According to its launch announcement, “ARC will focus initially on six fundamental questions, ranging from the proper nature of our orienting stories to the role of family, free exchange, environmental stewardship, and productive governance.”11“ARC launch announcement,” ARC. Archived May 24, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/PHBTM
UK Companies House documents show a company matching that number originally operated under the name Prosperity UK 2017 Limited until it was renamed Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Limited on January 20, 2023. A number of the directors of the original organization stayed on, and are also closely tied to the Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank with ties to the United-Arab-Emirates-based Legatum Group.13“ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP LIMITED,” Gov.uk. Accessed May 17, 2023. Archived .pdfs on file at DeSmog.
Legatum Institute Ties
ARC has a number of ties to the Legatum Institute. In addition to ARC CEO Philippa Stroud’s prior role at Legatum, the Legatum Group’s current CEO, Mark Alan Stoleson, is also listed in Companies House documents as a person with significant control in ARC.14“ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP LIMITED,” Gov.uk. Accessed May 17, 2023. Archived .pdfs on file at DeSmog.
The Financial Times described The Legatum Institute as the “intellectual heart” of a “‘hard’ Brexit.”15Cynthia O’Murchu and Henry Mance. “Legatum: the think-tank at intellectual heart of ‘hard’ Brexit,” Financial Times, December 4, 2017. Archived January 24, 2019. The Legatum Institute reportedly receives a significant portion of its funding — £3.9m according to a 2017 article — from the Legatum Foundation Limited.
Partner with Legatum where “With his partners he founded and now plays a governance role for organisations including the END Fund, Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, the Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT and the Legatum Institute Foundation.”24“Advisory Board”“ARC’s Advisory Board,” ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt have close ties to the Legatum Group, the Dubai-based investment firm behind the Legatum Institute.
Founding partner of Legatum, and “as worked with his partners to establish a number of the firm’s key philanthropic endeavours, including the END Fund, Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, and the Legatum Institute Foundation in London.”26“Advisory Board”“ARC’s Advisory Board,” ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt
The Legatum Institute hosted Bjorn Lomborg in London for a screening of his film, Cool It.39“Testimonials,” Bjorn Lomborg. Archived May 5, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/f8ajV
ARC is also connected to the right-wing British broadcaster GB News through the Legatum Group. The Legatum Group part-owns GB News’ parent company, AllPerspectives Ltd, and three of the directors of which, Paul Marshall, Alan McCormick and Mark Stoleson, are persons of significant control of ARC.45“ALL PERSPECTIVES LTD,” Gov.uk, Accessed June 19, 2023. Archived .pdfs on file at DeSmog.
Two ARC advisory board members are also connected to GB News. Helena Morrissey is also a director of AllPerspectives, and Colin Brazier who was a former presenter of GB News. Another of GB News’ major funders, Christopher Chandler, is also a person of significant control of ARC.49“ALL PERSPECTIVES LTD,” Gov.uk, Accessed June 19, 2023. Archived .pdfs on file at DeSmog.
ARC Launch
Jordan Peterson announced the launch of ARC on the January 28, 2023 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience.50“An Invitation to the Future,” YouTube video uploaded by user “Jordan B Peterson,” February 2, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.Peterson said the group would be structured around several key “questions” in the segment. A few notable quotes below:
“We’re trying to put together something like an alternative vision of the future, say an alternative to that kind of apocalyptic narrative that’s being put forward, at least implicitly, by organizations like the WEF, you know, and that’s the virginal planet, rapacious tyrant, you know, all devouring consumer religion,” Peterson said.
He suggested the group would have a “Pro-human view on environmental stewardship front.”
“If you want to develop alternative energy sources, no problem. You know, because, hey man, the more energy sources we have, the better. But you don’t get to impose your utopian vision in the service of your narcissism on the poor. We’re going to try to make the poor rich. Going to try to alleviate absolute poverty.”
According to Peterson,“The fourth question is what do we put forward as a vision on the family policy front to facilitate the what would you call it, the encouragement and the maintenance of long-term monogamous couples who are child centered, and to make increasing the birthrate part of that policy.”
“To put policies in place that would support long term, stable, monogamous families, two parent families and child centered. You know, because in the West, because we’re very immature, we think that the purpose of a marriage is the happiness of the people who are involved in the marriage, the husband and the wife. And that’s just not the purpose of marriage at all. The purpose is long term facilitation of their psychological and spiritual development and the establishment of an environment that’s beneficial to children. Now, it’s a responsible way of thinking about it. And so we need to have a serious conversation about what that means. And, you know, it’s tricky because, like, I think the ideal has to be long term, committed, monogamous, heterosexual relationships.” (Emphasis added).
Discussing the group’s “vision,” which Peterson said would be better approached as “a discussion that centered on a number of questions,” he noted:
“We should be exhaustively searching through the universe of possible sources of energy so that we can provide a diversity of possibilities on the energy front. But we do not believe that anyone has the right to compel people into absolute poverty by increasing energy prices to hypothetically achieve some environmental goal.”
He went on: “Maximize the short term return and you’re going to produce environmental devastation. That’s exactly what happened, by the way, in Sri Lanka and certainly happened to Germany to some degree as they pursued idiot green policies.”
Stance on Climate Change
April 2023
According to the “ARC Survey,” as posted on Twitter, responding to its question: “How do we provide the energy and other resources upon which all economies depend in a manner that is inexpensive, reliable, safe and efficient, including in the developing world?”
“Easy answer: nuclear + petrochemicals. This will keep us going for at least the next hundred years and probably longer.”
Agu Irukwu is the Senior Pastor of Jesus House for all Nations, London. He is a former investment banker and partner in a law firm as well as Co-Founder of a children’s charity called Bright Futures for African Children.
Alan McCormick
Alan McCormick is a Partner of the investment group Legatum. With his partners he founded and now plays a governance role for organisations including the END Fund, Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, the Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT and the Legatum Institute Foundation. He is also the co-creator of the Legatum Prosperity Index and Chairman of GB News, Britain’s newest television news network.
Amanda Stoker is a company director, columnist for the Australian Financial Review and host of the Sunday with Stoker program on Sky News Australia. She is a distinguished fellow of the Menzies Research Centre and was formerly the Assistant Minister for Women and Industrial Relations and the Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General whilst serving as a Liberal National Party Senator for Queensland in the Australian Parliament.
Andrew Hastie is the Australian Shadow Minister for Defence, having served in the Parliament since 2015. He chaired the Joint Parliamentary Committee for Intelligence and Security (2017-2020) and was the Assistant Minister for Defence (2020-2022). Prior to public life, he was an Army officer, serving in the Special Air Service Regiment
“We’ve rushed through renewables. We’ve made power expensive, not just for industry but for working families and seniors, and you guys have paid the price, with people trying to negotiate down your pay and conditions,” he said. “We cannot trust this government when they promise that not one Australian job will be lost as a result of their climate change policies.”
Arthur C Brooks is the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness.
Barry Strauss is a military historian with a focus on Ancient Greece and Rome and their legacy. He is the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies at Cornell University, Director of Cornell’s Program in Freedom and Free Societies and Corliss Page Dean Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institution.
Dr Bjorn Lomborg researches the smartest ways to do good. With his think tank, the Copenhagen Consensus, he has worked to find and promote the most effective solutions to the world’s greatest challenges, from disease and hunger to climate and education.
Bjorn Lomborg is a political scientist and author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It, two books that downplay the risks of global warming.
Christopher Chandler
Christopher Chandler is the Chairman and Founding Partner of Legatum. In addition to a career in international investment, he has worked with his partners to establish a number of the firm’s key philanthropic endeavours, including the END Fund, Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, and the Legatum Institute Foundation in London.
Colin Brazier is an Emmy and BAFTA winning journalist. He is currently working towards the establishment of what would be Britain’s first think-tank dedicated to the study and promotion of ‘procreativity’ – the positive case for pronatalism.
Brazier has spoken in praise of Jordan Peterson, describing “a sense of professional kinship” in his recent interview with Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News. Commenting on Peterson’s book, Brazier suggests “character formation of ‘snowflakes’ starts with ‘helicopter parents’ and is finished off by the trigger warnings of university. But this is the first time I’ve seen such a direct causal link drawn between shrinking family size and generational temperament.”63Colin Brazier. “Colin Brazier: I’ve had tougher guests than Jordan Peterson,” Catholic Herald, February 15, 2018. Archived May 15, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/aFUAi
“As I’ve been arguing for a decade and more, pro-natalism is a concept deserving rehabilitation. Singing the praises of larger families need not make one a head-banger. Don’t let all that debate-stifling stuff about bad men – Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon – ordering women to breed, eclipse the possibility that society might benefit from the chemistry of bigger broods,” Brazier wrote at the Catholic Herald.64Colin Brazier. “Colin Brazier: I’ve had tougher guests than Jordan Peterson,” Catholic Herald, February 15, 2018. Archived May 15, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/aFUAi
Rep Dan Crenshaw was elected to represent the people of Texas’s second Congressional District in November 2018 and serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In September 2016, he was medically retired after ten years as a Lieutenant Commander in the SEAL Teams.
Danny Kruger was elected a Member of the UK Parliament in 2019. He previously served as Political Secretary to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as chief speechwriter to David Cameron as Leader of the Opposition, and as chief leader-writer at The Daily Telegraph.
Erica Komisar is a clinical social worker, author, psychoanalyst, psychological consultant and parent guidance expert who has been in private practice in New York City for over 30 years.
Dr Gudrun Kugler is a Member of the Austrian Parliament for the Austrian People’s Party and is the human rights spokesperson and the spokesperson of displaced people of her party. She is a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE where she serves as the vice chair of the committee on migration and the rapporteur of the committee on economic affairs, science, technology and environment.
Gudrun Kugler is a lawyer, “religious liberty advocate,” and founder of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe.75“Religious liberty advocate faces jeers at EU meeting,” The Christian Institute, May 17, 2011. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/CYYwb The group lists its mission as “To contribute to a Europe where Christians may fully exercise their fundamental rights to freedom of religion, conscience, expression, and association, without fear of reprisals, censorship, threats, or violence.”76“Our Mission,” Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xT9gl
Kugler was listed as one of the organizers of Agenda Europe, a group seeking to influence abortion policy across Europe, The Guardian reported:
Baroness Helena Morrissey is a British financier, campaigner, Member of the House of Lords and current Chair of the Board of Directors at the Fidelis Insurance Group. She founded the 30% Club, a campaign for more gender-balanced boards and is Chair of the investment industry’s Diversity Project.
James Orr is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge, UK Chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, and Director of UK Programs for Trinity Forum Europe.
SourceWatch describes the Edmund Burke Foundation as both fiscally and socially conservative, and it supports “supports strong free-market reforms in healthcare and education and is opposed to abortion, euthanasia, and gay marriage […] and holds that the evidence for global warming is shaky.” Its funders include the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.81“Edmund Burke Foundation,” SourceWatch. Accessed May 16, 2023.
The Hon John Anderson AC FTSE is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia from an era of uniquely successful government. John now serves in a broad variety of civic and community pursuits and hosts Australia’s pre-eminent politico-cultural video podcast.
John Howard is the second longest serving Australian Prime Minister – having been in office from 1996 to 2007. He introduced national gun control laws and his government delivered major economic reform in the areas of taxation, workplace relations, privatisation and welfare.
John Howard was named one of Australia’s climate change “dirty dozen” by Clive Hamilton, director of the Australia Institute, in a 2006 speech.84“The Dirty Politics of Climate Change” (PDF), The Australia Institute, February 20, 2006. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
“The Prime Minister has consistently taken the side of the fossil fuel lobby and dismissed the interests of other industries,” Hamilton said.
Howard has been criticized by opposition for taking out ads in major newspapers calling for people to vote ‘No’ in a survey on same-sex marriage. Australian Labour party politician Terri Butler commented: “It was, as you know, the Howard government which changed the marriage act a long time ago to explicitly say the marriage is between a man and a woman.”86“John Howard criticised for ‘vote no’ ads,” 9News, September 30, 2017. Archived November 30, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/zQ1dV
Jonathan Pageau
Jonathan Pageau is an artist, writer and public speaker. He is a pioneer in the revival of Liturgical Art for the 21st century. Through his podcast The Symbolic World he fosters the rediscovery of symbolic thinking and a vision for re-enchantment in the world.
Dr Jordan B Peterson is an author, psychologist, online educator, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. He has written three books, Maps of Meaning, an academic work, presenting a new scientifically-grounded theory of religious and political belief, and the bestselling 12 Rules for Life, and Beyond Order, which have sold more than seven million copies.
In 2023, The Guardian reported Jordan Peterson was promoting “‘zombie’ climate contrarianism” by promoting the views of climate change deniers in a series of interviews. Recent interviews include titles with names such as “The World is not Ending”, “Unsettled: Climate and Science” and “The Great Climate Con,” and have included interviews with Richard Lindzen.88Graham Readfearn. “Jordan Peterson’s ‘zombie’ climate contrarianism follows a well-worn path,” The Guardian, February 1, 2023. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/QbUQU
The Guardian reported Peterson’s celebrity began with his 2016 YouTube series called “Professor Against Political Correctness,” writing that “Peterson was troubled by two developments: a federal amendment to add gender identity and expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act; and his university’s plans for mandatory anti-bias training.”90Dorian Lynskey. “How dangerous is Jordan B Peterson, the rightwing professor who ‘hit a hornets’ nest’?” The Guardian, February 7, 2018. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/jpQgY
Katy Faust
Katy Faust is founder and President of Them Before Us, a global non-profit defending children’s rights in matters of marriage and family.
Dr Leslyn Lewis is a Canadian Parliamentarian who made history when she ran for leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2020 and won the popular vote on the second ballot. She is currently the Opposition Critic for Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure, and Communities.
Louis Gave founded Gavekal in 1999 with Charles Gave and Anatole Kaletsky, he is now the is the non-executive chairman of ROBO Global LLC and a non-executive director at Evergreen Gavekal, a Washington-based private wealth manager. Louis also sits on the visiting board of Trinity College in Duke University.
Louise Perry
Louise Perry is a journalist, author, and director of The Other Half, a non-partisan feminist think tank based in London, UK. Her bestselling book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution was published in 2022.
Magatte Wade
Magatte Wade is an entrepreneur and advocate for African dignity and prosperity. She serves as the Director for The Centre for African Prosperity of Atlas Network. Throughout her career, she has created retail brands inspired by diverse African traditions, most recently SkinIsSkin.com. Her first book, A Bright Future for Africa, will be published in in the Autumn 2023.
The Atlas Network has been described the “The Johnny Appleseed of antiregulation groups […] on a mission to populate the world with new ‘free market’ voices.”95“Atlas Economic Research Foundation,” SourceWatch profile. As of 2021 it listed more than 400 partner organizations across the world.
According to Wade, “Africa’s relative poverty is rooted in bad policies that make it costly, risky, and frustrating to create a business on the continent.”97“Center for African Prosperity,” Atlas Network. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xADcP
Mike Johnson
Congressman Mike Johnson is currently serving his fourth term representing Louisiana’s 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is Vice Chairman of the House Republican Conference, a Deputy Whip, a leader on the Armed Services and Judiciary Committees and appointment on the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponisation of the Federal Government.
Lord Maurice Glasman is a political theorist, academic, and Labour life peer in the House of Lords. He is founder of the Blue Labour political movement and a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University. He is also the director of the Common Good Foundation.
Michael Shellenberger is an energy expert, a best-selling author, and a leading intellectual of the pro-human environmental movement. He is a co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute and the California Peace Coalition, and founder of Environmental Progress. He has also broken major stories including the ‘Twitter Files’.
Mike Lee was elected as Utah’s 16th Senator in 2010. Senator Lee serves as the Ranking Republican on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, and on the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Senator Lee continues to lead Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee as the Ranking Member and also serves on the Budget Committee.
Miriam Cates was elected as the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge in 2019. Miriam campaigns on issues around children and families, with particular focus on safeguarding, issues of age-appropriate sex education and gender ideology in schools.
She wrote: “Women’s rights have been won on the basis that there is such a thing as a woman, that females are different to males, not just in terms of our biology, but in the challenges we face, our psychology, our role as mothers, and the life experiences we have.
If we erode the very concept of women – for example by saying that trans women are women, or by denying the importance of biological sex – we erase the rights of women. I for one can’t stand by and let that happen.”115Miriam Cates. “The cancellation of women is bigger than a ‘culture war’,” The Telegraph, October 11, 2021. Archived October 17, 2021.
Nicholas Boys Smith is the founding Director of Create Streets and an influential writer on the design and history of our towns and cities. He was co-chair alongside the late Sir Roger Scruton of the influential Building Better Building Beautiful Commission and is chair of the Advisory Committee of the Government’s new Office for Place.
Niall Ferguson, MA, D.Phil., is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, where he served for twelve years as the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History.
Rev Nims Obunge MBE DL is a Deputy Lieutenant for the Lord Lieutenant to the HM King Charles III. He is CEO of The Peace Alliance and Senior Pastor of Freedom’s Ark. He serves as a faith and community leader with a passion for justice, peace, young people, equality, and social cohesion.
Paul Marshall
Sir Paul Marshall is CIO and Chairman of Marshall Wace LLP, founder and owner of UnHerd Media and a main shareholder of GB News Ltd. He is a founding Trustee of Ark, the children’s charity, and Chairman of Ark Schools, which manages 39 primary and secondary academies across England.
Baroness Philippa Stroud is co-founder and CEO of ARC, Member of the House of Lords, and Chair of the Social Metrics Commission. Prior to this, she was the CEO of the Legatum Institute and Co-Founder and Chief Executive of the Centre for Social Justice. She served as Special Adviser to the Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP from 2010-15 and also to the Prime Minister from 2012.
Rebeccah L Heinrichs is a senior fellow and director of the Keystone Defense Initiative. She specialises in US national defense policy with a focus on strategic deterrence.
Rick Geddes is a Professor in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and a Professor of Economics at Cornell. He is Founding Director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy and a Non-Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.
Riva Tez has a background in technology and finance, including co-founding an AI-focused venture fund and as an angel investor. She is currently working closely with Praxis on building a city.
Robin Batterham is Emeritus Kernot Professor of Engineering at the University of Melbourne and is a former Chief Scientist of Australia. He chairs the Net Zero Australia project.
Batterham has held positions at multinational mining corporation Rio Tinto including as its VP of Resource and Processing Developments and VP of Research and Development. He has served as non-executive director of the Australian public unlisted company MBD Energy Limited, “which proposes to recycle waste CO2 emissions from coal fired power stations and other forms of heavy industry into commercial production of algae biomass.”127(Press Release). “Eminent Australian Scientist, Robin Batterham AO, joins CO2 innovator’s board,” MBD Energy Limited, February 1, 2012. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
In 2004, Australian Senator Trish Crossin submitted a report on behalf of the chair of the Employment, Workplace Relations and Educational References Committee discussing “serious conflict of interest allegations arising from [Batterham’s] dual part-time roles as Chief Scientist for the Commonwealth and chief technologist for Rio Tinto.128“Senate Official Hansard No. 9, (August 5, 2004), Commonwealth of Australia. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
Stephen Blackwood
Stephen Blackwood is the founding President of Ralston College, a new university in Savannah, Georgia, dedicated to the revival of humanistic inquiry. He has co-founded and helped to direct several non-profit organisations, from inner-city education to cancer research.
The Hon Tony Abbott AC served as the 28th Prime Minister of Australia. He continues to contribute to public life on the board of Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, the council of the Australian War Memorial, and as an adviser to the UK Board of Trade. He’s patron to several charities, including Soldier On, the International Sports Promotion Society and Worldwide Support for Development.
“It is disturbing that the Global Warming Policy Foundation is acting as a channel through which American ideological groups are trying to interfere in British democracy,” said Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.135Helena Horton and Adam Bychawski. “Climate sceptic thinktank received funding from fossil fuel interests,” The Guardian, May 4, 2022. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Zr8wr
Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and chairs the Military History Working Group. He is an American scholar of ancient and modern warfare and has been a commentator on contemporary politics for various media outlets. He is a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno, and is also a farmer and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism.
Hanson has promoted the debunked “Climategate” conspiracy, claiming “many of the world’s top climate scientists were knee-deep in manipulating scientific evidence to support preconceived conclusions and personal agendas.” According to Hanson, “We simply don’t know positively whether recent human activity has caused the planet to warm up to dangerous levels. But we do know that those who insist it does are sometimes disingenuous, often profit-minded, and nearly always impractical.”139“Victor Davis Hanson: Cranking up the climate fear,” The Orange County Register, October 27, 2011. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/XHWa1
Vivek Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur, political and cultural thought leader, and author. In 2022, he founded Strive Asset Management, an Ohio-based firm, that has a mission to restore the voices of everyday citizens in the American economy by leading companies to focus on excellence over politics.
The New Yorker profiled Ramaswamy in a 2022 article titled “The C.E.O. of Anti-Woke, Inc.” describes how Ramaswamy was “on a crusade against E.S.G. [Environmental, Social, and Governance],” noting his recent book titled “Woke, Inc.”
Dr. Warren Farrell was chosen by The Financial Times as one of the world’s top 100 Thought Leaders. He is author of The New York Times bestseller, ‘Why Men are the Way they Are’, as well as ‘The Myth of Male Power’ and ‘The Boy Crisis’. His forthcoming ‘Role Mate to Soul Mate’ book emanates from 30 years of teaching courses on couples’ communication.
Winston Marshall
Winston Marshall is a Grammy award-winning musician, writer and host of the podcast ‘Marshall Matters’. He is co-founder of the non-profit organisation Hong Kong Link Up.
Lomborg and Peterson described the worldwide response to the COVID pandemic, claiming a “A panic-stricken lockdown orthodoxy far too soon took hold, and those whose policy proposals deviated quickly were labeled ‘COVID deniers.'”144Bjorn Lomborg and Jordan Peterson. “Commentary: We need a discussion about how we respond to crises before the next one,” The Post and Courier, March 18, 2024. Archived March 25, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/QtPW4
“We need to have a serious conversation about our manner of response before the next crisis to ensure that the cure is not much worse than the disease. Consider the alarmist treatment of climate change. Campaigners play up fear while neglecting to mention that reductions in poverty and increases in resiliency mean climate-related disasters kill fewer people. Over the past century, deaths have dropped 97%. Heat waves capture the headlines. Globally, however, cold kills nine times more people. Currently, higher temperatures are resulting in 166,000 fewer temperature-related deaths annually.
“Fear-mongering and suppressing inconvenient truths are pushing us dangerously toward the wrong solutions. Politicians and pundits call for net-zero policies that will cost far beyond $100 trillion while producing benefits a fraction as large. We need to discuss honestly the costs and benefits to find the best solutions.”146Bjorn Lomborg and Jordan Peterson. “Commentary: We need a discussion about how we respond to crises before the next one,” The Post and Courier, March 18, 2024. Archived March 25, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/QtPW4
ARC board members Jordan Peterson and Bjorn Lomborg published a piece in the New York Post announcing ARC’s intention to “help ensure that a broader range of perspectives can be heard globally, including to push back against “the alarmist treatment of climate change.” They accused climate campaigners of “Fear-mongering and the suppression of truly inconvenient truths” which they argue has resulted in a push for the “wrong solutions” like net zero, which they characterise as producing little benefit at great cost.148Bjorn Lomborg and Jordan Peterson. “Stop the panicked fearmongering if we want to make the world better,” New York Post, August 4, 2023. Archived August 6, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/kEf9L
According to the group’s launch announcement, “In late 2023, ARC will be holding its inaugural international conference of more than a thousand high level leaders from politics, culture, business and academia across three days in London.”153“ARC launch announcement,” ARC. Archived May 24, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/PHBTM
“Our Mission,” Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xT9gl
“Our Mission,” Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xT9gl
APCO Worldwide
Background
APCO has been described as “one of the world's most powerful PR firms.”“Public Relations Firms Database: APCO Worldwide,” O'Dwyers. Archive.is URL: https://arc...
Hugh W. Ellsaesser
Credentials
Ph.D., Meteorology.“Re: Global warming: It's happening,” Letter to NaturalSCIENCE, January 29, 1998. Archived July 28, 2011. Archive.fo URL: https://arch...
Alfred (Al) Pekarek
Credentials
Ph.D., University of Wyoming (1974).“Faculty/Staff,” St. Cloud State University. Archived May 28, 2010. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/dA53K
...
Benny Josef Peiser
Credentials
Ph.D. , University of Frankfurt (1993). Peiser studied political science, English, and sports science. “Benny Peiser,” Wikipedia (German)Entry. Peiser, ...
