Culture & Ethics
Envisioning the Earth
Here are some cool images from earth satellites. Fans of Benoit Mandelbrot may detect a fractal quality to many of them. The subject of this particular photo ois the Namib-Naukluft National Park, which includes Namibia’s Namib Desert. Here, southwest winds have created the tallest sand dunes in the world, with some dunes reaching 300 meters in …
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CONTINUE READINGLooking Ahead to 2050
Since New Year’s Eve is both a time for nostalgia and for looking ahead, it seems appropriate to see what the world will look like at mid-century. The world will be facing considerable challenges then. The population will be bigger. The United Nations predicts that the world population will grow by 2 billion to 9 …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Coase Theorem and Matt Damon’s New Fracking Movie
The law and economics movement has been studying the Coase Theorem for a long time. In this cross-post, I discuss its relevance for Matt Damon’s new fracking movie “Promised Land”.
CONTINUE READINGDo GMO Salmon Pose an Environmental Threat?
GMO fish are one step closer to sale in the U.S., reports the LA Times: After more than a decade in regulatory limbo, genetically engineered Atlantic salmon that grow faster than their naturally born counterparts moved closer to American plates, with the publication Friday of a government report that found the fish wouldn’t hurt the …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Highlights of 2012
Reelection of President Obama, defeating Mitt Romney who had promised a major deregulatory push and massive expansion of fossil fuels. Election of new pro-environmental Senators such as Chris Murphy (Conn.), Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.), and Liz Warren (Mass.) D.C. Circuit upholds EPA endangerment finding and rules for new stationary sources of greenhouse gases. California holds first …
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CONTINUE READINGAttitudes Toward Climate Change, Environmental Science, and Clean Energy
A new AP poll reports a sharp increase in the number of people who believe that climate change is happening and will be a problem for the United States. The biggest change was among the significant group of people who say they don’t trust scientists. Here’s the summary from AP: 4 out of every 5 …
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CONTINUE READINGLastest IPCC assessment of future climate changes leaked in draft form
We knew the coming Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC, which I discussed briefly here, would make waves–just not this soon. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produces these assessments every five to seven years. They are the most rigorous and prominent summaries of the science of climate change, crafted by leading scientists from many nations and used …
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CONTINUE READINGA new twist in the Christmas tree debate — GloTrees!
(Warning — tongue firmly in cheek.) Megan and Dan have written on how an environmentally-minded winter holiday enthusiast should choose between a real and an artificial Christmas tree. The comparison already isn’t easy, but it could get even more complicated. What if the “natural” tree were genetically engineered to glow in the dark? Two UK …
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CONTINUE READINGJane Lubchenco to leave NOAA
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco has announced that she will leave her post at the end of February. Her letter to NOAA employees, reprinted in the Washington Post, cites the difficulty of maintaining a bi-coastal family life. Dr. Lubchenco, a distinguished marine biologist, has put in four years at the helm of NOAA, …
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CONTINUE READINGInternational Trade in Renewable Power Equipment
In the absence of global carbon pricing, how will the growing world economy decarbonize? We all hope that emissions per dollar of GNP will decline faster than GNP grows but how does this happen when explicit incentives to decarbonize aren’t embraced? The magic of international trade offers one possibility. In this recent …
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