The Earth Day Network hosted what it touted as a major rally for action to stop "climate change" today (timed to coincide with Pope Francis's visit with President Obama yesterday and his address to Congress) on the National Mall in Washington. Only it wasn't. It was reported that organizers said beforehand they expected "up to 200,000 people" to attend. Well, I guess what they said was true. The number didn't exceed 200,000. By my guess, it didn't exceed 5,000 or 6,000, but I'm not expert at … [Read more...]
The News that Didn’t Fit—What I Told a New York Times “Reporter,” and He Didn’t Report
On June 16, 2015, I received an email from New York Times "reporter" Justin Gillis, who has written much highly critical of those who are skeptical of claims of catastrophic, anthropogenic global warming---people like me. Because I had taken the lead in producing An Open Letter to Pope Francis on Climate Change, Gillis posed some questions to me for an article he was working on about religious people’s reactions to Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. I wrote extensive replies, not … [Read more...]
A Mere Couple of Degrees, a Mere Single Thermometer–and a Matter of Integrity
Climatologist Patrick Michaels detected an error in the temperature record at Reagan National Airport recently, and reported it to the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang, which confirmed the error and duly reported it to the National Weather Service, which acknowledged the error and replaced the instrument (which for the last year and a half has been reading 1.7 degrees F too high). So far so good. But then, as Michaels reports and comments: ... the National Weather Service told the Capital … [Read more...]
Fur and the No-Need Argument
Animal rights activists and so-called animal protectionists regularly argue that the public shouldn’t buy or wear fur because it is no longer needed. Fur may have been necessary in the olden days, they concede, but for modern, civilized, and presumably technologically advanced humans, fur is a cruel and gratuitous clothing choice. The puritanical nature of the argument can be seen easily by reading sample letters created by The Humane Society of the United States, a prominent animal-rights … [Read more...]
Lions, Babies, and Moral Outrage
Properly aligned morals requires that weightier matters deserve more care and justify greater umbrage when violated. If one wanted a classic example of the upending of the moral hierarchy, one need look only at the juxtaposition of two stories, Planned Parenthood’s harvesting of baby parts and the killing of Cecil, a lion in Zimbabwe. Note the irony in how the two events are discussed. First, the dentist claims that he thought the hunt was legal. So if we take his reported comments at face … [Read more...]
Is John Cook, 97% Consensus Author, an Identity Thief?
As "everybody knows"---hey, even President Obama lectured us on the fact!---97% of all scientists agree: global warming is real and dangerous, and we must take drastic steps to stop it. The "researcher" behind that claim is University of Western Australia psychology postgraduate John Cook, whose "study" has been torn to shreds for bad data handling, bad sampling, bad literature interpretation, and horrendous statistical methodology. Cook is also the main man behind the climate alarmist website … [Read more...]
Is Pope Francis Contributing to Human Trafficking?
Speaking to a gathering of mayors from around the world at the Vatican July 21, Pope Francis urged action to reduce global warming, saying he particularly hopes the UN climate summit later this year will address how it "affects the trafficking of people." Problem #1: Human-induced climate change has not affected the trafficking of people, or even migration in general. The one and only candidate for climate-change refugee status, a man from the island of Kiribati, just lost his case on appeal, … [Read more...]
Argumentum ad Hominem: A Favorite Fascist Tactic
Occasionally people attack our character rather than our arguments. They should read this by David Riesman: Defamation of opponents is one of the standard devices of political propaganda. In the fascist tactic, defamation becomes a form of verbal sadism, to be used in the early stages of the conflict, before other forms of sadism are safe. The violence and daring of verbal onslaughts exercise a great appeal over the imagination of lower middle-class folk who live insipid and anxious lives; the … [Read more...]
Bandow: Papal encyclical forgets the ecological benefits of market economies
Christian economist Doug Bandow, a long-time friend, has published three thoughtful responses to Laudato Si, Pope Francis's encyclical on the environment. One is "In Calling on Government, Laudato Si Underestimates Power of the the Market." It is, as usual, clear and concise. This excerpt is particularly important: ... the Pontiff’s own goals conflict. For instance, he speaks movingly of the dignity of work and its importance for all, including the poor. These jobs—especially better ones, of … [Read more...]
Jesus and Environmental Sin
The Patriarch of Rome, Pope Francis, recently published a highly anticipated Encyclical Letter on the environment entitled “Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home” Much attention has been spent on the Patriarch’s view that climate change is at least partly the fault of human activity (para 23). But I would like to focus on a statement made in paragraph 8, in which the Pope quotes Patriarch Bartholomew who said “inasmuch as we all generate small ecological damage,” we are called to acknowledge … [Read more...]
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