Who you vote for in the next election will largely be determined by how you answer the following question: Should we encourage more productive use of resources or more social welfare?
Worth A Look
Earth May be Headed Into a Mini Ice Age Within a Decade
What may be the science story of the century is breaking this evening, as heavyweight US solar physicists announce that the Sun appears to be headed into a lengthy spell of low activity, which could mean that the Earth – far from facing a global warming problem – is...
Go North, Young Man, Go North: Canada is quietly surpassing the U.S. as the land of opportunity
While we have every reason to fear the disorder spilling over from our increasingly lawless neighbor to the south, our well-mannered Canadian neighbors have pulled their act together. We could learn a lot from them.
It’s Getting Harder to Bring Home the Bacon: C. Larry Pope, CEO of the world’s largest pork producer, explains why food prices are rising and why they are likely to stay high for a long time.
Mr. Pope is the chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods Inc., the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer by volume. He doesn’t mince words when it comes to rapidly rising food prices. The 56-year-old accountant by training has been in the business for more than three decades, and he warns that the higher costs may be here to stay.
Featured News
Why University?
In this essay, I explain that young people should come to university to be educated, and not to become credentialed; the public should support universities because universities educate young people, not because they produce credentialled workers. Why should a...
A Lamentable Tale of Two Colonies
During the whole of recorded history, the empire has been the most constant and common form of political organization. A basic, self-evident feature of all empire-building has been the successful occupation of the lands of the local, Indigenous inhabitants by outside...
What If Quebecers Got Their Wish, And The Oilsands Closed?: Economic impact would be devastating, even affecting Quebec’s social programs
“Closing down Alberta’s oil industry would immediately stop the production of 1.8 million barrels of oil a day. Supply and demand being what it is, oil prices would go up and therefore the cost at the pump would go up, too, increasing the cost of everything else.”
Insurance Group Says Stolen E-Mails Show Risk in Accepting Climate Science
“A major trade group for the insurance industry is warning that it is “exceedingly risky” for companies to blindly accept scientific conclusions around climate change, given the “serious questions” around the extent to which humans cause atmospheric warming.”
Indigenous Capitalists, from BC to Peru
“The news that private ownership would be legal on Nisga’a land rippled out of the Nass River valley in November, reminding those who heard it of how things work for the rest of Canada’s First Nations. If you live on a reserve in this country, your home belongs to the Crown, effectively barring you from the single most important economic tool in Western society: credit.”
A Blight Grows in Brooklyn
“The issue is a form of government theft that the Supreme Court encouraged with its worst decision of the last decade — one that probably will be radically revised in this one.”
Manitoba Can’t Get Any Respect
“In what almost seemed an afterthought, Manitoba, rather than being offered a seat at the table, was sent the paperwork for review.”
An Insult To Humanity
“Given humankind’s ingenuity, we would have no trouble adapting to a possible rise in global temperatures.”
December 7, 2009; Another Day Of Infamy?
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and President Roosevelt called it a Day in Infamy. On Monday December 7, 2009 a world conference and a bureaucratic action is another day of infamy. It’s loss of freedom day.
Climategate Update: Science Hasn’t Failed, Government Has
This is the big lesson. It isn’t science that has failed. Real science is a process of discovering the truth through transparency, experimentation and verification.
A Dose Of Skepticism Is Healthy: I’m perfectly willing to trust the climate experts. But isn’t doubt an integral part of serious research?
In any case, aren’t doubt and skepticism an integral part of serious research? Science evolves by trial and error, and there’s always a new discovery that challenges accepted theories. Whether or not the gloom-and-doom scenarios are probable, it would certainly be good for humanity and for Mother Earth to find alternative ways to provide cleaner energy. But the findings of the UN panel would be more convincing if they had rested on an open scientific debate.