“Currently, in many car markets, an electric car is more expensive to purchase upfront than a comparable gasoline- or diesel-powered model, which tends to be the biggest consideration for most consumers.” (New York Times, August 18, 2026, below)
The statistic of increasing global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) is often cited as if consumers in an open, free market prefer EVs to internal combustion engines. A careful reading of a recent New York Times article, “The Gulf Oil Shock Is Pushing E.V. Sales to New Heights Globally” (August 18, 2026), supports the counter-thesis that EV sales are driven by special government favor. Here-today-gone-tomorrow EV subsidies (as in the U.S.) raise the question of sustainability. From a government-neutral, consumer-first perspective, EVs are not sustainable.
“Electric car sales are on track to hit record highs this year,” begin Mira Rojanasakul and Brad Plumer, “with 29 percent of all new cars purchased around the world expected to be either purely battery-powered models or plug-in hybrids,” versus four percent in 2020.…
Continue Reading“The doom industry is alive and well despite a litany of failed predictions along the way…. Statism and statism alone can cause mass destruction and deaths, as proven in the 20th century…. The ‘insurance policy’ against this is a free society based on private property rights, voluntary exchange, and the rule of law.”
The world’s most viewed climate website (WUWT) contains a list of the exaggerated, failed apocalyptic predictions from neo-Malthusians in the last half century. So I was surprised to see this new prediction making the rounds.
Mark Campbell, “environmental journalist and communicator,” posted at his website: “Insurers Say Half the World Could Be Killed by Climate Change” (June 11, 2026). I learned of him and this prediction in a LinkedIn exchange where he protested against Michael Shellenberger’s “Caught Pushing an Apocalyptic Scenario They Knew Couldn’t Occur, Climate Scientists Are Now Claiming Their Policies Prevented It.”…
Continue ReadingSam Belfied in his essay, “Climate Activism: ‘It Made Me Feel Like a Good Person’” (August 19, 2026), has a number of interesting insights on the motivations of climate campaigners given the intellectual case that their cause is both futile and wasteful. And ecologically damaging (think wind and solar industrialization). Excerpts follow verbatim; footnotes can be found in the original.
The following commentary and research findings suggest that climate ideology and activism are psychological compensatory responses to painful, emotional, subjective, and even existential aspects of the self. Specifically, the material suggests a deeper and collective psychological malaise, of which anxiety and distress about climate change are an expression, not the root cause….
The climate movement involves guilt, self-loathing and seeking redemption
In discussing the emotions motivating climate activists, commentators have proposed ‘guilt,’ ‘self-flagellation,’ ‘sin,’ ‘self-loathing’ , ‘conscience’, and seeking ‘atonement’ and ‘redemption.’…
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