Of all these “whacky-but-workable” theories the one that has perhaps generated the most interest, both in terms of scientific plausibility and practical implementation, is that of solar reflection.

The basic concept is the same as that underpinning the “white roads” idea—the development of a technology that can reflect a proportion of the sun’s radiation away from the earth’s surface and back out into space, thereby cooling the atmosphere and slowing, or even reversing the damaging effects of global climate change.

Several models have been put forward as to how such a feat of “geo-engineering” might actually be achieved, most involving the positioning of a reflective shield of some sort out in space. [...]

“No-one knows exactly what the effect would be if you pumped this enormous amount of sulphur into the atmosphere,” Dr. Benny Peiser of Liverpool’s John Moores University told CNN. “It would …

There is an immense difference between understanding something with one’s head, and understanding it with one’s guts. Think of the phrase, “the courage of one’s convictions”. This week the true meaning of these words, hitherto eroded into a flat nap-worn cliche by overuse and misuse, comes home with the force of a kick in the belly. For on Thursday June 21 in London, a group of people are going to take a stand for their principles in a way that involves real courage, admirable courage, and which at the same time lights a torch of hope in a dark quadrant of the world’s affairs.

The occasion is the launch of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, following the establishment of such groups elsewhere in Europe, notably Germany and Scandinavia. The British branch is led by the outstanding Maryam Namazie, Iranian-born champion of (among other things) human rights, women, …

You have probably heard that China is building new coal-fired power plants at the rate of one every week to 10 days. In late 2004, the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) reported that three countries—the United States, China, and India—are planning to build nearly 850 new coal plants, “which would pump up to five times as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce.” These new plants will “bury” Kyoto. CSM elaborated:

By 2012, the plants in three key countries - China, India, and the United States - are expected to emit as much as an extra 2.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide, according to a Monitor analysis of power-plant construction data. In contrast, Kyoto countries by that year are supposed to have cut their CO2 emissions by some 483 million tons.

These numbers don’t tell the whole story, because coal is …

The rise of anti-Americanism in Europe is a danger to both American and European pocketbooks, and our collective liberty. Here is why: Europe and America are each other’s biggest trading and investment partners, and anything that damages that relationship is harmful to everyone involved.

This past year more than one trillion dollars flowed between the U.S. and the EU. The EU now accounts for 21 percent of U.S. merchandise exports and 19 percent of U.S. merchandise imports, and about 34 percent of U.S. services exports and 37 percent of U.S. services imports.

The U.S. is not only the largest recipient of foreign direct investment, but far and away the world’s largest investor elsewhere. Of the more than two trillion dollars the U.S. has invested directly abroad, a little more than half ($1.1 trillion) is invested in Europe. Europeans account for 70 percent ($1.2 trillion) of the …

The new U.N. secretary general invokes a Twinkie defense, excusing Islamofascist genocide in Darfur by blaming it on global warming. Forget the Chinese weapons. According to Ban Ki-moon, your SUV is responsible.

We never thought we’d miss Kofi Annan, but Ban has succeeded in making Annan seem like the voice of reason. In a Washington Post op-ed titled “A Climate Culprit in Darfur,” he opines: “The Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change.”

His theory, which should cause Al Gore to sue for copyright infringement, is that global warming heated up the Indian Ocean, which altered the monsoon cycle, which caused famine and drought, which forced people to fight and die over food.

Ban cited U.N. data showing rainfall declined 40% over two decades as a rise in Indian Ocean temperatures disrupted monsoon patterns. “It is …

Newton had a profound interest in things Jewish. His library alone supplies ample evidence of this. Newton owned five of the works of Maimonides, and makes numerous references to them in his manuscripts. He also possessed Christian Knorr von Rosenroth’s Kabbala denudata (1677), which shows extensive signs of dog-earing, along with an edition of the first-century Jewish philosopher Philo. His writings reveal that he used the Talmud, the learning of which he accessed through Maimonides and other sources in his library.

Although he never acquired a competency in the language, Newton picked up a smattering of Hebrew and armed himself with an array of Hebrew lexicons and grammars. He also owned and used a Hebrew Bible. Much attention is given in Newton’s writings to studies of the Jewish Temple and its rituals. His fascination with these things was motivated in large part by the importance of understanding both …

So the next time anyone asks, “where are the moderate voices of Islam?”, tell them that the main reason they are voices in the wilderness is that the mainstream media chooses to leave them in the wilderness and prevent them from seeing the light of day. In the PBS documentary it is only Muslims interviewed throughout the film—how could that be anti-Muslim?  Simply put, PBS claims that the veteran filmmaker Martyn Burke was one-sided, but it appears that PBS and often the MSM is one-sided protecting Islamist leadership from their most effective detractors—anti-Islamist Muslim moderates.

Borrowing on the old cliché of a tree falling in a forest, if Muslims speak out against Islamists but remain unheard (in the PBS forest), did they speak out at all?  Without regular opportunities in the media and government for anti-Islamist Muslims to speak out, America will never know that they ever did.  …

Numbers still matter, of course. But strength of will can overcome hollow numbers. And nothing - nothing - gives men a greater strength of will than religious fanaticism.

We don’t want to hear it. Secular virtues were supposed to triumph. They didn’t, but we still can’t let go of our dream of a happy-face, godless world where nobody quarrels.

Our refusal to acknowledge the unifying - and terrifying - power of extremist religion has deep roots. As academics rejected and derided faith in the last century, even the Thirty Years’ War - the horrible climax of Europe’s wars of religion - was reinvented as a dynastic struggle, or a fight for hegemony, or a class struggle.

But the Thirty Years’ War was about faith. All the other factors were in play, but the core issue, from the Protestant coup in Prague in 1618 to …