Can Earth Heal Itself from Environmental Damage? - Steven Hayward May 20, 2009

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/04/30/Uncommon_Knowledge_Steven_Hayward

Steven Hayward, Senior Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, argues that the environmental movement fails to take into account the ability of the Earth to recover from environmental disaster. He references the fast recovery in Prince William Sound from the Exxon Valdez spill and the rapid regrowth of trees in cleared forests as examples.

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Steven Hayward challenges the established narrative of environmentalism, beginning with the notion that the earth is fragile and that we have little time to save it from environmental catastrophe.

He deconstructs the case for global warming (including "cap and trade" plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions and the new EPA "endangerment finding" on CO2 ) and speaks to the challenges faced by poor countries as they seek to modernize and at the same time reduce the pollution that has historically accompanied modernization.

Finally, he offers his insights into the deep structure of environmentalism that substitutes a human apocalypse for a religious one. - Hoover Institution

Steven F. Hayward writes on a wide range of public policy issues. He is the coauthor of the annual Index of Leading Environmental Indicators; the producer and host of An Inconvenient Truth . . . or Convenient Fiction?, a rebuttal to Al Gore's documentary; and the author of many books on environmental topics. He has written biographies of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and of Winston Churchill. Mr. Hayward is also a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute.

Peter M. Robinson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's television program, Uncommon Knowledge.