“A page of history is worth a volume of logic.”
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, quoted by John Witte, Jr. in First Things March 2004
Today I’m really excited to announce the launch of a new project, the Climate Discussion Nexus, to promote a polite, intelligent discussion of climate policy and the science behind it. We’re producing a weekly newsletter, videos, a blog and other media, and offering a forum for debate, analysis and data.
I’m the Executive Director and you can find more information at the CDN website, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube, get our weekly newsletter (on climatediscussionnexus.com, lower right corner), share the initiative with your friends, colleagues and family, and consider donating to support this venture going forward.
At the Climate Discussion Nexus there are no sacred cows and no taboos except rudeness and ignorance.
Nobody’s happy with the current state of our national conversation on climate change. It’s time to open up the discussion for real.
So please join us and help spread the word.
“History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time has built amidst the endless fields of bygone ages. It is no easy task to reach the top of this ancient structure and get the benefit of the full view. There is no elevator, but young feet are strong and it can be done.”
Hendrick Van Loon, The Story of Mankind
In my latest National Post column I say, as a very reluctant interventionist, that the time has come to oust Venezuela’s dictator.
“They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer – not an easy answer – but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.”
Ronald Reagan “A Time for Choosing” (a.k.a. “The Speech”) October 27, 1964
“history: a hill or high point of vantage from which men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News June 18, 1932, quoted in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 6 #7 (June 2003)
“History is not a social science but an unavoidable form of thought. That ‘we live forward but we can only think backward’ is true not only of the present (which is always a fleeting illusion) but of our entire view of the future: for even when we think of the future we do this by remembering it. But history cannot tell us anything about the future with certainty.”
John Lukacs, At the End of an Age