Ed Davey's comments have been causing a stir this week. First, there is this exchange between Andrew Neil and the Energy Secretary on the Sunday Politics show... It's good to see Davey finally getting a grilling about the basis for the government's policies. And it's...
The Phony "Green Economy"
David Rose has a short article on my report for Roger Helmer MEP on the size of the UK's green economy. But documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the true value of the green economy is actually between only £16.8 billion and £27.9 billion,...
The Global Guardians and the League of Extraordinary Nutjobs
An outbreak of thinking has occurred at the Guardian. In response to George Monbiot's book, Feral: Searching for enchantment on the frontiers of rewilding, Steven Poole observes that the 'pastoral literary genre has long been a solidly bourgeois form of escapism', and...
Robber Lords and the Marketplace of Bad Ideas
I watched the entire debate -- if it was a debate -- on the Government's Energy Market Reform Bill (EMR) in the House of Lords today. For a chamber that is populated by people who are appointed on the basis of merit, replacing the feudal system, it was a very...
The Lewandowsky Papers — at Spiked
Spiked have published my article on Lewandowsky's three anti-sceptic papers. Read more at http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/13716/
The pathologising of climate scepticism
ESSAY: The shoddy science of sceptic-bashing LOG12 attempts to turn criticism into a psychological illness. As the influence of environmental thinking has increased its hold over the political establishment, the failure to win the public support that might create the...
The Lewandowsky Papers
This essay was written for Spiked-Online, and will be published on Spiked at some point. As the influence of environmental thinking has increased its hold over the political establishment, the failure to win the public support that might create the basis for decisive...
Climate Science — a Game of Musical Chairs?
Opinions in the climate debate are typically given weight according to the qualification of the pundit to speak. One such victim of this idea that only the anointed may speak on matters climate-related for instance, asks "Ben Pile: Qualified Pundit or Bullshit...
Did Richard Dawkins Invent Thatcherism and Environmentalism?
The death of Margaret Thatcher has brought all sorts of history back under the microscope. But often, such retrospectives become revision, revealing much more about the viewer in the present than the facts of the past. Much of this is less than dignified. Thatcher's...
The Twisted Ethics of Environmental Protest
Environmental activism is most noted for 'direct action' -- behaviour that has two fundamental characteristics. 1. It is highly visible. 2. It is disruptive to the operations of some activity or other. Direct action is necessary, I have argued, because the...