“For this treaty to merit our support, the proponents should be asked to demonstrate the accuracy of all of the following statements…. As will be seen below, the case for any one of these statements is surprisingly weak.  The case for a global warming treaty, which depends on the accuracy of all of these statements, in shockingly weak.”

– William Niskanen, Fall 1997

“Given the low cost of waiting, it would seem only prudent to continue to try to answer the open questions about climate change before making major changes to Western civilization.”

 – Jerry Taylor on Niskanen (above), Winter 1998

In the Fall 1997 issue of JOBS & CAPITAL (Milken Institute), William A. Niskanen, chair of the Cato Institute, published a long essay against regulating carbon dioxide (CO₂) via a global treaty (or otherwise).…

“As new US (and world) oil and gas records are set, the wisdom of Julian Simon, Morris Adelman, and Michael Lynch, as well as other luminaries such as Erich Zimmermann and Thomas DeGregori, will become even more prominent and appreciated. And don’t forget: the failed ‘consensus’ on Peak Oil is warning against the failing ‘consensus’ on Peak Climate.”

The Drudge Report headline said it all: “U.S. Oil Output Jumps to Record 10.47 Million Barrels per Day.” The March 2018 statistic is yet another sign of the refutation of M. King Hubbert’s ‘Peak Oil’ theory–and in real time. The Oil and Gas Investor story was short and sweet:

[Editor Note: Today, Moynihan Prize winner John Holdren will give a public lecture in Washington, DC at the Willard Intercontinental (1401 Pennsylvania Avenue) at 4:00 pm eastern. What might he say about I = PAT and his fishing hobby?]

He loves to fish. His is a motor boat, not a kayak, a row boat, or canoe.  AND he has employed his very own electronic fish finder.

As such, he violates all three independent variables of his own I = P A T equation! But then like most others in the Malthusian intelligensia, and a few others like Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio, the equation just does not apply to him.

His name is John Paul Holdren, Obama’s eight-year science advisor, Harvard Professor of Environmental Policy, MacArthur genius (one of the first), and overall “powerhouse.”…

[Editor note: This post is taken from Marian Tupy’s new study, “Julian Simon Was Right: A Half-Century of Population Growth, Increasing Prosperity, and Falling Commodity Prices” (Cato Institute: February 16, 2018).]

“In 1960, American workers worked, on average, 1,930 hours per year. In 2017, they worked 1,758 hours per year — a reduction of 9 percent.”

“… the human brain, the ultimate resource, is capable of solving complex challenges. We have been doing so with disease, hunger, and extreme poverty, and we can do so with respect to the use of natural resources.”

Many people believe that global population growth leads to greater poverty and more famines, but evidence suggests otherwise. Between 1960 and 2016, the world’s population increased by 145 percent. Over the same time period, real average annual per capita income in the world rose by 183 percent.…