M.A. Adelman on natural resource exhaustion
04 Dec 2014 1 Comment
in energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, resource economics Tags: entrepreneurship, M. A. Adelman, resource economics
On the unsustainability of wind power – noise pollution edition
03 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, law and economics Tags: noise pollution, wind power
Three days to save the world from climate change, if Australia’s chief scientist is to believed?!
01 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, global warming, politics - Australia Tags: climate alarmism, global warming, green rent seeking
A Revealing Cartoon |Ideas
30 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmism, economics of advertising, global warming
But it apparently does not occur to them that, for someone not persuaded of their policies, the same argument applies to them, that, from the standpoint of the people they want to convince, the cartoon is a reason to be more skeptical of their views, not less.
via Ideas.
Too Many Battery Factories, Too Few Electric Cars | MIT Technology Review
29 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics Tags: electric cars, expressive voting
Treat scientific advice on global warming like advice from your doctor
28 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmism, cost benefit analysis, evidence-based policy, global warming
1. Physicians may not agree on the medical condition causing the symptoms the patient presents.
2. Even if physicians agree on their diagnoses, they often do not agree on the efficacy of alternative responses — for example, surgery or medical management for lower-back pain.
3. The reason patients seek advice and treatment is that they expect physicians to have vastly superior knowledge about the proper diagnosis and efficacy of treatment.
4. Medicine proceeds on the basis of double blind trials and other small field experiments. Control and treatment groups are used before any treatment is applied widely.
5. Medicine is not perfect as was the case with the misdiagnosis of the causes of stomach ulcers.
6. The lag between cause and effect are short as would be the case if you rejected emergency treatment after a car accident or cancer treatment.
7. Medicine tests the efficacy of invasive treatments, weighs side-effects and encourages adaptation and prevention.
8. The staying power of self-interest in medicine is well-known: much higher rates of surgery when there is fee for service and much lower rates of surgery if the patient is a doctor or his partner. The efforts of the medical profession to suppress competition is well-known.
A Mini adventure: London to Edinburgh in an electric car
28 Nov 2014 2 Comments
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmism, electric cars, expressive voting, global warming
The intrepid adventurer from the BBC drove the 778 kilometers from London to Edinburgh in an electric Mini, and had to stop eight times to recharge – often waiting six hours or more.
In total, he spent 80 hours waiting or driving, averaging just ten kilometers per hour – an unenviable pace even before the advent of the steam engine.
via BBC News – Mini adventure: how far can an electric car go?.
On the relative cost effectiveness of electric cars
28 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmism, expressive voting, global warming
Climate alarmists made some unwise predictions about never seeing snow again
27 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmism, global warming
Some advice from a green consultant
26 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, environmentalism Tags: activists, consultants, do gooders, environmental movement
Secret Tapes of the final Copenhagen Summit negotiations, starring Obama, Brown, Sarko & Merkel
21 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Copenhagen Summit, global warming, obama
In Copenhagen’s final private negotiations, Obama, Brown, Sarko and Merkel sat down with He Yafei, the Chinese vice-minister of foreign affairs. There is a tape of this meeting at Der Spiegel
He Yafei was the smartest guy in the room. Wen Jiabao refused to attend most of the negotiating sessions.
Given the choice of walking out or sitting down with a vice-minister, they chose humiliation. One response of Obama was:
It would be nice to negotiate with somebody who can make political decisions.
There were still two important placeholders, X and Y, in the draft agreement. They marked the spots where the percentage targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, for the industrialized nations and emerging countries respectively, were to be entered.
China and India were unwilling to make that commitment. They had reached their own agreement with Brazil and South Africa.
"We have all along been saying ‘Don’t prejudge options!,’" said a representative of the Indian delegation*, prompting Merkel to burst out: "Then you don’t want legally binding!"
The entire discussion at Der Spiegel in multiple parts should be read while listening to the tape.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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