Thomas L. Friedman’s op-ed in the NYT today could have been written by Paul Krugman.  And that’s not a compliment.

Friedman, like Krugman, waxes hysterical about those who are opposing  the cap-and-trade energy bill - those “deniers.” And, also like Krugman, he sets up those opponents as straw men that he can readily knock down.  In today’s article, Friedman worries about U.S. dependence on foreign oil supplied by  ”petro-dictators” and he fears ever-rising prices for increasingly scarce fossil fuels.

So either the opponents…

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The celebrity parade calling for more foreign aid to poor countries has become so ubiquitous — and accepted — these days that critiques of it are rare. So it’s refreshing to see just such a critique in no less vaunted an outlet than The New York Times Magazine. The magazine’s current issue features an interview with Dambisa Moyo, a native of Zambia and author of the book, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There is a Better…

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National Geographic magazine has published an article titled The Price of Gold focusing on the high price of gold and the high human costs of gold production. The piece reveals useful data on artisan miners in the world and the health hazards they face daily while mixing mercury to separate rock from gold. Overall, the article leans firmly against India’s growing demand for gold and the metal’s global providers: 75% of the world’s gold comes from large-scale mining companies, and 25% from artisan…

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The global warming community have suggested for a while now that, given the almost-certain change in US administration policy on global warming (remember John McCain’s position), the conference of the Kyoto Treaty parties in 2009 at Copenhagen would result in a sea change in global action on greenhouse gas emissions. Copenhagen would produce a new treaty, son-of-Kyoto, that would have full US participation, set stringent and enforceable emission limits aimed at getting the world to the sort of emissions levels…

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