in my
Jon Pepper (11:07):
head and I think by fictionalizing them, I could mix
and match different events thatI've seen different
personalities. I've seenbehaviors and so forth so
they're all entirely fictionalcharacters, but you know some
people you know like some ofthem, especially the political
figures may resemble folks thatpeople know in the news, But I
(11:28):
just thought there's a lot ofinteresting, material out there
to play with that I just neversee. And it was for me writing
these books was like watching, abingeable TV series or something
like that. That is you get soimmersed in it, you you can't
wait to get back to writing itbecause you wanna find out what
happens next. And that's that'sreally the way it goes because
(11:52):
II started each of these booksnot knowing what the end would
be.
The one I'm working on rightnow, I know more of the ending.
But the first ones I thought,just tell the story, tell some
stories about characters andthen see where it goes. So all
these books center around afictional company, the Power
Company, has operations aroundthe world. It's an energy firm,
(12:12):
and the the ruling, power behindthe company, it's more than a
100 years old, is the Crowfamily. They're all descended
from a company founder by thename of Homer Crow, who I
envision as a a contemporary ofJohn d Rockefeller and other
industrial pioneers from theearly 20th century and late,
late 1800.
(12:33):
And so what it covers is istheir battles. The reason it's
fossil feuds is they have a lotof fights going on with
politicians, activists, and eachother. So the stories focus on
the behaviors and attitudes ofthe the corporate chieftains the
politicians a lot of time on theactivists. There's a continuing
there's one group in particularthat is in all the books called
(12:54):
the Planetistas. I'm introducingan I'm introducing another,
another activist group in mynext book called the Climate
Rangers, and they, they goaround beat up people with
hockey sticks.
There you go. But, but all thestories are meant to be
entertaining and educational tooas you mentioned. And, so that
(13:16):
requires a great deal ofresearch, but the first book was
called A Turn in Fortune. It wasabout competition inside the c
suite. It pits, Robbie Crowe,who's a scion and heir to the
energy fortune, who acts aschairman, and he's got a highly
successful CEO by the name ofWalker Hope who does so well
that the chairman's verythreatened by that.
(13:36):
The CEO's getting way too muchpublicity, way too much credit
for the company's success, sothis leads to a showdown. One of
them has gotta go. So that's alot about the dynamics inside a
a company. The second one iscalled airs on fire. It's about
turbulence within the rulingfamily, and, it's about the
chairman's desire to makefriends with Enviro's, and that
(13:57):
leads him to overspend on a grabbag of green technologies that
causes a stock to plummet.
He takes it out on a shareholderwho critiques him in social
media, and this is anothershowdown. This time within the
family over whether Robbieshould still run the show given
his misplaced focus. And, thenthere was green goddess, a
company under fire fromactivists and politicians
(14:18):
demanding that it transitionedto new forms of energy. And, of
course, that's the big question.Right?
What are these magical forms?Wind and wind and solar, we know
about the issues there withintermittency, unreliability,
problems with the grid, withload, etcetera. So, but they do
have at Crow Power, they have aa division and subsidiary that's
focused on research anddiffusion energy. So they grab
(14:42):
onto that and use that to make asplashy demonstration at the
Statue of Liberty, as a matterof fact, and to show that to try
to prove some sort of green bonafides, and it works for a short
period of time. Anyway, it was,it was, I think, it showed kind
of the struggle that companiesface.
Those are in the traditionalenergy space to try to find new
(15:05):
ways of operating because thereisn't a better option out there
right now that's staring them inthe face. So almost all of them
have some sort of research goingon to find something that has
fewer carbon emissions ormethane emissions or less
pollution, whatever. But, sofar, they have not found
(15:25):
something to displace whataccounts for 85% of the energy
in the world, and, of course,that's fossil fossil fuels. So
that brings me up to Missy'sTwitch and that's, that's I
guess what we can talk aboutnext. That's about alarmism run
amok.
Before we get to the
Announcer (15:41):
rest of this podcast, I wanted to let you know about 2
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We'd love for you to join usevery Thursday at 1 PM EST, noon
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H. Sterling Burnett (17:01):
I'm gonna do something I hadn't planned on
doing, but, you know, youmentioned that some of the, some
of the figures in the book inMissy's Twitch, and I'm sure
this is probably true of yourprevious novels. I haven't read
them yet. Mhmm. That people mayrecognize them, at least the
this particular caricature of
Jon Pepper (17:20):
them. Mhmm.
H. Sterling Burnett (17:22):
I'm gonna read this. This this comes at
the end of a meeting between theWhite House's staff while the
president sleeps by the fire.Mhmm. Basically, all underlings
are making decisions. Mhmm.
And they've got the vicepresident in the room who is
sitting there wide eyed andsilent, and they decide since
(17:44):
she's actually the most powerfulelected representative in the
room, Maybe they should get her,her take on this. And so I'm
gonna read this a little bitbecause it's it's hilarious. So
she turned to the famouslyvacuous vice president, Sherika
Fugazi, who had come to themeeting late and sat at the
other end of the room in wideeyed silent throughout the
(18:06):
conversation petrified thatsomeone might ask her a
question. Yet, Jessica felt shecouldn't ignore the most senior
official in the room who wasawake. Madam vice president, is
there anything you'd like to addbefore we close?
Shirkah blinked several times,nodded, her lips dry, her mouth
agape. Why, yes. I'd like tomake this point because I think
(18:28):
it's very important. She clearedher throat, and that point is
that the root cause ofclimatosis, that's a disease
that is labeled in this book,the root cause of climatosis is
climate change, And climatechange, as we know all too well,
is about climate, she saidgravely. And then she leaned
forward, raised her index fingerto draw attention to her point,
(18:50):
but, and a lot of people don'tget this it's also about change.
You hear what I'm saying? Andwhen you put those things those
two concepts together climateand change, what do you get?
Climate change. So you start byzeroing in on the problem and
that leads you to the solutionwhatever that is. Tada!
Jon Pepper (19:12):
Yes. Well, I'm sure nobody could figure out who that
might be modeled after. Yeah.Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (19:18):
I gotta tell you there were, you know,
like, that was one spot, butthere were whole there were
whole, you know, the guy you youcall Spanky McFarlane, the
science the science director forthe president, that's the
physicist, by the way, in reallife I was referring to.
Jon Pepper (19:33):
Mhmm. Oh, really? Yes. Okay. Okay.
Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (19:37):
I know
Jon Pepper (19:37):
what you're talking about.
H. Sterling Burnett (19:38):
Yeah. So it, there were times that that,
you know, I read this book, andit was just laugh out loud
funny. There were other timesthat I was sitting there going,
you know, this is just so sad,because this is really the way
it is. Mhmm. And so, anyway,focusing specifically on Missy's
Twitch, please outline the storyfor our listeners, and what are
(20:01):
the motivations driving thedifferent main characters?
Jon Pepper (20:04):
Okay. Yes. So the story is about, as I mentioned,
climate alarmism and how it'sused by politicians and
businesses to buy into theirsolutions. Fork over your money
or your vote or both, and I tryto use humor, drama, and, some
exaggerations to make my pointsand to make that make it
entertaining. So you start withthe title cat character, the one
(20:27):
who's got the twitch, and that'sMissy Maborn Crowe.
She's assigned to the Crowfamily. She's about 6th
generation. Her mother runs thecompany, which causes instant
tension right there. She's freshout of Yale, gender studies,
really majored in woke. Shebecame a camp campus activist,
marching across campus,demonstrating against fossil
(20:48):
fuels.
Now supposedly, she's startingwork at the Crow Power Company,
and, she's working only in thefusion area because that's the
only thing that would besuitable for her. She's so
opposed to fossil fuels. Well,she's got an $8,000,000 pad in
Tribeca, a very tonyneighborhood in New York. And,
she's decorated it with a bunchof Georgia O'Keefe paintings, in
(21:10):
keeping with her, her focus ongender issues, but she has a
problem. And that is that shecan't go to work, because she's
developed this twitch, and it'sinvoluntary.
It moves her arm and makes herdo things she doesn't wanna do.
And her friends are getting ittoo. After she gets it, then
suddenly all her veryimpressionable friends also rush
(21:32):
fresh out of college get it too.They've all been been bombarded
with propaganda about climatechange since they were in
diapers. You know, and so herethey are again, suffering from
this stuff.
So this becomes, an issue. Shegoes to a therapist who labels
her anxiety over climate changeas climatosis. And she sees an
(21:57):
opportunity, this therapistdoes, to help make this thing go
viral and get more patients. Soshe helps put her on TV. Missy
and her friends put a video onTikTok.
Suddenly, this is a worldwidephenomenon. And all these kids
were suffering from climateanxiety based on all the
propaganda they've been hearingall their lives are suddenly
manifesting their fears with,with these twitches. Spasms.
(22:21):
Yeah. Yeah.
These spasms are to bepsychologists would call it a
conversion disorder. And,
H. Sterling Burnett (22:27):
so that psychologist. The psychologist
in your in your book, doctor is.Mhmm. No illusions there. I'm
certain.
Mhmm. But, he she comes up witha novel name, climatosis. Mhmm.
And so climatosis becomes thecause celeb. The, we've got to
battle climatosis.
(22:47):
It's Yeah.
Jon Pepper (22:57):
Yeah. Poster child for this. Imagine you know,
here's somebody from a familythat's that's their name is
associated with fossil fuels,and she's coming out. She's
damaged by this, and it canhappen to anyone. So the Dewey
Fenwick administration inWashington, which, which is
pushing all kinds of greensolutions on things.
(23:19):
They wanna use her as a way toshow, how damaging climate
change can be and how the worldneeds to adopt, some of their
many solutions. And, of course,we've seen a lot of this as you
pointed out in recent years withmassive spending bills that they
can't tell you what the billsare actually gonna do or what
impact it will have. They can'tquantify in any way, what
(23:43):
difference it would make forclimate because they don't know,
But but we're still gonna spend.So anyway, I I digress, but
Missy Missy becomes the cap onthis.
H. Sterling Burnett (23:54):
That's not that's not that's not that much
of a digression. Look. When theypass these bills, when they say
we have to vote on the billbefore we can know what's in it
Jon Pepper (24:02):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (24:03):
Or when they're questioned directly,
when when administrative headsare questioned directly and they
say, okay. How much is thisgoing to change the temperature?
And they say, well, that's nothow we measure success. Right.
Well, okay.
How do you measure success?Well, it's getting people to go
along and and believing. It'snot hold it. We're spending
(24:26):
billions of people to get peopleto go along for something that
may not even have that's as yousay, we can't quantify the
impact on climate change, whichis the whole point of it.
Jon Pepper (24:38):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (24:39):
Madness. And and and and in a novel,
funny. In real life, which iswhat we've lived in in the real
world, it's not funny at all.
Jon Pepper (24:52):
No. No. It's not. I I don't I don't spend a lot of
laughing, when I'm reading thenews about this stuff. I just
smack my head and go, how canthey get away with this?
Well, I tell you how they getaway. I mean, I I I'll get back
to Missy in a second, but, Imean, this has been a massive
across the board effort by a lotof entities to push this on us
and say, look at this crisis. Iin the book, I I tie it to
(25:17):
anyone who's seen the music man,remembers professor Harold Hill
coming into town and creating aa crisis. There's a the presence
of a pool table in yourcommunity. And look what it's
doing to our youth.
Well, they he knew as the folkswho are behind the climate
crisis supposedly know, and thatis that you create a crisis and
then you bring the solution withyou. And that's what this is all
(25:39):
about. It's a it's a it's abifurcated effort. On one hand,
push the crisis. On the otherhand, push the solution.
H. Sterling Burnett (25:46):
It's about the it's a you you you describe
different politicians andchronic capitalists in the book.
They don't, you know, in myopinion, they don't come off
well, though they come off, Ithink, pretty accurately. Mhmm.
But it's for those guys, whatit's about is power. It's about
control and money.
For the for the for the cronycapitalists, it's about
resources, it's about it'sabout, padding their bottom line
(26:09):
even more at the expense of ofother people. Mhmm. But it's
also about power. It's aboutcontrolling other people's
lives.
Jon Pepper (26:16):
Right. Absolutely. I absolutely agree. And, yes. It's
crony capitalism, which you'veseen in in many other industries
over a long period of time.
I mean, let's face it.Eisenhower warned about it back
in the fifties. Right?
H. Sterling Burnett (26:30):
Yep. Yep.
Jon Pepper (26:31):
The the military industrial complex. Well, it's a
climate industrial complex nowand and Kony capitalism is at
the center of it. So you've gotyou've got this breathtaking
effort to convince us thescience is settled when they not
when when people I respect, thescientists that I respect on
this and I've read, would tellyou it's in anything but
settled. There are too manyvariables we don't quite fully
(26:53):
understand, are hard to measure,can't compute, on and on. So we
know that, but, nevertheless,we're told every day in every
way, look at what science whatclimate change is doing to us
today.
Here's another disaster. It'stied to climate change. So,
anyway, they don't they don'tbother with the science anymore.
(27:14):
It's just simply move along buythe solutions, and we'll be
fine. So you've got you've gotall these folks pushing this
line of thinking, and I'm surethere'll be I'm sure there are
disclaimers on anything you'redoing like there are on some of
the things I've done appear on aon a podcast and suddenly you
have this UN, United Nationsdisclaimer on it saying, hey.
(27:36):
Here here's the I mean, how doesthat happen? Well, we know how
it happens. UN went to work andtalked to Google and said, you
guys need to get the straightscoop from us, and we have the
official truth. So you've gotfoundations, the UN, activists,
universities, media, searchengines, reference materials,
politicians, entertainmentindustry. It's it's everywhere
(28:00):
all at once.
And it it's really it's hard topenetrate for the ordinary folks
out there who aren't obsessingover this issue like maybe I am
and maybe you are. They're theyjust you just have to kind of
assume that these people knowwhat they're talking about. And
the more you dig into it andpierce the veil, you realize
(28:20):
they don't. And, I I tend to Ihave a lot more respect for the
people who say, let's learn moreabout this. Yeah.
Than the folks who are saying,it's all over, folks. Show's
over. Just here, buy thesesolutions. Because, I mean, look
at I don't wanna digress again,but look at the look at the
solution they pushed with EVs.Here it is, another top down
(28:41):
solution that was not ready forprimetime, a nice niche product
that some people really likedand thought was pretty cool, and
it is.
But, you know, there are otherconsequences of these EVs in the
mass market that they imaginedis not ready for it. They don't
embrace it. Extension cordsaren't 500 miles long, so that's
a problem.
H. Sterling Burnett (29:01):
You know, we already have we already have,
20,000 more chargers than wehave gas stations in the
country, and we still can't getthem keep them charged. We have
we have, they they say we need1,200,000 of them. We have a
150,000 gas station, but we need1,200,000 chargers to keep these
things on the road. Wow. The,and you may not know this.
(29:25):
I've known it for some time.I've I've written about it.
It'll come out in Climate ChangeWeekly tomorrow. Do you know
when the first electric vehiclewas created?
Jon Pepper (29:34):
Well, I think that it was goes back to the early,
1900 as I recall. Maybe the 18maybe the late 1800 with
Daimler. I don't know.
H. Sterling Burnett (29:43):
Well, even earlier, the first electric
locomotive, because that was thefirst vehicle that used electric
Jon Pepper (29:49):
Okay.
H. Sterling Burnett (29:50):
Was in the 18 thirties. Wow. The first
rechargeable battery was 18 59.The first electric cars preceded
the first internal combustionengine vehicles. They were tried
each of these technologies weretried and tested in the market.
Mhmm. You know, the first one,almost 200 years ago now, 180
(30:13):
years, and they failed everytime without government support,
without government help, Theywere competing on their own, and
the problem that they had then,nearly 200 years ago, is the
same problem that they havetoday, high cost, limited range.
(30:33):
Yeah. That hasn't changed in 200years.
Jon Pepper (30:37):
It's no. It it it hasn't, and they've been chasing
this forever. I mean, kinda likethey're chasing fusion now as
well. I I remember, in my columnwriting days back in the 19 19,
nineties going to see the formerhead of General Motors, guy
named Bob Stempel. And hestarted a company, based on
trying to find a batterysolution.
(30:58):
Now this guy had all kinds ofresources, all kinds of
engineering and automotiveknowledge, and he was gonna work
on some new form of battery thatcould actually have the proper
storage so that these vehiclescould be successful. Well, he
died, some years ago, notachieving his dream as many
others have died on this on thisbeach. And it just it isn't
(31:20):
there. And to base this notionthat we're all gonna drive
electric vehicles, the idea thatsomehow there will be a solution
to this before we we take allthese fossil these gasoline and
diesel vehicles off the roadIt's not just wishful thinking.
It's disastrous and dangerousand stupid.
H. Sterling Burnett (31:38):
It's bad it's bad for our health. It's
bad for the environment. It'spositive hazard, and it doesn't
they just don't fit ourlifestyle in the sense of, an
electric vehicle I first off, Iwouldn't want one charging my
garage overnight, but they mayfit they may fit if all you're
(32:02):
doing is commuting around townfor a few miles a day. But even
a modest trip I've written aboutthis. I've I looked at the
electric vehicles on the road.
Less than 5% of electricvehicles on the road can make it
from here to to Houston withouta charge in traffic during the
middle of summer in Texas Right.From from Dallas to Houston. So
(32:27):
what would be a 4 hour trip forme in my vehicle becomes an
overnight trip to get here, andthen a second overnight trip
back if I wanted to do it, youknow, one day down, one day
back, which is easily done. Ican do it in a day down and
back, and I've done it. I'vegone to Austin and testified.
(32:47):
That's that's what 3 hours, 3and a half hours from where I
live. I can go down to Austin inthe morning, testify, in the
afternoon, and come back thatevening. I can't do that in
electric vehicle.
Jon Pepper (33:00):
No. No. You can't. And just imagine. I mean, this
is all dreamed up, of course, byfolks who live in in small
cities in the Accella corridorand the West Coast miles across
or however long it is.
And, and, miles across orhowever long it is, and, and
(33:22):
through the Midwest and otherplaces where it's just simply
impractical. Now, if I wannadrive down to Florida, how am I
gonna do that from New York?I've gotta figure out where am I
gonna stop for charging? Howlong is it gonna take? How much
more time do I have to put intothis?
And by the way, if I put anysuitcases in the back, that's
gonna that's gonna lower myrange. And god forbid it's hot,
(33:45):
and I put on the airconditioning because that's also
gonna drain the battery. Soyou've gotta have a lot of
contingency plans if you'regonna take a road trip. The
great American road trip wouldbe a a history if they went
through with this. But you cansee that consumers are rebelling
just as they did before, andthey're not gonna accept this.
(34:05):
The companies are reducing andlaying off people at the battery
plants. They're reducing theproduction schedules of the auto
companies. And this was the thesad thing about this too,
though, Sterling, I mean, thisis all derisked for the
manufacturers by taxpayers.Yeah. We gave the money to the
companies to say, look, you'redoing God's work here, so we're
(34:28):
gonna pay you for it, and thenit turned out to be crap.
I mean, it just it didn't work.It's people didn't want it, and
here we are. We're stuck withthe tab. To be fair,
H. Sterling Burnett (34:39):
if it was coming from the government, you
should have known right then itwasn't God's work.
Jon Pepper (34:43):
Well, there's that. But but they regard it as as
God's work. That's for sure. Thepeople foisting the sides.
H. Sterling Burnett (34:49):
Well, with some some some deities work, I'm
not sure they ever reallythought it was God's work,
honestly. In any case, so let'swrap up a little bit about Missy
Twitch. Mhmm. I don't want youto give away the ending. Okay.
But, you know, talk just alittle bit more about, her
(35:10):
journey.
Jon Pepper (35:11):
Okay. So so Missy is, as part of being a trophy
for the Dewey Fenwickadministration, she's appointed
to this National ClimatosisCommission, and, she's asked to
give a speech at Central Parkwhere she's basically gonna give
her kind of a live hostage videoon behalf of climate change to
all these folks suffering fromclimatosis. And so she in the
(35:33):
course of doing this speech,she's given lines from the
politicians that criticize thecompany, and now it's starting
to hit a little close to home.It's getting personal about her
family, her family's history,and so forth, and this causes
her to maybe do a littlesearching. Maybe she needs to
know a little bit more aboutthis before she before she makes
this big public, broadside.
(35:56):
So she starts doing a little bitof research with the help of of
an adviser to her mother andalso with the help of a
professor who has been, deniedtenure at his at his college
because he had the temerity towrite something about climate
change that was not in keepingwith the gospel of the of the
college that was depending onlots of funding for its research
(36:19):
and so forth. So she is
H. Sterling Burnett (36:21):
professor who's now serving who is now a
barista serving coffee in a CheGuevara inspired coffee shop
where they they don't have anyproblem with capitalism.
Jon Pepper (36:34):
Exactly. Although they do make pretense. One of
the one of the little jokes inthere, or observations about
this professor was that, yes,he's wiping down latte latte
machines at Cafe Che, otherwiseknown as Commie Coffee in lower
Manhattan. And, he's namedemployee of the month, which is
a $50 gift certificate, but hedoesn't get to keep it all
(36:55):
because in keeping with equityideas, it's divided equally
between everyone, even those whodon't show up for work.
H. Sterling Burnett (37:01):
Yeah. So may
Jon Pepper (37:02):
as well get used to communism right away. And, but
yes. So she's she's looking atwe hearing more about the
research, questioning some ofthe assumptions she's made, and
it's dawning on her, maybe Idon't have this thing nailed
exactly. Maybe a lot of myassumptions are wrong. And, so
this causes I I'll I'll take itabout that far.
(37:24):
She still has to give this piece
H. Sterling Burnett (37:25):
The scale the scale's falling from her
eyes, not just about climatechange, but also about how she
is being used and her generationis being used.
Jon Pepper (37:34):
Exactly. Exactly. So, so she's gotta she's gotta
figure this out, and how what'sshe gonna do? How's she gonna
put it? What's she gonna say?
And that that leads to sort ofthe, the climax of the book when
she gets on
H. Sterling Burnett (37:46):
stage.
Jon Pepper (37:47):
And after she finishes throwing up in the
bushes before she goes on,what's she gonna say? So that's
that's where we are. Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (37:53):
So this is a work of fiction. Mhmm. Very
highly readable, funny. I'm notgonna say nail biting. It's not
it's not a, you know, it's notan adventure story.
Jon Pepper (38:09):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (38:10):
It's not a thriller. Mhmm. But it, it's
informed by facts, much likeMichael Crichton's book we
talked about earlier was. Mhmm.You you you looked into the
science.
Mhmm. You looked into not justabout climate change, but about
energy and energy needs, becausethis is some place something you
came from
Jon Pepper (38:29):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (38:30):
As you pointed out. So what is your
nonfictional assessment of thethreat climate change poses to
civilization and the virtues orlack thereof of fossil fuels?
Jon Pepper (38:41):
Climate change threat, I would say it's not
much. It's a it's an issue thatwe watch, but as far as,
anthropogenic climate change, wedon't know what how much of that
is of our climate change iscaused by human activities. We
suspect there's some, butthere's a lot that's due to
(39:02):
natural variability as we know.And, again, we don't know
exactly how much. Nevertheless,I think all the scenarios we've
heard about catastrophe don'tamount to much at all.
The models have been provenwrong repeatedly. They never
they never stops them. Theysimply move the goalposts out a
little further and say, well,you know, it's just it's another
(39:23):
5 years, and we're gonna hit hitthe tipping point or that
slippery slope, and we're gonnaslip into the abyss, and it's
gonna be horrible. So I don'tthink that it is something that
requires us to reorder theeconomy far from it. It seems
like more of an excuse to do itthan to actually do it, to
prevent anything that's going toreally hurt us.
(39:44):
So in my view, it's unproven,it's unquantifiable, and they
have an unsatisfactoryexplanation for why we need to
reorder the society that we livein. As for fossil fuels, they're
still indispensable. They'recentral to our way of life and
at the moment as far as energygoes, they're irreplaceable.
They're cheap, abundant,portable, dependable. You don't
(40:08):
have to plan your trip acrossthe country, by staying in
motels for, you know, inordinateamounts of time.
They're not perfect, and, thereare trade offs as there are to
everything else. Sure. There'spollution associated with,
extraction, also with some ofthe burning, you know, with coal
and so forth. There's, you know,if you look at if you look at
(40:31):
the fields of North Dakota fromfrom space when they're doing
fracking, you see a lot of gasthat's burned out into the
atmosphere for, you know, thisgoes to waste. So there there's
a fair amount of waste, andthey're they're finite
resources.
But here's the thing, it's likeit's like capitalism. It's the
worst possible system exceptcompared to everything else.
Well fossil fuels are kind ofthe same boat. It's the worst
(40:54):
possible energy source exceptcompared to everything else.
H. Sterling Burnett (40:56):
Except for every all the others. Yeah.
Jon Pepper (40:58):
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's a better way of putting
it. So but, you know, if youlook at the history and many
many people have pointed thisout, fossil fuels are a bit
essential and coincident withhuman flourishing over the past,
you know, century and a half,and so why do we wanna stop
this?
And we don't really wanna stopit. If we if the people pushing
(41:21):
this this story truly believedin this, they'd be pressing
China not to, keep building coalplants. Right? But they just
want us to stop, and they wantus they want us to feel better
about this somehow, that we'renot doing it. Well, come on.
That's a that's a that's anillusion. Or as as Richard
Lindson says, I love this quote.He said something to the fact
(41:44):
of, you know, historians areeventually gonna look at this as
one of the greatest delusions inhuman history, that we had to we
had to do all this to fixclimate change that we don't
know we don't know what theproblem is, much less the
solution. So
H. Sterling Burnett (42:03):
do you think the people I see what
people say every day. Mhmm. Youknow, because I follow this
really, really closely. Mhmm.And sometimes I think they're
stupid.
Mhmm. Sometimes I think they'reevil. Mhmm. A combination of
(42:23):
both, perhaps. Mhmm.
Rarely do I think they'recompletely unaware, but then I
saw something yesterday. Let mesee. I'm I'm trying to find it.
Okay. I don't know if you sawwhat John Kerry said yesterday.
Jon Pepper (42:36):
I've I've seen a lot of what John Kerry says, but I I
haven't didn't see that. I see Isee his daughters out there now.
H. Sterling Burnett (42:42):
Well, he said something to the effect
that people would be, less upsetabout the Russian and Ukraine
war if Russia was just doingmore about climate change. It's
okay to bomb civilians so longas you do so with bombs that
(43:06):
don't actually burn carbon whenthey explode. You see something
like that, and you think, is hejust unaware? Is he really that
stupid? Does he not care abouthumans?
Yeah. Here here's what he said.He said, I can I can play the
(43:30):
video, but I can't read it?
Jon Pepper (43:31):
Okay. Oh,
H. Sterling Burnett (43:32):
yeah. There it is. It says, there. John
Kerry says people would, quote,feel better about the war in
Ukraine if Russia would, quote,make a greater effort to reduce
emissions?
Jon Pepper (43:49):
That's just that's just it it is as laughable. I
mean, like a lot of things thatJohn Kerry says or Al Gore says,
it's just ridiculous that thatthey truly believe that this is
the overriding principle bywhich we all, judge our lives
and and behaviors and so forthis preposterous, but it just
(44:11):
shows you how deep inside thebubble he is of Martha's
Vineyard and and, inside theBeltway and so forth in this
private jet. He doesn't knowwhat's going. He's totally out
of touch with the ordinaryconcerns of ordinary people and
says stupid stuff like that thatthat's Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (44:27):
I mean, back when the worst the worst
Jon Pepper (44:28):
on its face.
H. Sterling Burnett (44:29):
You know, back when Russia invaded Ukraine
originally, he said he said, youknow, let's hope that the
invasion doesn't take Russia'soff the ball on climate change.
Jon Pepper (44:41):
Right. I do remember that. Yeah. That's that's the
word. Forget the nuclear warpossibility.
Yeah. Let's let's worry aboutare they are they emitting too
much. You you may recall,Sterling, there's a there's a
portion in the book where thepresident Fenwick is going
around the room, and they'retalking about all some of the
climate things solutions theyhave. And, so the the sec one of
(45:01):
the people from the defensedepartment, this Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (45:04):
Yeah. Yeah.
Jon Pepper (45:04):
This woke generals talking about, well, we're just
making sure that we're not gonnaapprove any weapons that have a
carbon footprint. And thepresident
H. Sterling Burnett (45:12):
Even the president yeah. Even the
president was sort of takenaback by that one.
Jon Pepper (45:16):
Yeah. He says, well, what if they're using bombs?
Well, she hadn't thought ofthat. Another another idiotic
idea they had was to was tosnuff out the eternal flame over
JFK's grave
H. Sterling Burnett (45:29):
Yeah.
Jon Pepper (45:29):
And install instead of flickering, candle, powered
by solar power. So, you know,but they they're always looking
for these, kind of symbolicgestures that are meaningless
ultimately, but but that thatplay to their to their backers
and play to the people who arewho are either true believers,
(45:52):
complete cynics, profiteers. Idon't think it's all one
mentality. I think it's a lot ofdifferent mentalities that kinda
joined together in this
H. Sterling Burnett (46:01):
Yeah.
Jon Pepper (46:02):
In this cause. And, unfortunately, we're we're stuck
with kind of trying to deal withtheir solutions, which are are
not just annoying and expensive,but potentially very dangerous.
And I'll I'll get into that morein my next book because, there's
something that's kinda staringus in the face that I think is
is concerning and that'smotivating me to get up at 4
(46:22):
o'clock in the morning andwrite.
H. Sterling Burnett (46:24):
Well, if you think about it, I'm gonna
I'm gonna put a pitch in formyself here. You might send me
some copies of, of the nextbook, and maybe I'll have you on
again, and and maybe some of theprevious books because I'd like
to catch up on those.
Jon Pepper (46:37):
Yeah. Great. I would love that.
H. Sterling Burnett (46:39):
In any case, we we've run a little
long. And so in closing, pleasetell our listeners how they can
get Missy's Twitch and the otherbooks in the series.
Jon Pepper (46:51):
Missy's Twitch is available at, all the usual
places, Amazon, Barnes andNoble, Walmart, etcetera. It's
also available in a lot ofindependent bookstores, so I'd
urge you to go through them.It's available in about 40
countries around the world inEnglish. I hope to get it
translated at some point. And,Green Goddess is available in a
(47:13):
lot of the same outlets.
The other books, the earlierbooks are all available on
Amazon. So, just put in my name,John Pepper, j o n, no h, and,
Pepper in Amazon, and you'llfind Missy's Twitch, Green
Goddess, airs on fire, and aturn in fortune. And then later
this year, another one.
H. Sterling Burnett (47:32):
John, it's really been good to speak with
you today. I hope to get yourother books and to have you back
on again, and I wanna wish you,to well, and thank you for
myself and our listeners.
Jon Pepper (47:43):
Well, thank you, Sterling. It's been a great
conversation. Really appreciate,your comments and your interest
and, and your observations onthe book. Sometimes it's
interesting to hear what otherpeople have to say, things about
the book that you didn't seeyourself. So
H. Sterling Burnett (47:57):
Yep. I'm gonna try I'm gonna try and go
on Amazon and leave a revieweven though I didn't get it
through Amazon, so I won't be averified purchaser, but there
you go.
Jon Pepper (48:06):
Well, please do. Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (48:07):
So, losers, thanks for checking in us today.
Please check Heartland's websiteas we continue to follow the,
and track the progress of energyenvironmental laws and
regulations that affect you. Andif you're not already receiving
these podcasts other than yourfavorite device, go to iTunes
and subscribe. And when you havethe time, please rate our
podcast on iTunes so you canhelp us expand the reach of free
market ideas. You might alsocheck out our weekly climate
(48:30):
livestream, now rebranded theClimate Realism Show, every
Friday on your favorite socialmedia streaming service, where
Anthony Watts, Lanae Lukin, andmyself, and almost weekly guests
discuss the climate topic of theweek, complete with taking
questions from viewers.
Thanks. Take care. Bye.
This is the Heartland Daily Podcast.
H. Sterling Burnett (00:09):
Hello. Welcome to the Hartman Institute
Daily Podcast. I'm SterlingBurnett, director of the Arthur
b Robinson Center on Climate andEnvironmental Policy and
Managing Editor of EnvironmentClimate News. I'm doing
something a little bit differenttoday. Instead of talking to a
policy wonk about the lateststudy or a politician about
pending bills or votes, I'minterviewing a writer of a work
of fiction.
(00:30):
The book is called Missy'sTwitch, and the author is John
Pepper. I was offered a reviewcopy of the book about a month
and about a month after I gotit, I found the time to read it
and knocked it out in 3 days.Though a work of fiction, it
could have been ripped from theheadlines and private diaries of
people intimately involved inclimate in the climate hype and
(00:52):
politics today. I cannotrecommend the book highly
enough, and I'm pleased to haveits author with us today to
discuss it. John, thanks forjoining
Jon Pepper (01:02):
us. Oh, thanks so much, Sterling. Pleasure to be
with
H. Sterling Burnett (01:05):
you. John, before we jump into the details
of Missy's Twitch, for ourlisteners who may not be
familiar with you, Please giveus a little bit of your
background and previous work,and what prompted you to write
not 1, not 2 as it turns out,but 4 works of fiction about
characters and issuessurrounding fossil fuels and
climate change.
Jon Pepper (01:24):
Okay. Glad to, Sterling. First of all, for
those who don't know me, I amthe author of 4 novels, and,
they're all tied together. It'scalled this the series is called
Fossil Fuze, and there's plentyof fighting over fossil fuels in
these books. In addition tobeing an author, I'm an agency
president.
I have a small communicationsfirm based in New York City with
(01:45):
an office in Washington DC. It'scalled Indelible, and we deal
largely in crisiscommunications. I was also a
journalist for a number of yearsin Detroit. I was national
reporter for 4 years for theDetroit News, then a columnist
for 10 years, where I focusedlargely on business and
politics. And often, they cametogether as we'll probably
(02:06):
discuss, I think, through thecourse of this of this podcast.
In addition to all that, I'vebeen an executive in corporate
America. I worked 13 years as anexecutive in fortune 100
companies in the energy businessand also in the automotive
space. Obviously, energy andclimate were a big part of my
life there and, what I had tofocus on a fair amount because
(02:27):
they were constantly issues thatwere coming up especially from
the media. So you ask about whatinspired me to write books and I
would say a few things. One isthat I thought I had some
entertaining stories to tellbased on some of the experiences
that I've had, some of theinsights I had, observations of
people, and what's going on inthe world.
(02:47):
I also wanted to use fiction asa vehicle
H. Sterling Burnett (02:50):
for social commentary, which you alluded to
in your in
Jon Pepper (02:50):
your opening remarks there, Sterling. And Sterling.
And I thought the territory waswide open because so much of
literature and popularentertainment comes from one
side of the of the spectrum, andthere's very little that
critiques some of the,absurdities and the excesses
from the other side. So Ithought this would be a good way
(03:12):
to expose some of that and bringit to life, get it off, you
know, I I draw a lot of myknowledge from knowledgeable
scientists and and authors whowrite, nonfiction books, but I
wanted to take a different, steptoward showing people what it's
really like by bringing some ofthese characters to life. And
when you talk about corporatelife, there's very little in the
(03:34):
way of satire other than showslike Succession, movies like
Office Space, which is one of myfavorites.
Very few satires about businessgenerally that I thought have
been successful and there havebeen even fewer books about
climate change and climatealarmism that come from, the
point of view that I would have.And, most of the books, as you
(03:55):
know, Sterling, and climatechange, and there are a lot of
them out there tend to bedystopian tales from the other
side. Oh my gosh. The world isending. The climate change
climate has been destroyed bythese greedy, fossil fuel
companies and so forth.
We have to head for the hillsbecause the water is gonna rise
or or, you know, vegetation isgonna disappear. On and on. You
(04:17):
know all the stories. They'retold constantly, and it's a
concerted effort by a lot offolks to make sure that we are
constantly made aware of what'sgoing what they think is going
on with the climate.
H. Sterling Burnett (04:30):
Right.
Jon Pepper (04:31):
So, after my 3rd book, which is called Green
Goddess, I was really inspiredby a project in my neighborhood.
That's where the government waspushing hard to sign up a bunch
of contractors to rip up ourshorefront and protect us from
supposedly high waters that werecoming because of climate
(04:53):
change. They're spending upwardsof a $1,000,000,000 maybe
2,000,000,000, the end is not insight and I just I would go to
community meetings and askquestions like why are we doing
this? What are your assumptions?How high is the water supposed
to rise exactly?
And I got a lot of mumbledanswers, and sometimes I was
actually sent to one communitymeeting, I was sent to the back
(05:14):
of the room. They said, look.These these are inappropriate
questions to ask becauseeveryone
H. Sterling Burnett (05:19):
stand in the quest go stand in the
corner, put on your dunce cap.
Jon Pepper (05:23):
Exactly. If they'd had a dunce cap, they would have
made me wear it. That's forsure. And, so what I I went
back, and I kept pressing thisengineer who was the head of
this project and said, what areyou basing this on? How high do
you think the water is supposedto rise in New York Harbor?
Now New York Harbor, as you canenvision, is around the Statue
of Liberty. It's right out off,you know, Manhattan here, leads
(05:44):
out to the ocean, and they said,well, 3 feet by 2050. And I
would, this caused me to diginto the science and to look up
the the, the IPCC reports andthe the contrarian reports and
filings by lots of other people.I thought, we're not even close
to that. That's not even notpossible it's gonna happen.
H. Sterling Burnett (06:02):
Not in the not in the realm of possibility.
You know, if they really believesomething like that, I've I've
I've not been to New York in awhile Mhmm. But I haven't heard
about the great project movingthe Statue of Liberty from, the
island to a mountain topsomewhere.
Jon Pepper (06:18):
Exactly. Well, I think with with the you know how
our arm is up out stretched. Ithink that's how high they think
the water is gonna rise.
H. Sterling Burnett (06:25):
Well, there were images of that. I think, I
forget. There were images ofthat. Maybe an Al Gore's film,
you know, that was, like,advertising poster or something.
But Yeah.
You talk about preview you know,has has anyone from our side
taken this on before? And, ofcourse, the late Michael
(06:50):
Crichton. Doctor, MichaelCrichton, who was also a really
good writer.
Jon Pepper (06:55):
Oh, yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (06:56):
Did State of Fear, and that's just about
the only one I can think of, andit was more of a, I guess, an an
adventure story, an action storythan Missy's Twist is. But they
both dealt with, 8, they dealtwith hard climate science,
looking at it, taking data to bethe most important thing, as
(07:22):
opposed to climate models. Andthey both showed sort of the
inner workings of real politicsgoing on. So that, you know, to
the extent there's something incommon besides just both being
skeptical fiction works onclimate change, I think those
they have those things incommon.
Jon Pepper (07:42):
Yeah. Yeah. Michael Crichton's book was was
groundbreaking in that sense.And unfortunately, as you say,
it was the last of the last ofits breed, and I think it was
2004 when it came out. So we'retalking 20 years, 2,004, 2005.
And it was it was a it was aterrific book, a thriller, had a
really interesting point of viewon it. I didn't actually read it
(08:03):
until after I'd read I'd writtenMissy's Twitch, and a number of
people said, hey. Wait a second.You gotta you gotta you know,
read this book. It was it wasodd.
And so I I I went back and readand thought, you know, well,
good. I'm I I'd read otherMichael Crichton stuff in the
past, but for some reason, Ihadn't I hadn't seen it. Years.
Yeah. Yeah.
By the way, if if you if anyonebuys Michael Creighton's, book
(08:25):
on State of Fear, it's still outthere. And the electronic
version that I bought had 3 ofhis speeches at the front, and
they were fantastic. They werethey were terrific. Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (08:34):
Crichton was really bright. And and not
just bright, but he had aninquisitive mind. Mhmm. You
know, he he was always searchingfor answers, not not believing
he had answers, and and I thinkthat's a credit to him.
Jon Pepper (08:51):
Well, yeah. And it's interesting you say that,
Sterling, because I I find that,some of the people around this
climate industry who areespousing the most certain views
about science and how settled itis Yeah. Are the most suspect,
because as you know, there's somuch that is uncertain, so much
we don't understand that westill need to understand and
(09:13):
research. But you watch some ofthese characters out there and
say, you know, pay no attentionto that science behind the
curtain. Yeah.
Exactly. You know, just justlisten to us.
H. Sterling Burnett (09:22):
Yeah. Look, I know a famous climate
researcher. I have published inthe same Cambridge publication
as him and book. Mhmm. We wentto the same we were at the
Cambridge.
I finally asked him. I said,what would it take I said, I
know what it would take toconvince me that humans are
causing catastrophic climatechange. Not that climate change
is happening, mind you, I don'tdoubt that, and not that humans
(09:43):
may be playing a role, but thatit's catastrophic, that it's
that it's that's that it'ssomething we have to respond to
now. And I asked him, what wouldtake convince you that you're
wrong about that?
Jon Pepper (09:53):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (09:53):
Because that's what he said.
Jon Pepper (09:54):
Mhmm.
H. Sterling Burnett (09:55):
And he said all of physics would have to be
overturned. I said, really? Thelaw of conservation of energy,
entropy, all of that has to gofor you to be wrong about
climate change? He said, yes.Everything I ever learned about
physics.
Wow. You know, it was an answer.It was extreme hubris on his
part, I think. But, in any caseso, John, before we get into the
(10:18):
details of Missy's Twitch,you've written, as we've already
discussed, a book series calledFossil Feuds. Mhmm.
Now please describe you'vealready you've already told us a
little bit what what promptedyou to write the series. I'm not
sure what prompted you. It'slike I'm not sure what the
(10:38):
precipitating event is that I'vegotta write this first book.
Mhmm. But describe the differentbooks in this series.
And if you wanna get into whatit was that just like, today,
that's it. I've gotta write thisbook.
Jon Pepper (10:50):
Yeah. So they all, first of all, I was inspired, as
I mentioned. I had seen andheard and, so many things that
have gone on in business andpolitics over the years and I
thought at this point in mycareer, it'd be a shame to just
kinda kinda you know, go awaywith these stories still
H. Sterling Burnett (11:07):
in my
Jon Pepper (11:07):
head and I think by fictionalizing them, I could mix
and match different events thatI've seen different
personalities. I've seenbehaviors and so forth so
they're all entirely fictionalcharacters, but you know some
people you know like some ofthem, especially the political
figures may resemble folks thatpeople know in the news, But I
(11:28):
just thought there's a lot ofinteresting, material out there
to play with that I just neversee. And it was for me writing
these books was like watching, abingeable TV series or something
like that. That is you get soimmersed in it, you you can't
wait to get back to writing itbecause you wanna find out what
happens next. And that's that'sreally the way it goes because
(11:52):
II started each of these booksnot knowing what the end would
be.
The one I'm working on rightnow, I know more of the ending.
But the first ones I thought,just tell the story, tell some
stories about characters andthen see where it goes. So all
these books center around afictional company, the Power
Company, has operations aroundthe world. It's an energy firm,
(12:12):
and the the ruling, power behindthe company, it's more than a
100 years old, is the Crowfamily. They're all descended
from a company founder by thename of Homer Crow, who I
envision as a a contemporary ofJohn d Rockefeller and other
industrial pioneers from theearly 20th century and late,
late 1800.
(12:33):
And so what it covers is istheir battles. The reason it's
fossil feuds is they have a lotof fights going on with
politicians, activists, and eachother. So the stories focus on
the behaviors and attitudes ofthe the corporate chieftains the
politicians a lot of time on theactivists. There's a continuing
there's one group in particularthat is in all the books called
(12:54):
the Planetistas. I'm introducingan I'm introducing another,
another activist group in mynext book called the Climate
Rangers, and they, they goaround beat up people with
hockey sticks.
There you go. But, but all thestories are meant to be
entertaining and educational tooas you mentioned. And, so that
(13:16):
requires a great deal ofresearch, but the first book was
called A Turn in Fortune. It wasabout competition inside the c
suite. It pits, Robbie Crowe,who's a scion and heir to the
energy fortune, who acts aschairman, and he's got a highly
successful CEO by the name ofWalker Hope who does so well
that the chairman's verythreatened by that.
(13:36):
The CEO's getting way too muchpublicity, way too much credit
for the company's success, sothis leads to a showdown. One of
them has gotta go. So that's alot about the dynamics inside a
a company. The second one iscalled airs on fire. It's about
turbulence within the rulingfamily, and, it's about the
chairman's desire to makefriends with Enviro's, and that
(13:57):
leads him to overspend on a grabbag of green technologies that
causes a stock to plummet.
He takes it out on a shareholderwho critiques him in social
media, and this is anothershowdown. This time within the
family over whether Robbieshould still run the show given
his misplaced focus. And, thenthere was green goddess, a
company under fire fromactivists and politicians
(14:18):
demanding that it transitionedto new forms of energy. And, of
course, that's the big question.Right?
What are these magical forms?Wind and wind and solar, we know
about the issues there withintermittency, unreliability,
problems with the grid, withload, etcetera. So, but they do
have at Crow Power, they have aa division and subsidiary that's
focused on research anddiffusion energy. So they grab
(14:42):
onto that and use that to make asplashy demonstration at the
Statue of Liberty, as a matterof fact, and to show that to try
to prove some sort of green bonafides, and it works for a short
period of time. Anyway, it was,it was, I think, it showed kind
of the struggle that companiesface.
Those are in the traditionalenergy space to try to find new
(15:05):
ways of operating because thereisn't a better option out there
right now that's staring them inthe face. So almost all of them
have some sort of research goingon to find something that has
fewer carbon emissions ormethane emissions or less
pollution, whatever. But, sofar, they have not found
(15:25):
something to displace whataccounts for 85% of the energy
in the world, and, of course,that's fossil fossil fuels. So
that brings me up to Missy'sTwitch and that's, that's I
guess what we can talk aboutnext. That's about alarmism run
amok.
Before we get to the
Announcer (15:41):
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H. Sterling Burnett (17:01):
I'm gonna do something I hadn't planned on
doing, but, you know, youmentioned that some of the, some
of the figures in the book inMissy's Twitch, and I'm sure
this is probably true of yourprevious novels. I haven't read
them yet. Mhmm. That people mayrecognize them, at least the
this particular caricature of
Jon Pepper (17:20):
them. Mhmm.
H. Sterling Burnett (17:22):
I'm gonna read this. This this comes at
the end of a meeting between theWhite House's staff while the
president sleeps by the fire.Mhmm. Basically, all underlings
are making decisions. Mhmm.
And they've got the vicepresident in the room who is
sitting there wide eyed andsilent, and they decide since
(17:44):
she's actually the most powerfulelected representative in the
room, Maybe they should get her,her take on this. And so I'm
gonna read this a little bitbecause it's it's hilarious. So
she turned to the famouslyvacuous vice president, Sherika
Fugazi, who had come to themeeting late and sat at the
other end of the room in wideeyed silent throughout the
(18:06):
conversation petrified thatsomeone might ask her a
question. Yet, Jessica felt shecouldn't ignore the most senior
official in the room who wasawake. Madam vice president, is
there anything you'd like to addbefore we close?
Shirkah blinked several times,nodded, her lips dry, her mouth
agape. Why, yes. I'd like tomake this point because I think
(18:28):
it's very important. She clearedher throat, and that point is
that the root cause ofclimatosis, that's a disease
that is labeled in this book,the root cause of climatosis is
climate change, And climatechange, as we know all too well,
is about climate, she saidgravely. And then she leaned
forward, raised her index fingerto draw attention to her point,
(18:50):
but, and a lot of people don'tget this it's also about change.
You hear what I'm saying? Andwhen you put those things those
two concepts together climateand change, what do you get?
Climate change. So you start byzeroing in on the problem and
that leads you to the solutionwhatever that is. Tada!
Jon Pepper (19:12):
Yes. Well, I'm sure nobody could figure out who that
might be modeled after. Yeah.Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (19:18):
I gotta tell you there were, you know,
like, that was one spot, butthere were whole there were
whole, you know, the guy you youcall Spanky McFarlane, the
science the science director forthe president, that's the
physicist, by the way, in reallife I was referring to.
Jon Pepper (19:33):
Mhmm. Oh, really? Yes. Okay. Okay.
Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (19:37):
I know
Jon Pepper (19:37):
what you're talking about.
H. Sterling Burnett (19:38):
Yeah. So it, there were times that that,
you know, I read this book, andit was just laugh out loud
funny. There were other timesthat I was sitting there going,
you know, this is just so sad,because this is really the way
it is. Mhmm. And so, anyway,focusing specifically on Missy's
Twitch, please outline the storyfor our listeners, and what are
(20:01):
the motivations driving thedifferent main characters?
Jon Pepper (20:04):
Okay. Yes. So the story is about, as I mentioned,
climate alarmism and how it'sused by politicians and
businesses to buy into theirsolutions. Fork over your money
or your vote or both, and I tryto use humor, drama, and, some
exaggerations to make my pointsand to make that make it
entertaining. So you start withthe title cat character, the one
(20:27):
who's got the twitch, and that'sMissy Maborn Crowe.
She's assigned to the Crowfamily. She's about 6th
generation. Her mother runs thecompany, which causes instant
tension right there. She's freshout of Yale, gender studies,
really majored in woke. Shebecame a camp campus activist,
marching across campus,demonstrating against fossil
(20:48):
fuels.
Now supposedly, she's startingwork at the Crow Power Company,
and, she's working only in thefusion area because that's the
only thing that would besuitable for her. She's so
opposed to fossil fuels. Well,she's got an $8,000,000 pad in
Tribeca, a very tonyneighborhood in New York. And,
she's decorated it with a bunchof Georgia O'Keefe paintings, in
(21:10):
keeping with her, her focus ongender issues, but she has a
problem. And that is that shecan't go to work, because she's
developed this twitch, and it'sinvoluntary.
It moves her arm and makes herdo things she doesn't wanna do.
And her friends are getting ittoo. After she gets it, then
suddenly all her veryimpressionable friends also rush
(21:32):
fresh out of college get it too.They've all been been bombarded
with propaganda about climatechange since they were in
diapers. You know, and so herethey are again, suffering from
this stuff.
So this becomes, an issue. Shegoes to a therapist who labels
her anxiety over climate changeas climatosis. And she sees an
(21:57):
opportunity, this therapistdoes, to help make this thing go
viral and get more patients. Soshe helps put her on TV. Missy
and her friends put a video onTikTok.
Suddenly, this is a worldwidephenomenon. And all these kids
were suffering from climateanxiety based on all the
propaganda they've been hearingall their lives are suddenly
manifesting their fears with,with these twitches. Spasms.
(22:21):
Yeah. Yeah.
These spasms are to bepsychologists would call it a
conversion disorder. And,
H. Sterling Burnett (22:27):
so that psychologist. The psychologist
in your in your book, doctor is.Mhmm. No illusions there. I'm
certain.
Mhmm. But, he she comes up witha novel name, climatosis. Mhmm.
And so climatosis becomes thecause celeb. The, we've got to
battle climatosis.
(22:47):
It's Yeah.
Jon Pepper (22:57):
Yeah. Poster child for this. Imagine you know,
here's somebody from a familythat's that's their name is
associated with fossil fuels,and she's coming out. She's
damaged by this, and it canhappen to anyone. So the Dewey
Fenwick administration inWashington, which, which is
pushing all kinds of greensolutions on things.
(23:19):
They wanna use her as a way toshow, how damaging climate
change can be and how the worldneeds to adopt, some of their
many solutions. And, of course,we've seen a lot of this as you
pointed out in recent years withmassive spending bills that they
can't tell you what the billsare actually gonna do or what
impact it will have. They can'tquantify in any way, what
(23:43):
difference it would make forclimate because they don't know,
But but we're still gonna spend.So anyway, I I digress, but
Missy Missy becomes the cap onthis.
H. Sterling Burnett (23:54):
That's not that's not that's not that much
of a digression. Look. When theypass these bills, when they say
we have to vote on the billbefore we can know what's in it
Jon Pepper (24:02):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (24:03):
Or when they're questioned directly,
when when administrative headsare questioned directly and they
say, okay. How much is thisgoing to change the temperature?
And they say, well, that's nothow we measure success. Right.
Well, okay.
How do you measure success?Well, it's getting people to go
along and and believing. It'snot hold it. We're spending
(24:26):
billions of people to get peopleto go along for something that
may not even have that's as yousay, we can't quantify the
impact on climate change, whichis the whole point of it.
Jon Pepper (24:38):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (24:39):
Madness. And and and and in a novel,
funny. In real life, which iswhat we've lived in in the real
world, it's not funny at all.
Jon Pepper (24:52):
No. No. It's not. I I don't I don't spend a lot of
laughing, when I'm reading thenews about this stuff. I just
smack my head and go, how canthey get away with this?
Well, I tell you how they getaway. I mean, I I I'll get back
to Missy in a second, but, Imean, this has been a massive
across the board effort by a lotof entities to push this on us
and say, look at this crisis. Iin the book, I I tie it to
(25:17):
anyone who's seen the music man,remembers professor Harold Hill
coming into town and creating aa crisis. There's a the presence
of a pool table in yourcommunity. And look what it's
doing to our youth.
Well, they he knew as the folkswho are behind the climate
crisis supposedly know, and thatis that you create a crisis and
then you bring the solution withyou. And that's what this is all
(25:39):
about. It's a it's a it's abifurcated effort. On one hand,
push the crisis. On the otherhand, push the solution.
H. Sterling Burnett (25:46):
It's about the it's a you you you describe
different politicians andchronic capitalists in the book.
They don't, you know, in myopinion, they don't come off
well, though they come off, Ithink, pretty accurately. Mhmm.
But it's for those guys, whatit's about is power. It's about
control and money.
For the for the for the cronycapitalists, it's about
resources, it's about it'sabout, padding their bottom line
(26:09):
even more at the expense of ofother people. Mhmm. But it's
also about power. It's aboutcontrolling other people's
lives.
Jon Pepper (26:16):
Right. Absolutely. I absolutely agree. And, yes. It's
crony capitalism, which you'veseen in in many other industries
over a long period of time.
I mean, let's face it.Eisenhower warned about it back
in the fifties. Right?
H. Sterling Burnett (26:30):
Yep. Yep.
Jon Pepper (26:31):
The the military industrial complex. Well, it's a
climate industrial complex nowand and Kony capitalism is at
the center of it. So you've gotyou've got this breathtaking
effort to convince us thescience is settled when they not
when when people I respect, thescientists that I respect on
this and I've read, would tellyou it's in anything but
settled. There are too manyvariables we don't quite fully
(26:53):
understand, are hard to measure,can't compute, on and on. So we
know that, but, nevertheless,we're told every day in every
way, look at what science whatclimate change is doing to us
today.
Here's another disaster. It'stied to climate change. So,
anyway, they don't they don'tbother with the science anymore.
(27:14):
It's just simply move along buythe solutions, and we'll be
fine. So you've got you've gotall these folks pushing this
line of thinking, and I'm surethere'll be I'm sure there are
disclaimers on anything you'redoing like there are on some of
the things I've done appear on aon a podcast and suddenly you
have this UN, United Nationsdisclaimer on it saying, hey.
(27:36):
Here here's the I mean, how doesthat happen? Well, we know how
it happens. UN went to work andtalked to Google and said, you
guys need to get the straightscoop from us, and we have the
official truth. So you've gotfoundations, the UN, activists,
universities, media, searchengines, reference materials,
politicians, entertainmentindustry. It's it's everywhere
(28:00):
all at once.
And it it's really it's hard topenetrate for the ordinary folks
out there who aren't obsessingover this issue like maybe I am
and maybe you are. They're theyjust you just have to kind of
assume that these people knowwhat they're talking about. And
the more you dig into it andpierce the veil, you realize
(28:20):
they don't. And, I I tend to Ihave a lot more respect for the
people who say, let's learn moreabout this. Yeah.
Than the folks who are saying,it's all over, folks. Show's
over. Just here, buy thesesolutions. Because, I mean, look
at I don't wanna digress again,but look at the look at the
solution they pushed with EVs.Here it is, another top down
(28:41):
solution that was not ready forprimetime, a nice niche product
that some people really likedand thought was pretty cool, and
it is.
But, you know, there are otherconsequences of these EVs in the
mass market that they imaginedis not ready for it. They don't
embrace it. Extension cordsaren't 500 miles long, so that's
a problem.
H. Sterling Burnett (29:01):
You know, we already have we already have,
20,000 more chargers than wehave gas stations in the
country, and we still can't getthem keep them charged. We have
we have, they they say we need1,200,000 of them. We have a
150,000 gas station, but we need1,200,000 chargers to keep these
things on the road. Wow. The,and you may not know this.
(29:25):
I've known it for some time.I've I've written about it.
It'll come out in Climate ChangeWeekly tomorrow. Do you know
when the first electric vehiclewas created?
Jon Pepper (29:34):
Well, I think that it was goes back to the early,
1900 as I recall. Maybe the 18maybe the late 1800 with
Daimler. I don't know.
H. Sterling Burnett (29:43):
Well, even earlier, the first electric
locomotive, because that was thefirst vehicle that used electric
Jon Pepper (29:49):
Okay.
H. Sterling Burnett (29:50):
Was in the 18 thirties. Wow. The first
rechargeable battery was 18 59.The first electric cars preceded
the first internal combustionengine vehicles. They were tried
each of these technologies weretried and tested in the market.
Mhmm. You know, the first one,almost 200 years ago now, 180
(30:13):
years, and they failed everytime without government support,
without government help, Theywere competing on their own, and
the problem that they had then,nearly 200 years ago, is the
same problem that they havetoday, high cost, limited range.
(30:33):
Yeah. That hasn't changed in 200years.
Jon Pepper (30:37):
It's no. It it it hasn't, and they've been chasing
this forever. I mean, kinda likethey're chasing fusion now as
well. I I remember, in my columnwriting days back in the 19 19,
nineties going to see the formerhead of General Motors, guy
named Bob Stempel. And hestarted a company, based on
trying to find a batterysolution.
(30:58):
Now this guy had all kinds ofresources, all kinds of
engineering and automotiveknowledge, and he was gonna work
on some new form of battery thatcould actually have the proper
storage so that these vehiclescould be successful. Well, he
died, some years ago, notachieving his dream as many
others have died on this on thisbeach. And it just it isn't
(31:20):
there. And to base this notionthat we're all gonna drive
electric vehicles, the idea thatsomehow there will be a solution
to this before we we take allthese fossil these gasoline and
diesel vehicles off the roadIt's not just wishful thinking.
It's disastrous and dangerousand stupid.
H. Sterling Burnett (31:38):
It's bad it's bad for our health. It's
bad for the environment. It'spositive hazard, and it doesn't
they just don't fit ourlifestyle in the sense of, an
electric vehicle I first off, Iwouldn't want one charging my
garage overnight, but they mayfit they may fit if all you're
(32:02):
doing is commuting around townfor a few miles a day. But even
a modest trip I've written aboutthis. I've I looked at the
electric vehicles on the road.
Less than 5% of electricvehicles on the road can make it
from here to to Houston withouta charge in traffic during the
middle of summer in Texas Right.From from Dallas to Houston. So
(32:27):
what would be a 4 hour trip forme in my vehicle becomes an
overnight trip to get here, andthen a second overnight trip
back if I wanted to do it, youknow, one day down, one day
back, which is easily done. Ican do it in a day down and
back, and I've done it. I'vegone to Austin and testified.
(32:47):
That's that's what 3 hours, 3and a half hours from where I
live. I can go down to Austin inthe morning, testify, in the
afternoon, and come back thatevening. I can't do that in
electric vehicle.
Jon Pepper (33:00):
No. No. You can't. And just imagine. I mean, this
is all dreamed up, of course, byfolks who live in in small
cities in the Accella corridorand the West Coast miles across
or however long it is.
And, and, miles across orhowever long it is, and, and
(33:22):
through the Midwest and otherplaces where it's just simply
impractical. Now, if I wannadrive down to Florida, how am I
gonna do that from New York?I've gotta figure out where am I
gonna stop for charging? Howlong is it gonna take? How much
more time do I have to put intothis?
And by the way, if I put anysuitcases in the back, that's
gonna that's gonna lower myrange. And god forbid it's hot,
(33:45):
and I put on the airconditioning because that's also
gonna drain the battery. Soyou've gotta have a lot of
contingency plans if you'regonna take a road trip. The
great American road trip wouldbe a a history if they went
through with this. But you cansee that consumers are rebelling
just as they did before, andthey're not gonna accept this.
(34:05):
The companies are reducing andlaying off people at the battery
plants. They're reducing theproduction schedules of the auto
companies. And this was the thesad thing about this too,
though, Sterling, I mean, thisis all derisked for the
manufacturers by taxpayers.Yeah. We gave the money to the
companies to say, look, you'redoing God's work here, so we're
(34:28):
gonna pay you for it, and thenit turned out to be crap.
I mean, it just it didn't work.It's people didn't want it, and
here we are. We're stuck withthe tab. To be fair,
H. Sterling Burnett (34:39):
if it was coming from the government, you
should have known right then itwasn't God's work.
Jon Pepper (34:43):
Well, there's that. But but they regard it as as
God's work. That's for sure. Thepeople foisting the sides.
H. Sterling Burnett (34:49):
Well, with some some some deities work, I'm
not sure they ever reallythought it was God's work,
honestly. In any case, so let'swrap up a little bit about Missy
Twitch. Mhmm. I don't want youto give away the ending. Okay.
But, you know, talk just alittle bit more about, her
(35:10):
journey.
Jon Pepper (35:11):
Okay. So so Missy is, as part of being a trophy
for the Dewey Fenwickadministration, she's appointed
to this National ClimatosisCommission, and, she's asked to
give a speech at Central Parkwhere she's basically gonna give
her kind of a live hostage videoon behalf of climate change to
all these folks suffering fromclimatosis. And so she in the
(35:33):
course of doing this speech,she's given lines from the
politicians that criticize thecompany, and now it's starting
to hit a little close to home.It's getting personal about her
family, her family's history,and so forth, and this causes
her to maybe do a littlesearching. Maybe she needs to
know a little bit more aboutthis before she before she makes
this big public, broadside.
(35:56):
So she starts doing a little bitof research with the help of of
an adviser to her mother andalso with the help of a
professor who has been, deniedtenure at his at his college
because he had the temerity towrite something about climate
change that was not in keepingwith the gospel of the of the
college that was depending onlots of funding for its research
(36:19):
and so forth. So she is
H. Sterling Burnett (36:21):
professor who's now serving who is now a
barista serving coffee in a CheGuevara inspired coffee shop
where they they don't have anyproblem with capitalism.
Jon Pepper (36:34):
Exactly. Although they do make pretense. One of
the one of the little jokes inthere, or observations about
this professor was that, yes,he's wiping down latte latte
machines at Cafe Che, otherwiseknown as Commie Coffee in lower
Manhattan. And, he's namedemployee of the month, which is
a $50 gift certificate, but hedoesn't get to keep it all
(36:55):
because in keeping with equityideas, it's divided equally
between everyone, even those whodon't show up for work.
H. Sterling Burnett (37:01):
Yeah. So may
Jon Pepper (37:02):
as well get used to communism right away. And, but
yes. So she's she's looking atwe hearing more about the
research, questioning some ofthe assumptions she's made, and
it's dawning on her, maybe Idon't have this thing nailed
exactly. Maybe a lot of myassumptions are wrong. And, so
this causes I I'll I'll take itabout that far.
(37:24):
She still has to give this piece
H. Sterling Burnett (37:25):
The scale the scale's falling from her
eyes, not just about climatechange, but also about how she
is being used and her generationis being used.
Jon Pepper (37:34):
Exactly. Exactly. So, so she's gotta she's gotta
figure this out, and how what'sshe gonna do? How's she gonna
put it? What's she gonna say?
And that that leads to sort ofthe, the climax of the book when
she gets on
H. Sterling Burnett (37:46):
stage.
Jon Pepper (37:47):
And after she finishes throwing up in the
bushes before she goes on,what's she gonna say? So that's
that's where we are. Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (37:53):
So this is a work of fiction. Mhmm. Very
highly readable, funny. I'm notgonna say nail biting. It's not
it's not a, you know, it's notan adventure story.
Jon Pepper (38:09):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (38:10):
It's not a thriller. Mhmm. But it, it's
informed by facts, much likeMichael Crichton's book we
talked about earlier was. Mhmm.You you you looked into the
science.
Mhmm. You looked into not justabout climate change, but about
energy and energy needs, becausethis is some place something you
came from
Jon Pepper (38:29):
Right.
H. Sterling Burnett (38:30):
As you pointed out. So what is your
nonfictional assessment of thethreat climate change poses to
civilization and the virtues orlack thereof of fossil fuels?
Jon Pepper (38:41):
Climate change threat, I would say it's not
much. It's a it's an issue thatwe watch, but as far as,
anthropogenic climate change, wedon't know what how much of that
is of our climate change iscaused by human activities. We
suspect there's some, butthere's a lot that's due to
(39:02):
natural variability as we know.And, again, we don't know
exactly how much. Nevertheless,I think all the scenarios we've
heard about catastrophe don'tamount to much at all.
The models have been provenwrong repeatedly. They never
they never stops them. Theysimply move the goalposts out a
little further and say, well,you know, it's just it's another
(39:23):
5 years, and we're gonna hit hitthe tipping point or that
slippery slope, and we're gonnaslip into the abyss, and it's
gonna be horrible. So I don'tthink that it is something that
requires us to reorder theeconomy far from it. It seems
like more of an excuse to do itthan to actually do it, to
prevent anything that's going toreally hurt us.
(39:44):
So in my view, it's unproven,it's unquantifiable, and they
have an unsatisfactoryexplanation for why we need to
reorder the society that we livein. As for fossil fuels, they're
still indispensable. They'recentral to our way of life and
at the moment as far as energygoes, they're irreplaceable.
They're cheap, abundant,portable, dependable. You don't
(40:08):
have to plan your trip acrossthe country, by staying in
motels for, you know, inordinateamounts of time.
They're not perfect, and, thereare trade offs as there are to
everything else. Sure. There'spollution associated with,
extraction, also with some ofthe burning, you know, with coal
and so forth. There's, you know,if you look at if you look at
(40:31):
the fields of North Dakota fromfrom space when they're doing
fracking, you see a lot of gasthat's burned out into the
atmosphere for, you know, thisgoes to waste. So there there's
a fair amount of waste, andthey're they're finite
resources.
But here's the thing, it's likeit's like capitalism. It's the
worst possible system exceptcompared to everything else.
Well fossil fuels are kind ofthe same boat. It's the worst
(40:54):
possible energy source exceptcompared to everything else.
H. Sterling Burnett (40:56):
Except for every all the others. Yeah.
Jon Pepper (40:58):
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's a better way of putting
it. So but, you know, if youlook at the history and many
many people have pointed thisout, fossil fuels are a bit
essential and coincident withhuman flourishing over the past,
you know, century and a half,and so why do we wanna stop
this?
And we don't really wanna stopit. If we if the people pushing
(41:21):
this this story truly believedin this, they'd be pressing
China not to, keep building coalplants. Right? But they just
want us to stop, and they wantus they want us to feel better
about this somehow, that we'renot doing it. Well, come on.
That's a that's a that's anillusion. Or as as Richard
Lindson says, I love this quote.He said something to the fact
(41:44):
of, you know, historians areeventually gonna look at this as
one of the greatest delusions inhuman history, that we had to we
had to do all this to fixclimate change that we don't
know we don't know what theproblem is, much less the
solution. So
H. Sterling Burnett (42:03):
do you think the people I see what
people say every day. Mhmm. Youknow, because I follow this
really, really closely. Mhmm.And sometimes I think they're
stupid.
Mhmm. Sometimes I think they'reevil. Mhmm. A combination of
(42:23):
both, perhaps. Mhmm.
Rarely do I think they'recompletely unaware, but then I
saw something yesterday. Let mesee. I'm I'm trying to find it.
Okay. I don't know if you sawwhat John Kerry said yesterday.
Jon Pepper (42:36):
I've I've seen a lot of what John Kerry says, but I I
haven't didn't see that. I see Isee his daughters out there now.
H. Sterling Burnett (42:42):
Well, he said something to the effect
that people would be, less upsetabout the Russian and Ukraine
war if Russia was just doingmore about climate change. It's
okay to bomb civilians so longas you do so with bombs that
(43:06):
don't actually burn carbon whenthey explode. You see something
like that, and you think, is hejust unaware? Is he really that
stupid? Does he not care abouthumans?
Yeah. Here here's what he said.He said, I can I can play the
(43:30):
video, but I can't read it?
Jon Pepper (43:31):
Okay. Oh,
H. Sterling Burnett (43:32):
yeah. There it is. It says, there. John
Kerry says people would, quote,feel better about the war in
Ukraine if Russia would, quote,make a greater effort to reduce
emissions?
Jon Pepper (43:49):
That's just that's just it it is as laughable. I
mean, like a lot of things thatJohn Kerry says or Al Gore says,
it's just ridiculous that thatthey truly believe that this is
the overriding principle bywhich we all, judge our lives
and and behaviors and so forthis preposterous, but it just
(44:11):
shows you how deep inside thebubble he is of Martha's
Vineyard and and, inside theBeltway and so forth in this
private jet. He doesn't knowwhat's going. He's totally out
of touch with the ordinaryconcerns of ordinary people and
says stupid stuff like that thatthat's Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (44:27):
I mean, back when the worst the worst
Jon Pepper (44:28):
on its face.
H. Sterling Burnett (44:29):
You know, back when Russia invaded Ukraine
originally, he said he said, youknow, let's hope that the
invasion doesn't take Russia'soff the ball on climate change.
Jon Pepper (44:41):
Right. I do remember that. Yeah. That's that's the
word. Forget the nuclear warpossibility.
Yeah. Let's let's worry aboutare they are they emitting too
much. You you may recall,Sterling, there's a there's a
portion in the book where thepresident Fenwick is going
around the room, and they'retalking about all some of the
climate things solutions theyhave. And, so the the sec one of
(45:01):
the people from the defensedepartment, this Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (45:04):
Yeah. Yeah.
Jon Pepper (45:04):
This woke generals talking about, well, we're just
making sure that we're not gonnaapprove any weapons that have a
carbon footprint. And thepresident
H. Sterling Burnett (45:12):
Even the president yeah. Even the
president was sort of takenaback by that one.
Jon Pepper (45:16):
Yeah. He says, well, what if they're using bombs?
Well, she hadn't thought ofthat. Another another idiotic
idea they had was to was tosnuff out the eternal flame over
JFK's grave
H. Sterling Burnett (45:29):
Yeah.
Jon Pepper (45:29):
And install instead of flickering, candle, powered
by solar power. So, you know,but they they're always looking
for these, kind of symbolicgestures that are meaningless
ultimately, but but that thatplay to their to their backers
and play to the people who arewho are either true believers,
(45:52):
complete cynics, profiteers. Idon't think it's all one
mentality. I think it's a lot ofdifferent mentalities that kinda
joined together in this
H. Sterling Burnett (46:01):
Yeah.
Jon Pepper (46:02):
In this cause. And, unfortunately, we're we're stuck
with kind of trying to deal withtheir solutions, which are are
not just annoying and expensive,but potentially very dangerous.
And I'll I'll get into that morein my next book because, there's
something that's kinda staringus in the face that I think is
is concerning and that'smotivating me to get up at 4
(46:22):
o'clock in the morning andwrite.
H. Sterling Burnett (46:24):
Well, if you think about it, I'm gonna
I'm gonna put a pitch in formyself here. You might send me
some copies of, of the nextbook, and maybe I'll have you on
again, and and maybe some of theprevious books because I'd like
to catch up on those.
Jon Pepper (46:37):
Yeah. Great. I would love that.
H. Sterling Burnett (46:39):
In any case, we we've run a little
long. And so in closing, pleasetell our listeners how they can
get Missy's Twitch and the otherbooks in the series.
Jon Pepper (46:51):
Missy's Twitch is available at, all the usual
places, Amazon, Barnes andNoble, Walmart, etcetera. It's
also available in a lot ofindependent bookstores, so I'd
urge you to go through them.It's available in about 40
countries around the world inEnglish. I hope to get it
translated at some point. And,Green Goddess is available in a
(47:13):
lot of the same outlets.
The other books, the earlierbooks are all available on
Amazon. So, just put in my name,John Pepper, j o n, no h, and,
Pepper in Amazon, and you'llfind Missy's Twitch, Green
Goddess, airs on fire, and aturn in fortune. And then later
this year, another one.
H. Sterling Burnett (47:32):
John, it's really been good to speak with
you today. I hope to get yourother books and to have you back
on again, and I wanna wish you,to well, and thank you for
myself and our listeners.
Jon Pepper (47:43):
Well, thank you, Sterling. It's been a great
conversation. Really appreciate,your comments and your interest
and, and your observations onthe book. Sometimes it's
interesting to hear what otherpeople have to say, things about
the book that you didn't seeyourself. So
H. Sterling Burnett (47:57):
Yep. I'm gonna try I'm gonna try and go
on Amazon and leave a revieweven though I didn't get it
through Amazon, so I won't be averified purchaser, but there
you go.
Jon Pepper (48:06):
Well, please do. Yeah.
H. Sterling Burnett (48:07):
So, losers, thanks for checking in us today.
Please check Heartland's websiteas we continue to follow the,
and track the progress of energyenvironmental laws and
regulations that affect you. Andif you're not already receiving
these podcasts other than yourfavorite device, go to iTunes
and subscribe. And when you havethe time, please rate our
podcast on iTunes so you canhelp us expand the reach of free
market ideas. You might alsocheck out our weekly climate
(48:30):
livestream, now rebranded theClimate Realism Show, every
Friday on your favorite socialmedia streaming service, where
Anthony Watts, Lanae Lukin, andmyself, and almost weekly guests
discuss the climate topic of theweek, complete with taking
questions from viewers.
Thanks. Take care. Bye.
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