Academia
The Future of California: An Economist’s Perspective
On Tuesday August 13th, I will give a Chair’s Lecture at the California Air Resources Board on the “Future of California”. All of the details (including my slides and key points) are posted here.
CONTINUE READINGWhy Microeconomics is Important
Read this Yahoo News article stating the shocking “fact” that $60 trillion dollars of damage will be caused if the Artic ice melts and releases methane then read the “technical” documentation published today in Nature that explains where this huge number came from. For those who are real nerds, then go on and read the …
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CONTINUE READINGJames Hansen Goes Nuclear
The Dot Earth Blog has published an interesting piece making the case for increased nuclear power generation. Read the comments. Dr. Hansen faces some resistance from the select set of people who comment on the NY Times.
CONTINUE READINGMy New Book: Fundamentals of Environmental Economics is Published
On Amazon, I’ve published a $2 environmental economics book. I priced it low to try to disrupt the environmental economics textbook business and to try to lure people to read it. This book can easier just be read as a “normal book” or can be used as a funky textbook for a class related …
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CONTINUE READINGClimatopolis Revisited
Back in 2010, I published my book Climatopolis. This book presents a free markets approach for thinking about how we will adapt to the very real threat of climate change. I argue that urbanization, innovation, migration, competition and economic growth will play crucial roles in protecting us from a scary emerging challenge. I discuss …
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CONTINUE READINGU.C. Davis Professor Dan Sperling Awarded Blue Planet Prize
Kudos to my U.C. Davis faculty colleague, Dan Sperling, this year’s recipient of the prestigious Blue Planet Prize. The Prize, awarded by the Asahi Glass Foundation, is often referred to as the Nobel Prize for environmental science. Dan Sperling is one of the most influential transportation scholars and policymakers in America. A professor of engineering …
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CONTINUE READINGFlashing Back to the Day When Rush Limbaugh Discussed my Environmental Research
The Legal Planet blog tends to focus on serious subjects. I salute this but I always try to cross the line. A few years ago, Matt Kotchen and I wrote a good paper documenting that the deep recession had chilled interest in combating climate change. Our empirical study used Google search trends by state/year/month. We …
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CONTINUE READING“The Past Isn’t Dead…”
“…it’s not even past.” — William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun. After its excellent special issue on “Oil in American History,” the Journal of American History has done it again. Its new issue includes a State Of The Field Symposium on American Environmental History, with an interpretive essay by the University of Georgia’s Paul S. …
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CONTINUE READINGCan We Learn About Climate Change Adaptation Efforts Today From Historical Lessons from 500 Years Ago?
I am married to an economic historian and I have co-written a Princeton Press book on economic history but I do not believe that long run history is relevant for thinking about how we will adapt to climate change. In this blog post, I discuss recent work by Geoffrey Parker as he sketches stories from hundreds …
CONTINUE READINGThe NY Times Publishes a Strange Anti-Geoengineering Op-ED
I encourage this blog’s readers to skim Clive Hamilton’s piece on Geoengineering which was published in the NY Times today in its Opinion section. His piece is so strange that it is worth a carefully read. Here I provide some direct quotes; “We can imagine a situation 30 years hence in which the …
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