“Is the human environment better because of increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the usage of carbon-based energies? The answer is a resounding yes. That is triumphant news, whether the human influence on climate is net ‘bad’ or net ‘good’ by a physical, stasis metric.”
Statistics and history matter. Particularly when a shared narrative is contradicted by the interaction of man and nature.
A recent Facebook post by Bjørn Lomborg cannot be emphasized enough in this regard. Over the last century, climate-related deaths have plummeted as societal wealth has overcome the limits to nature. I am reminded of an Alex Epstein quotation, mirroring a major theme of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels:
… Continue ReadingNature doesn’t give us a stable, safe climate that we make dangerous. It gives us an ever-changing, dangerous climate that we need to make safe.
“Soon enough, citizens and voters will wise up to the false promises and cronyism of political energy. MasterResource will be an intellectual resource to help win the day for the master resource and the human ingenuity behind it.”
There is life outside of energy research and related public policy. I discovered some of it during the last ten days with limited responsibilities on the avocation/vocation front. But it is time to re-engage–and take time to look back and forward.
A Look Back
MasterResource, “a free market energy blog,” just turned twelve years old. In our inaugural post (December 26, 2008), I wrote:
… Continue ReadingWe are just getting started here, but some of us veterans of the energy debate from a private property, free-market perspective have teamed together to offer our thoughts on late breaking energy items.
The father of global warming alarm, James Hansen, has been very good about speaking truth to power in many aspects of the climate debate. But his message is changing now that his earlier warnings and deadlines have come and gone.
The climate crisis cannot be solved in a decade, but it can be solved during your lifetime. This next decade, the fourth decade since the 1992 Framework Convention, is crucial for getting the climate story pointed in the right direction. This must be done in the context of fixing the urgent political crisis. If we do not fix the problem of political polarization, there is a danger that the climate situation really could go haywire.
At a November 13, 2021, rally (entire speech here), he stated some notable things worth commenting on.…
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