The last post here noted that there was more than coincidence to environmentalism's ascendency and the decline of the press. The broader point made here is that mediocrity seems to infect many public institutions, who in turn seem to resort to environmentalism. It's...
Environmentalism & Mediocrity
This blog has long argued that one of the forces driving environmentalism's ascendency is mediocrity, especially in the press. Green-inkers fancy themselves in some kind of war with sceptics or deniers of what they imagine to be the 'reality of climate change'. But in...
There is no ‘dash for gas’
Contrary to green-hued reports, the UK is not about to be turned into a giant shale-gas drilling pad. This week, the UK Government announced a new round of licensing for onshore oil and gas exploration. Companies will make bids for a licence to drill for oil or gas in...
Yet More Solar Lunacy
A popular notion that has driven a lot of thinking on 'green energy' is that the entire world's demand for energy is equivalent to (or can be met by) the amount of sunlight falling on a relatively small area of land. For instance, this image has done the rounds...
Don’t blame Russia for the anti-fracking panic
It isn’t Moscow's money that fuels fracking protests – it’s Europe’s own turn against development. According to the Financial Times, NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen told an audience at Chatham House in London that the Russian government has been working...
Monbiotism. Again.
It's been nearly a year since this blog last took a look at Monbiot's thinking. He used to be a favourite, epitomising the green movement's excesses in each of his Guardian stories. But as useful as it is to see what goes on in the fantasy world that environmentalists...
Why Do Environmentalists Hate Liberty?
Warning... This is a VERY long post! You may want to skip straight to the conclusion, labelled in bold. This blog has always been interested much more in questions about what environmentalism is, rather than in the scientific claims made by environmentalists. One...
BBC Science Broadcasters — Bubble, BS, or Cabal?
The previous post here generated a bit of Twitter twitchiness from one of the contributors to Horizon's 50th anniversary celebration -- Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham and TV presenter, Alice Roberts. A somewhat partial...
The Diminished Horizons of Science Broadcasting
The BBC's flagship science programme, Horizon, is half a century old this year. To celebrate, the Beeb has put seventeen Horizon episodes from the archive online (though these may not be viewable outside the UK). The episodes have been chosen by Alice Roberts,...
IPCC: A Damp Squib
David Rose has an article in the Sunday Mail yesterday, which I provided the research for. The top article is about the dispute between Bob Ward and Professor Richard Tol. David Rose asked me to compare the WGII SPM with the chapters. I found a number of...