The Unbroken Window

Perhaps this post should run on Earth Day. According to economic models of climate change, a warming of the planet will result in a reduction of “our” well being. Before I get to my point today notice that this argument also requires being clear about whether we are considering aggregate effects or individual ones. For [...]

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WINTERCOW in 2012: Sorry to be reposting. But again I think the message is worth repeating, especially on this wonderful day. I don’t want you to feel down about it at all. If you would like to see the data from the remaining eleven days, start here. And yes an update is in order. But there [...]

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Wasting food seems to be an appropriate concern if there ever was one. After all, if people are hungry and food costs money, throwing away food or not eating food would appear to be unnecessary at best. At worst, food waste is a “stick-it-in-your-face” aspect of Capitalist contempt for the rest of the world. Never [...]

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The USA Today reports on its findings regarding the “sustainability” of LEED buildings. A triumph indeed. The saddest part: More than 200 states, cities and federal agencies now require LEED certification for new public buildings, even though they have done little independent and meaningful research into LEED’s effectiveness. LEED can add millions to construction costs [...]

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Here is an example of the plea by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, along with the support of various hiking and conservation organizations, for people to practice a “Leave No Trace” ethic when wandering in the New York State Forest Preserve (a designated “wilderness” area: I am extremely sympathetic to the LNT ethic and [...]

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Suppose you were really, really, really, really freaked out that "we" were going to run out of some really important material like clay for cat litter. Well, important for some people. Suppose that you convened a panel of concerned citizens and you had but one opportunity to select the best way to ensure the continued [...]

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My best estimate is that fully one-third of the lower continental United States is utterly inhospitable and virtually uninhabitable. The fact that man has managed to scratch out a living on some really tough land and has even managed to build places like Las Vegas and Phoenix in the middle of hostile deserts is a [...]

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George Stigler, I think, once quipped, "If you never missed a flight in your life, you've spent too much time in an airport." While there is much wisdom in this observation, I would recommend not taking it too seriously. We like to get to airports early so that we do not miss our flights. There [...]

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A former student sends me the link to this amazing video. Julian Simon (as close to an intellectual hero as I have) called people the Ultimate Resource. Here is an example of why. Keep this in mind when you hear people worrying about 1.4 billion Chinese getting richer than us, or trying to convince you [...]

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Happy New Year everyone. Two quick thoughts for the start of the year: We’ve managed to explore only about 5% of the oceans in our entire human history to this point. This means that 95% of the oceans remain unexplored. We’ve managed to explore about only 8 miles down into the surface of the Earth. [...]

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