British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s call for aggressive action against a so-called climate crisis at the United Nations presages similar statements that surely will be made by the dangerously misinformed in the coming months and augurs disastrous energy policy. Humanity has to “grow up” and tackle climate change, the prime minister told world leaders assembled in New York, predicting catastrophe if warnings are ignored. “We will see desertification, drought, crop failure, and … [Read more...]
Liquified petroleum gas: Essential to alleviating energy poverty in Africa
Gas is a fossil fuel, so it endangers our planet, right? At least that’s what radical environmentalists and climate activists want you to believe. The problem? Their perspective is completely detached from energy reality and obstructs alleviation of energy poverty. Gas is a fossil fuel wonder. It has been a game changer in meeting human civilization’s energy demand for clean fuel for cooking and heating. So much so that the very organizations that ask countries to reduce fossil fuel … [Read more...]
Why You Should Mourn Implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement
The climate agreement reached in Paris last December will become effective on Earth Day, (Friday, April 22) with a ceremony at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. We’ll all hear of heroic world leaders who joined together in Paris to ensure the planet’s survival. The Obama administration will try to enforce the agreement (which meets all the legal criteria of a treaty though the President chooses not to call it that to evade Senate disapproval) by imposing the Environmental … [Read more...]
Climate Policies Kill through Fuel Poverty
Deepak Lal, one of the world’s leading development economists, wrote in his book Poverty and Progress: Realities and Myths about Global Poverty: The greatest threat to the alleviation of the structural poverty of the Third World is the continuing campaign by western governments, egged on by some climate scientists and green activists, to curb greenhouse emissions, primarily the CO2 from burning fossil fuels. … [I]t is mankind’s use of the mineral energy stored in nature’s gift of fossil fuels … … [Read more...]
Immorality Pretending to Virtue
Climate alarm belongs to a class of issues characterized by a claim for which there is no evidence … [and which is] characterized by profound immorality pretending to virtue. Climate Scientist Richard Lindzen At the end of 2015, government leaders will once again gather, this time in Paris, to craft a global treaty that will commit governments to significantly reducing modern civilization’s dependence on fossil-fuel based energy. Billed as an effort to “save the planet” from the scourge of … [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...]
Fuel Poverty: The Deadly Side of Renewable Energy
So climate alarmists want a rapid, mandatory shift from fossil fuels—chiefly coal and natural gas—to wind and solar to save us all from catastrophic global warming. What comes with that? The people of England and Wales have found out, and it isn't pretty. Over a decade ago, the United Kingdom began a rigorous policy of shutting down coal-fired power plants and replacing them with wind farms and solar arrays to feed its electricity grid. The direct result was skyrocketing electric rates across … [Read more...]
Update on Trip to Rome Italy from Dr. E. Calvin Beisner
Today I'll be among 8 scholars speaking for a press conference in Rome to bring balance to a global warming alarmist biased conference at the Vatican tomorrow. We have outstanding climate scientists who can explain what's wrong with IPPC "science." My basic message? Policies to fight AGW will condemn the world's poor to more generations of misery and early death. Pope Francis claims to be on the side of the poor. Then he should be against the AGW alarmist bandwagon. … [Read more...]
For Three Billion People, Coal Looks Pretty Good
Ask a typical college student about “environmentally friendly” energy sources, and the student will usually respond with comments on wind energy, solar energy, or at least “renewable fuels.” Coal would never make the list. But as an economist, I’m always teaching students about trade-offs. There is no energy source that is costless, either financially or in terms of environmental degradation. Wind energy, for example, requires metals that have to be mined, access roads and transmission lines … [Read more...]
To Divest or Not to Divest—That is the Question
“To be, or not to be? That is the question.” With those words Hamlet pondered suicide. That’s a question we should ask as we ponder shrill calls on various college campuses for divestment from fossil fuels – as took place this past weekend as part of Global Divestment Day. For with the end of fossil fuel use comes the eventual death of a significant portion of the human race. Yes, I just said that. And it’s true. 1.3 billion people live without electricity across the world, 2.6 billion lack … [Read more...]
