Great Minds Shunned Alike

This Editorial from the Summer 2019 Edition of the IPA Review is by IPA Executive General Manager and  Editor of the IPA Review, Scott Hargreaves.

I wish I’d been in the room in Oslo, Norway, when Dr Peter Ridd and Dr Susan Crockford bumped into each other at a conference in October. As Peter Ridd said afterward, he and Susan Crockford have had similar experiences and are ‘kindred spirits’:

Dr Susan Crockford (is) a polar bear expert who was pushed out of the University of Victoria in Canada. She made the mistake of saying climate change was not making polar bears go extinct and pointed out their numbers have been steadily increasing. Don’t for a minute think the only untrustworthy science organisations work on the Great Barrier Reef, or that James Cook University is the only university that does not tolerate dissent.

This relates to the lead article by my colleague Peter Gregory, who is a terrific advocate— and collector of evidence for—the story of the remarkable strides made by countries right across the globe in recent decades, on every measure of poverty reduction, human development and environmental management. And as Peter points out, freedom and economic growth enables countries to better look after the environment. Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the IPA, John Roskam, was corresponding with retired psychiatrist Dr Robert Lyndon, discussing a shared concern that young people are suffering ‘climate anxiety’ and experience ‘eco-anxiety’.

The effects on our children are real and concerning, but it is important to identify the underlying cause. As Dr Lyndon asks in his article, is it “the result of climate change” or “due to the fear being instilled in children and teenagers by climate alarmists”?

Indeed. Peter Gregory had, meanwhile, sourced among other items of evidence the information that polar bears, far from being in dire straits from climate change as David Attenborough would have us believe, are growing in numbers. And this is because the countries which host them have the wherewithal to study them and protect their populations and ecosystems. The evidence he sourced was from Susan Crockford. The polar bears, like the reefs systems studied by Dr Peter Ridd, seem remarkably resilient in the face of a so-called climate catastrophe.

Peter Gregory had sourced his information independently of IPA Senior Fellow, Dr Jennifer Marohasy, who was in the late stages process of securing a contribution from Susan Crockford for Climate Change: The Facts 2020. Both are pleased Peter Ridd and Susan Crockford—having met in Oslo—will be reunited in the pages of our book in early 2020.

As Editor of the IPA Review I commend to you Peter Gregory’s rebuttal of the themes which fuel eco-anxiety, and also the learned examination and critique of the phenomenon by Drs Lyndon and Ling. And, of course, much else besides. As always, feedback is welcome.