Earlier this week, Britan convened a UN Security Council meeting on the issue of global warming, both to galvanize opinion and to discuss the threat it represented to the stability of member nations. The session instead exposed rifts between the first and third world, with developing countries led by China very much opposed to interference. […]
Read more...I am normally loath to publish someone else’s post more or less in its entirety, but Brad DeLong’s discussion of some of the more persuasive arguments for investing to arrest global warming is first rate. (And candidly, he references an article by Martin Weitzmen on the Stern Review, the UK report that was the first […]
Read more...While I am loath to look Financial-Times centric, there are days when it has a lot of good material, and today is one of those days. Gideon Rachman, in “Climate change is not a global crisis – that is the problem,” works through the implications of the fact that global warming will create winners and […]
Read more...The Financial Times reports today on a report prepared by 11 retired US admirals and generals on the security implications of global warming. The authors concluded that global warming would worsen regional conflicts, worsen living standards, and undermine stability. These findings are consistent with earlier reports that discussed the large-scale dislocation that would result from […]
Read more...A front page story in today’s Financial Times, “Foreign carmakers doubt Detroit’s ethanol,” report on a split of opinon within the auto industry as to which technology to pursue to reduce carbon emissions. US automakers are keenly promoting E85, which is a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline; foreign companies are investing in diesel, […]
Read more...The summary of the second report is due out this Friday. Oddly, this sneak preview appears, at least so far, only in the Financial Times (I checked the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times). As described below, the second report delves deeper into the nature and scope of likely changes, and how they […]
Read more...I was sent a link to this Onion classic, “Nation’s Snowmen March Against Global Warming,” and thought it was timely in light of this week’s Congressional hearings. Braving balmy temperatures and sunny skies, millions of scarfless snowmen and snowwomen gathered in cities across the world Tuesday to raise public awareness about the heavy toll global […]
Read more...Some powerful organizations are taking up the banner of climate change. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, a group of influential investors, including Allainz, Calpers, and Merrill, ….waded into the fray, pressing for legislation mandating emissions cuts ranging from 60% to 90% by the middle of this century and requiring companies to disclose investor risks […]
Read more...This excellent post by reader Stormy appeared at Angry Bear today. It makes the point that whether or not you believe that human activity is contributing to global warming, CO2 emissions are making the oceans more acid. This makes them increasingly hostile environments for shellfish and coral reefs. No kidding, we are talking about a […]
Read more...We’ve discussed before that, despite the popular coverage that it gets in the business press, carbon trading, or “cap and trade” is not as efficient or effective a way to reduce greenhouse gases as taxation. If you would like official confirmation, Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw (who is far from being liberal; he’s an advisor […]
Read more...Gregg Easterbrook, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote an op ed piece in the New York Times, “Al Gore’s Outsourcing Solution” that makes a few valid observations. But his central recommendation, “America needs legislation capping carbon emissions here, but Congress should allow American companies and consumers to use investments in carbon offsets in China […]
Read more...This week’s Economist discusses “Plan B for global warming,” which is to implement measures directed at cooling the earth’s temperature. It’s an idea which is pragmatic (it acknowledges that collectively we aren’t likely to take concerted enough action to stop, let alone reverse, the rising levels of greenhouse gases that are producing higher temperatures). But […]
Read more...A Reuters story, “U.S. struggles to build green homes,” describes Americans’ deep seated resistance to doing the right thing, energy-wise: Regardless of the sales pitch, energy efficiency is an opportunity that Americans shun…. While gas-guzzling vehicles draw the most criticism, homes and businesses consume even more energy — 40 percent of the U.S. total in […]
Read more...In a very interesting turn of events, Environmental Defense, the group that negotiated for some environmental concessions to win its support for the leveraged buyout of TXU, the Texas utility, by Texas Pacific Group and KKR, has engaged boutique investment banking firm Perella Weinberg. The New York Times, in the story, “Environmental Group Behind the […]
Read more...A great post, “CAFE Standards,” from James Hamilton at Econbrowser on how fuel efficiency standards (technically, corporate average fuel efficiency, or CAFE) work and their effects in practice. He in turn cites research by Marc Jacobsen, an economics PhD at Stanford. I found it useful to understand a bit more about how these standards are […]
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