For People and Nature too...
- Free market competition
- “All of the above” energy
- Eradicating poverty
- Private property rights
- Promoting sound science
- Unleashing the developing world
- Enjoying the outdoors
- Saving endangered species
- Putting stewardship into action
Mission Statement
CFACT is a national, student-based nonprofit that believes in promoting prosperity, protecting liberty, and enjoying nature. Free markets, private property rights, and environmental stewardship are the keys to a prosperous society and constructive tomorrow for people and nature too.
Allowing for all types of energy, as well as energy companies, to compete with each other through free market capitalism will achieve the best results for efficiency, affordability, and environmental safety. Removing government subsidies for energy and cutting burdensome regulations will encourage energy producers to innovate through technology. This will incentivize companies to provide the best product rather than hire the best lobbyists to obtain kickbacks from government.
Whether it is Nuclear, Natural Gas, Coal, Wind, Solar, Biofuels, Oil, or Hydropower, CFACT believes every source of energy should be employed to lower costs and power progress. The government should not play favorites by banning energy practices such as fracking or artificially prop up other types of energy through wasteful subsidies.
Energy development has amazing potential to lift entire communities and nations out of poverty. The more energy that our world can produce, the lower utility bills will be for struggling families, the more well-paying jobs will be available, and the lower costs for providing almost every type of product and service will be reduced. Free market energy development, of all energy sources, will only raise up the least fortunate.
CFACT believes that private individuals, incentivized to protect their property, will always do a better job at stewarding the environment than government bureaucrats. Private property has solved the tragedy of the commons, brought endangered species back from the brink of extinction, helped feed billions of people, and is the cornerstone of a free society.
Too often government funded studies are used to justify regulations that restrict energy use, private property, and freedom. Truly sound science, whether in the area of climate change or beyond, should allow for a free and open debate of ideas. Science has never worked by consensus, but rather by challenging the status quo to move society forward.
The developing world is being held hostage by developed nations dictating the energy they are allowed to produce and the food they are allowed to grow, all in the name of “sustainability.” Nations in Africa, Latin America, Asia and beyond should be able to decide whether they want to develop fossil fuels to provide electricity to their people or grow genetically modified crops to help feed a starving population. Putting pressure on these countries to conform to standards of developed countries is nothing short of Eco-Imperialism.
CFACT aims to protect the environment because we protect what we love. Hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, canoeing, skiing, rock climbing, and any other means of enjoying this amazing planet helps us truly realize how good we have it on this Earth. Our parks, rivers, mountains, species, and oceans are incredible, and worth enjoying and protecting.
Our goal should not be to simply protect endangered species, but to help them thrive by bringing them back from the brink of extinction. Free markets, private property rights, and hunting have saved species like the American bison, and can have the same impact on elephants, rhinoceroses, and other animals that are being ravaged by poaching.
Unlike many organizations and politicians that talk a big environmental game, CFACT puts our rhetoric into action by sponsoring campus litter clean ups across the country, arranging service opportunities to help developing communities, and providing small business loans to incentivize the local economies of developing nations. Simply giving donations or aid can destroy small businesses in developing countries. By offering loans and grants to up and coming businesses, CFACT can lend a hand to entrepreneurs in developing nations through the principles of free markets and capitalism.
Campaigns
FRACK U
The process of hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as “fracking,” has been demonized by the media and Hollywood elite. Some students take this propaganda to heart, like those who attacked CFACT at Temple University over the subject. The FRACK U campaign aims to cut through this propaganda to explain that fracking has been the free market key to the natural gas revolution in America. Radical environmentalists make many claims about fracking, that it contaminates ground water, causes infamous “flaming faucets,” and contributes to pollution. But former President Obama’s EPA declared fracking was no threat to groundwater, the documentary Fracknation proved that the methane that causes flaming faucets occurs naturally in those areas, and fracking impacts forests and habitats far less than wind, solar, or even biofuels.
Save Our Species (SOS)
Allowing for the hunting and private ownership of animals is pivotal to the survival of endangered species. This campaign will engage the passion all students have for preserving species for generations to come, but through property rights, not government mandates. Videos and demonstrations, such as the interviews filmed at Seattle University, show private ownership saved the American bison from extinction and was tested with great success for elephants in African nations until the United Nations banned it to pander to the politics of developed nations. Hunting creates an economic incentive to breed more of these animals for future generations.
Keep Calm Climate Changes
The aim of this campaign is to educate students that the science behind climate change is not “settled,” and at the very least, that both sides of the debate should be presented and debated in classrooms and the public eye. CFACT has brought speakers like Marc Morano, Dr. Roy Spencer, and Dr. David Legates to show that CO₂ is not the control knob of the climate, and while it can impact temperatures, other factors, such as the impact of the sun, cloud cover, volcanic activity, El Niño and La Niña patterns, and natural CO₂ fluctuation should have at least an equal consideration in projecting and understanding temperatures.
Stop Playing Games with Hunger
Developing nations should have the right to feed starving populations, whether it is with genetically modified foods or not. Polls conducted by CFACT on campuses reveal an overwhelming majority support these countries’ right to make that decision for themselves (over 80% supported this at Boston College). A group of over 100 Nobel laurates penned a letter condemning radical environmentalist groups like Greenpeace for opposing and destroying crops like the GMO “Golden Rice,” that can provide the nutrients necessary for millions of children going blind from malnutrition.
Meet the Team
Driessen Fellows Program
The Driessen Fellows program helps empower students around the nation who have a passion for advancing the free market, pro-energy principles discussed by Paul Driessen, author of Eco-Imperialism and advocate for the rights of individuals in developing nations all over the world.
We would love to come visit your campus! Contact us to get started!
Are we traveling to your campus?
Email us to find out!
CFACT Collegians staff will be on the road throughout the semester. Contact us at 732-644-7131 or email us if you would like us to speak at your club or assist with activism on campus!
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
I am a physics major, but I still love politics and the environment. Getting involved with CFACT allows me to discuss these issues. I love interacting with different students we meet during events and talking to them about property rights, climate change, and polar bears.
On testifying with CFACT to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: “I am proud to represent CFACT and stand with the good men and women in Louisiana’s energy sector in telling the bureaucracy to back off of our way of life.”
After attending CFACT’s annual student retreat, the Eco Summit: “I loved hearing about the mission of CFACT and how fighting climate alarmism fits into the goal of uplifting the poor. This is a message I can take back to my campus where many students care about helping the least fortunate around the world.”
CFACT gives a voice to those students who have been alienated by the far left, radical, environmental groups on campuses and in the media. Without CFACT students who care about their environment and smart economics would be left to fend for themselves.
On CFACT and the Eco Summit: “It was awesome, I am really looking forward to taking all of this information and sharing it with those on my campus as soon as I get home.”
“I was tired of seeing a one-sided debate of environmentalism on campus. The typical view of environmentalism didn’t fit into my beliefs, and I found the alternative of free markets in CFACT.”
“American energy independence is incredibly important, and it’s a topic people don’t have enough information on. By testifying at the EPA and writing in [CFACT’s] LTE contest, I’ve tried to bridge that gap.”
“CFACT is a place that allows me to explore new ideas in a political climate that does not allow for that. In a college environment where new ideas and exploring new viewpoints are attacked, CFACT welcomes everyone to study and debate the issues.”
To get involved with CFACT on your campus or if you have a question for our staff, please fill out the form below and we will reach out to you as soon as possible! Students who help start a chapter on their campus receive a chapter kit with resources to help them get started, and also get invited to our annual, expenses paid student retreat, the Eco Summit!