Bjorn Lomborg re-debunks a narrative that climate catatrophists have been feverishly trying to revive of late: the always greatly-exaggerated report of its death:

By 2021 coral cover was higher than it had been since measurements began. It increased further, staying at unprecedentedly high levels in 2022 and 2023. The coral grew more still in 2024.

That brings us to 2025. The new data show that coral cover has dropped across 10 of 11 sectors, with two experiencing their largest one-year drop. Climate alarmists rang their bells: "Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record," read a BBC headline. CNN: "Australia's Great Barrier Reef devastated by worst coral bleaching on record, new report finds."

Never mind that the reductions came off the record high of 2024, or that large year-to-year variations are typical. One sector saw its coral cover in 2025 reach its highest level ever. The data show coral cover across the entire reef in 2025 is "only" the fourth-highest ever recorded since systematic monitoring began. Cover across the entire reef is still higher than in 2021, which itself was higher than in any other time prior recorded year. All the highest years are in the 2020s, yet we hear nothing but doom and gloom.

There is more in the story about the context of all these measurements, to the point that I'd recommend the whole thing as a précis of that entire narrative, whose spinners apparently won't be deterred by any amount of data, any time soon.

-- CAV

https://youtu.be/uphRYS8YVWM




Podcast audio:







Readers of Atlas Shrugged often notice striking parallels between the novel’s events and those of the contemporary world. As a result, Ayn Rand was often asked whether she meant it as a prophecy. In her 1964 Ford Hall Forum talk, “Is Atlas Shrugging?” she answered plainly: “The purpose of this book is to prevent itself from becoming prophetic.”



Until now, only a poor-quality recording of the talk was available — and it was missing its opening minutes. Thanks to the Ayn Rand Archives’ discovery of a complete tape in the Boston Public Library, her full answer can be heard clearly for the first time.



In the talk, Rand surveys the culture of the 1960s, examining topics such as the “brain drain” of British scientists, socialized medicine, and egalitarian proposals for wealth redistribution. These, she argues, are not merely political incidents but the predictable outcome of altruism, which demands its heaviest sacrifices from the most successful individuals. Society’s moral code, she shows, is draining the world of the mind, just as in her novel.



Yet despite the worrying similarities, Rand insists that Atlas Shrugged is not “a prophecy of our unavoidable destruction, but a manifesto of our power to avoid it, if we choose to change our course.” History, she explains, is not determined by fate: cultural trends can be reversed, and the future improved, if we commit to a philosophy that champions reason and individualism.



Among the topics covered:




* Why Rand rejected both prophecy and history as the novel’s purpose;



* How contemporary events reveal the culture’s intellectual decline;



* How altruism punishes the successful for being successful;



* How altruism counts on producers to keep on acting, even as it exploits them;



* Why cultural trends can be reversed with the right philosophical ideas.




The release of this rare recording exemplifies the Ayn Rand Archives’ mission to recover and restore Rand’s recorded legacy. If you’d like to support this work, consider becoming an ARI donor.








Download video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/uphRYS8YVWM



Download audio: https://media.blubrry.com/new_ideal_ari/content.blubrry.com/new_ideal_ari/20250902_Is_Atlas_Shrugging.mp3

https://youtu.be/oV2YJf-J8Pg




Podcast audio:







In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Robertas Bakula discuss the growing antitrust threats to business freedom and the anti-American ideas behind them.



Among the topics covered:




* How antitrust measures under the Biden and Trump administrations have threatened business across the board;



* Why Trump is enforcing antitrust laws so aggressively;



* How antitrust chief Gail Slater distorts facts to rationalize business persecution;



* Why antitrust laws betray America’s founding principles;



* Why “America First” is a collectivist slogan for protectionism;



* Why accusations of politicization wrongly assume that antitrust laws can be enforced objectively;



* How the mixed economy breeds pressure group warfare, and what business should do about it.




Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business” and “The Pull Peddlers,” Onkar Ghate and Don Watkins’ book Profit Without Apology: The Need to Stand Up for Business, ARI’s “Open Letter to Google’s Sundar Pichai and Team,” and Marek Michulka’s “Antitrust Criminalizes Google’s Productive Virtue.”



The podcast was recorded on August 21, 2025 and posted on September 4, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.












Download video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/oV2YJf-J8Pg



Download audio: https://media.blubrry.com/new_ideal_ari/content.blubrry.com/new_ideal_ari/20250904_MAGA-Antitrust-Agenda.mp3

"[S]omething shifted in Antarctica recently and no one knows what it was.

"In 2016, Antarctic Sea Ice surrounding the continent mysteriously started to disappear. At the same time more snow started accumulating on the main Antarctic ice-sheet ...

"[A]fter 20 years of decline the steadily falling trend has broken.

"What matters most in this story is that the climate models didn’t see this change coming, and therefore are missing at least one big crucial factor, or maybe ten. Who knows?

"Antarctica was supposed to suffer polar amplification, and heat twice as fast as the rest of the world. What happened to that?"

~ Jo Nova from her post 'Antarctica defies the experts'

People who follow the news often claim to be “surprised” or even “shocked” by current events.

That’s almost never my reaction.

Sure, I can’t predict the details of the latest happenings. But the broad outlines of the news are tiresomely familiar. Heinous domestic murders. War in the Middle East. Blatant violations of the plain English reading of the Constitution. Chaotic socialist tyrannies in Latin America. Pampered First Worlders blaming their horrible plight (?) on hapless refugees. Civil wars in Africa.

And always, people screaming at each other.

Yet over the years, current events have genuinely surprised or even shocked me a few times. Here are the main surprises I’ve been conscious of so far.

1. The collapse of the Soviet bloc. I expected that all reformism would ultimately be constrained by Soviet tanks. Instead, the Soviet Union let its satellites go, then shattered into 15 separate countries two years later.

2. 9/11. As the vehicular rammings of the mid-2010s show, any motivated midwit can carry out a major terrorist attack. Since major terrorist attacks are very rare, motivated midwits must be in short supply. QED. Yet one far craftier team of terrorists still managed to carry out this world-shaking attack. (Note: I was not surprised that nothing comparable has happened since).

3. After Obama won, I laughed at a colleague who predicted that complaining about racism in America was finally over. But I was still shocked a few years later when complaining about racism — and renewed “anti-racist” activism — massively multiplied.

4. In mid-2015, I laughed at the idea that Trump would win the Republican nomination. Once he got the nomination, though, I was only moderately surprised that he won the election.

5. I was shocked that transgenderism became so common that I personally know multiple people with trans children. Darwinian evolution just tells us less about human sexuality than I imagined.

6. In 2020, I was not surprised by the emergence of a new, moderately lethal virus. Such things happen a handful of times per century. But I was completely stunned that serious limits on in-person activity lasted more than two weeks in the United States. Indeed, my jaw dropped simply when Disneyland first shut down. I never expected a reasonable policy response, but I counted on ADHD to save us. ADHD did not save us.

7. I was not surprised that Trump refused to concede the 2020 election. Indeed, one premise of my 2016 election bet was that even if Trump lost, he would not admit it. I was however surprised that he managed to come back from January 6, especially at his age.

8. I was surprised that Putin tried a full invasion of Ukraine. I thought he would limit himself to annexing de facto independent territory in Donetsk and Luhansk.

9. I was amazed that AI went from mediocre to excellent so quickly. But not surprised that it’s taking so long for AI to actually replace human workers, even when it conceptually seems easiest.

10. Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs shocked me. I figured he would limit himself to symbolic outrages, but instead he eagerly terrified the stock market for weeks. While he mostly backed off and the stock market more than fully recovered, there’s almost nothing he could do on foreign trade that would shock me at this point.

Is there any common thread, to help me avoid further surprises in the future? The only one I see is Trump, who really is a surprising figure on so many levels. At this point, he’d have to order a dozen summary domestic executions without trial to shock me again. I’d be a little surprised if he didn’t try to run for a third term, though I still wouldn’t give him more than an 8% chance to succeed. He is a wild card, but a wild card that is too elderly to stay in play much longer.

Since I don’t see any other common threads to help improve my forecasting, I’m afraid I have to expect another ten major surprises in my lifetime. What will happen?

Broad strokes: I foresee lots of economic and technological progress combined with the continuation of the Great Political Stagnation. I doubt there will be a nuclear war, but it wouldn’t be a total shocker. I also doubt that dictatorship will collapse in China, but that wouldn’t be a total shocker either. I would be totally shocked and elated if serious life extension technology became widely available before I die.

So let’s root for that! Even unpleasant surprises are a small price to pay to keep enjoying the gift of life.

Over the years we’ve argued that the Spanish-language media, in addition to advocating for unrestricted immigration, profess an editorial line that is often deferential to the promotion of Mexico and Mexican interests. One story out of Chicago blends both of these corporate interests.   Watch as Univision mourns the cancellation of Chicago’s Mexican Independence Day celebrations over potential ICE raids and National Guard deployment: ILIA CALDERÓN: Good evening. We begin the newscast in Chicago, where it was announced today that Mexican independence celebrations have been postponed due to the possibility of immigration enforcement and the deployment of the National Guard. This festival usually draws nearly 25,000 people to Grant Park. Viviana Avila is in Chicago with the details of this announcement. Viviana. VIVIANA AVILA: That's right, Ilia. The organizers of this iconic two-day event in downtown Chicago- they said they made this decision with great regret, with a broken heart, but they did it for the well-being and safety of community members. This was Univision’s top story on September 4th, when this aired. Think about where we are, that the top story of a national newscast is the postponement of the celebration of another country’s independence on American soil due to immigration enforcement operations. Emphasis on Mexican Independence Day keeps the community looking backward, and never forward to the fullness of the American experience. In fact, both Univision and Telemundo are set to air the Mexican Shout (Grito), which consists of the Mexican president ringing the bell at the presidential palace in front of a packed Zocalo Square and shouting “Viva Mexico” on multiple occasions. Our long-held thesis about Spanish-language TV depending on a constant migrant flow in order to survive is proven yet again, as is the idea that Latino identity is little more than a political construct intended to keep individuals forever separate and alien from the American mainstream.  Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned story as aired on Noticiero Univision on Thursday, September 4th, 2025: NOTICIERO UNIVISION 9/4/25 6:31 PM ILIA CALDERÓN: Good evening. We begin the newscast in Chicago, where it was announced today that Mexican independence celebrations have been postponed due to the possibility of immigration enforcement and the deployment of the National Guard. This festival usually draws nearly 25,000 people to Grant Park. Viviana Avila is in Chicago with the details of this announcement. Viviana. VIVIANA AVILA: That's right, Ilia. The organizers of this iconic two-day event in downtown Chicago- they said they made this decision with great regret, with a broken heart, but they did it for the well-being and safety of community members. Those who purchased tickets will also receive a refund. Here's the report. In Chicago, the downtown Independence Day celebration was postponed due to the possibility of immigration enforcement and the deployment of the National Guard. "It has been a painful decision, but holding the Cry in Chicago at this time would jeopardize the safety of our community," they said.a statement, which generated reactions from some state leaders. KARINA VILLA: Everyone has the right to decide what to do with their celebrations. I believe they are better suited to make those decisions. AVILA: However, other Mexican independence celebrations will continue for now, such as this Saturday's parade in Pilsen. TERESA FRAGA: We haven't re-evaluated in terms of canceling, but we are aware and informed of the news—of the remarks from the governor, the mayor, etc. ÁVILA: Today, the governor of Illinois reiterated that federal agents will be in the state to conduct immigration enforcement operations and that their center of operations will be the Great Lakes Naval Base. J.B. PRITZKER: We believe that they are going to be fully assembled… AVILA: We believe they will be ready by tomorrow and could begin operations early Saturday. Meanwhile, the ICE processing center in Broadview, Illinois, has doors and windows sealed with wood in anticipation of protests. A letter to the mayor of Broadview states that this will be the main center of operations for the next 45 days. It is still unknown whether or not the National Guard will be deployed to Chicago, although opposition to its deployment is growing. LUIS GUTIERREZ: He is sending them to provoke us to violence, to provoke us to resistance. CALDERON: Now, Viviana, both the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago have said they oppose deploying the National Guard. What's expected in the coming days? What steps do you plan to take? AVILA: Well, first, Governor J.B. Pritzker has said that if there is a deployment of the National Guard in the city of Chicago, what they would do, the first line of defense, would be to go to court and file a lawsuit against the federal government. However, Ilia, other actions are expected tomorrow. A protest in front of this detention center in Broadview, Illinois, and there is also a rosary in front of that naval base where these federal agents will gather to carry out those potential immigration operations. I'll be back with you. CALDERÓN: Keeping a close eye on what's happening in Chicago. Thanks, Viviana.