Attention Climate Marchers! Watch Matt Ridley on How Fossil Fuels are Greening the Planet
In a couple hours, global warming activists will gather in New York City for what organizers boast will be the "largest climate march in history." More than 100,000 people are expected, and there will be similar events in cities around the world. Check back here later today for our coverage!
In the meantime, watch a lecture that acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley gave at Reason's L.A. headquarters last February about how fossil fuels are…greening the planet.
Here's the original write-up:
Matt Ridley, author of The Red Queen, Genome, The Rational Optimist and other books, dropped by Reason's studio in Los Angeles last month to talk about a curious global trend that is just starting to receive attention. Over the past three decades, our planet has gotten greener!
Even stranger, the greening of the planet in recent decades appears to be happening because of, not despite, our reliance on fossil fuels. While environmentalists often talk about how bad stuff like CO2 causes bad things to happen like global warming, it turns out that the plants aren't complaining.
Approximately 18 minutes.
Produced by Paul Feine and Alex Manning.
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Another video produced by Big Oil. Or the Kochs maybe. Most definitely someone just like Hitler.
Lets talk climate hypocrites then.
Billionaire hedge fund operator and "green" energy magnate Tom Steyer has pledged $100 million in the 2014 election cycle to help Democratic candidates who oppose the Keystone pipeline and who favor "green" energy over fossil fuels. Steyer claims to be a man of principle who has no financial interest in the causes he supports, but acts only for the public good. That is a ridiculous claim: Steyer is the ultimate rent-seeker who depends on government connections to produce subsidies and mandates that make his "green" energy investments profitable. He also is, or was until recently, a major investor in Kinder Morgan, which is building a competitor to the Keystone pipeline. Go here, here, here, here, here and here for more information about how Steyer uses his political donations and consequent connections to enhance his already vast fortune.
But Steyer's hypocrisy goes still deeper. Today, he is a bitter opponent of fossil fuels, especially coal. That fits with his current economic interests: banning coal-fired power plants will boost the value of his solar projects. But it was not always thus. In fact, Steyer owes his fortune in large part to the fact that he has been one of the world's largest financers of coal projects. Tom Steyer was for coal before he was against it.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/a.....d=noscript
he has his
Heresy!
Heresy!
What about burning dung,a renewable source used widely in Africa and Asia?Is this a shill for big crap also?
Has anyone noticed that NPR used to be a lot more serious when team red was in power? Now they devote several hours of programming to not covering all the "fake scandals".
I hated team bush, but damn NPR had way better content back then
Serious reporting would require them to report things that make Obama and Team BLUE look really bad.
But the donkey's voted for the wars and all that big spending Bush was for the Donkeys loved[education,highway,farm bill].Just the wrong side doing it
I don't know that NPR is really much worse than it was 6 years ago. Then 10 years ago? Sure. There was actually some journalism by accident then.
Greenwald had a nice article a while back on how they uncritically repeated CIA talking points.
Oh, and their weekend entertainment content is all about making white liberals who think they like change but really don't feel comfortable. By telling the same joke every week for 30 years. (Cartalk, Prairie Home Companion, Wait-wait, whatever the other one is.)
Well, not just liberals. I'm a big fan of Cartalk exactly because they never change.
Haven't they been in reruns for a while? Click Clack Clunk!
I miss Cartalk as well. I actually learned quite a lot from that show
Sounds like we have an NPR afficionado in our ranks.
Has anyone noticed that NPR used to be a lot more serious when team red was in power? Now they devote several hours of programming to not covering all the "fake scandals".
I was an avid listener to NPR for... I wanna say about 18 years. They were bias, sure. Very bias at times. About 30% of their reporting made me want to strangle kittens.
But something happened over the last year or so, and I just couldn't listen anymore. I just... stopped listening. Their reporting and story selection has almost become an imitation of itself.
I few years ago I tuned in and heard one of the most hideous voices I've ever heard. It turned out to be Diane Rehm, who had some sort of illness that destroyed her voice. I guess NPR, in the spirit of non-discrimination and helping the handicapped, decided it was a good idea to let her keep her show. What a perfect encapsulation of the taxpayer-funded, leftist worldview.
The mask slips:
http://youtu.be/JUUTB2vvIlY?t=50s
"Social justice": the term is invariably identifies a person who is confused (at best).