OPINION/COMMENTARY

The Western Property Rights Wildfire

The stakes are high for property owners this November, as voters in at least five Western states will decide on ballot measures designed to protect private property rights from the expanding reach of regulators. Taking their cue from a similar initiative passed by Oregon voters in 2004, all of these measures aim to provide landowners relief from regulatory takings – the de facto "taking" of private property via restrictions on the ability of property owners to use their land in ways legal at the time they bought their property. In other words, regulatory takings occur when government changes the rules of the game, adopting regulations that prevent landowners from realizing the economic potential of their property investment. Imagine if government were to pass a law that prevented citizens from accessing half of the 401K funds they've accumulated after years of work. The outrage would be swift and vociferous. Yet, states and local governments nationwide routinely enact land use regulations that artificially dampen private property values. The difference is that the impacts of land use regulation tend to go unnoticed unless your property happens to be one of the ones affected. While the state ballot measures share a common intention with Measure 37—protecting landowners from regulatory takings—each measure takes a unique approach (see Table 1 below):....

'Cane Mutiny

What a difference one year makes. With the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall (August 29, 2005) rapidly approaching, who would have predicted that we would now be in the middle of a near-normal Atlantic hurricane season? Weren't the global warming pundits' predictions for this hurricane season that it would be just as bad -- maybe even worse! -- than last year? Yet, now at mid-August, we have had only three named tropical storms, compared to nine by this date last year. Normally, we would have had one hurricane by now, and we have not had any so far, so by that measure we are actually below normal. Hurricanes require warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs), and last year the tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures were running well above normal. Global warming was the explanation given by most 'experts' the media interviewed. And since global warming will only get worse, those SSTs were expected to just keep on increasing. But now those same regions that had anomalously warm SSTs last year are -- gasp! -- near normal. The accompanying graphic shows large areas in the tropical Atlantic even a little cooler than normal....

How Green Is Your Church?

In the first chapter of the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve are commanded to "tend and keep" the Garden of Eden, as well as to "fill the Earth", and "subdue" and "have dominion" over the creation. It is clear that mankind is given a dominant role in the biblical creation, with God's permission to use the Earth's natural resources to serve our needs. Yet, we now know that it is possible to damage the creation in ways that makes portions of it unfit for further use for many years. Some chemicals we have developed are very hazardous to humans. For instance, the generation and safe storage of nuclear waste from power plants remain challenges. The Earth is marvelously resilient, constantly cleansing our air and water, yet we know from experience that there are limits to this resiliency. The tension over what constitutes environmental "stewardship" has led to a wide range of opinions within the Christian church on the subject. Some churches have been actively involved in the environmental movement since the 1970's. The concern has been expressed in ways as small as recycling waste, to what can only be called "Earth worship", elevating the value of the creation to a position above that of mankind. The past several months have had considerable activity in the Christian church on the subject of climate change. On February 1st of this year, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) announced that they would not adopt a position statement on global warming that they had been considering since 2004. The NAE, which claims to represent 30 million church members, noted that there is considerable disagreement within the church regarding the causes and severity of, as well as the responses to, the global warming threat. The NAE decision greatly disappointed environmentalists. Then, later in the month, 86 evangelical leaders calling themselves the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) issued a statement at a press conference that called for action to fight global warming. The ECI claimed that the threat from global warming was greatest for the world's poor, and so Christians must be involved in the issue....

MONTANA GROUP ALERTS FEDS TO LIKELY GRIZZLY BEAR LAWSUIT

A community-based, nonprofit group today notified several federal officials and their agencies of a likely lawsuit as a result of several violations of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) involving the grizzly bear. Communities for a Great Northwest (CGNW), which is based in Libby, Montana, in the northwestern corner of the State, advised the officials that the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to protect grizzly bears on the basis of so-called “distinct population segments” rather than their total population violates the ESA and federal regulations. Specifically at issue is the 2004 Biological Opinion for the Kootenai, Idaho Panhandle, and Lolo National Forests Land and Resource Management Plans Amendment for Motorized Access within the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Zones; however, the group alleges that other opinions and federal plans are implicated by the violations regarding the grizzly bear population. “The people of northwestern Montana and northern Idaho have been whipsawed by the ever increasing demands of federal officials regarding the grizzly bear,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation. “It is now clear that those demands are illegal and must end.” The ESA requires all federal agencies to consult with the FWS on any future agency action if there is reason to believe that a protected species is present in the area and “implementation of such action will likely affect such species.” Thereafter, the FWS issues an opinion on whether the continued existence of the entire species is likely to be jeopardized. In 1986, however, the FWS decided to protect species, not on the basis of an entire population, but based on separate populations; no legal authority was cited. Although the ESA does permit listing “Distinct Population Segments” (“DPSs”) separately from the remainder of a species, each such DPS must be listed in full compliance with the ESA. The FWS has failed to comply with these statutory requirements in naming distinct populations segments even though Congress, “aware of the potential for abuse,” intended this authority to be used “sparingly” and only with “biological evidence” warranting action....

Gore Sea Levels?

Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth says human-emitted CO2 will boost the earth’s temperatures enough to melt the Arctic ice cap—and suddenly raise sea levels by 20 feet. Phooey. First of all, let’s understand just how cold the Antarctic is. Winter temperatures on its high, cold interior plateau range from 40 to 95 degrees F below zero! In the summer (December) it “warms,” with temperatures dipping only to 49 degrees F below zero—and sometimes rising within 25 degrees F of the melting point (32 degrees F). But even then, the ice reflects virtually all of the sun’s rays back out into space. However, the world’s warming in the past 150 years has produced a change in Antarctica. The huge East Antarctic ice sheet, which contains nearly 90 percent of the world’s ice, has been thickening. European satellites measured the ice sheet’s thickness 347 million times between 1992 and 2003, and found it is gaining about 45 billion tons of water per year because the planet has warmed enough for snow to fall at the coldest place on earth. The study, “Snowfall-driven Growth in East Antarctic Ice Sheet Mitigates Recent Sea-level Rise” was led by Curt Davis of the University of Missouri, and reported in Science on June 24, 2005. Thickening ice in the Antarctic, in fact, is just about offsetting the meltwater being released from the edges of the Greenland ice sheet—which has also been thickening in its center. This leaves us with a global warming sea level gain of about 1.8 millimeters per year—or 4 inches per century. The rise has remained constant during the 20th century despite the moderate 0.6 degree C warming of the planet....

Deadly Intentions: The New (Old) Animal-Rights Philosophy

Law enforcement in England is celebrating after the man one police department calls "the Animal Liberation Front’s top bomber" entered guilty pleas in court yesterday. Long-time British activist Donald Currie, first arrested in March, admitted that he set an arson fire at a house occupied by a woman and her young daughter. He also pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing explosives "with intent to endanger life." The Animal Liberation Front publicly claimed responsibility for both crimes (see here and here). So much for the animal rights movement’s oft-heard pious boast of being fundamentally nonviolent. The Times of London reports that Currie already had a string of previous convictions for criminal damage, assault, and other offenses. And The Sun, another London paper, adds that Currie "admitted having an arsenal of explosives he planned to use on further targets." It’s becoming clearer that the notion of animal rights extremists going out of their way to avoid shedding human blood is a quaint misconception -- and not just a British one. In this country, Animal Liberation Front spokesperson (and long-time former Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine front-man) Dr. Jerry Vlasak has talked openly about killing people to save animals. And former People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals "National Lecturer" Gary Yourofsky has insisted that he would "unequivocally support" the murder of medical researchers during an animal-rights arson....