Human Flourishing

The New England Journal of Medicine is pushing progressive politics in the guise of protecting health, again, this time publishing an article that attacks the fossil fuel industry. From, “Clearing the Smoke on Fossil Fuels — The Health Imperative for a Countermarketing Campaign”:

International Energy Agency analyses show that expected growth in global electricity demand can be met without any new fossil-fuel extraction; a recent comprehensive analysis concludes that there is a “large consensus” across all published studies that developing new oil and gas fields is “incompatible” with the target established by the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. But the fossil-fuel industry continues its reckless expansion of oil and gas extraction and production.

No, sufficient energy can’t be generated without fossil fuels — especially without a massive switch to nuclear power — and that problem may be intractable. Most renewable energy methods favored by the green crowd are weather-dependent. If the wind doesn’t blow, windmills don’t turn. If the sun doesn’t come out, solar energy generation is reduced. The Germans have even coined a word for the energy crisis caused there by this phenomenon: dunkelflaute, or “dark doldrum.”

Here’s the good news. A massive deposit of lithium has been discovered on the border of Oregon and Nevada. From the OilPrice.com story: A massive new lithium discovery on the border between Oregan [sic] and Nevada could supercharge the country’s white-gold rush. It is estimated that the newly discovered reserves under the ancient McDermitt Caldera holds a whopping 40 million metric tons of lithium. The scale of this deposit is extraordinary, “dwarfing other reserves worldwide.” Just last year, lithium producers were thrilled to find a reserve of 4 million metric tons of lithium in the Smackover Formation, a geologic formation that spans the width of Arkansas. Next to the McDermitt Caldera, that now seems a paltry sum. This deposit could Read More ›

We hear a lot from environmentalists, animal rights activists, and just plain caring people about the supposed evils of industrial farming. Neo-Luddites throw tantrums about GMOs, for example. And many commenters — including in these pages — lament the conditions in which meat animals and egg-laying hens are raised. Those are certainly legitimate concerns worthy of investigation and debate. But we also need to focus on the tremendous good humans receive from having bountiful, affordable, and nutritious food supplies, which would seem to require at least some industrial methods to achieve. Indeed, until now, these and other benefits humans receive from industrial agriculture and so-called factory farms seem to be one of those hot potato topics that we are not allowed to Read More ›

Almost all notable science journals promote progressive ideology, and Nature — perhaps the world’s most prestigious science journal — is one of the worst of these propagandizers. The publication recently provided a platform to equity advocate Erika Nesvold, co-founder of JustSpace Alliance, who advocates “for a more inclusive and ethical future in space.” In the interview, she argues that future space colonies — which she would consider a verboten term — should be governed similarly to places like San Francisco. From “Ethics in Outer Space: Can We Make Interplanetary Exploration Just: You talk about ‘settling’ space, rather than colonizing it. Why? Because of all the terrible behaviour that came out of the colonization model here on Earth. People talk about space as the final frontier — there’s Read More ›