Important headlines for February 14th
Bottom Line: These are stories you don't want to miss and my hot takes on them...
Excerpt: For years, South Florida water managers struggling to reverse the damage done to the Everglades by decades of flood control have done their best to replicate nature, timing the flow of water into marshes with the state’s wet and dry seasons. But now researchers looking at 16 years worth of data say creeping sea rise is outpacing restoration efforts. And to save the marshes, they say, the strategy needs to change. Scientists now believe the southern Everglades have reached a tipping point. What’s been less clear is which to blame: about five inches of sea rise since 2001 in the southern Everglades or prolonged damage from flood control.
Hot Take: I've long fashioned myself a common-sense environmentalist. That means that if we can pollute less without imposing the heavy hand of government we should. Rather than protesting with signs and polluting on behalf of environmental causes your time is better served actually cleaning up debris on roads, beaches and in the water (this often dictates my kayaking route near daily). And when it comes to nature - protect it where it makes sense to but let it run its course generally.
Every time we manipulate nature there seem to be longer term unintended consequences. Once again, we're seeing a call by some for additional action in the Everglades to further manipulate an outcome that may well be the result of 80 years of manipulation in the first place. Climate change is real. This planet has always been changing before us and during our time on this planet. The question is really whether we're doing more good than harm and if we can't answer that question - you probably have your answer.
Princeton Professor Cancels His Class on Free Speech Adam Rubenstein, TWS
Hot Take: The details on exactly how and why a free speech class came to be canceled is still somewhat unclear however students in the class that witnessed recent behavior of other students in it suggested that the professor was cursed at and potentially physically threatened. The story contains claims of how this came to be which I'm not interested in parsing through on air (lest someone think I'm making some of the statements asserted) however the premise of this story is a chilling reminder of what free speech, or that lack thereof has come to look like on college campuses. Recent research from the Brooking's Institute found that 20% of college students thought it appropriate to combat what they determine to be "hate speech" with violence. That's frightening. It also demonstrates the utter hypocrisy of so-called liberals in education. True, classic, liberalism would allow for freedom of expression without the fear of retribution - let alone violence. That's not what those on the left in the education establishment have instilled however...Liberalism has been replaced with bigotry. And not just any bigotry - the kind where 1 in 5 college students can think it appropriate to seek violent solutions.
This is the latest reminder that for the better part of twenty years I've discussed the repercussions of the political corruption of our education establishments and now we have a whole generation of students who've potentially known nothing but it. You reap what you sow. It's my hope that many understand that true liberalism is libertarian in today's political context. A generation of corrupted hippies with political agendas has led to the United States falling from 2nd in education in the world to 17th with one in five students thinking violence to unwanted speech is the answer. Any questions?
Until tomorrow...