“It is encouraging that eco-modernists ‘reject the planning fallacy of the 1950s.’ However, they still ’embrace a strong public role in addressing environmental problems and accelerating technological innovation.’  So their rejection of top-down development and innovation is only partial.”

The New York Times has published a remarkable article. Remarkable for the Times, that is. It has taken to task the United States and other developed countries for engaging in heavy-handed eco-imperialism.

The impetus for the article is a new infrastructure development bank being created by China that will begin operations at the end of the year.  Such a bank could, as noted by the Times, rival the World Bank and other development banks controlled by the United States.  Indeed, the Obama administration initially encouraged countries not to join the bank, arguing that it could undermine the World Bank. …

“Any party which takes credit for the rain must not be surprised if its opponents blame it for the drought”

– Dwight Morrow, American businessman and diplomat, quoted in Outlook and Independent, Vol. 156 (1930), p. 289. Ascribed to an October 1930 speech in The Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), p. 672.

In California the Democratic Party, in near monopoly power in the state, have for the past two decades been underfunding big water infrastructure projects and diverting water from farms to fish. They have been taking credit for the moral high ground of allegedly saving a few fish from threatened extinction at the cost of four billion gallons of water per fish.

But now that there is four-year long green drought they want to place blame for it on others.…

“Cap-and-trade is a hidden regressive tax, benefiting the select few who have managed to get themselves written into the … bill…. Think revolving door between the government and Wall Street.  Think revolving door between Congress and lobbyists.”

– James Hansen, “I Just Had a Baby, at Age 68,” (2009).

“Ontario and Quebec to sign cap-and-trade deal Monday ahead of premiers’ summit on climate change,” the headline from the National Post (Canada) read over the weekend. Yesterday, in fact, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne signed an agreement with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard to price (regulate) carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such joins California, which has an operating cap-and-trade program pursuant to the Western Climate Initiative.

Cap-and-trade has been lambasted by the father of climate alarmism, James Hansen, whose testimony in mid-1988 brought the issue of the enhanced greenhouse effect to a national audience.…

“Tom Steyer emphasized that ‘three quarters of the public and 97 percent of the scientists believe with us’ that global warming is ‘one of the top three issues’ facing the world. Moderator Terry McCarthy then asked why Steyer spent $4.7 million opposing Republican candidate Joni Ernst in the Iowa mid-term national election only to fail. All totaled, Steyer spent $73 million but ‘greens had a rough time at the polls’.”

Global warming may be a hot, contentious topic. But few people were warmed-up enough to want to hear billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer and the former Secretary of H.U.D., Henry Cisneros, address the issue at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council that I attended a week ago at the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City.

Steyer and Cisneros spoke before a small crowd of about 110 people.…