Author Archive for Jacob Arfwedson
Jacob Arfwedson first worked on environmental issues with the ICREI (Paris) in the early 1990s (www.icrei.org). He has published extensively on various free market issues, working with some 20 think tanks in Europe and the US for the past 20 years. He received his MA from the Catholic University of Paris before studying at the Catholic University of America (Timbro Capitol Fellowship). He is a free-lance consultant and writer based in Paris, Senior Fellow and Director of the Paris office of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (New York) and a Fellow at the European Enterprise Institute (Brussels). He is a former Director of Eurolibnetwork (Paris) and former Director of the CNE Health Forum (Centre for the New Europe, Brussels). His articles have been published by the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, le Figaro and AGEFI Switzerland. He is currently working on welfare reform including pensions, health care and elderly care in Europe.
Where is the green worker?
Perhaps the most pernicious and pervasive gimmick of recent years is that of “green growth.” “We need not renounce our worldly goods,” we are told, “green is also good for business and millions of jobs will be created by putting technology at the service of a better environment.”
Tremendous news: but where are the jobs and [...]
Allègre con brio: last stance at the OK Corral
Former government minister Claude Allègre is once more to be hailed for fighting the “consensus”, as his recent book is high on the best-seller lists.
Yes, discussion is possible; no, scientific progress is not a matter of international voting to find the truth. (This would be comparable to letting the dictatorship countries vote on human [...]
For Lucy (should I find her)
The recent decision by the French government to scrap the CO2 tax was welcome news: it was from the outset mostly a complicated design to satisfy two major interests, quite removed from any environmental concern.
Allègre vivace!
Claude Allègre is a courageous man, besides being a former government minister and a scientist. And unlike most public figures in France, he is not afraid to speak his mind on the climate issue.
His new book, L’imposture climatique is a more than welcome diatribe against the ecologically correct and constructivist establishment.
The Pandit, the pundits and the bandits
The IPCC got another knock
recently, perhaps from an unexpected corner. In its 2007 report, the predictions for the Himalayan glaciers indicated that they would entirely disappear by 2035.
In late 2009, at the request of his government, the Indian geologist V.K. Rania (retired) looked into this, and concluded in a White Paper that glaciers (in [...]
Have you met Mr. Jones?
We all suffered at the COP-15 meeting Copenhagen last December, especially from the cold: president Obama had to leave early because of a blizzard in Washington DC. No matter; as we all know cold or heat share a common culprit, namely man-made activities.
If (some) climate scientists were a little less intent on seeking politicised funding [...]
This is not an Avatar
It remains to be seen whether Copenhagen was indeed a watershed; but at least the French mainstream media seem less apologetic in past months. It is comforting for instance to read the columns by Claude Allègre in the weekly Le Point. (He was sacked from competitor L’Express in 2008, presumably for speaking out against the [...]
You ain’t seen nothin yet
If you thought that the Copenhagen jamboree moderated the ambient hysteria, the following items may reassure you that worse is yet to come.
JACOB ARFWEDSON (Paris)
According to researchers at King’s College (London) future natural disasters are bound to increase strongly stress levels and anxiety among our fellow citizens. The authors did demand that these concerns be [...]
Water seeks its own level: here comes that sinking feeling
What’s the difference between the climate jamboree and the Titanic? At least the latter had an orchestra. Numerous groups are eager to grab the headlines in Copenhagen; the smaller you are, the more original the initiatives. But dressing up as a polar bear is a tiresome business. Better try for direct appeal to bleeding hearts [...]
Activists without concern: how to use the climate for your own purposes
As Noël Coward put it in a song, “Why do the wrong people travel?” It should not come as a surprise, yet the cheerful way in which some groups exploit international events to hijack the agenda is quite astounding (just imagine for a second free-market groups doing the same thing, and the reaction that would [...]
Pascal’s Wager, Gore’s Wages
“- Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?
- Supposing it didn’t, said Pooh after careful thought.”
(The House at Pooh Corner)
The Economist in its special report argued that the world needs a new climate treaty as an “insurance policy against a catastrophe that may never happen”. A curious statement, especially in [...]
Monsanto, mon amour
In truth, there is no such thing as absolute safety; but this fundamental human need may explain the excessive search for certainty in particular as the world seems awash with a constant flow of disconcerting events.
It seems obvious then to assume that risk is the opposite of safety. But it isn’t: as inaction also entails [...]
Reversing the burden of spoof
by Jacob Arfwedson
One of the less endearing features of government supporters is their general disdain for democracy when eventually popular vote goes against their designs. The legitimacy of consent suddenly becomes irrelevant and a downright nuisance. In Europe, we experienced this in the constitutional negotiations: first with the Maastricht Treaty, and more recently with [...]
The power of forecasting
by Jacob Arfwedson
In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt asked his administration to undertake a vast exploratory study of future technologies. A group of researchers eventually produced a voluminous report with fascinating insights. There was only one little glitch: the document did not foresee television, plastics, jet planes, organ transplants, laser technology, or even ballpoint pens.
As Ludwig [...]
Global warming is no sea change
JACOB ARFWEDSON (Paris)
It has the odd flavour of a déjà vu: I’m reminded of reading the papers as a child in the 1970s when global cooling was all the rage and the mediatic frenzy was about how we would all, literally and lethally, chill out.
It is refreshing then to read IPCC author prof. Mojib Latif [...]
