Source: American Institute for Economic Research By Jenin Younes November 27, 2020 I remember vividly the day, at the tail end of March, when facemasks suddenly became synonymous with morality: either one cared about the lives of others and donned a mask, or one was selfish and refused to do so. The shift occurred virtually overnight. Only a day or two before, I had associated this attire solely with surgeons and people living in heavily polluted regions. Now, my friends’ favorite pastime during our weekly Zoom...

Source: Coronavirus: Why everyone was wrong | by Back to Reason | Medium By Beda M Stadler July 1, 2020 The original article was published in the Swiss magazine Weltwoche (World Week) on June 10th. The author, Beda M Stadler is the former director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Bern, a biologist and professor emeritus. Stadler is an important medical professional in Switzerland, he also likes to use provoking language, which should not deter you from the extremely...

Source: medium.com, by Dustin McKissen   I am not a healthcare worker or epidemiologist, nor will I pretend to be. I am also not a “far-right activist,” as anyone daring to question the wisdom and impact of the shutdowns seems to get labeled. In fact, for the record, I did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. I am also not a member of the far-right media. For years I have written for major media outlets like CNN and CNBC, often using those...

Source: Outkick the Coverage, by Clay Travis Recent data — eight straight days of declining new daily infections — and a recent decline in deaths, we hit a six day low yesterday, accompanied by a prolonged weekly plateau in deaths as well, suggest we have reached the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in this country. The story of America’s response to the coronavirus offers a wealth of story lines that will be examined for weeks, months and years to come. In fact,...

Source: COMMENTARY: Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data | CIDRAP (umn.edu) By Lisa M Brosseau, ScD, and Margaret Sietsema, PhD Dr. Brosseau is a national expert on respiratory protection and infectious diseases and professor (retired), University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Sietsema is also an expert on respiratory protection and an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Editor’s Note: The authors added the following statement on Jul 16. The authors and CIDRAP have received requests in recent weeks to remove this article from...

Source: S&P Global U.S. coal consumption is likely to decline sharply again in 2020, though the current roster of planned and completed coal plant retirements suggests the year may not be quite as rough as the past two. At 13,703 MW, 2019 marks the highest level of annual coal capacity retirements in the U.S. since 2015, a new S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis of federal data shows. The amount of coal capacity planned for retirement in 2020 is expected to exceed...

Source: Quillette, written by Joel Kotkin For much of the last 70 years, economic growth has lifted the quality of life in Europe, North America, and East Asia, providing social stability after the violent disruptions of World War II. Today, however, many of the world’s most influential leaders, even in the United States, reject the very notion that societies should improve material wealth and boost incomes given what they believe are more important environmental or social equity concerns. This sharp break...

Source: Quillette, written by Maarten Boudry At the root of our climate problem, writes Pope Francis in his ecological encyclical Laudato Si, lies our human pride and arrogance: “The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves.” Coming from a Catholic Pope, such sentiments are hardly surprising. For centuries, Christians thinkers have railed against pride as the first and worst among the seven deadly sins. But...

Source: The Daily Telegraph, via Volunteer Fire Fighters Association, written by Alan Jones The ABC were at it again last week, fawning over 23 former fire and emergency leaders who commented, outside their area of expertise, about an alleged relationship between bushfires and climate change. It is worth asking how the non-expert views of such people are even newsworthy. But the propaganda in relation to climate change, from the classroom to the university to politicians and to most of the media, has...

Source: Forbes Over the last decade, journalists have held up Germany’s renewables energy transition, the Energiewende, as an environmental model for the world.  “Many poor countries, once intent on building coal-fired power plants to bring electricity to their people, are discussing whether they might leapfrog the fossil age and build clean grids from the outset,” thanks to the Energiewende, wrote a New York Times reporter in 2014. Click here to continue to Forbes “The Energiewende — the biggest political project since reunification — threatens to fail,” reports... DER...