Climate & Society Last week, returning from a visit with foundation officers and state-supreme court justices in Washington, John, Ramona, and I made it home just as Bozeman was being thumped with two feet of snow and much below normal temperatures. (We did not consider the prospect of an extra night in Great Falls pleasant.) […]
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(1) “Give me half a tanker of iron, and I’ll give you an ice age.” “Most people are aware that CO2 and temperature are positively correlated in the long historical record but fewer people know that iron dust correlates negatively on the same scale — that is, temperature and CO2 levels are low when iron-dust […]
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Plans to create five million “green jobs” took a hit last month with the resignation of Anthony “Van” Jones, the President’s green jobs czar. Jones quit not because his claims regarding creating green jobs became exposed for the myth they are, but rather for a series of impolitic remarks and revelations of associations with unsavory […]
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Economists have few more important tasks than to dispel the misconceived notion that protectionism fosters prosperity. It doesn’t. Americans should appreciate the benefits of free trade more than others, for our 50 states trade freely with one another. Imagine how much lower your personal standard of living would be if goods or services from outside […]
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Can one create wealth by destroying value? That is precisely what the cash for clunkers program purports to do. At least $3 billion in taxpayer dollars are being used to destroy $2 billion of productive assets, on the premise that this is somehow good for the economy. This is crackpot economics. Taken to its logical […]
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The economic crisis has accomplished something that many nations have been trying, and failing, to do for years—reduce CO2 emissions. This reality highlights the enormous social and technical challenges we face. Is a continuing recession and reduction in prosperity the best way to deal with climate change or any environmental problem? No. Economic growth and […]
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Last month FREE brought a group of social entrepreneurs to Bozeman. Participants included investors who understand that economic progress is a decentralized process of discovery. It depends on the imagination and talents of individuals anticipating and responding to changing conditions and preferences. In particular, investors see long-term benefits in companies offering products that promise to […]
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What will our energy future look like? Of course, I have no special insights, but I see two interesting trends. Here’s the first. In large, complex economies, meaningful energy transitions occur gradually across many decades. Vaclav Smil, from the University of Manitoba, offers these compelling observations. In most of the world’s developed economies it took […]
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Over millennia, plants and animals have adapted to changing climates by migrating to more favorable locales. If the climate continues to change in a manner consistent with current expectations, most warming will occur in the high latitudes. In order for plants and animals to adapt, large areas of habitat, especially those along north-south gradients, must […]
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I’m just back from Western Michigan after giving a series of talks on our energy future. In the 19th century, Dutch immigrants settled much of this area, bringing with them an affinity for windmills. There is an authentic windmill named De Zwaan, meaning graceful bird, in the town of Holland. When the local utility proposed […]
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