Thinktank studies 3rd approach to climate change

Climate Change Wars | Liberty Unbound - Robert H. Miller:

October 10, 2017 - "In the climate change controversies, the Left ... overwhelms with data, models, and prognostications warning of environmental disaster because atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased....  The Right is skeptical of the data and how they’re gathered, ... and ... accuses the Left of ignoring ... causes having nothing to do with human activity. But most of all, the dispute is about increasing government power....  The battle lines have been drawn along ideological lines, with science — both good and bad — playing second fiddle: most people just don’t have the knowledge or critical skills to evaluate the methodology and all the factors, conclusions, and opinions.

"Fortunately, there is a third approach, one that relies on the Hayekian insight that markets are much better at analyzing all available data than any one individual, institution, or government (and I would include computers in that list) could possibly be. This is the approach taken by PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center, a libertarian thinktank dedicated to improving environmental quality through property rights and markets.

"It makes little difference whether the United States remained in or left the 2015 Paris Climate Accords: the agreed upon CO2 reduction levels were minimal, unreachable, and unenforceable. And ... solving the perceived problem of climate change on a global scale would be economically devastating, politically unattainable, and practically impossible. So PERC’s latest report focuses on adaptation, a concept heretofore deemed either taboo or irrelevant....But adaptation is the name of the game, and market forces are already at work — and have been for a long time, even though they’re seldom heralded by the media. As the latest PERC Reports (Vol. 36, Issue 1, Summer 2017) puts it:

Market prices send signals about local conditions that no central planner or scientific expert could possibly know. Property rights give resource owners the incentives necessary to adjust to changing conditions. If sea levels rise or crop yields decline, property owners have good reason to act — whether to invest in protections or innovations....

"PERC ... is to environmental policy what the Cato Institute is to political and economic policy. All of PERC’s scholars are well-placed experts with impressive credentials.Two of its resident scholars are Liberty editor Randal O’Toole and water policy expert Terry L. Anderson, director of PERC and also a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Anderson is the author of a groundbreaking book, Water Crisis: Ending the Policy Drought (1983).... "

"Other PERC reports focus on how privately organized, ground-up, rights-based fishing groups have evolved in Fiji, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Northern Australia, Belize, and other places, protecting near-shore fish and near-shore fishermen’s livelihoods. There are PERC articles assessing the runaway costs of the federal government’s wild horse program, and showing how human-wildlife conflicts were mitigated when elk were reintroduced into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One fascinating piece ... is a contrast between the policies advocated by such environmental organizations as the Wilderness Society and the Audubon Society and the way in which they manage their own properties.

"PERC’s analyses focus on politically achievable and practical ends. The organization’s style is thinktank noncontroversial. The appeal to libertarians is clear."

Read more: http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/1767
'via Blog this'

Property and Environment Research Center

https://www.perc.org/

Liberty magazine marks its 30th year

We’re Here! | Liberty Unbound - Stephen Cox:

August 28, 2017 - "Thirty years ago, the first issue of Liberty appeared. It was dated August 1987, and it emerged from an old house high on a hill in the little town of Port Townsend, Washington, overlooking the Puget Sound.

"Liberty was born at the moment when technology was making it possible to create a national magazine in one’s own home — if you were willing to perform the backbreaking effort necessary to get it to other people’s homes. R.W. Bradford and Kathy Bradford, who lived in the house on the hill, were willing to do that. Timothy Virkkala was their learned assistant in the project. And this, I suppose, is where I come into the story. I was Bill Bradford’s old friend from Michigan, our home state, who was privileged to become an editor-at-long-distance.... One of Liberty’s first gifts to me was a svelte little plastic fax machine into which I could feed my handwritten copy (or copy embodied in a bad, bad computer printout), so it could be transmitted to Liberty HQ and retyped for publication....

"Within a few years, all copy became digital, human and financial costs-per-word decreased, and Liberty was being mailed to thousands of readers, all over the world. We started at six big issues a year, then went to 11 or 12 big issues. From the start, we had attracted most of the great names in the libertarian movement, and we continued to attract them, from Murray Rothbard to John Hospers to Milton Friedman.... .

"In December 2005, Bill died in his house on the hill, after a long and heroic struggle with cancer. One of his last concerns was the future of Liberty. We talked on the phone, a couple of weeks before his death, and I agreed to take the job as editor in chief. The good thing about me was that I had been an editor from the start and had been the only person, besides Bill himself, who had written something for every issue. The bad thing was that I lacked Bill’s gargantuan energy, his intimate knowledge of everything libertarian, and his . . . just everything that distinguished him as a great human being. For me, the good thing about my new job was that I got to collaborate with the amazing people who did the real work: Kathy Bradford, Mark Rand, Patrick Quealy, and Drew Ferguson....

"In 2010, Liberty passed into its third technological era. Print journalism was on its way out. Fewer people wanted to wait for Liberty to arrive by mail. Bill had once been proud that we had subscribers in virtually every real country in the world, but changes in postal rates had nearly eliminated our worldwide audience. We needed to make a change, and we did: in late 2010, we became an online journal....

"Substantial writing is writing that endures, and I think you’ll find that the great majority of the writing we’ve published retains its interest in a way that journal writing ordinarily does not."

Read more: http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/1751
'via Blog this'

The idiocy behind the Paris Climate Accord

Global Village Idiots | Liberty Unbound - Steve Murphy:

August 8, 2017 - "Blunderdale, a fictitious village located on a river bank, decided to build a levee to save its people (and their homes and businesses) from the devastation of flooding.... [S]cientists informed the flood task force ... that a 4’ levee would be required for protection against most floods, but that an 8’ levee would be required to ensure village safety against all floods. Armed with this sobering advice, the village leaders ... decided that a 2’ levee would be their goal [and] hammered out a plan to construct one from costly and unreliable materials instead of much cheaper and much more available proven materials.... When completed, the exorbitantly expensive structure would be 0.17’ high. Having bamboozled the credulous villagers, they celebrated their victory.

"Most of us would call such leaders despicable morons; in Blunderdale, the village leaders are the village idiots. After all, they are almost as underhanded and scandalously stupid as the world leaders (from 195 of the world’s 196 countries) who concocted the Paris Climate Accord....

"Climate experts (particularly those who support the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]) ... informed them that, on its present course, the earth’s temperature is expected to rise to something in the range of 4.0°C by the end of this century. Some authors insist that an increase of 8.0°C is possible. Even a 2.0°C rise, which many believe is already baked into the climate cake, will soon inundate low-lying population centers (cities such as Miami and nations such as Bangladesh) and create tens of millions of climate refugees....

"But let’s say that mankind implemented ... the Paris Accord. And let’s say that it was scrupulously executed — that is, the emissions reductions pledges of all 195 nations were fully met, annually, through the end of the century. What would be the cost? According to Bjorn Lomborg, it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 trillion. This staggering amount includes lost GDP growth, increased taxes (e.g., $3 trillion to pay for subsidies over the next 25 years), and higher household electricity expenses. A Heritage Foundation study of the effects of the Paris agreement on only the US economy, and only through 2035, found that there would be an overall annual average shortfall of nearly 400,000 jobs (200,000 manufacturing jobs), a total income loss of more than $20,000 for a family of four, an aggregate GDP loss of over $2.5 trillion, and increases in household electricity expenditures of between 13% and 20%.

"What is the expected effectiveness of the plan?... An analysis by Lomborg found that fastidious adherence to the agreement, maintained throughout the century, would reduce the global temperature rise by 0.17°C. An MIT analysis found a similar result, 0.2°C. Thus, if the end-of-century temperature rise is the mass extinction-causing 4°C that the signatories believe will occur without the Paris accord , then, with the Paris accord, the end-of-century temperature rise will shrink to only, well, a mass extinction-causing 4°C.

 "With full knowledge that their plan would have absolutely no influence on diminishing catastrophic global warming, the leaders from 195 countries signed the Paris accord. Having surreptitiously united the world behind a $100 trillion scheme that would be of no help to Mother Earth, if she even notices, they celebrated their achievement."

Read more: http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/1744
'via Blog this'

Two libertarian Olympics films

The Olympics and Liberty | Liberty Unbound - Jo Ann Skousen:

March 8, 2016 - "I’m often asked what makes a film 'libertarian.' Does it need to be set in a dystopian totalitarian future? Must the protagonist be fighting a government bureaucracy or authority? Many libertarian films do contain those features. But my favorites are those in which a protagonist achieves a goal or overcomes obstacles without turning to the government to fix things.

"Two such films are ... based on true stories about Olympic athletes who achieved their goals in spite of government interference, not because of government aid. Race tells the Jesse Owens story, and Eddie the Eagle tells the Michael Edwards story. Both are worth seeing.

"Race is the perfect title for this film that focuses on both racing and racism. Owens was one of the most famous athletes of the 20th century. Historian Richard Crepeau (who spoke at FreedomFest last year) described the 1935 college track meet at Ann Arbor in which Owens, in the space of 45 minutes, set three world records and tied a fourth as 'the most impressive athletic achievement since 1850.' Nevertheless, Owens (Stephan James) is not welcome at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Adolf Hitler (Adrian Zwicker) intends to use 'his' Olympics as a propaganda piece to highlight the physical superiority of the Aryan race, and he does not want any blacks or Jews to spoil his plan....

"The film reveals the backstage negotiations between Olympic Committee representative Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons) and the German organizing committee at which Brundage insisted on assurances that Jews and blacks would be allowed to compete. Brundage’s insistence is somewhat hypocritical, considering the treatment Owens and other black athletes were enduring at home, but he was successful in forestalling a threatened American boycott of the Games."

"Owens faces similar pressure from the NAACP, as he is warned that he ought to boycott the Games ... but in the end he delivers the most resounding protest of all, winning four gold medals and derailing Hitler’s plan in short order. This is as it should be. What good would it have done if Owens had stayed home to protest German policy?...

"Eddie the Eagle tells the story of an Olympic hero of a different sort — one who is remembered for his tenacity rather than his innate skill. Michael Edwards ... simply dreams of being an Olympian; he doesn’t care what sport.... Ironically, Eddie is motivated by a picture of Jesse Owens in a book about the Olympics....

"Eddie settles on skiing as his sport and manages to qualify for the British Olympic team, but the Committee cuts him because he 'isn’t Olympic material'.... Undaunted, Eddie turns to ski jumping because — well, because no one else in Britain competes in ski jumping.... This is the same year that the Jamaican bobsled team slipped through the same loophole — a loophole that was quickly closed before the following season. Now athletes must compete internationally and place in the top 30% of finishers in order to qualify. But in 1988, if you could find a sport that few people in your country competed in, you could literally 'make the team'....

"It’s a great story about overcoming obstacles, sticking with a goal, and ignoring the naysayers. It demonstrates the power of a mother’s encouragement, and the possibility that even a poor, farsighted boy from a working-class neighborhood can achieve his dream — if he doesn’t kill himself practicing for it."

Read more: http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/1527
'via Blog this'

Religious Freedom and American History

Religious Freedom and American History | Stephen Cox | First Things:

"Stephen Cox is Professor of Literature at the University of California-San Diego, editor of Liberty, a journal of culture and politics, and author of several scholarly books, including American Christianity: The Continuing Revolution. First Things senior editor Mark Bauerlein spoke to him about the libertarian understanding of religious liberty at the present time. 

"What is the basic libertarian understanding of religious liberty in United States law and society?

"Libertarians would like the state to have nothing to do with religion, either by hindering it or by supporting it. I’m sure that few libertarians would rejoice to see the Ten Commandments implanted on courthouse lawns, or to hear of more students forbidden to mention Christ in their valedictory speeches. Libertarian hearts beat violently when there is any news of censorship, inspired by either atheists or Christians....

"Libertarians tend to be moralistic people. I’m probably an even bigger moralist than other libertarians, because I’m a Christian. But as libertarians see it, every forcible infringement of liberty is morally outrageous, whether it’s military conscription or a law that criminalizes hair-braiding in the home. Of course this means that libertarians are unanimous in supporting the end of victimless crime laws, which are often highly favored by religious people, on religious grounds.

"When I say 'religious people,' I refer not simply to people on the Right. When I was writing my book about the history of American Christianity, I was constantly impressed by the extent to which the religious left has tried to interfere with individual choices. For almost one hundred years, the mainstream denominations, led by modern liberals, have done their best to support government interventions in people’s choices, by their dedicated support of the welfare state. In the old days of strong government regulation of broadcasting, they did their best to keep evangelical programming off the air. We need to remember that Prohibition was a creature of the left, too, and so were attacks on homosexuality and “dirty” literature.

"Asked about a certain religious leader, William Blake said, 'He is a sent man' — sent by God. Then he added, 'But they who are sent sometimes go further than they ought.' In America, they often go further. The quantity of moralistic meddling never diminishes; it just shifts from one target to the next, from attacks on extramarital sex, for example, to attacks on people who don’t approve of extramarital sex."

Read more: http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/12/religious-freedom-and-american-history
'via Blog this'