I met Matt Ridley for the first time in person last month on his trip through California. We shared lunch in Novato on a Saturday, it was a pleasant and enlightening conversation. Dr. Ridley “gets it”; he gets what climate skepticism is all about, and gets what I am about. I’m honored to count him among my friends.
He has this new video out, from his next stop after visiting with me, please take a moment to watch, and more importantly, to share. Ridley’s message is simple – through our own activities, we are making the world a better, greener place.
From Reason Magazine’s description on YouTube:
Matt Ridley, author of The Red Queen, Genome, The Rational Optimist and other books, dropped by Reason’s studio in Los Angeles last month to talk about a curious global trend that is just starting to receive attention. Over the past three decades, our planet has gotten greener!
Even stranger, the greening of the planet in recent decades appears to be happening because of, not despite, our reliance on fossil fuels. While environmentalists often talk about how bad stuff like CO2 causes bad things to happen like global warming, it turns out that the plants aren’t complaining.
Approximately 18 minutes.
Produced by Paul Feine and Alex Manning.
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So greening or desertification? Answer: greening. Desertification is only happening where morons are doing or stopping the farming.
Great Video. Conservation efforts and more efficient economies have been saving the environment. As Massachusetts reverted to 70% woodlands from 70% marginal farm land, moose of migrated south, just the opposite of Hansens’s prediction that wildlife will flee northward. Since 1980 over a thousand moose now inhabit the Quabbin region
I watched it. Great video. Will share with my facebook friends.
I hope this one doesn’t get ignored due to the CG3 release. A very sound talk.
Anthony,
THANK YOU! What a perfectly simple – and, in my view, quite charming – video of an informed enthusiast on top of his game. The message is clear…indeed, I can almost hear the PR machinery of the WWF grinding into action to find some way of nullifying/diverting its impact.
This film is 18 minutes long. WUWT visitors – do not hesitate. 18 minutes of your life well spent. Send it on to friends, colleagues, family members. Rent seekers and Government tax designers will be horrified. Because, of course, the truth always hurts.
By the way – wish I had been at that lunch!
JVW
And the alarmist environmentalists will not even consider this argument because it advocates the use of fuels that nature has provided. Think about that. Nature gave us all the fossil fuels but environmentalists would rather us mine and refine toxic metals and chemicals to make ‘green’ energy.
No doom and gloom? No catastrophes? Sorry Dr Ridley, no grants for you!
A well spent 18 minutes.
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/03/13/we-should-be-listening-to-susan-crockford/
Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist, is a member of Global Warming Policy Foundation’s Academic Advisory Council. The text above is his foreword to Ten Good Reasons Not To Worry About Polar Bears by the University of Victoria’s Susan Crockford.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Matt Ridley, even before he entered the climate fray. For an entertaining read, try his book “Genome” . . .
Outstanding presentation! Shades of The Skeptical Environmentalist (Bjørn Lomborg). These are the data and the observations one NEVER hears about in the MSM, an MSM that is not only helplessly addicted to a diet of fear and threat propaganda but is the main dealer for the Green fear-mongers.
Ridley is infinitely more compelling.
In his last part, re the bio fuels. Matt Ridley forgot to mention that the Arab uprisings were initiated by higher food prices……
A kick in the teeth for the Green lobby. Post it as mutch as possible peoples
whoops – meant much derrrrr
Yet to watch the video but have to mention Matt Ridley’s book “The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature”. I have now bought this book three times on two continents (I’m from the UK)! I have read it about six times. I lent it to my (grown up) children, friends et al and whilst in Eugene OR where my daughter was at the Uni spotted it in the bookshop there and bought it again (I can never remember who or where I lend my books). MR has an excellent writing style (ideal for laymen like me) and thus makes technical issues very accessible for all. Anyway enough of the sales spiel I’ll get on and watch the video.
Demonstrates perfectly that the Greens have it 180 degrees wrong. Thanks, Mr. Ridley.
Great video. More people should listen to it. How can we get it equal time with global warming propaganda in the news?
Terraforming the Earth?
Although I agree with most of what Mr. Ridley says and it makes sense, I think he is not completely right on the biofuel question. Cutting wood just to cut wood for burning is a bad idea and we all know this. But usually forests are regrowth. The Pacific North West and most of western Canada forests are infested by the pine beetle. It is better to cut them down and make fuel with it than letting it die or burn up in smoke. The new forest will be healthy and much greener. We have a renewable source up here that lots of countries will enjoy, especially Northern Europe in winter. We are not cutting more than we can plant back.
Sure some crops are worst than others to make biofuel, ethanol being one of the worst fuel t make and to use, but the biofuel produced are a small fraction of the cause of food price increase we have seen. The real problems are the speculators. Take time to watch the following film and it will all make sense.
CO2 is essential to plants…not only will plants reduce CO2 to where it’s limiting to plants….plants have to compete with rocks and the abyss which can reduce levels to where plants die…..
Still all in all…the hysterics claim a 40% increase……40% of nothing is still nothing
Does anyone else have trouble viewing videos through network.coull.com? I haven’t been able to watch any of them. Direct links to youtube work fine. But coull.com just resizes my browser tab and gives me a black/blank video player screen.
He doesn’t mention Green Revolution crop varieties like Stevens wheat developed at WSU, but they need N from natural gas, so he noted rightly, along with much else. Of course, anti-GM activists hate people who help feed the planet, like Borlaug.
The ethanol program is actually a net energy consumer. My friends who grow corn (maize) on irrigated circles know this, but still take advantage of the subsidies, & feed the residue to their livestock.
My car is looking a little green around the tailpipe!
While we’re pointing toward great vids, this one is a bit off-topic (ok, a lot) but has some phenomenal video of upper-atmosphere sprites and some other interesting lightning (two different segments–the one on sprites is toward the end). Plus, if you’re a Top Gear UK fan, you’ll recognize the host.
One of the best films I’ve seen! I wish this was shown in schools! Any teachers out there who can slip this in the the classrooms???
Seriously, not a single wasted word. Right to the point.
The scary thing is, in a few years, the world will be looking browner again as the populations all over Europe (and no doubt everywhere else) head for the forests to cut down trees for their fuel supplies, as is happening in Germany and elsewhere right now. Then the Green-whackos will point to such browning and claim it’s CAGW that’s doing it. A bit like the report a while back right here how CAGW will “cause” brown-outs and black-outs.
This film really needs to reach far and wide. A breath of fresh air, blinkers off, commonsense talking. Brilliantly done.
[Reply: Link? — mod.]
NASA used to publish information of this sort and even put graphs online showing the greening of the planet over time.
Those days are over and any NASA works talking about earth greening do not mention CO2 and also put a negative spin on the subject of greening, i.e. it’s still our fault.
I invite others to prove me wrong and find any surviving links to NASA graphs/info which aren’t whining about man- made climate disaster, to some extent.