Free Republic

Colossal spending and regulatory programs impend, based on the Al Gore conventional hysteria that unreduced carbon emissions will destroy the earth. This will eventually be seen as one of the modern world’s most inexplicable descents into public-policy madness. The basic relevant facts are that carbon emissions are not the principal, nor even a measurable, factor in global warming, and despite dire forecasts and ever-increasing carbon emissions in the world — especially as the economies of China and India, representing 40 percent of the world’s population, expand by 6 to 10 percent each year — the world has not grown...

Lord Stern and Lord Giddens frightened the wits out of a Goldman Sachs audience I attended this week on the risks of a global water, food, and energy crisis. Without wishing to take a stand one way or the other on the bitterly polarized issue of climate change, I pass on some of their remarks so readers can judge for themselves. Nicholas Stern -- the author of the Government’s Stern Report on the economic effects of climate change, and former chief economist at the World Bank -- said we have a one in two chance of destroying civilization within the...

The report on climate change by Nicholas Stern and the U.K. government has sparked publicity and scary headlines around the world. Much attention has been devoted to Mr. Stern's core argument that the price of inaction would be extraordinary and the cost of action modest. Unfortunately, this claim falls apart when one actually reads the 700-page tome. Despite using many good references, the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is selective and its conclusion flawed. Its fear-mongering arguments have been sensationalized, which is ultimately only likely to make the world worse off. The review correctly points out that...