In 1973, John Baden and Richard Stroup proposed selling off the U. S. Forest Service to private owners, some nonprofit and some for-profit. In an article in the Journal of Law and Economics, they argued that commercial timber would be better managed by private companies, and non-profit organizations like the Sierra Club could protect the…
New Floodgates for Venice . . . Sea-level Rise ‘Pretty Small Beer’. . . Canada’s Wildfires
HEADLINES: ‘Finding ‘the raincloud in every silver lining.’ That’s the New York Times on the new Venice floodgates, says Michael Walsh in The Pipeline . , , Pat Michaels at CEI: Sea-level rise will be ‘pretty small beer.’ HT-Myron Ebell . . . Not many wildfires in Canada this year and no upward trend, says…
The Challenge of Private “Seasteading”
By Greg Rehmke. This is a guest post by Greg Rehmke, program director of Economic Thinking, an organization that fosters better understanding of economic principles. Natural coral and oyster reefs around the world are considered “rainforests of the oceans,” home to rich and diverse ecosystems. Shipwrecks, offshore oil platforms, and artificial reefs teem with species…
California: The Ecotopia that Failed
Joel Kotkin discusses California on RealClearEnergy: “One is often at a loss to explain California to people from other planets—like, say, earth.” The problem: “This is a state that issues mandates for electrification of everything while reducing its generating capacity. It blames devastating fires on climate change, without taking the blame for forestry practices that…
Record Crop Yields . . . California’s ‘Hubris on an Historic Scale’ . . .
HEADLINES. ClimateRealism: Washington Post says the Farm Belt is drying up, but crop yields are getting better nearly every year. . . . Are the costs of wind energy going down—or up? A study from “Briefings for Britain” decides. . . . Global fire acreage has been in decline for nearly 20 years, according to…
What Caused the Fires and What Should We Do About Them? You Choose
Numerous explanations have been given for the fires in the West, especially California, and proposals offered for how to deal with them. Here are some . . . Bjørn Lomborg in the New York Post: Most important is “the way we manage forest lands and develop our landscape.”. . . Randal O’Toole: “We live in…