Heavy subsidies are going to mass transit and Amtrak, even though a minuscule portion of riders go by either method. What explains these subsidies? Randal O’Toole, writing for AIER, cites a strong transit lobby, outdated claims about energy efficiency and low carbon emissions, and the public’s misplaced faith that mass transit helps low-income people and…
Category: The Environmental Blog
The Latest Perils of Curbside Recycling
Advocates of curbside recycling are trying to get rid of contamination. Specifically, they are trying to combat “wishcycling.” This is a term for families’ tendency to put into the recycling bin such non-recyclable materials as plastic bags, Styrofoam, food waste, and clothing. Writing on The Conversation website, Jessica Helges and Kate O’Neill observe: “Contaminating the…
Yosemite and the ‘Balance of Nature’ Myth
The following photographic essay illustrates the changing landscape at California’s Yosemite Valley and undermines the myth of a static “balance of nature.” The author, Shawn Regan, is vice president of research at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). The photograph above shows Yosemite Valley in 1899 (left) and today (right). If it seems like…
What’s Wrong with Solar Geo-engineering to Fight Climate Change? Roger Pielke Answers
Governments should agree not to use solar geo-engineering to attack climate change, says Roger Pielke, Jr., a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Solar geo-engineering is a collection of potential techniques for reducing the temperature of the Earth by reflecting some of the incoming energy of the sun back into space….
‘The ESG movement is anti-energy, anti-development, and anti-America’
ESG refers to financial investing that takes into account “environmental, sustainable, and governance” factors when decisions are made. Alex Epstein minces no words at RealClearEnergy: “ESG poses as a moral and financially savvy movement. In reality it is an immoral and financially ruinous movement that is destroying the free world’s ability to produce low-cost, reliable…