Featuring Pat Michaels, Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Cato Institute.
Several recent reports attempt to connect human-caused global warming with possible mass extinction of many species. This connection could open the door to regulating and restricting carbon dioxide emissions using the Endangered Species Act. Such a policy would needlessly impose serious economic costs because the global warming–extinction connection is scientifically unfounded and patently false. This briefing will illuminate the studies’ internal inconsistencies and academic oversights by examining the facts, nature, and science of the effects of global warming on species population.