The climate “crisis” is a “moral issue that requires serious debate,” Al Gore proclaimed in an April 27 AlGore.com blog post.  His conversion to the Anglo-American tradition of robust debate came a mere three days after the ex-VP refused to participate in a congressional hearing with Lord Christopher Monckton, former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Republicans had invited Monckton to counter Gore’s testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  But Gore froze like a terrified deer in headlights, and Chairman Henry Waxman told the UK climate expert he was uninvited.  Their hypocritical cowardice simply reflects a recognition that [...]

Creating green-collar jobs is a major component of President Obama's energy and economic strategy. Opportunities for achieving realistic goals should certainly be pursued. Smart meters and better insulation reduce energy expenditures, and quickly pay back investments. Better sequencing of traffic lights speeds commuters to workplaces, saves gasoline, cuts pollution, and reduces accidents. Telecommuting also saves energy. Energy-efficient computers and servers mean big savings in power-hungry data centers that facilitate banking, Internet searches, modern business operations and YouTube. New technologies enable smelters and factories to recycle waste heat, to power turbines and generate electricity. Such initiatives also create green jobs. Renewable energy [...]

image #2 image #3 image #4 image #5 image #6 image #7 image #8 Last December delegates from 190-plus countries gathered in Poznan, Poland, for the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-14) amidst high expectations that the gathering would pave the way for a new convention on climate change. UN officials proclaimed the urgency to build upon the “momentum” they had achieved with the “Bali Roadmap” – the so-called consensus announced at the December 2007 COP-13 meeting in Indonesia that supported adoption of a new treaty to replace the soon-to-expire Kyoto Protocol. The urgency felt by delegates was [...]

President-elect Barack Obama wants to phase out coal-based electricity generation, switch to renewable energy and follow Europe's lead on climate change. That could prove difficult. Coal generates half of all U.S. electricity. Wind provides less than 2 percent of all electricity and cannot be relied on when it's needed. Europe's lead can't even be defined, much less followed. Nearly all EU countries signed the Kyoto Protocol and agreed to slash greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. As of 2008, however, many of their emissions are well above their Kyoto targets. Italy's were 14 percent above, Portugal's [...]

Liberal politicians and environmental activists continue to say we must switch to “green” energy. Oil, gas, coal and nuclear must go, they insist. Informed voters support conservation and alternative energy. But they know fossil and nuclear fuels created health and living standards unprecedented in history. Over two-thirds of American voters support increased onshore and offshore drilling. They know world energy demand is surging, while US production is prohibited and declining. They realize anti-drilling policies don’t just cause unemployment and cost us trillions in lost lease bonus, royalty and tax revenues. Those policies also wage an immoral war on poor families. They [...]

President Ronald Reagan loved to say that, "America is a shining city on a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere." And so it has been since the days of Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop, who on his way to the New World in 1630 added that "the eyes of all people are upon us." Indeed, the American dream has been so inspiring that people from every corner of the world have sought refuge and opportunity on our shores. The linchpins of this dream have always been freedom of speech and religion, the rule of law, property rights, the [...]

Expanded remarks by Paul Driessen, given in a debate at the International Affairs Symposium held at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon in April, 2008. Does the exporting of our environmental policies to the developing world positively impact human security? Well, as Institute for Sustainable Development program manager Oli Brown recently pointed out, there are many cases where it undoubtedly does. Some policies. Under certain circumstances. Depending on how you define human security. Unfortunately, however, there are also numerous cases where such “exports” are anything but helpful. It is those policies that trouble me – for they wreak havoc on human [...]

The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change that recently convened in New York showcased an impressive array of scientists, economists and academics united in their concerns over the state of climate science and the lack of robust debate within the scientific community. Hosted by the Heartland Institute and featuring such distinguished guests as Hungarian Physicist Dr. Miklós Zágoni, Lord Christopher Monckton of Britain, Czeckoslovakian President Vaclav Klaus, ABC Journalist John Stossel, and the founding Director of Meteorology at The Weather Channel, Joseph D'Aleo, the conference served as a forum for several hundred noteworthy experts to meet and present their evidence that [...]

The mantra is repeated daily. There is consensus on climate change. Global warming is real. It will be a disaster. Humans are to blame. We have to do something – immediately. However, the consensus of 100 scientists is undone by one fact, Albert Einstein noted. The United Nations and its Climate Cataclysm army of 15,000 in exotic Bali clearly understood that. They were not about to let even one fact prevent them from promoting climate scares and a successor to the Kyoto treaty. Gloom-and-doom scientists and bureaucrats owned Bali’s podiums. Radical environmentalists fumed and staged stunts. Al Gore denounced President Bush, [...]

image #2 image #3 image #4 image #5 image #6 image #7 image #8 image #9 When the U.N. convened its 13th annual Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change in steamy Bali in December, it held high expectations that the international community would be united over what course of action should be taken to curb the buildup of greenhouse gases. The event was carefully orchestrated from beginning to end, with an eye toward presenting to the world that a “consensus” had been reached on the need for a second Kyoto Treaty to replace the current one set to expire [...]

Second of a two-part series After 20 years, it should be clear that the Brundtland Commission’s goal of meeting people’s basic needs has not been met in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1960's, sub-Saharan African nations have received an estimated $500 billion in foreign aid, yet the entire continent today accounts for just 2% of global gross domestic product despite having 13 percent of the world’s people. Sub-Saharan Africa is in very short supply of energy and power, especially electricity, and overland trade is greatly hindered by an almost total lack of infrastructure such as highways. Millions die each year from diseases [...]