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THE FRUITFUL RESULTS OF INCREASING CO2
By Vijay Jayaraj, July 22, 2025

Among the climatically correct, nothing is more scandalous than describing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as beneficial. You can be blacklisted from public forums, professional networking sites, and even be removed from your tenured university position as an accomplished scientist.

Nonetheless, the truth is this: CO2 is fundamental to the photosynthetic process by which plants make food for themselves -- and ultimately for us. Furthermore, the increase in atmospheric CO2 from industrial activity in the past century has helped vegetation over most of the planet to flourish. Also benefiting plants has been the relative warmth of recent decades.

Among the beneficiaries are fruit plants, whose sensitivity to cold is well established. In April 2007, an unseasonable freeze caused considerable low-temperature injury to small fruit plants, including grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, in 21 U.S. states. The financial repercussions for the agricultural sector were substantial. In North Carolina alone, farming losses were estimated to be $112 million, including $86 million in damages to fruit crops.

During the Little Ice Age (1300-1850), many of the fruit crops faced significant challenges from low temperatures, shorter growing seasons, and extreme weather events like frosts, heavy rains, and drought.

In Iceland and high alpine areas, agriculture nearly collapsed. In China’s Jiangxi Province, centuries-old orange cultivation was abandoned due to cold. In temperate zones, apple and pear trees struggled with erratic temperatures causing irregular blooming and lower yields.

Fast forward 175 years or so, and we have fruit crops thriving globally, thanks to elevated CO2 levels, relative warmth, and a series of innovations in plant biotechnology. Regardless of whether certain politicians or news media believe it or not, plants love the warmer temperatures and increasing carbon dioxide of our season of plenty.

Rising temperatures extend growing seasons by delaying fall frosts and advancing spring thaws, allowing more plantings and reducing late-spring frost risks for orchard growers. The U.S. growing season has lengthened by over two weeks since the early 20th century.

A 2022 study led scientists to conclude that there is no doubt about the “fertilization effect of CO2” on fruit species, which also benefit from natural warming as Earth recovers from the Little Ice Age.

“Growing crops under (elevated CO2) can increase photosynthesis and result in an increase in yield, flavor and nutritional content, including but not limited to Vitamins C, E” and compounds that can be converted to Vitamin A, concludes a 2023 study.

Some fruit plants benefit more than others. Tomatoes, for instance, show an astounding 80% increase in yield when CO2 in greenhouses is elevated to 1,000 parts per million (ppm), which is well above the ambient atmospheric level of 430 ppm.

The gourd family of crops like cucumber, melon, and squash all show increased yield or nutritional value with elevated CO2. Blueberries and raspberries likewise show a positive response to higher CO2. Strawberries exhibit increased yield and quality, including improved levels of dry matter-content, fructose, glucose, and total sugar. In Colombia, fruit trees, such as citrus, grapevines, papaya, and pitaya, benefited from elevated CO2’s effect of alleviating the stress of both drought and waterlogging.

The magic of CO2 can even unlock new possibilities in space exploration. A scientific study, which was aimed at understanding the suitability of leafy green crops for space cultivation, found that elevated CO2 (1,500–3,000 ppm) increased growth and yield in certain types of lettuce, bok choy, kale, and mustard, with many showing higher levels of Vitamins C and B1.

Plant biologists believe that fruit yields can be further increased with adjustments to other factors like nitrogen content, genotypic choices, and application of agricultural technologies.

In the meantime, it probably makes sense to work on making fruit crops more resilient to low temperatures by developing cold-hardy fruit genotypic varieties, as eventual global cooling is a greater risk to food supplies than the warmth of today’s climate.

In any case, there is no doubt that, from a horticultural perspective, currently rising levels of CO2 have proven, well, fruitful.

Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor’s in engineering from Anna University, India.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com

THE CLIMATE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX IS ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE
By Chris Talgo July 30, 2025

For most of my life, the climate industrial complex has been a thorn in the side of the U.S. economy. Over the years, it has wrought numerous laws and regulations that have stifled economic growth, innovation, prosperity, and productivity. All in the name of saving the human species and the planet from the existential crisis called climate change.

The blunt reality is that climate alarmist fearmongering has jumped the shark. It is now a subject of ridicule. No one really believes the world is going to end in a few years if we don’t immediately abandon fossil fuels.

However, the climate change charade lasted a while and did extensive economic damage. It will take years, if not decades, to reverse all this unnecessary harm.

The good news is that one of the most fundamental elements of the climate industrial complex, the Endangerment Finding, seems to be on the brink of elimination.

Unbeknownst to most Americans, the Endangerment Finding, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put into effect under President Barack Obama, essentially labels carbon dioxide a harmful “pollutant” that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Since it was put into place in late 2009, the Endangerment Finding has been used increasingly by the federal government to regulate fossil fuels.

“The Endangerment Finding is the legal foundation that underpins vital protections for millions of people from the severe threats of climate change, and the Clean Car and Truck Standards are among the most important and effective protections to address the largest U.S. source of climate-causing pollution,” according to Peter Zalzal, associate vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund.

Zalzal is a climate alarmist. He may even realize that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are not causing a climate crisis. However, like so many climate alarmists, he is part of the cottage industry the "crisis" has spawned over the decades.

In fact, the Endangerment Finding is predicated on flawed science to begin with. Despite the insistence by the EPA over the years that carbon dioxide is a harmful pollutant that is driving an existential climate crisis, the data say otherwise.

Under President Trump 2.0, the EPA is finally reversing course on Obama’s catch-all climate regulatory tool.

On January 20, Trump signed an executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy,” which instructed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to “submit recommendations… on the legality and continuing applicability” of the Endangerment Finding within 30 days.

Nearly six months later, the verdict is in: The Endangerment Finding will be repealed by the Trump administration.

According to Zeldin, “Repealing [the Endangerment Finding] will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.”

Even better, he described the coming rule overturn as akin to “basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion.”

Ordinary hard-working Americans ought to be rejoicing. This means that the federal government will no longer micromanage carbon-dioxide emissions.

I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Since 2009, the Endangerment Finding has been utilized as a primary weapon in the climate alarmists’ quest to rid the United States of fossil fuels and regulate the gasoline-powered automobile out of existence.

By repealing the Endangerment Finding, Trump is basically lobbing a giant wrench into the climate industrial complex. I don’t know if it will ever recover. Nor do I hope it does.

Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com

TRUMP ACCOUNTS: 'THE BACKDOOR FOR PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY'
By Monica Showalter, July 31, 2025

Herman Cain lives!

The late great Republican Tea Party leader, CEO, and former chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve was derided in his 2012 presidential campaign for his "Chilean Model" proposed during a debate -- a plan to replace the failing Social Security system with private accounts, as had been done in Chile in the 1970s.

In reality, he had an enduringly good idea that would have saved the rapidly depleting U.S. Social Security system just as it saved Chile's, and made every saver in the U.S. richer. But the left demonized it without a hearing, hating the idea of the little guy (instead of the government) controlling his own retirement funds.

Now President Trump has picked up the torch.

According to Politico:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday framed the president’s new “Trump accounts” as a transformative tool for long-term wealth building and a “backdoor for privatizing Social Security.”

Bessent said the new tax-deferred investment accounts, which were created by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax law earlier this month, could be a way to boost financial literacy and young voters’ engagement in the economy.
It's the best idea of all to come out of the Trump administration.

I've followed this story for years -- some fifty nations with failing social security systems have adopted this Chilean Model of private savings accounts for retirements, and all of them have suceeded. There even was a version of it tried in Galveston among its government workers -- which had the same success.

As I wrote in a page one news story at Investor's Business Daily in 2011:

Instead of paying a 12.4% Social Security tax as we do here, Chilean workers must pay in 10% of their wages (they can send up to 20%) to one of several conservatively managed and regulated pension funds. From the accumulated savings, they get a life annuity or make programmed withdrawals (inheriting any funds left over).

Over the last three decades these accounts have averaged annual returns of 9.23% above inflation. By contrast, U.S. Social Security pays a 1% to 2% (theoretical) return, and even less for new workers.

Yes, it was great news for workers -- making ten times what they'd get with the government system, which was effectively a black hole of mismanagement, waste, and fraud, as Elon Musk's DOGE found out in spades.

But the gains didn't stop with workers. The cash in savings formed a vast pool of capital to invest in and develop the country. As Businessweek wrote in 2005:

Drivers in Chile don't have to wait until they're 65 to enjoy their pension benefits. Every day thousands do so when they speed from Santiago to Viña del Mar along the Rutas del Pacífico toll road, which opened on Apr. 13 with funding from the country's deep-pocketed pension funds. A billboard reminds passing motorists: 'Your savings are financing this highway, and this highway is financing your retirement'.

Chile still has the largest pool of private capital for national development, though I imagine free-market Argentina will catch up fast. That made Chile a first world country in a few short years and it had been a socialist hellhole going down the Cuban model.

The U.S. could have the same thing, just by copying the model, what Herman Cain called "the Chilean Model." Now it looks like it's happening, and leftists are screaming into the wind about how "bad" it is.

Here's Sen. Chris "margarita man" Van Hollen screaming bloody murder and making a fool of himself again:

Can't make this up: Trump's billionaire Treasury Secretary admitted, on camera, that parts of their Big Ugly Betrayal of a bill are a ‘back door for privatizing Social Security.'

These people love to say the quiet part out loud: they are coming for Social Security.… pic.twitter.com/rVW5QREC88

— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) July 31, 2025

Let's not forget bawling Sen. Chuck Schumer:

You hear this??

“A backdoor for privatizing Social Security.”

That’s what Trump Treasury Secretary Bessent is bragging is in their Big, Ugly Betrayal of a bill. pic.twitter.com/Rx7bWGM23l

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 31, 2025

Too late goofuses, deal's done.

Bessent is a smart guy and knows what works. He also apparently knew that leftist yelling could scupper the idea as it did when Presidents Clinton and Bush tried to get the idea off the ground and were shouted down and then retreated.

Trump doesn't retreat. And better still, he has the bill already passed, so it's going to happen.

As Bessent said, it's the "backdoor" to the privatization, but it's not going to change anything about Social Security which will continue to shrivel as before, owing in no small part to Democrats signing up every illegal they could find to help drain its benefits.

Now a new system is forming, parallel to the failed Social Security system, and nobody can stop it.

In Chile, Jose Piñera wrote in his memoirs (unfortunately, still only in Spanish, called El Cascabel al Gato) that he encountered similar issues trying to get people to sign up for the new private savings system in the 1970s, and leftists there also opposed it, but he countered with a heavy public education program, speaking to Chileans every night on the radio explaining how their private savings gave them control over their retirements; they could retire early or late; they could save a lot or a little; they could pick this fund manager or that one, or change midway if they liked.

Not surprisingly, when the time came to sign up, many more Chileans than expected chose the private system over the public. The public option was left there for those who still wanted it, but as it was bankrupt, there would be no new sign-ups. And as a result, they've never elected a Hugo Chavez who would wreck and ruin the system -- there was simply too much support, even when they had a lefty president.

That public education made a difference and was a major reason why it was so successful.

Bessent is on the same track with this remark:

“Why are we on the verge of Caracas on the Hudson in New York?” Bessent asked an audience at a Breitbart event in Washington, referencing the rise of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who won over young voters in New York City’s mayoral race. “Why is this guy getting traction? Because young people are disillusioned with the system.”

Trump accounts, Bessent said, would make “everyone a shareholder” in the success of the economy. “People who are part of the system do not want to bring down the system,” Bessent said.
It makes me wonder if he read Piñera's memoirs -- or had a few conversations with him. He sounds just like him, understanding the importance of educating the public -- and in allowing investments they control educate them even more.

In the post-DOGE era, it's an idea whose time has come. Social Security is bankrupt and isn't going to get better so privatization is the only thing that can fix this, something Elon Musk should have been onto, but thus far hasn't said much about.

With Trump accounts, the door is open.

President Trump has done what other presidents couldn't do and what Democrats tried to destroy. The stellar results from a newly enriched youthful class of investors will speak for themselves as they continue in their careers.

Somewhere, Herman Cain is smiling. Viva Herman Cain!

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com

SUNRISE SIDE REPUBLICANS WOMEN'S CLUB

The Sunrise Side Republican Women's Club holds monthly meetings on the 4th Tuesday of the month.  The location and speaker will be announced for each meeting.  Unless otherwise stated, the lunch will be at 11:30 a.m.