Climate War with Canada, Net Neutrality and Hollywood’s Eco-Horror
American University professor James Lee predicts that global warming will lead to a military conflict between the U.S. and Canada.
Google fields criticism over its position on “network neutrality” regulation.
Viewers nominate eco-apocalypse horror flick The Happening as the worst film of 2008.
More headlines: listen to the LibertyWeek podcast.
1. ENERGY
American University professor James Lee predicts that global warming will lead to a military conflict between the U.S. and Canada.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman on how anti-warming government policies are likely to be the real source of conflict:
“Rather than fanciful warming scenarios, international security experts like Mr. Lee should concern themselves with the harmful effects of global warming policies.
Expensive energy policies to fight global warming could cost trillions more than the cost of rising temperatures. That would dramatically inhibit global economic growth. Of course, poverty and political instability go hand in hand. To prevent carbon ‘leakage’ (i.e., the outsourcing of energy intensive industry to countries that don’t have expensive carbon rationing policies), many policy makers advocate trade restrictions. But history shows that trade wars are prone to becoming real wars.”
2. TECHNOLOGY
Google fields criticism over its position on “network neutrality” regulation.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist how some people have misunderstood the net neutrality debate:
“Though he certainly didn’t mean to illustrate this, [PC Magazine columnist Dan] Costa also illuminates the misconceptions people have about what Network Neutrality really means, or what it should mean. Costa says he may be ‘bypassing’ the issue of net neutrality when saying that such tiered service is OK. This shows how confused the neutrality debate has become. Tiers of service—like paying more for a faster connection or a larger bandwidth cap—shouldn’t enter into the debate. Both are reasonable pricing structures for network owners to implement and neither would unfairly favor one group over another.”
3. CULTURE
Viewers nominate eco-apocalypse horror flick The Happening as the worst film of 2008.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on what we can expect next from the environmental catastrophe genre:
“The past few months have seen The Happening, where trees decide to release their revenge on humanity, driving mass suicides, and The Day The Earth Stood Still, where highly advanced, super-intelligent aliens plan to annihilate humanity for its environmental crimes (rather than, say, tell them how to operate renewable power economically – perhaps they can’t!). Yet all of these could be beaten by the forthcoming The Thaw, where a leading climate scientist unwittingly unleashes an ancient alien parasite.”
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