Dennis Avery, R.I.P.

Published June 22, 2020

The world became a less interesting place on June 20, 2020 with the passing of Dennis Avery, a gifted scholar and communicator best known for his work on agriculture, energy policy, and climate change. He was 83.

Dennis was probably best known for two provocative books. The first, titled Saving the World with Pesticides and Plastic (Hudson Institute 1995, second edition 2000) debunked dozens of liberal shibboleths about agriculture, food safety, and public health. The book anticipated and helped spark the rise of a generation of researchers and writers willing to challenge the faulty science and economics behind many popular but misguided environmental protection campaigns. The second book, Unstoppable Global Warming — Every 1,500 Years (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, second edition 2008), coauthored with S. Fred Singer, quickly became the Bible of the fast-growing “global warming skeptics” movement.

In an age when angry exchanges between partisans get much more attention than scholarship and debate, Dennis Avery maintained a dignified but not silent presence, a true “gentleman and scholar” willing to calmly and patiently explain complex issues even as others try to shout down opposing views. He was a frequent speaker at the climate change conferences hosted by The Heartland Institute (available on YouTube), contributed to the Climate Change Reconsidered series produced by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), and traveled to Katowice, Poland to join other scholars in presenting contrary opinions on climate change at the United Nations’ 24th Conference of the Parties (COP-24).

Dennis was a much admired and beloved by his countless colleagues and friends around the world. He will be sorely missed.

Learn more about Dennis Avery at this site for him at Heartland.org.