Dennis Avery

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.

The Worst Climate Predictions of 2008

“2008 will be the hottest year in a century:” The Old Farmers’ Almanac, September 11, 2008, Hurricanes, Arctic Ice, Coral, Drinking water, Aspen skiing

Exercising My God-given Right to Water

The United Nations’ new “senior advisor on water”—a Canadian woman named Maude Barlow—says everybody has a right to water.

Green Cars for Cheap Gas?

Now we’re going to give Ford, GM and Chrysler billions of dollars so the Feds can order them to build more “green” cars—with gas now costing $1.49 per gallon. How many Americans will pay $30,000 for one of these new high-mileage lightweights instead of getting a family-protective SUV for the same bucks? Or a pickup to pull the boat? At $1.49 per gallon, not many. So Detroit will go broke again, unless the Feds slap on another $3 per gallon in gas tax.

Fickle Sun Brought Down Ancient Emperors

A North China cave stalagmite just produced an amazingly precise record of China’s rainfall over the past 1800 years, proving that variations in the sun’s activity—through weaker monsoons and poor rice crops—helped bring down three historic Chinese dynasties (the Tang, Yuan, and Ming dynasties).

Thanksgiving’s Future: Kangaroo Instead of Turkey?

Incoming President Obama will undoubtedly call for a renewed crusade against greenhouse gas emissions. Will Thanksgiving dinners in the future feature kangaroo instead of turkey?

Slumping Carbon “Cap-and-Trade” Price Worries Greens

The price of carbon has slumped in Europe’s emission trading—for the second time in two years. The long-term investments needed to reduce humanity’s greenhouse emissions are being discouraged. The carbon price is meant to offset the economic cost of shifting from coal, gas, and oil to non-fossil energy. If the carbon price is too cheap, however, Greens worry we won’t stop burning the fossil fuels.

The “Near-Virtual Reality” of Man-Made Global Warming

“As Barack Obama shifts from a waking dream to the real world, he faces the near-virtual reality of climate change. He has to move decisively.” (Ian McEwan, “A New Dawn,” Wall Street Journal, Nov. 8/9.)

China Sends Global Warming Ransom Note

China has now destroyed Western hopes for a new global warming agreement, just weeks before global talks in Poland aimed at writing a successor for the Kyoto Protocol— which expires in 2012. China has attached a ransom not to its Polish meeting RSVP: They might go along with a new warming pact if the rich countries agree to hand over 1 percent of their GDP—about $300 billion per year—to finance the required non-fossil, higher-cost energy systems the West wants the developing countries to use.

Alaska’s Glaciers Are Growing

Alaska’s glaciers grew this year, after shrinking for most of the last 200 years. The reason? Global temperatures dropped over the past 18 months. The global mean annual temperature has been declining recently because the solar wind thrown out by the sun has retreated to its smallest extent in at least 50 years. This temperature downturn was not predicted by the global computer models, but had been predicted by the sunspot index since 2000.

Tropical Wastelands to Croplands with Biotech

Dennis T. and Alex Avery, Hudson Institute Imagine Africa feeding itself comfortably, instead of being overwhelmed by its own expanding population. Imagine millions of tropical consumers being fed without clearing more forests, thus protecting the wildlife in the very regions where most of the species of the world live and are critically threatened by population pressure. Suddenly, high-yield conservation for the tropics may not be a pipedream.