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About half of Australia’s population live in the east coast cities of Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne – it is well more than half if people living at points adjacent to this corridor are included. The most recent proposal for a high speed rail (HSR) link has been predictably debunked by government officials and the [...] This study confirms the Mann “hockey-stick” story but takes the global temperature rise back 11,500 years. Temperatures during the past 100 years have increased faster than in any period since the start of the Holocene 11,500 years ago. I can’t locate a preprint of the Science article that details these claims. (1676) The attractive feature of supply-based restrictions on the extraction of carbon-based fuels is that they raise the price of such fuels globally. Demand restrictions that are created, for example, by carbon taxes can, in a setting where they are imposed unilaterally, lead to carbon leakages because, in part, of an induced reduction in the global price of [...] One of the weird arguments for guns by the US gun lobby is to distribute more guns so the innocent can protect themselves. This argument for air conditioning has similar elements. Air conditioning saves lives when populations are exposed to extreme heat events although the proliferation of such technology, will increase the number of extreme [...] No, it didn’t. OK I am a bit obsessed with this issue (and have addressed the issue recently here and in 2008 here) but the lie that it did stop still gets repeatedly cited as an “inconvenient truth” by populist commentators such as Alan Jones and in blogs such as Andrew Bolt and Catallaxy. I [...] Anti-coal campaigner Jonathan Moylan’s actions in disrupting the market for Whitehaven stock a few days ago was intended to be a moral action. It is not immoral to have principles and to take a strong stance against the use of coal given the imminent problem of climate change that the world now faces. On the other hand, [...] I attended the Risk Management and Climate Change think Tank meeting at the Australian Centre for Financial Studies in Melbourne yesterday. As background I prepared the following notes that are intended to provide a non-technical guide to some technical economics. Abstract: The real options and insurance literatures alter the way planners think about evaluating infrastructure [...] It interests me that BHP Billiton (the world’s largest coal exporter) is adjusting its port construction plans to account for the effects of climate change on ocean behaviour. They are also looking carefully at further investments in coal given they anticipate a movement away from coal. As a firm they are committed to addressing the [...] There are plausible links between Sandy and AGW. That the scientific evidence is scant because – by definition – this is an instance of an infrequent, extreme event – provides additional reasons to research such links. The event provides an instance of the type of catastrophic outcome that warming oceans, along with sea level rise, [...] This nonsense claim was made on the basis of a claimed MET release by David Rose in the Daily Mail and picked up by the usual local idiot blogs – Catallaxy and, of course, Andrew Bolt. This is the official MET rebuttal. Carbon Brief provides a complete rebuttal. I haven’t noticed a retraction at either of [...] As I have discussed on several occasions the EU policy of levying carbon charges on US (and other) international air carriers flying in and out of Europe is simply a border tax adjustment that ensures the competitive neutrality of European airlines also subject to the charge. The latest decision by the US Senate – not [...] There is nothing particular new in this piece by Stefan Rahmstorf in New Scientist but it is clear and well-written. The year 2013 is likely to involve record high global temperatures simply because of the trend growth in temperatures (0.16 degrees C per decade over the past 30 years) and because a new El Nino [...] The evidence is now overwhelming that the concentrated impacts of climate change on the polar regions of our planet are causing the Arctic sea ice to melt. It is a frightening scenario. While countries such as Russia, the US, Canada and China dither over taking measures to address the climate change issue, oil and gas [...] Henry Ergas sees the Australian carbon tax as a self-inflicted wound on our mineral export sector. I guess he must be referring to the fugitive emissions associated with mining coal since it is difficult to understand what else he could mean. The carbon tax does not fall on Australian coal exports but on Australian coal [...] It now seems certain that when Tony Abbott is elected Prime Minister of Australia next year that we will not have a carbon tax. The forces of darkness and stupidity have won with their lies and misrepresentations on climate change. At best we will have an inefficient “direct action plan” than puts massively increased costs [...] Samuel J at Catallaxy puts principal blame for the global financial crisis on the global introduction of policies to address climate change. Update: Samuel J corrects a typo in my comment above – I guess that is a some sort of response – and now says that he was only engaging in “musing” and that [...] The French socialists have revived earlier attempts by France to introduce border taxes on imports from countries which do not impose carbon taxes. It is good policy for France (and for Europe) because it restores international competitiveness of French exports and import-competing industries. It also provides incentives for countries to impose carbon taxes themselves and [...] Here is a podcast I gave for my university on the carbon tax. Yes, even I wince at my distinctive Strine accent. But, yeah, I am an Aussi. (810) Mark Latham makes an interesting commentary on the origins of the prevailing foolishness of climate denialism: “In the climate change debate, we are witnessing a puzzling shift in the foundations of public reason – the emergence of what might be thought of as anti-enlightenment. It is no longer sufficient for a large majority of scientists to [...] I very much liked this paper by Bard Harstag “Buy Coal” in the latest JPE. It is behind a firewall but you can access the whole thing verbatim here. A key problem with attempting to achieve an international agreement on climate policy if of course the existence of a set of non-complying countries. If a [...] |
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