Facts Should Matter More in Climate Change Debate

by Mike Nichols

Climate change alarmism has become a science of its own.

Exhibit one: When Gov. Tony Evers created something called the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy in August of 2019, one of the primary reasons, according to his executive order, was that “by the middle of the century, statewide average annual temperatures are likely to warm by 6 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Exhibit two: According to the same executive order, “Air emissions released as a result of fossil fuel combustion cause a wide variety of adverse health impacts including asthma attacks, pneumonia, cardiovascular disease, chronic and acute bronchitis, lower respiratory ailments, upper respiratory ailment, heart attacks, neurological deficits, immune deficits, and cancer.”

I’d throw delirium in as well – although that might apply only to whomever drafted the executive order.

The order attributed the claim that temperatures are likely to warm by 6 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 28 or so years to “past research” conducted by the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI), basically a partnership between UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

I don’t know which past research in particular, but there’s no recent research I could find that paints such a breathlessly dire scenario.

Read the full column here.

New Free Exchange Podcast: How Wisconsin's Minimum Markup Law Impacts Consumers

Are you fed up with soaring prices? Did you know that Wisconsin’s Depression-era minimum markup law arbitrarily inflates the cost of gas, groceries, pharmaceuticals, alcohol and more? Listen to State Sen. Duey Stroebel and Will Flanders, research director for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, explain how Wisconsin makes it illegal for retailers to sell certain products below cost and why this outdated law is costly to consumers and needs to be repealed.

Inside the Capitol

Badger Institute Applauds Bipartisan License Reform

The Badger Institute registered in favor of SB 344, the bill which eliminates the requirement that interior design plans get a stamp of approval from an architect. This extra layer of unnecessary red tape adds both costs and time to projects. As interior designers were already prohibited from making structural changes to buildings, this requirement did not provide value with those additional costs.

This bipartisan bill, authored by Senator Dale Kooyenga and Representative Cody Horlacher, was signed into law on March 18, 2022.

To learn more about this license reform, click here.

School Choice Wisconsin Polling Shows Parent Awakening

School Choice Wisconsin (SCW) helps organize allies to support greater educational choice for families throughout our state. SCW just released poll results in a new, informative brochure that demonstrates how Wisconsinites wish to have more say in the education of their children.

See the poll results.

Weekly Survey

Has the spike in gas prices impacted your personal or family budget?

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• Washington Examiner: At Yale law school, speech gets silenced

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