Paul Driessen

REAL threats to biodiversity and humanity

References to climate change almost guarantee funding, even for research topics of little interest beyond academia and eco-activists. Polls reveal that most people worry most about energy and food prices, crime, living standards, Putin's war on Ukraine, and increasing efforts to control their lives. A recent study by Rutgers University scientists sought to determine how much diversity is required among bee species to sustain wild plant populations. They concluded that ecosystems rely on many bee species to flourish – and "biodiversity is key to sustaining life on Earth," especially with many species "rapidly going extinct due to climate change and human development."

Correct or cancel Mom's grocery bag misinformation

I don't deliberately avoid organic foods or markets, but I don't seek them out either. Claims that organic food tastes better or is more nutritious are not supported by evidence and certainly don't justify the far higher prices. Mostly, I'm put off by assertions that organic food is pesticide-free, safer and more planet-friendly. Those assertions are simply false advertising; deliberate misinformation. Mom's Organic Market shopping bags provide an excellent example. They're emblazoned with six "Bee Informed" messages that help customers Bee the Change, Give Bees a Chance, and Save the Bees from a looming Armageddon attributed to synthetic pesticides. The Bee Misinformed messages merit correction.

Don’t Look Up!

In the Netflix movie, Washington politicians “Don’t Look Up” because they prefer to remain oblivious to a special effects meteor that’s about to obliterate Planet Earth. Not surprisingly, the film is really about our refusal to recognize the “existential threat” of “manmade climate change.” Director Adam McKay recently tweeted, “We’ve got 6-8 years before the climate is so chaotic we [will] live in a permanent state of biblical catastrophe.”

Candy Bomber lessons for Ukraine--and daily life

The Covid pandemic severely disrupted schools, commerce, and public and private services of every description. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the West's focus on the "manmade climate crisis" continue to drive energy and food prices ever higher. Western energy, healthcare and national security policies are increasingly exposed as weak, confused and feckless. In Europe they are hugely exacerbated by the needs of millions of Ukrainian refugees trying to escape Vladimir Putin's brutality by fleeing to Europe, the UK, America, Turkey and Israel.

Saving America from planet-threatening fossil fuels

Presidential candidate Joe Biden repeatedly promised to end fossil fuels in America. There’ll be "no more drilling, including offshore," he said. "No ability for the oil industry to drill. No more pipelines."  Shortly after reaching the White House, President Biden ended Keystone XL pipeline construction and began working with congressional Democrats, regulators and eco-activists to impose leasing and drilling moratoriums, slow-walk permits, pressure financial institutions to deny funding to fossil fuel companies, and implement "social cost of carbon" rules, "environmental justice" programs, "windfall profit" taxes and other policies to close down or bankrupt fossil fuel projects and companies.

Assessing Virginia's hidden wind and solar costs

The real climate and health crisis 

Climate policies promoted and imposed by Team Biden and Democrats are based on junk science, headline-grabbing scare stories, and computer models that create far-fetched "scenarios" asserting that fossil fuel use and emissions will cause Earth to warm by 4 degrees C (7 F) over the next 80 years, and cause Arctic warming that will bring colder winters. Those dire predictions are used to justify more taxpayer-funded "research," like a recent Columbia University "mortality cost of carbon" study that claims 83 million people (the population of Germany) "could be killed" this century by those rising planetary temperatures. Therefore we must take "immediate action" to "transform" our energy and economic systems, and replace oil, gas and coal with (millions of) wind turbines and (billions of) solar panels and backup batteries.

Europe's energy crisis better wake America up

COP-26, the twenty-sixth massive climate control "conference of parties," goes live in Glasgow, Scotland on Halloween. That's certainly appropriate, since its primary purpose is to further terrify humanity to "take action" to prevent the "existential threat" of "manmade climate cataclysms." Thousands of politicians and climate activists will take private jets and limos to the lecture and hector halls – to demand that "commoners" be restricted to one Basic Economy flight every three years, meatless diets, public transportation, and keeping 640-square-foot homes at 65 F all winter and 85 F all summer.

Democrats still embrace their slavemaster roots

History isn’t always quite what’s portrayed in popular culture or taught today in schools, especially regarding racial politics. Do your kids know the Republican Party was formed in 1854 to keep slavery out of new American territories? Or that for over a century Republicans battled Democrats who supported slavery and segregation, poll taxes, pre-vote “literacy” tests, Jim Crow and Ku Klux Klan terrorism?

Don't waste time or money on 'Silent Earth' 

Book reviews usually tell people, buy this new hardback. This article advises, don't bother reading Silent Earth, much less purchasing a copy; it's mostly a junk-science, anti-technology screed. Dave Goulson's book expands on Silent Spring, Rachel Carson's polemic against pesticides that helped rid Europe and the USA of deadly malaria, and now protect crops that require so much land, water, work, fertilizer and energy to grow and harvest that we dare not sacrifice them to hordes of hungry insects.

Woke companies must wake up on ESG 

Growing numbers of companies, banks, universities and investment houses are adopting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards and disclosure rules. They're pressured to do so by activists, legislators and regulators. Many expect to get rich via taxpayer-subsidized "renewable" energy projects.

Another Biden Administration eco-con 

Via yet another decree (Executive Order 14008), President Biden has instructed government agencies to "permanently protect" at least 30% of all US lands and waters by 2030. This "30 X 30 Plan" appears to presume that any areas not designated as park, refuge or wilderness are not "protected," even though the vast majority of federal lands are already effectively off limits to mining, drilling, timber harvesting and even grazing, by virtue of policies heavily tilted toward preservation and against any development.

REAL threats to planet and people

Environmental activism was already nasty and lethal when I wrote Eco-Imperialism: Green Power--Black Death 18 years ago. It's gotten steadily worse since then, especially with hysteria about the "looming manmade climate apocalypse" driving ever more extreme demands that we rid the world of fossil fuels and prohibit or roll back modern living standards.

Follow the science, at least on nutrition

If we’ve learned anything from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s the importance of solid, up-to-date scientific information – and the regulatory flexibility necessary to respond quickly to new information. At least with some aspects of Covid prevention and treatment, “follow the science” became the guiding mantra, as sustained inquiry into the corona virus progressed at warp-speed, leading to scientific breakthroughs and three vaccines in only months, rather than the normal years or even decades.

Saving pollinators from an imaginary bee-pocalypse

torrent of media stories from 2013-2014 presented frightening tales of "unprecedented" colony collapse disorder (CCD) among honeybees, conjuring up visions of a "bee-pocalypse" and "a world without bees," a world in which flowers and agriculture would be decimated. Many articles blamed neonicotinoid pesticides, while others added climate change and biotech (GMO) crops as likely culprits. Some mentioned Varroa destructor mites and various viruses and diseases as possible causes. Virtually none suggested that organic food industry chemicals could also be implicated in bee deaths. The overall tone was "deep concern," bordering on hysteria. But it sold papers and air time.

The social costs of carbon cancelation

Fearing that incessant warnings about manmade climate cataclysms would not be enough to end US fossil fuel use, the Obama-Biden Administration instructed a special Interagency Working Group to concoct a "social cost of carbon" concept. The SCC would "scientifically" calibrate the dollar value of damages that a ton of carbon dioxide emitted today in America would inflict on the USA and world in the future.

EV subsidies, fantasies and realities

Tesla may be synonymous with electric vehicles right now. But within a few years, GM, Volvo and many other manufacturers will be making mostly or only EVs, because they're emission-free, climate-friendly, socially and ecologically responsible, and more affordable every year. Which explains why we need subsidies to persuade people to buy them, and mandates to force people to buy them. President Biden wants all new light/medium-duty vehicles sold by 2035 to be EVs. Vice President Harris wants only ZEVs (zero emission vehicles) on America's roads by 2045. Various states are considering or have already passed similar laws; some would even ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2030. Climate Czar John Kerry will likely be happy to buy EVs to expand his fleet of twelve cars, two yachts, six houses, and the private jet he flies in to accept climate crusader awards.

REAL threats to threatened species

Many activists, politicians and regulators believe our Earth and its wild kingdoms are threatened by fossil fuels, conventional farming, modern living standards, and catastrophic climate change resulting from the aforementioned human activities. Many promote these fears to gain ever-greater control over energy and economic systems, circumscribe personal freedoms, and silence questions and dissent. Few of them could likely hunt, gather or grow sufficient food for their families, or be a lucky protagonist in an episode of the Weather Channel's Could You Survive? series – much less endure Mary Draper Ingles' harrowing 800-mile walk through the 1755 wilderness to escape captivity by Shawnee Indians. 

Suspect science threatens US farming--again 

Modern American agriculture has wrought miracles over the past 70 years. Conventional farm production per acre and overall nearly tripled, corn (maize) production increased 500% from 20% less land--and farmers used less water, less fuel, less fertilizer, and fewer pesticides and other chemicals for every bushel of food they harvested. They did all this using hybrid and genetically engineered seeds, tractors guided by GPS, equipment that can space seeds precisely to the inch and apply chemicals in amounts suited to soil characteristics that can change every few feet, and numerous other high-tech advances.

Chew gum – for pleasure, taste and health

Amid 40+ years in politics and public policy, I sometimes enjoy forays into other topics, like natural and artificial coral reefs, scuba diving, and medical and scientific advances over the centuries.   As a regular user, I've enjoyed the pop culture aspects of chewing gum, but now I'm happily discovering that the health benefits more than offset the opprobrium some still attach to savoring a stick or tablet.