Two old dogs learn new tricks

Great news. There are two stories out right now, showing two people of former mind-sets have, in fact, changed those minds and are now in favor of climate change initiatives, on the one hand, and religious freedom in America--even in New York City. First up, the climate change guy: The world's most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront", in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby. Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled "sceptical environmentalist" once compared to Adolf Hitler by the UN's climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem. But in a new book to be published next month, Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change. "Investing $100bn annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century," the book concludes. That's some great news. Then, back here in the States, there's this on the misnamed "Ground Zero Mosque": ThinkProgress's Alex Seitz-Wald has video of Hatch giving an interview to Salt Lake City's Fox 13 News, in which he offers up soft-spoken yet strong support for the Cordoba Initiative's Park51 project in Manhattan. HATCH: Let's be honest about it, in the First Amendment, religious freedom, religious expression, that really express matters to the Constitution. So, if the Muslims own that property, that private property, and they want to build a mosque there, they should have the right to do so. He goes on, unfortunately, to ask if it's "smart to do so" (build the "mosque" there and backtracks, not unlike the President a while back but still, he's saying it's all about religious freedom so good on him. If this keeps up, who knows? Maybe we can even gain back hope again. Have a great day, y'all.