The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Environment on Mar 21st, 2012
One reason why some modern environmentalists are reasonably concerned with the use of particular pesticides, herbicides and fungicides is NOT that direct exposure to any particular dose of them may be harmful to us, or even to other biological species. What they seem to reasonably worry about is that the way the food chain works [...]
Posted in Environment, Government Thuggery, ethical foundations on Mar 19th, 2012
One reason I now distinguish between “E”nvironmentalism and “e”nvironmentalism is that there has been a sea change in attitudes in the environmental community over the past three decades. When I was a Boy Scout and when I first started joining hiking clubs some 20 years ago much of the literature I read was closely dedicated [...]
Posted in Environment, Standards of Living on Mar 16th, 2012
What’s problematic with this story?
Posted in Environment on Mar 10th, 2012
My wife and I spent five wonderful years in Ithaca, NY. It likes to think of itself as a leading example of an environmentally conscious community. That was one of the attractions for me, at least when I was 24 years old. We coined the term “Ethican” to describe those Ithacans who took this idea [...]
Posted in Environment on Mar 8th, 2012
Don’t break those CFC bulbs!
Posted in Environment, Ultimate Resource on Feb 24th, 2012
Here are some facts are about the climate that are part of the consensus: The planet has warmed about at about 0.7 degrees centigrade over the past century. Who is denying that? It ain’t me. Carbon dioxide has been demonstrated to be a greenhouse gas. Who is denying that? It ain’t me. Our basic climate [...]
Posted in Environment, Ultimate Resource on Feb 19th, 2012
This has been a miserable winter as far as I am concerned, but for those of you wondering, for as warm as it has been here, it has been equally cold in Europe. Neither really says a thing about global warming. On a related note, I am sure you have seen by now that scientists [...]
Posted in Environment on Feb 3rd, 2012
When one encounters the statement above, it is typically in reference to what it might cost in terms of lost output from now going forward should policy be enacted to reduce CO2 emissions. That is in some sense a very easy analysis to do. What is far more difficult to do is estimate what the [...]
Posted in Environment, Price System on Jan 27th, 2012
That’s my name for the theory that proponents of natural capital accounting use about how economics works. In a recent paper discussing the value of natural environmental amenities and how free-markets are totally predisposed to reducing these stocks to zero over time, the following argument come up twice. It is that when market priced goods [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Environment on Jan 26th, 2012
I was recently pointed toward the following report on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). In the report I found that the authors claim that the amount of Natural Capital on the entire planet is somewhere between $2 trillion and $4 trillion. For a good description of natural capital from a good economist, see [...]
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)