One of the basic principles of environmental stewardship is that the people closest to a problem are likely to understand it best. Yes, there might be exceptions when experts from outside can come to understand it better, but what really happens in those instances is that the outsiders get up close. If they don't, they won't. A great illustration of this is the unintended consequences of federal regulations meant to protect sage grouse, an allegedly endangered species in some of the American … [Read more...]
Cracks in the Empire’s Armor Appear
Yesterday brought widespread news coverage of a new “study” published in Nature Geoscience which concludes that global warming has not been progressing as fast as expected, and that climate models might be a “little bit” wrong. (That the “little bit” is a factor of 2 or 3 is a fine point upon which we won’t quibble here.) I’m still trying to process my feelings about how the two authors, Myles Allen and Michael Grubb, might have been allowed to wander so far off the Empire’s (UN IPCC’s) … [Read more...]
Economic Freedom and Care for the Environment: Mutually Exclusive or Mutually Beneficial?
In the late 1970s, our energy outlook was not looking good. Over six years, gas prices had tripled and there were shortages and long lines at the pump. It appeared that we were at the mercy of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). Experts predicted that we would be out of oil soon, perhaps as early as 1990. Man-Made Crises or Man-Fabricated Crises? The gasoline shortage was just part of the story of gloom and doom we heard on a regular basis. Stanford University professor … [Read more...]
WHILE THE WEST BURNS, NO ONE NOTICES
Twenty-nine years ago record drought and fires hit the West and no one seemed to notice. Frustrated, I sent query letters to the three largest East Coast newspapers, and to my surprise, The New York Times answered. My article on the West’s drought and fires ran in August 1988 in the New York Times Magazine and was syndicated and distributed world-wide. Here we are again. In many areas of the Northern Great Plains the 2017 drought and fires are worse. And again, the news media is hardly … [Read more...]
Dear Media: We Don’t Have to Agree to Have Intelligent, Friendly, Discourse
If you search the Web for my name and Cornwall Alliance, you’ll see that we’ve been the target of vicious attacks over the years, including several just in the past couple of months. They’re built on fallacies like guilt by association, post hoc, ad hominem abusive, ad hominem circumstantial, straw man, hasty generalization, and more, and thoroughly misrepresent our position and our reasons for it. (Ah, but who cares about logic nowadays? They don’t teach it much in school anymore.) That … [Read more...]
Can Logic Help Us Improve Discussion of Creation Care?
For twenty centuries, Christian thinkers have emphasized the importance of logic. They have recognized logic as one element of God’s very essence. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” points to that truth. The Greek word there translated “Word,” Logos, has a range of meanings that include logic, account, reason, and argument. (In fact, in John’s day, it rarely denoted a single word.) John 1:1, then, reveals that God is logical—not that He is … [Read more...]
Did We Run Out of Planet Last Week?
Today, 2nd August, we have collectively consumed all of the planet's renewable resources. So said Nicolas Hulot, France's Minister of State for Ecological Transition, in a YouTube video published August 2 by Transition ecologique et solidaire. Sometimes people we assume are intelligent say things that are so blindingly obviously stupid we can't persuade ourselves to treat them that way, so we think, "Maybe I'm the blindingly obviously stupid one," and we dig hard to try to figure out the … [Read more...]
Why Are Older Scientists More Likely to Doubt Climate Alarmism?
Back in 1984, Richard Lamm, then Democratic Governor of Colorado, gained infamy for having said the terminally ill elderly have "a duty to die and get out of the way." Such disrespect for age persists among Progressives. Bill Nye "the Science Guy," a major proponent of global warming alarmism, blames climate skepticism on age. "Climate change deniers, by way of example, are older. It's generational," Nye told the Los Angeles Times, adding, "We're just going to have to wait for those people … [Read more...]
Does Monsanto’s Roundup (Glyphosate) Cause Disease?
Recently a friend asked me to evaluate an apparently scientifically substantial article that concluded that glyphosate—the active ingredient in Roundup, one of the world’s most widely used artificial pesticides—has caused a dramatic increase in a variety of diseases such as autism, inflammation, immune disorders, gluten intolerance, celiac disease, and cancer. I’ve been shown various “studies” in the past making similar claims but have always seen quickly that they weren’t based on sound … [Read more...]
Was Exiting Paris Wise or Unwise?
Was it wise for President Donald Trump to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement? The President offered mostly economic reasons for his decision. Although they’re important, it’s also important to know whether there’s good scientific basis. As some critics reason, “So what if the economy booms? What if the earth dies?”So here’s a 15-point summary of relevant facts, mostly scientific but some economic: 1. Global average temperature has risen and fallen cyclically, driven by … [Read more...]
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