"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Dwight Eisenhower, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Social Studies in Globe and Mail July 11 2012

In my latest National Post column I argue that property rights and human rights are synonymous, in practice and at the deepest level.

Yahoo! The Kickstarter campaign has closed and The Environment: A True Story is funded. Thanks to everyone who made it happen. I'll keep people posted as the production process unfolds. And if you meant to contribute but didn't get to it, I'm still happy to accept support by cheque or via PayPal; email me for details. But for now, a great big thank you to all our backers. I literally can't do it without you.

"The reduction of uncertainty is a matter to which too little attention is paid." Brian Lee Crowley, speaking to the Institute for Liberal Studies "Canadian Property Rights" Conference in Calgary October 17, 2014

"[P]atience is a necessary ingredient of genius." Benjamin Disraeli, quoted by Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street

"We think of economics as strangled in math because of the formulas and graphs filling most economics textbooks. But you can (and I did) search the entire founding volume of economics, Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, without encountering a mathematical formula. In New Ideas, Buchholz quotes Alfred Marshall, the preeminent economist of the late nineteenth century (and a mathematician): '(1) Use mathematics as a shorthand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry. (2) Keep to them until you have done. (3) Translate into English. (4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life. (5) Burn the mathematics.'" P.J. O’Rourke Eat the Rich

Our crowdfunding campaign for The Environment: A True Story had an excellent week last week. We're now at very nearly 80% with 13 days to go. So thanks very much to everyone who backed it and everyone who shared and promoted it, including Ezra Levant and The Rebel, Tom Harris of the International Climate Science Coalition and Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore. But we're not there yet. I'm keen to get going on the actual documentary, and I'm busy compiling and sorting information and creating the basic storyline. But we still need just over $10,000 to reach our minimum target, which my widget tells me means nearly $850 per day from now until April 16. And we'd really like to get a bit beyond the minimum to help us afford a new camera, a bit more travel for interviews and on-location filming, really good graphics and, well, food on the table between the end of this project and the start of the next one.

So if you've already contributed, many thanks. If you're not in yet, but you want to see common sense and sound science on climate change, please make a pledge today and get us to 80%, 90%, 100% and beyond. And either way, please keep sharing the project.

I know times are tough and people have all sorts of worthy demands on their budget, from looking after their own families to charitable giving to other desirable public policy causes. But in addition to meeting our target, it's important to have a lot of names in the credits to show how many people are fed up with bad policy based on bad science backed by bullying rhetoric. That's why anyone who can put in as little as $1 gets their name in the credits, unless they request anonymity, as a way of standing up for sensible and civil debate on a key issue.

We're heading into the home stretch and it's very gratifying. But we need your help to make it to the finish line.

Just how high are carbon taxes going to go in Canada? Fasten your seatbelt... in a car you can't put gas into. The federal Liberals are only talking soothingly about carbon taxes of $10/tonne, rising to $50 by 2022. But now the National Post reveals that in fact they know their targets would require $100/tonne within 3 years, and $300 by 2050. Meaning the virtual end of heating your home, cooking your food or getting around with any technology we actually have. It shouldn't really come as a surprise. Both the BC and Ontario governments are entirely open about their plans to reduce CO2 and equivalent emissions by nearly 80% by 2050. Which doesn't just spell doom for oil and gas producers. It means you, your kids and your grandkids will be ordered by government to use 80% less oil, gas and natural gas, necessarily requiring prohibitive taxes, strict regulations or probably both, and leading to a desperately impoverished lifestyle.

Now let me be clear here. If the "man-made global warming" or more recently "man-made climate change" crisis is as bad as the alarmists say, no price is too high to stop it. Not that their plans would, but that's another story. The point here is that you cannot concede the extremists' science then try to fight the carbon tax on the basis of jobs lost. If you agree that we are destroying the planet with CO2, you must agree to drastic measures to change our behaviour. You cannot, as conservatives too often do in this country and elsewhere, try to rally the troops round the white flag. To surrender on principle then fight on implementation makes you look like greedy fools, willing to incinerate the planet for short-term gain. Not a good PR strategy.

That's why The Environment: A True Story is so urgently needed. If I believed the alarmists' claims, I would be urging an end to fossil fuel use and what's more I would refuse to use the stuff myself. But the science is appallingly full of holes. And if we don't want to succumb to bad policy driven by bad science and wrapped in deceptive PR, we need to set the record straight.

So make a pledge today. And share it as widely as you can: the short link for social media is kck.st/2mrzS3w