Anne Applebaum
The campaign against human presence on the planet is not relegated to a radical fringe, but permeates the upper echelons of science and mainstream organizations. The concept that humans are merely carbon dioxide emitters and our presence is primarily destructive has dangerous implications. Applebaum points out that human ingenuity and creativity are largely responsible for raising living standards around the world. And it is human innovation and compassion that will help to bring about the cessation of fossil fuel use. Engendering hatred for mankind teaches only apathy.
Applebaum is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on foreign affairs.
Comparing global climate change to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Tidwell claims that sweeping, political change is the only hope of saving the planet from large-scale destruction caused by greenhouse gas emissions. While many distractions and inhibitions have prevented legislation that would effectively cease the burning of fossil fuels, the “go green” movement–hyped by the media and thus appearing larger and more significant than it really is–shares the blame. Rather than obsessing over green fads, the author calls Americans to real action.
Over the past week there have been resignations and investigations of top scientists in England and the US. This event amounts to a peer review of a putative scientific “consensus” by bloggers. The story so far has played itself out largely on blogs, often run by the same scientists who had a hard time getting printed in the scientific journals. “Climategate” has provided a voice to the scientists who had been frozen out of the debate. While this episode raises disturbing questions about scientific standards in highly political areas such as global warming, Crovitz says it’s remarkable to see how quickly corrective information can now spread.
The disproportionately heavy dependence on coal in China is unique among major economies and has made China the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. With coal reserves estimated to last only 50 years and in an attempt to combat environmental and ecological damage, recent years have seen increasing emphasis placed on developing indigenous renewable energy sources. China is reportedly now the world’s leading renewable energy producer. On energy security and environmental grounds, maintaining the momentum of rapid renewable energy production growth will continue to be a high strategic development priority. China’s resource endowment, its proven technological capability, and the commercial opportunities afforded by further expansion seem guaranteed to assure the fulfillment of this priority goal.
McArdle looks at the concept of geoengineering to develop large-scale projects to decrease the CO2 in the atmosphere. She says the scale of the carbon reductions that will be required in developed nations are massive. However, the political will to achieve them is very weak, even in Europe. Even if we somehow develop the political will, unless we also make some radical advances in cheap renewable energy technology, China is going to burn all of her coal, plus all of the oil we don’t buy from the Saudis, rendering most of our efforts moot. Geoengineering has to be an international undertaking or every country will just play to its own agenda.
Food companies and restaurants in Sweden may be listing the fossil fuel emissions that went into the production of the food. Smith says so far it’s an experiment to test whether people change their buying habits to purchase the supposedly eco-friendlier foods. However, there are problems because politics and science seem to be colliding as Swedish locally grown food gets the lowest ratings, which indicates that buying imported food is not only economically bad for the country but also environmentally.
Is Pakistan truly falling apart? Does the Zardari administration have credibility abroad? Is the Obama administration really serious about aiding the world’s only Islamic nuclear power? Does Pakistan trust the US? Read on for the answers.
In order to overcome the serious economic recession that it is mired in, Spain needs a new business spirit, new niches in the business world and a more competitive administration.
Is it possible to reconstruct the political and military understanding between Europe, the United States and Russia that prevailed in the nineties and fell apart during the last Bush administration, or has the time come to lay the foundation for a new order of European security based on the needs of the twenty-first century?
