Lawrence Solomon

Last updated
Lawrence Solomon
Born1948
Bucharest, Romania
NationalityCanadian
Occupation(s)Writer and Manager of Energy Probe Research Foundation
OrganizationManaging director of the Energy Probe Research Foundation [1]
ChildrenEssie and Catharine [2]
Website Solomon's blog at Energy Probe

Lawrence Solomon is a Canadian writer on the environment and the executive director of Energy Probe, a Canadian non-governmental environmental policy organization, a member of the advisory board of Rebel News , and a columnist for The Epoch Times . [3] His writing has appeared in a number of newspapers, including the National Post , where he has a column, and he is the author of several books on energy resources, urban sprawl, and global warming, among them The Conserver Solution (1978), Energy Shock (1980), Toronto Sprawls: A History (2007), and The Deniers (2008). [4]

Contents

Solomon opposes nuclear power based on its economic cost, has promoted climate change denial, and has been critical of government approaches and policies used to address environmental concerns. [5]

Career and environmental activities

Solomon writes that he was an adviser to President Jimmy Carter's task force on the environment in the late 1970s, which released The Global 2000 Report to the President in 1980. [6] He has a regular column in The National Post, and has written for The Globe and Mail, National Review Online, CBS News, and The Wall Street Journal. He was the editor and publisher of the defunct Next City magazine. [6] [7] He has also written for American Forests, an environmental conservation organization. [8]

Serving as executive director of the Urban Renaissance Institute, a division of Energy Probe, Solomon has advocated environmental protection, conservation, and safeguards throughout the world, especially in non-affluent nations. [9] He supports reforms in foreign aid, putting a stop to nuclear power expansion, and supports the privatization of transport projects and the expansion of toll roads. [6] "I note that Lawrence Solomon continues to advocate road tolls, and the privatization of the TTC (like London) for Toronto's transportation system." Bruce Campion-Smith [10] In his columns and his book Toronto Sprawls: A History, he blames government policy for exacerbating and encouraging sprawl. [11] He is a critic of subsidies to rural Canada, [12] and has criticized Ontario Hydro's actions and projects and their effects on Canada's environment. [13] He writes that he was very active during the 1970s and 1980s with Energy Probe in opposing attempts to expand the use of nuclear power in Canada. [14]

Global warming

In a series of articles and a companion book published in 2008, The Deniers , Solomon writes about scientists whose views and research promote a contrarian view of global warming in opposition to the consensus of thirty four National Academies of Science, the WMO and the IPCC. [15] Reviews of the book have appeared in the Washington Times , Vancouver Sun , Alternatives Journal , and other publications. [16] [17] [18] [19] A number of reviewers point out that most of the scientists profiled in the book do not actually deny climate change. These reviewers characterize the book as containing selective quotes of scientists' disagreements on the details of climate change in order to present the impression that there is no consensus on climate change. In fact, despite the title, they report that Solomon acknowledges in the book that "I … noticed something striking about my growing cast of deniers. None of them were deniers." [20] [21]

Solomon's blog has been mentioned in U.S. News & World Report's website concerning carbon emissions reduction legislation. [22]

Clash of civilizations

On December 29, 2010, Solomon predicted a "clash of civilizations between Islam and the west," over the secession of southern Sudan. He predicted that northern Sudan would reject the secession, which would then pit "a club of non-Islamic nations" (including what he calls "Christian Kenya", "Christian Ethiopia" and Israel) against Islamic ones (including Iran). [23]

Green Beanery

In 2004, Solomon founded Green Beanery, a non-profit online merchant specializing in organic coffee beans produced by small, independent farmers. [24] The company is located in downtown Toronto and includes a cafe where customers can sample a wide variety of coffee. [25] The cafe opened in 2008 and closed in March 2020; the online business is to continue. [26] The profits from Green Beanery go to Probe International. [25]

Published works

Solomon's books include:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Singer</span> Austrian-born American physicist (1924–2020)

Siegfried Fred Singer was an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia, trained as an atmospheric physicist. He was known for rejecting the scientific consensus on several issues, including climate change, the connection between UV-B exposure and melanoma rates, stratospheric ozone loss being caused by chlorofluoro compounds, often used as refrigerants, and the health risks of passive smoking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Seitz</span> American physicist

Frederick Seitz was an American physicist, tobacco industry lobbyist, and climate change denier. Seitz was the 4th president of Rockefeller University from 1968 to 1978, and the 17th president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1962 to 1969. Seitz was the recipient of the National Medal of Science, NASA's Distinguished Public Service Award, and other honors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Suzuki</span> Canadian scientist and environmentalist

David Takayoshi Suzuki is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster, and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. Since the mid-1970s, Suzuki has been known for his television and radio series, documentaries and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host and narrator of the popular and long-running CBC Television science program The Nature of Things, seen in over 40 countries. He is also well known for criticizing governments for their lack of action to protect the environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Moore (consultant)</span> Canadian industry consultant, former activist

Patrick Albert Moore is a Canadian industry consultant, former activist, an early member and past president of Greenpeace Canada. Since leaving Greenpeace in 1986, Moore has criticized the environmental movement for what he sees as scare tactics and disinformation, saying that the environmental movement "abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism". Greenpeace has criticized Moore, calling him "a paid spokesman for the nuclear industry, the logging industry, and genetic engineering industry" who "exploits long-gone ties with Greenpeace to sell himself as a speaker and pro-corporate spokesperson".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross McKitrick</span> Canadian economist

Ross McKitrick is a Canadian economist specializing in environmental economics and policy analysis. He is a professor of economics at the University of Guelph, and a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute.

Myron Ebell is an American climate change denier who served as the Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), an American libertarian advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. He was also chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a politically conservative group formed in 1997 focused on "dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis". In September 2016, Ebell was appointed by then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to lead his transition team for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Romm</span> American writer and editor (born 1960)

Joseph J. Romm is an American researcher, author, editor, physicist and climate expert, who advocates reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming and increasing energy security through energy efficiency and green energy technologies. Romm is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2009, Rolling Stone magazine named Romm to its list of "100 People Who Are Changing America", and Time magazine named him one of its "Heroes of the Environment (2009)", calling him "The Web's most influential climate-change blogger".

Fraser Barry Cooper is a Canadian political scientist at the University of Calgary. Before coming to Calgary, he taught at Bishop's University (1968–1970), McGill University, and York University (1970–1981). The winner of a Killam Research Fellowship, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1991, Cooper wrote Action into Nature: An Essay on the Meaning of Technology and he co-authored Deconfederation: Canada without Quebec, in which he argued that Canada would benefit from Quebec separation. He is also the author of the 1999 publication Eric Voegelin and the Foundations of Modern Political Science.

Friends of Science(FoS) is a non-profit advocacy organization based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The organization rejects the established scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for the currently observed global warming. Rather, they propose that "the Sun is the main direct and indirect driver of climate change," not human activity. They argued against the Kyoto Protocol. The society was founded in 2002 and launched its website in October of that year. They are largely funded by the fossil fuel industry.

<i>Hell and High Water</i> (book) 2006 book by Joseph J. Romm

Hell and High Water: Global Warming – the Solution and the Politics – and What We Should Do is a book by author, scientist, and former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph J. Romm, published December 26, 2006. The author is "one of the world's leading experts on clean energy, advanced vehicles, energy security, and greenhouse gas mitigation."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change denial</span> Denial of the scientific consensus on climate change

Climate change denial is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none. Climate change denial includes unreasonable doubts about the extent to which climate change is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, and the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions. To a lesser extent, climate change denial can also be implicit when people accept the science but fail to reconcile it with their belief or action. Several studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism, pseudoscience, or propaganda.

Canada has an active anti-nuclear movement, which includes major campaigning organisations like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. Over 300 public interest groups across Canada have endorsed the mandate of the Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout (CNP). Some environmental organisations such as Energy Probe, the Pembina Institute and the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) are reported to have developed considerable expertise on nuclear power and energy issues. There is also a long-standing tradition of indigenous opposition to uranium mining.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DeSmog</span> Journalist organisation focusing on topics related to global warming

DeSmog, founded in January 2006, is an international journalism organization that focuses on topics related to climate change. DeSmog's emphasis is investigating and reporting on misinformation campaigns and organizations opposing climate science and action. The site was founded, originally in blog format, by James Hoggan, president of a public relations firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. DeSmog is a partner in the Covering Climate Now project which organizes and assists news organizations cover climate change worldwide. DeSmog also maintains several databases of persons and organizations engaged in misinformation and lobbying against addressing climate change.

<i>The Deniers</i> 2008 book by Lawrence Solomon

The Deniers is a 2008 book by Lawrence Solomon, a Canadian environmentalist and writer. Subtitled "The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria, political persecution, and fraud," the book draws attention to a number of scientists and others who, according to Solomon, have advanced arguments against what he calls the "alarmist" view of global warming, as presented by Al Gore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the mainstream media, and others. The book is based on a series of columns Solomon wrote for Canada's National Post. It has been criticized for misquoting the scientists it featured.

<i>Heaven and Earth</i> (book) 2009 book by Ian Plimer

Heaven and Earth: Global Warming – The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist, professor of mining geology at the University of Adelaide, and mining company director Ian Plimer. It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change, including the view that global warming is "very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas concentrations" and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements.

Energy Probe is a non-governmental social, economic, and environmental policy organization based in Toronto, Canada known recently for denying man-made climate change.

<i>Whole Earth Discipline</i> 2009 book by Stewart Brand

Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto is the sixth book by Stewart Brand, published by Viking Penguin in 2009. He sees Earth and people propelled by three transformations: climate change, urbanization and biotechnology. Brand tackles "touchy issues" like nuclear power, genetic engineering and geoengineering, "fully aware that many of the environmentalist readers he hopes to reach will start out disagreeing with him".

Timothy Francis Ball was a British-born Canadian public speaker and writer who was a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Winnipeg from 1971 until his retirement in 1996. Subsequently Ball became active in promoting rejection of the scientific consensus on global warming, giving public talks and writing opinion pieces and letters to the editor for Canadian newspapers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ExxonMobil climate change denial</span> Overview of climate-related ExxonMobil controversies

From the 1980s to mid 2000s, ExxonMobil was a leader in climate change denial, opposing regulations to curtail global warming. For example, ExxonMobil was a significant influence in preventing ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the United States. ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Of the major oil corporations, ExxonMobil has been the most active in the debate surrounding climate change. According to a 2007 analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the company used many of the same strategies, tactics, organizations, and personnel the tobacco industry used in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking.

References

  1. ↑ Lawrence Solomon, Energy Probe, accessed May 31, 2010.
  2. ↑ The Deniers, dedication
  3. ↑ Advisory Board - Rebel News
  4. ↑ Your Voice (4 November 2009). "Climate change: Munk Debates". CBC news. Archived from the original on 14 September 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  5. ↑ For his views on nuclear power, see Solomon, Lawrence. "The two blows that killed the industry Archived 2009-09-06 at the Wayback Machine , The National Post, August 1, 2001.
  6. 1 2 3 "Lawrence Solomon biography", The National Post, accessed August 2, 2010. For the Global 2000 report, see Council on Environmental Quality and Department of State. "The Global 2000 Report to the President", Pergamon, 1980; this link courtesy of the Council on Foreign Relations, accessed August 2, 2010.
  7. ↑ "The Next City magazine, published and edited by Solomon, was started in 1995." Thomas Walkom Hydro thorn Energy Probe rooted on the right; Pro-privatization empire not part of environmentalism's whole-grain world August 23, 1997 page E.1 Toronto Star
  8. ↑ Solomon, Lawrence. "Save the forests - sell the trees." American Forests Jan.-Feb. 1990: 48+.
  9. ↑ Spence, Bruce, "Correlation does not equal causation." America's Intelligence Wire 11 Aug. 2003.
  10. ↑ Toll roads safer, better maintained, expert says November 21, 1996 Toronto Star page A.20
  11. ↑ Walks, R. Alan. "Toronto Sprawls: A History." Ontario History 100.1 (2008): 110+; Berridge, Joe. "Suburbia forever: nothing, it seems, can stop cities from growing ever outwards." Literary Review of Canada 15.7 (2007): 24+
  12. ↑ You keep Yonge St.: Two writers from Alberta take on Lawrence Solomon's view that rural Canada is an unviable drag on cities. What about all those urban subsidies? May 15, 2004 America's Intelligence Wire (From Financial Post)
  13. ↑ Solomon, Lawrence. "Ontario Hydro, 1906-2002." Toronto Life . 36. 8 (May 2002): 146.
  14. ↑ Solomon, Lawrence, The Deniers, Richard Vigilante Books, 2007, pp. 2–3.
  15. ↑ "Book Discussion on The Deniers". C-SPAN. 2008-04-18. Retrieved 2015-04-22.
  16. ↑ McBean, Gordon. "The danger of misinformation: the Deniers is so full of misinformation that it is impossible to list it all." Alternatives Journal 34.4 (2008): 37.
  17. ↑ Shawn Macomber (2008-05-06). "The climate change deniers". The Washington Times . Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  18. ↑ Mark Milke (2008-05-09). "'The Deniers' details flaws in the theories on global warming". The Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on 2008-06-12. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  19. ↑ Ben-Peter Terpstra (January 11, 2009). "Book Review: The Deniers". Canada Free Press. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
  20. ↑ Richard Littlemore (May 15, 2008), Climate change denier at least admits he's playing a game, Vancouver Sun, archived from the original on July 4, 2014, retrieved May 18, 2014
  21. ↑ George Marshall (September 16, 2008), COOKING THE BOOKS: How to write a contrarian polemic on climate change , retrieved May 18, 2014
  22. ↑ Barone, Michael (November 10, 2008), Barack Obama's Carbon Emissions Plan Might Be Flawed, U.S. News & World Report Online
  23. ↑ Lawrence Solomon (2010-12-29). "Lawrence Solomon: To Islam's dismay, a new oil nation is born". Financial Post. Archived from the original on 2011-01-19. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  24. ↑ The Bay Street for baristas Archived 2012-08-26 at the Wayback Machine
  25. 1 2 "Roast-your-own coffee business goes green" (Press release). Green Beanery. 2004-09-15. Archived from the original on 2008-07-18. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
  26. ↑ Manzocco, Natalia (2020-04-19). "Green Beanery shuts down permanently". Now . Toronto. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.