Big Picture News, Informed Analysis

Canadian journalist Donna Laframboise. Former National Post & Toronto Star columnist, past vice president of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

A Few Months of Hindsight

Journalist George Gilder declared the pandemic over in April. Mathematician Isaac Ben-Israel insisted the virus would burn out everywhere 70 days after it began.

August 12, 2020

Funerals Have Spiked in Numerous Nations

Across the globe, many more funerals are being held this year than normal.

August 5, 2020

Secrecy & Stonewalling: China and SARS 1.0

China gave the WHO permission to send in investigators, but wouldn’t allow them near the affected area after they’d arrived. They departed empty-handed, two weeks later.

July 15, 2020

Racism, Magical Thinking & the Coronavirus

Rather than quarantining travelers, our leaders chose a course of action that led to entire countries being locked down. 

May 25, 2020

Tipping Points: The Big Picture

The UN said we were at a tipping point in 2007. And in 2009. In a single decade, the media talked about climate tipping points 14,000 times.

January 1, 2020

Climategate: 10 Year Anniversary Reading List

Forget the shallow, conformist media narrative. There’s plenty of sound, perceptive analysis.

November 20, 2019

10th Anniversary Fundraiser

If I’ve helped you better understand the climate debate, the IPCC, the shortcomings of academic research, or that Borg-like entity known as the United Nations, please let me know.

April 15, 2019

The Basement, the Penthouse & the 2-Stop Elevator in Between

It’s no longer accurate to talk about the developed vs the developing world.

November 19, 2018

Thank Goodness for the Industrial Revolution

Long the whipping boy of environmentalists, the Industrial Revolution lifted humanity out of misery and squalor.

November 14, 2018

Journalists Relied on James Hansen’s Say-So

The media’s climate frenzy was sparked by a scientist who’s research was still unpublished.

June 22, 2018

Science and the Issue of Trust

Many messages emanating from the world of science are entirely bogus.

February 15, 2017

Doom Mongers: the Quiz

Activists have predicted environmental catastrophe for decades. In addition to a poor track record, they share similar arguments, language, and metaphors.

November 23, 2015

Getting Serious About Climate

For 15 years, we’ve been scolded and cajoled. As the December climate summit approaches, global warming rhetoric has grown seriously threadbare.

September 8, 2015

The Future Isn’t Ours to Dictate

It is not the business of today’s politicians to decide which energy sources will be used 85 years from now.

June 9, 2015

Pointless Predictions

The climate crisis is the latest in a long line of predictions about how bad things are going to be in the future. Let’s remember that while scary headlines sell newspapers, journalists have a terrible track record.

January 2, 2015

Saving Civilization: 2009 vs 2015

Five years ago, we were told that the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit was the last chance to save civilization. As the 2015 Paris summit approaches, the same sort of fear mongering is ramping up. Part 3 of 4

September 20, 2014

A Historical Perspective on Hysterical Rhetoric

Environmental activists have been declaring that the sky is falling since at least 1948. We aren’t the first generation to care – or to be raised on eco scare stories.

February 4, 2014

Warmth: Another Word for Well-Being

Rather than bringing pine logs to the poor, 21st-century energy policies do the exact opposite. More children now shiver in the cold.

December 24, 2013

Doubt is Not a Sin

When did “Question Authority” stop being applicable?

December 18, 2013

Distressed Planet, 1990 – 2013

Back in 1990, the head of the UN said our planet was ailing. Fast forward a quarter of a century, and a Worldwatch Institute press release issued today continues the ‘planet in distress’ meme.

July 15, 2013

More on Stephen Emmott, Author of ‘Ten Billion’

A new book appears to be a rehash of 40-year-old environmental scaremongering endorsed by that era’s men of science.

July 3, 2013

The Coming Hellhole – Exhibit #7 of the Drama Queen Files

Emergency! Catastrophe! Earth is turning into an unprecedented hellhole – according to an Oxford professor and Microsoft official.

July 2, 2013

Dumb Energy vs Smart Energy

Supplying electricity to a typical family for 12 hours requires the pedal power of 80 elite cyclists. The same amount of electricity can be purchased from the grid for under $5.

June 27, 2013

Have We Run Out of Time Yet?

It isn’t your imagination. You’ve been hearing that the world is “running out of time” for years.

June 16, 2013

The Scare Story of 1881

Back in the 19th century, newspapers declared that something had “gone wrong” with the climate. The public was told that the telegraph system might cause the destruction of the human race.

May 10, 2013

Earth Day 1970 (The Drama Queen Files, Exhibit #4)

The language being used in 1970, the year Earth Day was born, hasn’t changed much: Crisis. Catastrophe. Endangered. Extinction.

April 22, 2013

Speaking of the Children

Half of children perish in pre-industrial societies. Take your pick: a bucolic, green fantasy world – or one that’s safe for kids.

March 26, 2013

It’s Always Something (the 1924 edition)

Drama queen scientists have been around for at least 89 years.

March 8, 2013 · 4 Comments

Recent Decades: An Amazing Global Success Story

Far fewer human beings perish before their fifth birthday than ever before. More of us live longer. This is worth celebrating.

February 23, 2013

Deja Vu All Over again…1991’s ‘World on Fire’

Before there was Al Gore, there was George Mitchell. Politicians have been casting themselves as environmental crusaders, saving the planet, for two decades.

October 11, 2012 · 3 Comments

How Science (Really) Works

A new report argues that alternative perspectives are vital to the scientific process. Expecting dispassion from individual researchers is probably a lost cause.

October 9, 2012

Another False Alarm – ‘The Dying of the Trees’

A 17-year-old book about the state of America’s forests is similar to current books about climate change. Its analysis and predictions were wrong, wrong, wrong.

October 4, 2012

Energy Rocks Our World

Affordable, reliable energy – a big reason most children now make it to adulthood.

June 17, 2012

The UN’s Environmental ‘Holocausts’

Since the 1970s UN officials have tried to frighten us. Repeatedly, their predictions have failed. Repeatedly, their time frames have been preposterously inaccurate.

April 30, 2012

Mother Mexico & the Jackals

How are green groups different from yesterday’s colonial powers? Their global agenda is paramount, their lack of empathy for ordinary people breathtaking.

April 21, 2012

Eco Narcissists & Their Last Chances

For half a century green activists have insisted that their historical moment – and a particular generation – are the planet’s last hope.

April 14, 2012

Pachauri Pushes Emissions Reduction – Again

The IPCC is supposed to be “policy-neutral, never policy-prescriptive.” How can it be OK for its chairman to lobby for one policy in particular?

February 2, 2012

Pachauri: It’s Too Late to Fight Climate Change

Back in 2007 IPCC chairman Pachauri made a prediction regarding the year 2012.

January 1, 2012

The World’s Slowest Learners

UN bureaucrats say climate change is a planetary emergency and that time is running out. So when US senators unanimously rejected the Kyoto Protocol where was Plan B?

December 31, 2011

Over-the-Top Climate Rhetoric

Emotional, over-the-top language doesn’t come from real leaders in a time of real crisis. Rather, it’s a sign that someone’s trying to stampede public opinion.

December 13, 2011

UN Climate Warnings Are So 1989

22 years ago the UN said we had only 10 years to take global warming action. Otherwise, entire nations would drown due to rising sea levels by the year 2000.

November 1, 2011

Al Gore’s Money-Grubbing

Al Gore says climate change is a planetary emergency. But he’ll only tell a campus audience about it if the cheque is big enough.

September 12, 2011

The Y2K Scare, the Media & Climate Change

Media coverage of climate change has a great deal in common with how the press covered the Y2K scare. There’s little evidence that news outlets learned much from that embarrassing episode.

August 9, 2011

Two Population Predictions

40 years ago scientists said radical change was necessary if humanity was to survive. Along the way they endorsed a population prediction that now seems foolish.

June 19, 2011

David Suzuki is a Drama Queen

While the rest of us approach challenges with determination, optimism, and faith in ourselves as problem solvers, drama queens see only worst-case scenarios. They exaggerate. They emotionalize.

June 3, 2011

The Case of Michael Oppenheimer

Perhaps the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change doesn’t regard activist scientists as damaged goods because neither the National Academy of Sciences nor the American Association for the Advancement of Science does, either.

May 1, 2011

Three Cheers for New Tech

When people in affluent counties embrace new technologies we’re helping to make the entire world a better place. Really.

April 30, 2011

When the Lights Go Out

Having just spent 17 hours without electricity, I’m feeling especially keen on a stable energy supply.

April 29, 2011

The State of the IPCC’s Leadership

Rajendra Pachauri, as chairman of what is supposed to be a respectable science body, has – with deliberation and forethought – publicly linked that body to left-wing political analysis and activism.

April 9, 2011

Pachauri’s Pal – the Worldwatch Institute

Before the IPCC was even founded, the Worldwatch Institute had already declared that global warming was caused by fossil fuels. Surely that makes the IPCC chairman’s decision to fraternize with this activist organization a bit awkward.

April 7, 2011

Why is Humanity Always the Fall Guy?

Museums acknowledge that, historically, Mother Nature killed off fish and caused glaciers to retreat. So why do these same institutions imply that similar events in the here-and-now are solely the fault of humans?

March 31, 2011

The Horse Manure Problem

In the late 1800s cities were drowning in smelly, dirty, disease-spreading horse manure. The private automobile was a huge step forward, environmentally-speaking.

March 29, 2011

Earth to Scientists

Half a century ago, a science journalist discovered that anything less than reverential reporting was interpreted by scientists as hostility. It would seem that climate scientists who label critics ‘anti-science’ come from a long tradition.

March 18, 2011

Was the Fix In Before the IPCC Existed?

In 1970s and ’80s some scientists already believed human CO2 emissions would cause global warming. How do we know the IPCC’s 2007 conclusions weren’t preordained?

March 13, 2011

Flying Cars and Sewing Machines

People who look into the future and see only environmental devastation have lost their sense of wonder.

February 24, 2011

Flooding in Australia

Australia’s poets have written about alternating droughts and floods since the early 1900s. Is a preoccupation with alleged global-warming-induced-droughts linked to too little government attention on precautionary flood measures?

January 11, 2011

New Blog Examines Green History

Haunting the Library, a new blog, digs up news clippings that add important historical context to the climate debate.

January 9, 2011

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

It isn’t your imagination. We were advised that global warming would mean milder winters. The record-breaking cold temperatures & unusual snowfalls in recent years are odds with the claim that global warming is happening faster than predicted.

December 19, 2010

The Climate’s Gonna Kill Us (Circa 1974)

News reports from the 1970s said ocean temperatures were dropping, polar ice was growing, and the coldest temperatures in 200 years were being recorded at the Arctic Circle. We were told be worried. Very worried.

December 17, 2010

Forty Years of Drama Queen Scientists

No matter what the concern, drama queen scientists have been pushing the same solution for decades: less consumption, less travel & less freedom. For them, every problem is a crisis that requires radical social change.

December 13, 2010

If the Science is So Persuasive, Why the Theatrics?

If climate change science is so convincing, why did Timothy Wirth schedule James Hansen’s historic 1988 testimony during the hottest time of the year? And why did he sneak into the hearing room the night before & open the windows so there’d be no air conditioning?

December 11, 2010

World War II Rationing – the ‘Hated Sacrifice’

Some people argue that energy rationing of the sort imposed during wartime is necessary to save the planet. But World War II rationing made life miserable for ordinary people. It also nourished the black market & organized crime.

December 1, 2010

The Royal Society’s Big Oil Award

The UK’s Royal Society awarded an Esso Energy medal annually for 25 years. A short time later, when opinions on climate change diverged, the society began painting Esso’s parent company, ExxonMobil, as demon spawn.

November 29, 2010

Are Humans Parasites?

Hostage-taker James Lee’s views about the planet being better off without humans are chillingly similar to those expressed by The Ecologist magazine in its debut editorial.

September 7, 2010

1969 Climate Predictions Miss by a Mile

Back in 1969, smart people made some predictions regarding the effect carbon dioxide emissions would have on the climate by the year 2000. A 7-degree F increase in temperature and 10-foot sea level rises were among them. As usual, the predictions were wrong.

July 3, 2010

Earth Day & the Media

A historian says that while “other social movements…were frequently ridiculed or dismissed…the mass media accorded considerable respect to the environmental cause” when Earth Day was founded 40 years ago.

April 22, 2010

Climate Psychics: 10-Year-Old Snow Prediction Fails Miserably

A decade ago, a climate scientist told the media that snow would be rare in Britain within a few years. But plenty has fallen in 9 of the last 10.

January 7, 2010

Global Disaster Is So 1976

30+ years ago, we were told humanity faced “global disaster” and “worldwide catastrophe” if we didn’t radically change our lifestyles. That message now gets linked to global warming, but the analysis – and the fear mongering – is much older.

December 20, 2009

Our Hyperactive Planet

Planet Earth experiences frequent volcanoes, earthquakes, electrical storms, tsunamis & tornadoes. It’s unlikely that this immense, complex system can be controlled by humans.

December 8, 2009

We HAVE Heard This Rhetoric Before

A book published in the 1970s argued passionately that society couldn’t afford to ignore the danger posed by global cooling. The evidence was too strong, it said – and scientists who disagreed were being irresponsible. Sound familiar?

December 8, 2009

Al Gore Thinks Your Brain Is Too Primitive

It seems not to have crossed Al Gore’s mind that some of us consider his arguments flawed, his data suspect & his rhetoric overwrought. Instead, he prefers to believe that human neo cortexes are too primitive – that we’re biologically incapable of grasping his apocalyptic message.

July 18, 2009

Change Happens

Billions of years before humans appeared on this planet, the climate was doing something utterly natural – it was changing.

April 24, 2009