Spooky Halloween Climate Economics Event, 10/30/23
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Environment on Jul 18th, 2023
Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Environment on Jul 18th, 2023
Posted in Central Planning, Disingenuous, Environment, If I Really Hated the Poor ... on Sep 13th, 2021
Just writing this down as a prediction to check later. If, and when, “we” are able to roll out fusion electricity at scale: It will massively reduce pollution, electricity costs, inequality, the worry about global warming, mining pollution, resource scares, clean water and much more … It will be hotly opposed by the very communities […]
Posted in Adaptation, Economics 238W, Economics Problems, Environment on Mar 27th, 2021
I will refer you later to a much larger work I’ve put together on “everything you need to know about the economics of climate change” … and among the key uncertainties are: What is the equilibrium climate sensitivity (i.e. long-term feedback)? There is zero consensus on this. (“feedback”) What is an appropriate way to count […]
Posted in Central Planning, Environment, Unintended Consequences on Jan 27th, 2021
So, many drink companies have replaced their plastic straws with paper ones. No biggie I guess, I don’t use straws. But for some, the other benefit of a plastic straw seems to have been that it is easier to jam a hard plastic straw through a rigid lid than a floppy paper straw. One of […]
Posted in Central Planning, Environment, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., Special Privilege on Jan 18th, 2021
One of the desirable features of a nuclear power plant, particularly in an age when we are told that climate change is the greatest risk that faces humankind, is that once constructed, the marginal electricity generated by the plant emits zero emissions of noxious gases and of course the global warming causing carbon dioxide. So, […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Environment, Fun Facts on Jan 15th, 2021
How many people were killed from the radiation fallout of the Fukushima Nuclear incident? … ZERO. Here is Robert Bryce: In 2013, the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation released a report on Fukushima, which found that “no radiation-related deaths have been observed among nearly 25,000 workers involved at the accident site. […]
Posted in Environment on Jan 15th, 2021
In Cohocton. The Starbucks Rule, so to speak, is the idea (as reported in Business Week over a decade ago) that wind developers put projects in areas that are at least 30 miles away from the nearest Starbucks. Why? If the wind mills were sited any closer, there would be too much NIMBYism about the […]
Posted in Environment, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jan 14th, 2021
You can’t just toss around the term “renewables,” it has no meaning. It really doesn’t. In addition to it having no meaning, the term is often conflated with “good” which again doesn’t follow from the definition. In any case, in today’s episode, this is your reminder that if you want to have intermittent and poorly […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Environment, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jan 13th, 2021
Solar powered trash cans do not pass the smell test. It is claimed that by installing solar panels on a bulky trash can that landfill space is saved and that maybe carbon emissions are reduced. Of course, the places that purchase and use these trash cans seem to not actually measure whether these trash cans […]
Posted in Environment, Family on Dec 26th, 2020
My father-in-law’s home was, for many many years, heated by coal. (In my own apartment in NYC, we had oil heat, which I contend is no better). The job of the coal delivery driver was not at all fun. He had to muscle and finagle an enormous truck close enough to the house so that […]