“Just think of how the tens of billions of dollars spent on trying to link CO2 emissions to climate change might have prevented some of the Harvey-caused tragedy, if they had been spent instead on flood-plain infrastructure and management updates these past twelve years.”
In addition to the pictures and media reports on Hurricane Harvey, there are news reports implicating the hand of man, not nature, for the tragic impact. For them, Harvey becomes another opportunity to invoke climate change as a novel event in the intensity and path of this hurricane.
In the Houston Chronicle “Gray Matters” September 1, 2017, Allyn West gathered together snippets of commentary by several authors and presented his version of the “big picture” of the flooding in Houston. It mirrors similar claims in the Los Angeles Times.…
Continue ReadingThe Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).
A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.
Some of the more important articles in this issue are:
The True Cost of Solar Electricity
Study: New York’s climate goal—staggering costs, no benefits
A Review of the Regional Green Gas Initiative
Study: Turbines reduce the productivity of surrounding vegetation
Hidden consequences of intermittent electricity production
Integrating the supposed “social cost of carbon” into wholesale power markets
MIT: Researchers Announce Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough
DOE staff releases their Energy Reliability Study
These are my observations on the DOE study
Some other comments are: here, here, here, here and here.…
Continue ReadingEditor Note: Earlier this summer, Pierre Desrochers received the 2017 Julian L. Simon Memorial Award at the annual dinner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. For the community of scholars, it was a great choice. “Dr. Desrochers has carried the torch for Julian Simon’s legacy for more than two decades,” noted CEI President Kent Lassman. “His defense of modern large-scale agriculture and critique of the concept of ‘food miles,’ in The Locavore’s Dilemma informs any reasoned discussion on how to improve the health and wealth of people everywhere.”
Professor Desrochers extemporaneous remarks have been revised for publication.
Thank you all and particularly to CEI for this award.
Those of us in the tradition of Julian Simon try to produce work that is based on logic and facts and come up with a compelling narrative.