Solar farms are taking us back to the dark ages
Matt Ridley
Even green campaigners fear they are damaging the planet, consuming land that could be left to nature The actress Tracy Ward objects to her ex-husband the Duke of Beaufort building a 2,000-acre solar farm in Gloucestershire: “Solar panels should be on roofs, along motorways, or industrial sites,” she says. “Be careful what the climate change […]
The six lockdown questions this inquiry is failing to answer
Matt Ridley
The current investigation isn’t doing its job. We need a faster, cheaper rival to actually get to the truth. In his excellent 2014 book Black Box Thinking, Matthew Syed begins with the story of an airline pilot, Martin Bromiley, whose wife died because of mistakes made by anaesthetists during a routine operation. He set out […]
The True Tragedy of the Covid-19 vaccines
Matt Ridley
The jabs undoubtedly saved lives, but overblown claims sadly damaged the reputation of vaccination. Vaccination is one mankind’s most miraculous innovations. The eradication of smallpox, the retreat of measles and other cruel afflictions mean that vaccines rival sanitation for first prize in the saving of human lives. New vaccines against malaria and melanoma promise great […]
Electricity from wind isn’t cheap and it never will be
Matt Ridley
Politicians should stop endorsing an energy source that isn’t particularly clean or secure, and won’t bring down prices. The MPs who have forced Rishi Sunak into a U-turn on onshore wind power love to repeat the favourite slogan of the wind industry: “wind is cheap”. “Cheap, clean, secure,” says Sir Alok Sharma. “Cheap,” cheeps Ed Miliband. […]
The public isn’t being told the full truth about the climate threat
Matt Ridley
If I waved a magic wand and gave the world unlimited clean and cheap energy tomorrow, I expect many climate scientists would be horrified Patrick Brown, the co-director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough Institute in California, has blown the whistle on an open secret about climate science: it’s biased in favour of alarmism. He published […]
The BBC has co-opted bad weather to its alarmist climate crusade
Matt Ridley
Yes, heatwaves are getting more intense thanks to global warming, but the alarmism is shameless On Tuesday this week in Northumberland, the mercury never even reached 16C. I gather from one or two gentle hints on the BBC – sorry, apocalyptic rants – that it’s a bit hotter in the Mediterranean. My point is […]
Sudan’s lab leak threat marks a terrifying new age of biological warfare
Matt Ridley
Labs have boomed in recent years, heightening the danger of a major accident – or indeed sabotage Last week a horrifying report emerged from Khartoum, where poor Sudanese civilians are being terrorised by internal conflict. Fighters had seized a biological laboratory that houses samples of measles and cholera. It was said that power cuts may threaten the safe […]
The UK is blinding itself to the truth about COVID’s origins
Matt Ridley
As a US Senate committee’s full, 300-page report on the origin of covid now makes clear, a whole string of clues now points towards a laboratory accident as the probable cause of the covid pandemic. For example, there is: evidence of a biosafety crisis at the lab in the autumn of 2019; the Chinese […]
The UK is blinding itself to the truth about Covid’s origins
Matt Ridley
British institutions beholden to China or concerned about the effect on science appear uninterested in investigating the lab leak hypothesis As a US Senate committee’s full, 300-page report on the origin of covid now makes clear, a whole string of clues now points towards a laboratory accident as the probable cause of the […]
The sinister truth about bird-killing wind ‘farms’
Matt Ridley
The Tory party must have a death wish now that it has fallen back in love with onshore wind turbines The Tory party’s move to fall back in love with wind energy, despite its manifest disadvantages of cost, unreliability and inefficient use of land, is a death wish. They will soon rediscover just how […]
