The Australian outback has become a hotbed of carbon farming—raising and maintain trees that supposedly absorb carbon. The goal is to create “carbon credits” for companies that can’t reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. But the Australian government is buying most of them. Write Michael E. Miller and Frances Vinall in the Washington Post: “Here in…
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Environmental Activists Oppose Carbon Capture as a ‘False Solution’
It’s hard to keep up with what environmental activists are against. (See Ron Bailey on solar geoengineering.) Now it’s carbon capture. Carbon capture (CCS) is the largely experimental technology for removing carbon dioxide during or after a combustion process and then storing it, usually underground. The Biden administration is promoting carbon capture, and this month Energy…
Bjorn Lomborg: Truths about Electric Cars
“Politicians are spending hundreds of billions of dollars and keeping consumers from the cars they want for virtually no climate benefit.” That’s the bottom line of Bjørn Lomborg’s assessment of electric cars. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, the president of the Copenhagen Consensus says: “The climate effect of our electric-car efforts in the 2020s…
Was Environmental Policy Worth It?
Economist Timothy Taylor reports on a study of the past 50 years of environmental policies. The news is generally upbeat. “Have the reductions in pollution been worth it? he asks. “Economists have sought to itemize and monetize the costs and benefits of environmental rules. The studies can be controversial, as one might expect.” (It’s hard…
Why Such a Summer of Turmoil in the Netherlands?
“A standoff between Dutch farmers and their government is causing havoc in the Netherlands this summer. Protesters have withheld deliveries from grocery stores, smeared manure outside the home of the agriculture minister, and blocked highways with hay bales and tires,” writes Ciara Nugent for Time magazine. Farmers in the Netherlands have a good reason to…
Australia’s Great Coral Reef Is Alive and Well. Why Hide That Fact?
(This file has been updated.) Peter Ridd, who examined current data about Australia’s Great Coral Reef, demolishes fears that the reef is sick or dying. He asks why the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) is obscuring that fact by failing to aggregate the data. However, perhaps recognizing that Ridd (a controversial figure) was studying…