This weekly newsletter, focused on environmental issues, highlights relevant analysis done by the John Locke Foundation and other think tanks, as well as items in the news.

 

1. Leading global warming expert explains how climate science has been corrupted by government funding

Climatologist Dr. Patrick Michaels from the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., and the School of Public Policy at George Mason University in Virginia, gave an extremely insightful and important talk to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftsbury Society this past Monday. The talk was based on his new book, an edited volume called Climate Coup: Global Warming’s Invasion of our Government and Our Lives.

Using what is known in the economics profession as "public choice analysis," Michaels explained how government funding of science in general and climate science in particular has politicized science, skewed the kind of research that is pursued and the kind of conclusions that are ultimately reached. He showed quite clearly how the infiltration of politics into science, via the incentives created by government grants, has ultimately corrupted the science journals and the scientific peer review process.

The entire talk can be viewed by clicking on this link to the JLF’s Locker Room blog. For anyone concerned about the stifling effect on free, scientific inquiry that government money can have, this talk is a must-view.

 

2. Energy poverty: Britain’s present, America’s future

Energy costs in Great Britain have increased by 71 percent over the last five years, and at the present time, over 25 percent of the country’s citizens are in "energy poverty," which means that they are spending more than 10 percent of their income on energy costs. According to the (UK) Mirror, "single parents are the hardest hit with 39% of mother or father and child households struggling to pay bills … 47% of working class families and 22% of the middle classes fall into this bracket."

Energy poverty is no mere coincidence with the UK being one of the most aggressive countries in the world in implementing so-called green energy policies. As Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at the UK’s uSwitch.com, puts it, "The sad truth is that consumers are paying a heavy price for this country’s disjointed, incoherent and unaffordable energy policy."

The sad truth for US citizens is that the Obama administration is taking this country down the same path in full knowledge of the consequences for energy prices and the subsequent "energy poverty" that those prices will cause. As Obama told us in 2008, "under my plan … electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket." At the time he was referring to cap and trade, which is in effect now being implemented by the EPA.

 

3. Ozone report

Each week during the summer ozone season this newsletter will report how many, if any, high-ozone days had been experienced throughout the state during the previous week, where they were experienced, and how many have been recorded during the entire season to date. While many environmental groups express concern about air quality, the John Locke Foundation is the only organization that keeps up-to-date track of the actual ozone data and reports it in an unfiltered manner on a regular basis.

The ozone season began on April 1 and ends October 31. All reported data are from the North Carolina Division of Air Quality, which is part of the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

During the period from July 11 through July 17, there were two reported high-ozone readings, which occurred over two days. One occurred in Mecklenburg County, and the other occurred in southern Wake County on a monitor in Fuquay-Varina. So far this season there have been 75 readings on various North Carolina monitors that have exceeded federal standards of 0.75 parts per billion.

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