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 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 [...]
Posted in Environment on Jan 21st, 2012
You might think I am referring you to this to illustrate the insanity of the Germans’ insistence on funding solar power. That would be too obvious, particularly if you were unlucky enough to have sat through three weeks of my energy economics lectures last fall. No, what is scary is that this sentiment is widely [...]
Posted in Environment, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jan 21st, 2012
Def: (noun): Someone who built his mountain cabin last year. HT to William Tucker, writing recently in reference to anti-energy crusades. I used to reject this characterization. Not any more.
Posted in Environment, Methodology, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jan 18th, 2012
Tensions between the US and Iran are increasing. I see the threat of a nuclear Iran as a serious one, far more serious than the Iraq threat may have been. Reflect for a moment on the plea by folks to use the Precautionary Principle when it comes to environmental matters. Why, too, is this Principle [...]
Posted in Environment on Jan 12th, 2012
According to Vaclav Smil 40% of the people on Earth would not be alive if it were not for industrial fertilizer. Smil is one of my 5 favorite living scholars. If this estimate is right, I suppose I’d only have 3 favorites. The technology used to create these fertilizers comes from the production of ammonia [...]
Posted in Environment on Jan 11th, 2012
I have followed one interested trend in the Climate Change debate, but not another until recently. The trend I have followed? Beginning with the First Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and running through the Fourth Assessment Report, economists have tried to estimate the expected damages due to expected future warming. While [...]
Posted in Education, Environment on Dec 31st, 2011
The entire National Park Service has a budget and staffing level that is just about identical to the budget and staffing level of my very own University of Rochester. The NPS budget request for this year was $3.1 billion. The U of R budget for the last year they reported it to the government was [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Environment on Dec 29th, 2011
In the year 2000 there were 8,354 oil and petroleum based product spills in US navigable waters. 5 years later? 4,073. In 2008? 3,633. In 2009? 3,492. How much oil has been spilled? 2000: 1.43 million gallons 2005: 2.36 million gallons 2008: 777,000 gallons 2009: 196,000 gallons While 10x less oil spilled in waters since [...]
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