Dennis Avery

Obama has launched the Green Trade War

The global warming trade war has started—quietly, but just as surely as we knew it would. The Obama Administration is now subsidizing U.S. milk and cheese exports in a way that will punish New Zealand—which depends on its efficient grass-fed dairy exports for close to one-third of its total income. The reason? U.S. corn ethanol mandates have pushed American feed grain prices so high that the Administration felt it had to “give something” to U.S. dairy farmers.

New Zealand may go bust over Global Warming

CHURCHVILLE, VA—No country in the world would risk as much for “global warming” as New Zealand if it goes ahead with the cap-and-trade energy taxation installed by Helen Clarke’s now-departed Labour Government.

Do Scottish sand dunes predict 21st century storms

CHURCHVILLE, VA—The Culbin Sands in Scotland are one of the famed historic storm sites in the world. In 1694, the area was rich farmland, with a manor house and numerous tenant farms amid the fields and orchards. Then a “western hurricane” struck the Firth of Moray, and in two nights the howling storm had buried the houses, orchards, and 14 square miles of fields under 30 feet of sand. The sand is there today, though now covered with Corsican pine trees planted in the 1920s to keep the sand from blowing onto neighboring lands.

Case for Biofuels weakens further

CHURCHVILLE, VA—Biofuels are a terrible answer to the fuel problem. They force consumers to bid against themselves on food and fuel, artificially driving up the prices of both.

Do ‘Factory farms’ trigger swine flu?

CHURCHVILLE, VA—Did “factory hog farms” trigger Mexico’s recent outbreak of “swine flu”? Not likely. In fact, today’s specialized hog and poultry farms actually minimize the potential for virus epidemics—and limit the public’s exposure to flu risks.

Incredible Sea Level Rise Is—Not Credible

A recent scientific paper quoted in the N.Y. Times claimed Mexican corals that died 120,000 years ago showed sea levels might have surged 10 feet in just 50 years! If so, such a sea-level rise must have involved a big ice-melt in Antarctica.

Where’s the Runaway Warming?

The global cooling trend that began early in 2007 continues. America’s official global reading for March, 2009 has been issued by Goddard Space Institute. The month was the coldest of this young century and colder than March of 1990. The satellite records show an even stronger recent cooling trend.

In Praise of Cages for Laying Hens

My wife and I used to have free-range chickens. We didn’t get an abundance of eggs because the hens hid them in barn hay—and then brought us batches of live chicks instead of breakfast makings. And, they stopped laying during the winter so we had to buy commercial eggs at the local grocery.

Creating the Great American Potato Famine?

McDonald’s just agreed to pursue pesticide-free potatoes for its restaurants. The anti-technology zealots pushing this organic move had better hope the company drags its feet—or we risk having the first McDonald’s in history with no French fries. Less than a decade ago, the Danish government’s high-level Bichel technical committee concluded that an organic-only mandate would cut Danish potato production by 80 percent.

Hemispheric Timing Shows Oceans are Source of CO2?

Australia’s Tom Quirk, an Oxford-trained research physicist, noted that carbon 14 molecules from nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and ‘60s took some years to travel through the atmosphere between the northern and southern Hemispheres.

Cubans Starve on Diet of Lies

• “Cuba’s Urban Farming Program a Stunning Success,” Associated Press, International Herald Tribune, June 8, 2008
• “Cuba Organic Farming Group Wins Alternative Nobel Prize,” Organic Consumers Association press release, October 6,1999
• “Cut Off From Global Markets, Cuba Invents a New Agriculture,” Donella Meadows, lead author of Limits to Growth, 1997.
• “This is the largest conversion from conventional to organic or even semi-organic farming the world has ever seen. . . . The whole world should learn from Cuba,” Peter Rosset, Executive Director, Food First, 1993.

Will Obama Leave Our Children Powerless?

President Obama just killed the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility—and with it any realistic chance of actually slashing U.S. carbon emissions without massive consumer costs. Instead of more nuclear energy, he’s putting our energy future in the shaky basket with wind, solar, and biofuels. It’s a recipe for disappointment and disaster.

Natural Global Warmings Have Become More Moderate

This week, at the 2nd international conference of man-made warming skeptics sponsored by the Heartland Institute in New York, I’ll predict the earth’s warming/cooling trends for the 21st century.

Physicist Compares Global Warming Craze to Aztec Human Sacrifices

A leading “climate skeptic” met with the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment on February 25.th Dr. William Happer holds an endowed chair in physics at Princeton, served as the senior scientist at the Department of Energy—and was reportedly fired by then-Vice President Al Gore for disagreeing with Gore’s belief in man-made global warming.

Keystone Alliance Gives Credit to Farmers

America’s high-yield farmers are finally claiming credit for the environmental benefits they’ve been delivering to the world for the past 50 years. A new Keystone Alliance has just issued its first report, noting that modern farmers are producing more food per acre and more food per unit of energy used, while radically reducing their soil erosion and water consumption.

Africa Faces Plague of Armyworms: Are We Next?

A vast plague of armyworms has just destroyed the crops of some 50,000 villagers in Liberia. Observers say the billions of inch-and-a-half-long worms can eat a cornfield down to the stalk nubs in a few hours—and then start snacking on the next field. Soon, the adult moths fly off to start new invasions. Without an aerial spraying campaign, the armyworms may spread their famine and crop devastation to neighboring countries as well.

Asia’s Brown Pollution Cloud: Caused by Renewable Fuels!

That vast cloud of brown pollution hanging over Asia comes from wood and cattle dung being burned in millions of Third World home-fires, according to Orjan Gustafsson, a bio-geochemist from Stockholm University. Gustaffsson recently tested the smoke of the Asian brown cloud with a newly developed radiocarbon technique—and found that two-thirds of the brown cloud’s particles are organic matter, mostly wood, straw and dung.

Blame Corn Harvesters for the Crash of Flight 1549!

Did global warming dump U.S. Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson River by attracting more geese to New York airports? Time Magazine says yes. Time notes a four-fold increase in airplane bird strikes since 1990, and blames global warming and destruction of wild bird habitat for the increased collisions.

More Than an Empty Suit?

We elected a President we hardly knew. Barack Obama’s campaign team—and the mainstream press—told us only that we should feel “hopeful.”

An Ordinary Investor Looks at the Coming Decade

It’s a new year, and we must look beyond the mess of sub-prime mortgages and unfunded auto pensions—toward the markets where American citizens have to invest their private capital for the next decade.