My new friend Michael Adeney, whom I met while speaking at Seattle Pacific University in late February, just recommended Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left, by Alex Berezow and Hank Campbell (New York: Public Affairs, 2012), a fascinating, sometimes funny, hard-hitting but fair book on the really serious problem of unscientific thinking in the contemporary Progressive movement. I began reading it today. Folks in the movement often accuse … [Read more...]
Campus Green Initiatives
College and university campuses are places to debate and experiment with new ideas. Unfortunately, a few of the “bright ideas” turn out not to be so practical, or ethical. Then we can be thankful that the consequences were limited to a campus and weren’t inflicted on society at large. One ivory-tower idea with less than ideal consequences is the popular “campus sustainability initiative.” The National Association of Scholars recently released a report showing that colleges trying to reduce … [Read more...]
Ongoing “April Fools” Trick Perpetrated By NOAA
“April Fools Day” seems precisely the right day to post news unveiling an ongoing “April Fools” trick—intentional or not—by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a trick in which climate alarmists have—again, intentionally or not—participated. AGW alarmists, perhaps frustrated by the failure of Earth’s atmosphere to warm as predicted (or projected, or simulated, or whatever you want to call it) by the global climate models, have in recent years turned increasingly to claims that … [Read more...]
The False Virtue of Alarm
A recent Facebook meme contained a quote like this: “If you want to prove your heart is in the right place, it’s not.” Aptly put. Consider the following: In survey of Toyota Prius owners, the #1 reason for their purchase was “It makes a statement about me.” Social media have become bullhorns for shrill cries of alarm, from real to ridiculous. On the Left, fears and grievances are nearly endless: climate change, GMOs, BPA, pesticides, guns, income inequality, “the one percent,” racists … [Read more...]
Fossil Fuels, Enemy or Friend? Divine Design in the Carbon Cycle
Despite disagreements on some specific questions, I was glad to get acquainted with David Jenkins through his article Are Climate Skeptics Ignoring God's Design? It's always heartening to encounter another admirer of four of my favorite conservative thinkers, Edmund Burke (1729–1797), T.S. Eliot (1888–1965), Richard Weaver (1910–1963), and Russell Kirk (1918–1994)—the last of whom mentored me through my master's degree and introduced me to my wife. It's even more heartening when he shares both … [Read more...]
God, Rush, and Global Warming
Recently on his nationwide talk show, host Rush Limbaugh said, "If you believe in God, then intellectually you cannot believe in manmade global warming." Two evangelical climate scientists took him to task in The Christian Post. "Rush Limbaugh doesn't think we exist. In other words that evangelical scientists cannot subscribe to the evidence of global warming," they said. "… Rush's uninformed rhetoric is demeaning to Christians who care deeply about what humans are doing to God's Creation and … [Read more...]
