Against the "Revolutionary" Climate Deal

Climate Pact a Bad Deal for the U.S., Newsday, November 22, 2015. "The nations of the world will gather in Paris later this month to negotiate a major climate change agreement. Most of the world's leaders will arrive in carbon-spewing private jets. It would be even more appropriate if they drove Volkswagens."

Dogs and Cats, Living Together!

Climate Change Is Not A National Security Threat, Newsday, May 31, 2015. "Earlier this month, the Obama administration released its latest blast on climate change: a cut-and-paste job from its own reports proclaiming that climate change has serious national security implications. This is embarrassingly shoddy stuff. But it's shoddy for a reason."

Foreign Policy After The First Year

One Year Later: America Retreats From Global Leadership Under Obama, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 16, 2010. "The world needs American leadership. In the interwar years, we saw that the enemies of freedom advance when the great liberal and democratic powers of the day failed to lead. We saw it again in the dark years of the Cold War under President Carter. The alternative to an America willing and able to lead is not a paradise of peace through engagement. It is a world where the undemocratic, the unsatisfied, and the illiberal powers of the world advance at the expense of American ideals, American interests, and America’s allies."

Follow the Money

Who Funds European NGOs?, Heritage Foundation Foundry, September 8, 2009. "The answer is simple: the EU does. The TaxPayers’ Alliance, a British group that is genuinely independent of government, points to two recent EU missives that by coincidence arrived in the same package. The first, from the European Economic and Social Committee, was a report on “The external dimension of the EU’s energy policy.” Among much else – such as, no surprise, a greater role for the EU – it recommends “that the social partners as well as environmental organizations and other civil society representatives should be heard and actively involved in defining the external energy strategy. Their capacities to support international dialogue and negotiations should be fully exploited.” All of that is a long-winded way of saying that the EU should use like-minded European NGOs to advance its energy aims at home and abroad, including hectoring the U.S. to sign on to climate change treaties."

Why I'm Cynical About Big Government

G8: Summits, Cynicism, and the Activist State, New Ledger, July 10, 2009. "The Group of Eight summit that closes on Friday is being hosted by Italy in L’Aquila. The summit was to have been held in La Maddalena, on Sardinia, but the venue was shifted after an earthquake hit L’Aquila in April as a “show of solidarity” with the victims. The move sums up the politics of gesture that these all too frequent summits embody. This one comes only two months after the G-20 meeting in London, and two months before the next G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, which will be the third such assembly in a year. One summit is an adventure; two are routine. After that, it’s publicity by hyperactivity, and activity as a substitute for achievement."

Contradictory Aims at the G-8 Summit

Summit Meets, World Yawns, Contentions, July 6, 2009. "This week, on July 8-10, Italy will host the G8 Summit in L’Aquila. Italian planning for the Summit has emphasized what it asserts is the need to make the G8 “more representative and more efficient” by involving China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Egypt, and to “to bring the institutions closer to people by focusing on their real problems, with the financial and economic crisis toping the list” by developing a “new global governance” structure. Italy has also stated that it plans to “[step] up the drive for consensus ahead of the UN conference on the climate in Copenhagen,” to promote “dialogues between producers and consumers [of energy] with the objective of reaching a stable prize [sic, for price] scheme,” and to oppose “food protectionism.” These goals are all delightfully contradictory."

Is the Left Serious About Science?

Faith-Based Science, Indeed, Contentions, July 1, 2009. "My colleague at Heritage, Mike Gonzalez, points out a fascinating report available through the Competitive Enterprise Institute. It consists of the leaked work of EPA veteran Dr. Alan Carlin, and makes a serious argument that 'We have become increasingly concerned that EPA and many other agencies and countries have paid too little attention to the science of global warming…. the EPA is largely relying on scientific findings that are, by early 2009, largely 3 years or more out of date.' Dr. Carlin’s paper is substantial and deserves to be read in its entirety. But his takeaway is clear: the best explanations for global temperature fluctuations are changes in the amount of energy emitted by the sun, and, especially, oscillations in the temperatures of the oceans. The explanatory power of CO2 levels is much weaker, and, over the past decade, almost non-existent. . . ."