Climate Change
Climate Change
Climate Modeling is Far From a Precise Science
A recent study of paleoclimate, the results of which appear in the August issue of Nature Geoscience, finds that today’s climate models do not accurately predict the most similar previous episode of climate warming in the geologic record. California Republic, August 21, 2009 A recent study of paleoclimate, the results ...
Amy Kaleita
August 18, 2009
Climate Change
Californians’ Global Warming Fervor Cools
New York Times, August 3, 2009 Californians’ eagerness to battle global warming seems to be cooling a bit: The latest survey on the state’s environmental attitudes, released on Wednesday, showed that 47 percent consider the threat of global warming very serious, a decline of seven percentage points from two years ...
Felicity Barringer
July 30, 2009
Climate Change
Climate Economics 101 and Policy Activism
(1) The Discount Rate. Economists give wildly different estimates of the “social cost of carbon” and hence the “optimal” tax on an additional unit of emissions. These differences are not primarily due to the assumptions about climate systems or human vulnerabilities to warming. On the contrary, the main difference between, ...
Robert P. Murphy
July 21, 2009
California
California Counts the Cost on Climate Change Legislation
Last week, an investment management and advisory firm comprised of professors from California State University, Sacramento, released a report attempting to estimate the costs to small businesses – and therefore to California’s economy – of implementing Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. While the Varshney & ...
Amy Kaleita
July 21, 2009
Climate Change
Waxman-Markey: An Exercise in Unreality
“Waxman-Markey … seeks a first in economic history: rationing without scarcity or price inflation. [It] allows generous ‘offsets’ so that carbon-based energy does not, in fact, become scarce. The bill does, however, contain a multitude of new regulations, product-efficiency mandates, and spending programs that will require extensive managerial attention from ...
Kenneth Green
July 20, 2009
Business & Economics
The Economics of Climate Change
During the last ten years, one of the biggest drivers of public opinion and policy has been concern over global warming or climate change. The economics of climate change uses economic theory and computer models to study the interactions among government policies, the climate system, and the economy. In this ...
Robert P. Murphy
July 6, 2009
Agriculture
Analyzing the politics of climate change
San Francisco Examiner, June 9, 2009 We hear it every day. News headlines read: “Global Warming Biggest Threat of 21st Century, Experts say.” (businessweek.com. May 13th, 2009. Gardner, Amanda). News anchors provide us with a choice, either we believe the scientists that support global warming hypotheses, or we reject science ...
Blake Yount
June 9, 2009
Climate Change
Unilateral or Worldwide, Waxman-Markey Fails Standard Cost/Benefit Tests (CO2 “leakage” makes bad even worse)
Master Resource, May 27, 2009 Jim Manzi has a very good post introducing the analysis of costs and benefits of Waxman-Markey. Here I want to follow up on Manzi’s great start, by showing that Chip Knappenberger’s estimate of the climate benefits of Waxman-Markey (W-M) actually erred on the side of ...
Robert P. Murphy
May 26, 2009
Climate Change
The Geography of Carbon Emissions
The American Thinker (Bellevue, WA), May 23, 2009 Climate Change Fraud, May 23, 2009 Carbon Offset Daily, May 23, 2009 Lux Libertas, May 23, 2009 No American city is among the top 50 cities in the world for air pollution according to the World Bank. (1) Another list, ‘The Top ...
Jack Dini
May 23, 2009
Climate Change
How Government Botches Biofuels
Within the last five years, concern over both global climate change and the economic and national security implications of U.S. oil consumption has created an interest in alternate sources of liquid fuel, namely, “biofuels” derived from agricultural crops. What began as an exciting possibility has unfortunately become an example of ...
Amy Kaleita
May 19, 2009
Climate Modeling is Far From a Precise Science
A recent study of paleoclimate, the results of which appear in the August issue of Nature Geoscience, finds that today’s climate models do not accurately predict the most similar previous episode of climate warming in the geologic record. California Republic, August 21, 2009 A recent study of paleoclimate, the results ...
Californians’ Global Warming Fervor Cools
New York Times, August 3, 2009 Californians’ eagerness to battle global warming seems to be cooling a bit: The latest survey on the state’s environmental attitudes, released on Wednesday, showed that 47 percent consider the threat of global warming very serious, a decline of seven percentage points from two years ...
Climate Economics 101 and Policy Activism
(1) The Discount Rate. Economists give wildly different estimates of the “social cost of carbon” and hence the “optimal” tax on an additional unit of emissions. These differences are not primarily due to the assumptions about climate systems or human vulnerabilities to warming. On the contrary, the main difference between, ...
California Counts the Cost on Climate Change Legislation
Last week, an investment management and advisory firm comprised of professors from California State University, Sacramento, released a report attempting to estimate the costs to small businesses – and therefore to California’s economy – of implementing Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. While the Varshney & ...
Waxman-Markey: An Exercise in Unreality
“Waxman-Markey … seeks a first in economic history: rationing without scarcity or price inflation. [It] allows generous ‘offsets’ so that carbon-based energy does not, in fact, become scarce. The bill does, however, contain a multitude of new regulations, product-efficiency mandates, and spending programs that will require extensive managerial attention from ...
The Economics of Climate Change
During the last ten years, one of the biggest drivers of public opinion and policy has been concern over global warming or climate change. The economics of climate change uses economic theory and computer models to study the interactions among government policies, the climate system, and the economy. In this ...
Analyzing the politics of climate change
San Francisco Examiner, June 9, 2009 We hear it every day. News headlines read: “Global Warming Biggest Threat of 21st Century, Experts say.” (businessweek.com. May 13th, 2009. Gardner, Amanda). News anchors provide us with a choice, either we believe the scientists that support global warming hypotheses, or we reject science ...
Unilateral or Worldwide, Waxman-Markey Fails Standard Cost/Benefit Tests (CO2 “leakage” makes bad even worse)
Master Resource, May 27, 2009 Jim Manzi has a very good post introducing the analysis of costs and benefits of Waxman-Markey. Here I want to follow up on Manzi’s great start, by showing that Chip Knappenberger’s estimate of the climate benefits of Waxman-Markey (W-M) actually erred on the side of ...
The Geography of Carbon Emissions
The American Thinker (Bellevue, WA), May 23, 2009 Climate Change Fraud, May 23, 2009 Carbon Offset Daily, May 23, 2009 Lux Libertas, May 23, 2009 No American city is among the top 50 cities in the world for air pollution according to the World Bank. (1) Another list, ‘The Top ...
How Government Botches Biofuels
Within the last five years, concern over both global climate change and the economic and national security implications of U.S. oil consumption has created an interest in alternate sources of liquid fuel, namely, “biofuels” derived from agricultural crops. What began as an exciting possibility has unfortunately become an example of ...