“Population Bombed”: Interview with Pierre Desrochers (new book out today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 16, 2018 7 Comments

“I have applied Simon’s framework to the issue of climate change, although my historical perspective allowed me to see more of the forest rather than obsess about a few trees. Try as I might, I just cannot ignore the unique and large-scale benefits brought to humanity by the ever increasing use of carbon fuels (e.g., from longer lives and better health to cleaner air and water, more abundant food and reforestation).”

Yesterday, Pierre Desrochers and Joanna Szurmak, summarized their new book, Population Bombed! Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Change. Today, MasterResource is pleased to interview Professor Desrochers about his latest book.

Q. In his 1981 classic, The Ultimate Resource, Julian Simon decoupled population growth from resource depletion, rising pollution, food supply, and other popularly believed barriers to progress.

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Milton Friedman’s Energy Wisdom (would be 106 today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 31, 2018 2 Comments

“Milton Friedman’s timeless energy insights should be appreciated for all time.”

Born on this day 106 years ago, free-market economist Milton Friedman (1912–2006) was one of a kind. Even the dyspeptic Paul Krugman called his rival “the economist’s economist…a very great man indeed—a man of intellectual courage who was one of the most important economic thinkers of all time and possibly the most brilliant communicator of economic ideas to the general public that ever lived.” The Economist (November 23, 2006) called him “the most influential economist of the second half of the twentieth century… and possibly all of it.”

Milton Friedman’s major professional mark was in monetary economics. But as a public intellectual, writing popular books and a biweekly Newsweek column, he became conversant in different fields, including energy.

Friedman understood how, for much of US history, major energy regulation was sponsored by some segment of the industry.…

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“Oil Depletion Protocol” (Colin Campbell’s falsified Pretense of Knowledge)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 18, 2018 2 Comments

“WHEREAS all the major productive provinces of the World have been identified with the help of advanced technology and growing geological knowledge, it being now evident that discovery reached a peak in the 1960s, despite technological progress and a diligent search … NOW IT IS PROPOSED THAT … No country shall produce [or import] oil at above its present depletion rate.”

– Colin J. Campbell (2003), reprinted here

MasterResource has been a home for mineral-resource optimism from such luminaries as Julian Simon, Pierre Desrochers, and Michael Lynch. Perhaps the most profound statement on this subject is from a University of Houston economics professor, Thomas Degregori, himself a student of Erich Zimmermann’s functional theory of resources, who stated in back in 1987:

If resources are not fixed but created, then the nature of the scarcity problem changes dramatically.

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Marlo Lewis: A Strong Voice for Energy/Climate Realism, Economic/Political Freedom

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 17, 2018 No Comments

An outstanding energy/climate scholar/communicator of our time is Marlo Lewis, Jr., senior fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). I am moved to high-five my friend as I read his recent post, “Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, and Human Well Being,” as well as an older one, “[DOE] Secretary Chu Crosses the Line; Should Resign (October 2009).

Human Improvement, CO2 Enrichment

Regarding Lewis’s recent post, consider his framing question.

Climate campaigners demand ever-greater government control over energy markets, resources, and infrastructure. Many believe the best thing governments can do with fossil energy is “keep it in the ground.” They claim fossil-fueled civilization is “unsustainable” and headed for a climate catastrophe. Are they correct?

And his answer:

Since 1950, fossil fuel consumption increased by 550 percent, annual global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions increased by 500 percent, atmospheric CO2 concentrations increased by about one-third, and the world warmed about 0.65 degrees Celsius.

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William Niskanen on Climate Change: Part I, Key Questions

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 12, 2018 5 Comments Continue Reading

Resourceship Unbound (US oil output record in light of mineral-resource theory)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 7, 2018 No Comments Continue Reading

John Holdren the Fisherman: Thrice Guilty of I = PAT (lecture today at the Willard Hotel)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 17, 2018 2 Comments Continue Reading

More Tributes in the Energy and Climate Debate (Part II)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 11, 2018 2 Comments Continue Reading

‘The Growing Abundance of Fossil Fuels’ (1999 essay for today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 6, 2017 No Comments Continue Reading

Where Good Is Bad: ‘The Energy of Slaves’ (Oil as ‘servitude’?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 16, 2017 8 Comments Continue Reading