THE TRUTH ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING: REAL THREAT OR HYSTERIA?

“Global climate change is a serious problem calling for immediate national action.” — Janet Yellen and other top economists I received an urgent letter last month from Janet Yellen, the former Fed chair, asking me to join with other top economists, including 27 Nobel Prize winners, to sign a statement calling for a carbon tax […]

  • by:
  • 08/22/2022

“Global climate change is a serious problem calling for immediate national action.” — Janet Yellen and other top economists

I received an urgent letter last month from Janet Yellen, the former Fed chair, asking me to join with other top economists, including 27 Nobel Prize winners, to sign a statement calling for a carbon tax to be imposed on American business and consumers to both counter a “well-known market failure” and to create a “low-carbon future.”

I was surprised to see the letter had been signed by several market-friendly economists such as Glenn Hubbard, Greg Mankiw and Alan Greenspan. Did those three also drink the purple Kool-Aid?

First of all, air pollution is not really an example of market failure. Instead, it is a sign of the government’s failure to enforce property rights.

Second, air pollution is not a serious problem any longer in the United States and other industrial nations thanks to catalytic converters and other anti-pollution devices.

If you look at various charts of pollution in the United States, it has undergone a sharp decline over the past 50 years, as reflected by this chart that I show all my students. Before I show the chart to the class, I ask them, “How many of you think that air pollution has gotten worse in Southern California?” Usually, about a third of the hands go up. Then I show them this chart:

https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/news/2012/119_0809.html

 

Click here to read more.

Image:
ADVERTISEMENT

Opinion

View All

HUMAN EVENTS: Is the BLM era over?

Certainly, the early signs are encouraging....

JACK POSOBIEC and DARREN BEATTIE: We should 'repurpose' inefficient bureaucratic offices rather than scrap them

"Imagine if the GEC were commandeered by somebody who thinks along our lines, who repurposes it for a...

Gay founders of Pink News accused of sexual misconduct by staffers

Lawyers for Anthony James and Benjamin Cohen, the gay couple who founded PinkNews, have denied the al...

JACQUELINE TOBOROFF: Penny was vindicated, but the true scandal remains

Faced with antagonists like this, we should thank God that Penny was found innocent....