Economist and “Marginal Revolution” blogger Tyler Cowen takes issue with points in Alex Epstein’s 2022 book Fossil Fuels. Cowen believes that it is time to begin changing from fossil fuel use to other energy sources. “We do have to adjust.” Writes Cowen: “[I] really do think we need to deviate from the world’s recent course…
Australian Agriculture Making Millions on ‘Carbon Farming’
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…
A Weak Defense of ESG in Investing
Two writers on the Harvard Business Review blog claim that ESG (that is, adding environmental, social, and governance criteria to investment decisions) is not bad when you stick to the straight and narrow: identifying material risks from non-financial criteria. “To us, ESG is simply about identifying material risk factors that matter to company profitability and…
Tuesday Highlights
- Land is being reclaimed from the ocean as countries build ports and resorts.
- Three reasons why electric vehicles cannot prevent climate change.
- Could offshore wind turbines be causing the surge in East Coast Atlantic whale deaths?
- Scranton, Pa., rejects proposal for a solar farm—the sixth solar rejection this year.
- Is CO2 really a danger to human welfare? No, says lawsuit against the EPA.
- Antarctica sea cover is lowest in 40 years . . . But Antarctica is not getting any warmer.
Bill Gates: My Family Has a Negative Carbon Footprint, So Private Jets Are Okay
Microsoft founder Bill Gates explained to the BBC that it’s not hypocritical for him to fly private jets. He funds Climeworks, a business that does “direct air capture that far exceeds my family’s carbon footprint.” Furthermore, he told the BBC, he spends “billions of dollars on . . . climate innovation.” Gates was interviewed in…
Friday Highlights
- Will offshore wind energy overwhelm the electric grid? Here’s why it might.
- Adviser to multi-million-dollar climate change group is an official of the Chinese Communist Party.
- Iowa legislature is considering strict limits on solar facilities (such as requiring a 1250-foot setback from a residence or livestock facility).
- ‘The Environmentalist Assault on Civilization.”
- Is nuclear power about to make a comeback? Here’s why it might not.
- Are lawsuits against oil companies for “greenwashing” just efforts to suppress free speech? Yes.
- Al Gore gave us “pork and propaganda.”