A Free-Market Energy Blog

Believe or Know? Modern Environmentalism Reconsidered (Earth Day thoughts for midcourse correction)

By Ben Acheson -- April 22, 2013

When E. O. Wilson said “people would rather believe than know,” he perfectly summed up the state of modern environmentalism. For the fact is that the movement has been radicalized to such an extent that its policies are now characterized by senseless agendas better described as anti-science, anti-business and even anti-human; not pro-environment. [1]

Environmentalism’s gradual shift to extremism didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen on its own; the movement was led astray by the green lobby – the conglomerate of NGOs, advocacy organizations and political groups who use environmental motives to enact legislation favorable to their own goals. Today, the green lobby is a dominant force in the political sphere, despite few voters choosing to elect ‘green’ politicians.

Much of the green lobby’s success is directly attributable to its ability to demonize and brand opponents as heretics, even if their arguments are based on verifiable evidence or if they simply want to promote intelligent discussion.

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Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) Should Walk the Plank

By Iain Murray and H. Sterling Burnett -- April 19, 2013

“[T]he threat of environmental extremism in a vast new area provides the biggest reason to reject the treaty. The Kyoto Treaty was rejected as national policy for good reason. LOST is  Kyoto with a court attached.”

When Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech at the Ross Sea Conservation Reception on March 19, he suggested that we should have called our planet Ocean rather than Earth. He went on to outline an international environmental agenda centered around the oceans that we can expect to be the hallmark of his time in office.

Saving the oceans will be the new rallying cry of the green movement and their political and corporate allies. We can therefore expect a new attempt soon to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOST).

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Is the Great Climate Alarm Winding Down?

By Douglas Gregory -- April 18, 2013

“‘Environmentalism is properly the ideology of controlling everything, which is called totalitarianism.’ Thankfully, it is difficult to squash human ingenuity, and industrialization will be a hard beast to slay, though it is neither impossible nor even complicated.”

While debate still swirls around climate change, recent reporting shows the debate’s hot and cold episodes cycle pretty in tune with changes in weather. Perhaps it will help to stand back and take a broad view.

Climate realists have long been aware that global average surface temperature had stopped sometime around 2000, and even a few years before. Lately alarmists had to admit it. The period with no warming is now as long as was period of warming on which fears were based—17 years according to a leaked draft of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)—despite continued rise of atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentration.

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America’s Growth Corridors (walking away from CO2 regulation)

By Robert Peltier -- April 17, 2013
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More Americans Becoming Lukewarmers

By Chip Knappenberger -- April 16, 2013
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EPA’s Tier 3: Transportation Overreach

By -- April 15, 2013
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All You Need to Know About RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates)

By -- April 12, 2013
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Thatcher & Global Warming: From Alarmist to Skeptic

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 11, 2013
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IMF’s Carbon Tax Shenanigans: Part II

By -- April 10, 2013
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IMF’s Carbon Tax Shenanigans: Part I

By -- April 9, 2013
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