Dennis Avery

Record South Pole Ozone Hole Predicted

A Canadian scientist says the largest known hole in the ozone will occur over the South Pole in the next week. If that happens, it will help us understand global warming.

Speaker Pelosi Would ‘Save the Planet’ with Higher Gas Prices

Nancy Pelosi has changed her mind. She’ll allow a vote on drilling for America’s offshore oil potential after all—sort of.

Presidential Candidates Differ Sharply on Ethanol

Barack Obama and John McCain have sharply different visions of ethanol in the nation’s future. Obama wants more ethanol, while McCain thinks we should probably have less. Both say man-made global warming is a serious threat, and both say they want the best for the nation’s farmers.

The World Bank Now Agrees: We Need Another Green Revolution

Dennis T. and Alex A. Avery, Hudson Institute The World Bank is warning of “climate chaos” and demands a rebuilding of the world’s agricultural science centers to keep everyone fed. The basic message is right on target, even if it is swathed in climate hype. Katherine Sierra, the World Bank’s vice president for sustainable development, says climate change will mean more droughts, floods, more outbreaks of pests and disease, more heat stress for livestock and less arable land for crops. She warns the world “dropped the ball” on agricultural science after the Green Revolution saved a billion people from starvation and preserved 16 million square miles of forest from being plowed for more low-yield crops.

Irradiating Lettuce Will Save Kids’ Lives

For years, our Center has been demanding irradiation for spinach, lettuce, and other high-risk produce—to kill the food-borne bacteria that present a last big preventable risk in our food supply. On August 22, the Food and Drug Administration granted our plea.

Russian Tanks Signal a “New Energy War”

“Russia’s adventure in Georgia has been described as a ‘warlet,’ a contained firing spree that wound up and down within a week. But to Europe’s energy markets, it was the equivalent of wide-scale carpet bombing,” writes Eric Reguly in Britain’s Global and Mail on August 15th. “Before the Georgian crisis, Europe seemed to be doing all the right things, with little Georgia at the centre of a sensible energy diversification plan. A column of Russian tanks wrecked that strategy in an instant . . . a new energy war is about to begin.”

Prince Charles Promotes World Hunger

Dennis T. and Alex A. Avery, Hudson Institute Prince Charles of England has come out again against the genetically modified foods that are a key hope for producing the extra food needed by our richer, more populous world in the decades just ahead. He must know that, thanks to science, world grain production tripled during his lifetime, from about 700 million tons per year to nearly 2,100 million tons. This achievement was certainly not due to his elitist organic farming, which continues to yield about half as much per acre as conventional farming. For fifty years, we’ve even bombarded seeds with radioactive isotopes to force useful new seed mutations!

Can Obama End the “Age of Oil”?

Barack Obama says the U.S. must “end the age of oil in our time,” with “real results by the end of my first term in office.”

China Releases Biotech Rice, Bars Biofuel to Protect Food Supply

China says short world grain supplies have persuaded it to release biotech rice nationwide, ensuring the broadest-ever use of genetic engineering in a food crop. Chinese plant breeders say biotech crops are certain to produce higher yields, forestalling the need to finance costly rice imports for China’s billion-plus consumers.

“Consensus” on Man-Made Warming Shattering

The “consensus” on man-made global warming may have received a mortal wound. Physics & Society, The journal of the 46,000-member American Physical Society, just published “Climate Sensitivity Revisited,” by Viscount Christopher Monckton. Monckton is an avowed man-made warming skeptic, and former science advisor to the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. (If you want to see the science, click here )

Presidential Election Won’t Resolve Gas Prices or Global Warming

On most U.S. political issues, Barack Obama and John McCain take sharply different positions and represent real choice for the voters. On the biggest issue of all, however—$4 gas and global warming strategy—Obama and McCain seem to agree. They both think energy prices need to triple yet again to prevent man-made global warming.

Greens Add Food Production to Their Hit List

British diesel is a self-inflicted $12 per gallon, biofuels have nearly doubled their food prices, and 40 percent of U.K electrical power will be shut down over the next six years. Now, the same Green alarmists, who warn of man-made warming while the planet cools, demand sharp reductions in Europe’s pesticide use. That will slash Europe’s crop production in half during a global food emergency.

Biotech Wheat to Ease World Food Shortage

In the midst of the worst global grain shortage in decades, two lines of Australian biotech wheat have out-yielded current wheats by 20 percent—even under drought stress.

Will the Greens Sacrifice Their Own “Sacred Cows”?

Wired Magazine has published a list of “Green sacred cows” it says must be sacrificed to save the planet. Wired’s founding editor, Kevin Kelly, formerly edited the Whole Earth Catalog, so the magazine has credentials for rethinking what it means to be Green.

Thermometers Are Doing the Talking

What a world!! Global warming alarmists bring us to the brink of world food shortage and economic collapse—using words and computer models, not higher temperatures. As a result, more wildlife species are threatened by palm oil plantations growing biodiesel than by climate change. Heavy sea ice just trapped a big Russian ice-breaker for seven days in the Arctic’s Northwest Passage, which the alarmists told us last year would soon be open sailing. The sunspots and a Pacific Ocean cooling phase are forecasting the earth will cool further over the next two decades. In the past, both have accurate in their in their predictions.

Gas Too High? Burn Coal!

We are truly conflicted about energy. Everyone agrees gasoline prices are far too high, but:

31000 scientists sign Oregon GW Skeptic Petition

In 1998, Dr. Arthur Robinson, Director of the Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine, posted his first Global Warming skeptic petition, on the Institute’s website (oism.org). It quickly attracted the signatures of more than 17,000 Americans who held college degrees in science. Widely known as the Oregon Petition, it became a counter-weight for the “all scientists agree” mantra of the man-man Global Warming crowd.

Saving Arctic Plant Species from Climate Change

The Norwegian government is building its high-tech new Global Seed Vault on the Arctic island of Svalbard to protect the world’s plant varieties in case of global climate change. Meanwhile, outside the Svalbard vault, the island’s own hardy Arctic plants are demonstrating that Mother Nature knows how to keep her species alive through natural adaptation to the earth’s naturally radical climate cycling

Must We Suffer Global Famine Again?

Do today’s soaring food prices and Third World food riots mean we’re headed for global famine?

New Jason Satellite Indicates 23-Year Global Cooling

Now it’s not just the sunspots that predict a 23-year global cooling. The new Jason oceanographic satellite shows that 2007 was a “cool” La Nina year—but Jason also says something more important is at work: The much larger and more persistent Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) has turned into its cool phase, telling us to expect moderately lower global temperatures until 2030 or so.