Here's how Volkswagen's system for fooling the emission tests worked: nyti.ms/1Fdlcus http://t.co/U7hlLejNK0—
NYT Business (@nytimesbusiness) September 22, 2015
Entrepreneurial alertness in vehicle emissions testing
23 Sep 2015 1 Comment
in economics of crime, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, survivor principle, transport economics Tags: air pollution, entrepreneurial alertness, vehicle emissions testing, Volkswagen
Many conservationists are against effective rhino conservation
23 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, law and economics, property rights Tags: Africa, agricultural economics, do gooders, economics of conservation, economics of endangered species, endangered species, expressive voting, Leftover Left, Twitter left, unintended consequences
https://twitter.com/ConversationUK/status/646227223716872197/photo/1
https://twitter.com/dlAfrican/status/646215227076292608
Capturing the economic value of wildlife for the benefit of wildlife. New in PERC Reports: bit.ly/1JHerwj http://t.co/yijFIChPDo—
PERC (@PERCtweets) September 13, 2015
How private ownership and trophy hunting saved the southern white rhino: bit.ly/1HhZy55 #WorldRhinoDay http://t.co/s4PudPwrrI—
PERC (@PERCtweets) September 22, 2015
President Carter said the world would run out of oil by 2010
23 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, politics - USA Tags: doomsday prophecies, Oil prices, peak oil
President Carter said the world would run out of oil by 2010
realclimatescience.com/2015/06/presid… http://t.co/flmIxYOFdd—
Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) June 22, 2015
@GreenpeaceNZ should not support the vexatious claims of climate refugees @NZGreens
22 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in Economics of international refugee law, environmental economics, global warming, international economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: climate refugees, global warming, Greenpeace, Kiribati, nuisance suits, political refugees, vexatious litigation, war refugees
Political support is tenuous enough for admitting more political refugees and war refugees to New Zealand without visa overstayers trying it on with claims for asylum on the basis of climate change – that they are a climate refugee.
Currently New Zealand small refugee quota of 750 is under review. Chances of that been increased to 1000 are reasonable. If people are trying to open the floodgates to millions of people as potential refugees of climate change, if Greenpeace’s own alarmist rhetoric about global warming is to be believed, Greenpeace only strengthens the hand of the anti-immigration and xenophobic parties such as New Zealand First and within the National Party caucus.
Not everyone is a worthy cause, particularly those who make vexatious legal claims that were always going to fail in court. The High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court all ruled that it is not their place to expand the scope of the international refugee convention to cover those displaced by climate change. As the Court of Appeal ruled
No-one should read this judgment as downplaying the importance of climate change. It is a major and growing concern for the international community. The point this judgment makes is that climate change and its effect on countries like Kiribati is not appropriately addressed under the Refugee Convention.
Source: Doing Business in Kiribati – World Bank Group
Kirabati can do a lot more to help itself rather than looking to others to solve its problems. It is ranked 133rd in the World Bank’s Doing Business database. This means it can do a lot to help its own development, which strengthens its resilience against climate change and rising sea levels. In the High Court, Priestley J observed:
The economic environment of Kiribati might certainly not be as attractive to the applicant and his fellow nationals as the economic environment and prospects of Australia and New Zealand. But he would not, if he returns, be subjected to individual persecution…
The appellant raised an argument that the international community itself was tantamount to the “persecutor” for the purposes of the Refugee Convention. This completely reverses the traditional refugee paradigm. Traditionally a refugee is fleeing his own government or a non-state actor from whom the government is unwilling or unable to protect him. Thus the claimant is seeking refuge within the very countries that are allegedly “persecuting” him.
Kiribati’s Human Development Index value for 2012 is 0.629—in the medium human development category—positioning the country at 121 out of 187 countries and territories. The rank is shared with Indonesia and South Africa. Kiribati is not unusually poor if it is similar in human development index ranking is to Indonesia and South Africa. Since 1980, Kiribati life expectancy at birth has increased from 55 years to 68 years. Average years of schooling is nearly 8 years and expected years of schooling for their children is now 12 years.
Stigler on economics as a big tent @RusselNorman @NZGreens @GreenpeaceNZ @Mark_J_Perry
21 Sep 2015 1 Comment
How is peak oil going?
20 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, energy economics, environmental economics Tags: commodity prices, doomsday prophecies, peak oil
Are we really running out of oil? As it turns out, we're discovering more every year. buff.ly/1LhV947 http://t.co/fdxxk5fNpi—
HumanProgress.org (@humanprogress) August 19, 2015
Economic impact of global warming: new evidence
18 Sep 2015 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, development economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism, global warming, Richard Tol
A nice summary of the latest research showing that once again the welfare cost of climate change is small except under the most extreme scenarios.
2% of national income is not something to declare a national emergency over unless you are in a very poor country.
Richard Tol also mentions that there has only been 27 studies of the economic costs of climate change:
Twenty-seven estimates is a thin basis for any conclusion. Researchers disagree on the sign of the net impact; climate change may lead to a welfare gain or loss. At the same time, researchers agree on the order of magnitude. The welfare change caused by climate change is equivalent to the welfare change caused by an income change of a few percent.
- That is, a century of climate change is about as good/bad for welfare as a year of economic growth.
As Tol wrote elsewhere, the reason why there are so few studies of the welfare cost of global warming is governments and bureaucracies do not like the small numbers they yield so they pre-emptively do not fund such research.
Few economists work full-time on the economics of climate change as their research results are too moderate to win repeat business and further research grants. Importantly, there is vicious criticism of what you say. Much better to just work on other topics.
One of the great tactical victories of the climate activists, I resisted the temptation to call them climate alarmists, is they keep going on about the science is settled and whether you are accepting the scientific results.
I have long argued let the science be settled, only the economics matters. The climate change activists do not want to talk about the economics that much except for the estimates by that political hack Lord Stern. Lord Stern has been on the losing side of history ever since he wrote a bad review of PT Bauer’s Dissent on Development where he said:
Dissent on Development is not a valuable contribution to the study of development.
The Stern Review puts the costs of unmitigated climate change at 5–20% of GDP (now and forever). The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds differently.
HT: Lorenzo M Warby
How dangerous is nuclear energy?
16 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics Tags: atomic power, environmental alarmism, expressive voting, Green alarmism, nuclear energy, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
What do #McDonalds & @GreenpeaceNZ no longer have in common? @NZGreens @RusselNorman
12 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: anti-science left eye global warming, climate alarmism, GMOs, Greenpeace, Leftover Left, New Zealand Greens, Russell Norman, The Great Escape, The Great Fact, Twitter left
Like McDonalds, Greenpeace globally is a brand. I read the papers every day in detail but are utterly clueless as to who its leaders are. That is a deliberate branding decision so people cannot conflate the inevitably dodgy and far left backgrounds of its leaders and activist support base with self appointed environmental do-gooders brand.
That is no longer so in New Zealand where a middle-age political junkie retiring as co-leader of the New Zealand Greens will now be their CEO in New Zealand.
.@RusselNorman to lead @GreenpeaceNZ bit.ly/1K08JJj http://t.co/M4QNmeGQjr—
Greenpeace NZ (@GreenpeaceNZ) September 10, 2015
If Russell Norman wants to do his job properly, you should never give an interview, never appear in public.
Incoming @GreenpeaceNZ leader @RusselNorman says Greenpeace critical for humanity's future stuff.co.nz/national/polit… http://t.co/XqpxYjYmf4—
Greenpeace NZ (@GreenpeaceNZ) September 12, 2015
What is worse is the carrying on by the Greens about the retirement of Russell Norman to lead the Greenpeace in New Zealand.
If they wanted to maintain the political effectiveness of Greenpeace, they should have made a short press release congratulating him on his retirement and wishing him well in his new job and saying little more. The Greens should stop carrying on as though you have taken over Greenpeace New Zealand.
I do not wish Greenpeace well with its anti-growth, anti-science, anti-human agenda, so I hope this was a mistake and I hope I am not interrupting them in making that mistake.
This #Vox political bias test is biased despite my good result
11 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, economics of climate change, economics of crime, environmental economics, health economics, macroeconomics
@NZGreens @GreenpeaceNZ #NEWZEALAND best prepared for #climatechange almost
07 Sep 2015 1 Comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, health economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism, global warming
@NZGreens these are the faces of #vaccine denialism
02 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, environmental economics, health economics Tags: Anti-Science left, anti-vaccination movement, conjecture and refutation, New Zealand Greens, political psychology, quackery, vaccines
The essence of science for the Anti-science Left @NZGreens @GreenpeaceNZ #GMOs
30 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, environmental economics, global warming, health economics Tags: Anti-Science left, climate alarmism, economics of agriculture, global warming, GMOs, Greenpeace, New Zealand Greens, precautionary principle
In 1985, Obama’s science advisor John Holdren predicted that by now we’d be approaching a billion CO2-related deaths from famine
28 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmists, cranks, doomsday profits, doomsday prophecies, global warming, Quacks
@NZGreens @GreenpeaceNZ @PeakOil and peak #coal are in the past
25 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, energy economics, environmental economics Tags: antimarket bias, devastate prophecies, entrepreneurial alertness, peak coal, peak oil, rational ignorance
The evolution of American energy consumption since 1776 businessinsider.com/evolution-of-a… http://t.co/APT8NQZfmg—
Elena Holodny (@elenaholodny) August 21, 2015
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