Climate Change

The Libertarian Case for Controlling Climate Change

Inaction on climate change is inconsistent with libertarian principles and belief in property rights.

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Climate Legislation 2.0

The Washington Post has some details about the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman proposal, along with some encouraging reports of endorsements by utilities and oil companies.  (Those, of course, come with a price in terms of industry concessions.)  Some key features: *The bill would take effect in 2013 and would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 17% by 2020  and …

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Popular Support for “Cap and Dividend”

According to a poll by Public Opinion Strategies, there seems to be strong public support for cap and dividend, at least if the question is framed positively.  Here is the question along with some key results: “Some Democratic and Republican Senators have proposed an overhaul to America’s energy system. The goal is to reduce pollution, …

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Warmest March on Record

NOAA reported late last week that this March was the warmest since records have been kept (circa 1880).  Here’s a map of “temperature anomalies” on land, showing where the temperature was warmer or colder than usual: Note that the biggest deviations are in  the arctic, which is the area most sensitive to global climate change.  …

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Should We Run Some Controlled Climate Change Experiments?

Controlled experiments in general are the best way of doing science, but we haven’t been able to take advantage of that in science research. Considering the importance of the climate change issue, it might be worth taking a serious look at this possibility, even if it does seem a little outside the box.

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The Sting of the Long Tail: Climate Change, Delayed Harm, and Backlash

In the comments to Ann’s earlier post, the question was raised as to why global temperatures haven’t declined in response to the decline in carbon dioxide emissions from Europe in the past year. I made a quick response to this question in the comments, but I wanted to elaborate on that response here.  What follow …

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Gambling on Climate Change

Paul Krugman had a great article about climate change in the NY Times magazine on Sunday.  It provides a really useful primer on the economics of climate change. In particular, Krugman emphasizes that uncertainty is a reason for action, not a reason to to allow unchecked global warming: We’re uncertain about the magnitude of climate …

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Alaska aborts anti-ESA ad campaign

In February, Alaska lawmakers decided to launch a $1.5 million public relations campaign against the Endangered Species Act, and specifically against the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species. Later, they toned it down a bit, planning to use the money to hold a conference on polar bear listing and ask PR firms …

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India and Climate Change law and policy event – April 9 at UCLA

Please excuse the shameless promotion, but readers in the LA area may be interested in an all-day symposium on India and Climate Change being held at UCLA Law next Friday.  We’re excited to host cutting-edge conversations about India’s domestic climate change work and about how best to engage with India internationally, post-Copenhagen. More information on …

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We Interrupt This Blog…

…in order to outsource it to John Cole of Balloon Juice, who pretty much says it all regarding the fact that the scientists involved in “Climategate” were exonerated by a House of Commons investigation: Sadly, Al Gore is Still Fat, So I’m Not Sure Anyone Will Care by John Cole I’m sure the media and …

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