Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed the need for climate action. He wants countries to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. Last month, he said those who disagree have a “perverse attitude.” But his stance on climate change will harm the poor. Is the Global Average Temperature Rising? Why? For centuries, the Church has been a champion of human rights and social justice. Countless charitable initiatives — schools, hospitals, community organizations, etc. — have helped the helpless. … [Read more...]
Have Fewer Kids to Fight Climate Change?
Because “having one fewer child reduces one’s contribution to the harms of climate change,” Travis Rieder argues, “everyone on Earth ought to consider having fewer children.” Rieder confesses that “this is an uncomfortable discussion.” He says he’s “certainly not arguing that we should shame parents, or even that we’re obligated to have a certain number of children.” But on his grounds, why shouldn’t we? If he thinks we’re morally obligated to limit our childbearing, shame would seem the … [Read more...]
CO2 Increase Hysteria: Scare Tactic or Science?
Despite major political developments in Washington and Barcelona, something else managed to grab global headlines this week—a declaration of emergency because of the increase in carbon dioxide gas in the earth’s atmosphere. Mainstream media had it on their first pages. “CO2 levels in the atmosphere hit a record high in 2016,” one news website said, sourcing data from a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that came out last week. The news articles’ primary focus was around … [Read more...]
Time to End Ethanol Mandate and Subsidies
Seven years ago Indur Goklany, an economist formerly with the U.S. Department of the Interior and associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since its inception in 1988 as an author, expert reviewer, and U.S. delegate to the organization, concluded a thorough analysis of the effect of American biofuels policy on the world's poor with these words: ... the production of biofuels [in the U.S.] may have led to at least 192,000 additional deaths and 6.7 million additional lost … [Read more...]
Life in New Delhi: India’s Visible Economic Fruit
Winter is approaching, and the mercury will soon drop in my new home of New Delhi, India, but not its economic growth. Delhi is a prime example of the impact of India’s rapid economic development. Skyrocketing employment makes it a magnet for the impoverished from surrounding states. Over the past three decades, India adopted a largely free-market economic policy, resulting in rapidly increasing investment from abroad and individuals empowered by freedom to trade without major … [Read more...]
Wealthy Countries Resilient in the Face of Extreme Weather
Since 1900 the number of deaths from natural disasters, including floods, hurricanes/cyclones, earthquakes, and tornados, has fallen dramatically, even as the number of reported occurrences of such events increased due to improved telecommunications and technologies to track and report such events, broader news coverage, and the globalization of international aid. Even as global population has grown from fewer than 2 billion people in 1900 to more than 7.4 billion people today, the number of … [Read more...]
How Much Do We Really Need Big Brother for Disaster Relief?
USA Today reports that 80% of disaster relief aid following Hurricanes Harvey and Irma comes from faith-based organizations---denominations, individual churches, non-denominational charitable organizations. For anyone familiar with Marvin Olasky's The Tragedy of American Compassion, that's no surprise. In what Bill Bennett called "the most important book on welfare and social policy in a decade. Period," Olasky first gives the amazing history of how well charitable organizations---the vast … [Read more...]
Illinois Family Institute Posts Video of Dr. Beisner’s Presentation on Climate Change and Christian Responsibility
[This article is adapted from its original version on Barbwire.com.] Last year I was at lunch with an evangelist. After the meal, he handed our waitress a Gospel tract. I wanted to reinforce his compassion, so I told the young lady that her relationship with God was the most important thing in the world. She responded, “Yeah, that and global warming!” She proceeded to tell us that she wakes up in fear of what may happen to the earth during her lifetime. I was shocked. I asked her if she was … [Read more...]
Why the skeptics reject ‘human-induced’ climate change
As the new school year gets underway, here’s some reflection on what may be the current atmosphere of the academic scientific community. Certain campus professors and theoreticians have cast their lofty claims of climate catastrophe out of the comfort of the credulous classroom and faculty lounge and on to the critical community of the wary general public. The result: substantial resistance. Many campus scientists are dismayed at what they see as unreasonable skepticism of the scientific … [Read more...]
What Happens to Water Quality When Communities Get Poorer?
Nearly universal access to safe drinking water is one of the great miracles of modern society. Americans have taken it for granted for over half a century, though mostly unjustified fears of municipal water supplies have led to increased resort to much more expensive and usually no safer bottled water. The growth of environmentalism has stimulated fears that various pollutants---mostly from industrial and agricultural sources---threaten to subject millions of Americans to unsafe drinking … [Read more...]
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