“Each of the complex climate models used by the IPCC grossly overstates the amount of warming the planet has experienced during the past 120 or so years. In addition, based on the idea that temperatures should rise right along with CO2 emissions, these models have missed the entire 18+ year hiatus in rising temperatures.”
In early January, the noted science journal Science Bulletin published a paper by Lord Christopher Monckton; Astrophysicist Willie Soon, Ph.D.: climatologist and geologist David Legates, Ph.D.; and statistician William Briggs, “Why Models Run Hot: Results from an Irreducibly Simple Climate Model,” which introduced a new, simple model of the climate’s response to adding CO2 to the atmosphere. Their model outperformed the complex climate models used by the IPCC to project future temperatures and temperature trends.…
Continue Reading“The benefits of allowing the free market in oil and gasoline to operate, particularly in the moment as opposed to several months or a year down the road, are not only diffuse and widespread but cannot be directly compared to the immediate, concentrated, and highly visible costs being realized in the oil industry. In fact, most of these benefits have yet to occur.”
There is a proposition in public choice economics called the special interest effect. It basically argues that government grows because, for most government programs, there are concentrated beneficiaries and diffused cost bearers. What this means is that the benefits of government programs will fall on relatively small, easily definable and therefore organizable groups, i.e. special interests, while the costs will be thinly spread across the population as a whole.…
Continue Reading“To colleges, universities and pension funds, we say: Please demand and ensure open, robust debate on all these issues, before you vote on divestment. Allow no noisy disruption, walk-outs or false claims of consensus. Compel divestment advocates to defend their position, factually and respectfully. Protect the rights and aspirations of people everywhere to reliable, affordable electricity, better living standards and, improved health.”
“Social responsibility” activists have designated February 13/14 as Global Divestment Day. They want universities and other institutions to eliminate fossil fuel companies from their investment holdings. Their demand is not just unrealistic and misguided. It is irresponsible and immoral, potentially lethal–and racist in result.
Having grown up in developed countries, these activists seem to have forgotten how nasty and short life was throughout human history, until quite recently.…
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