Posted on April 18th, 2008 in bluegrass, environment | Comments Off
I got home from work at about 3:00 am this morning. I did some minor things around the house, got a snack, turned on a movie and went to bed.
I was still awake at 4:37 am when the house started a strange quivering. It was like the wind from a strong thunderstorm, only continuous. I would guess it lasted from 30 seconds to one minute. It was an earthquake centered in Illinois that I felt all the way in southcentral Kentucky.
You can see a REALLY fantastic seismic recording of the earthquake on this page, for at least a while. See if you can spot the earthquake:
It was disconcerting to say the least.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle athletes will face in this year’s Olympic Games: Beijing’s polluted air.
This week we learned that India’s Tata Motors has unveiled a $2,500 car “for the masses” in India. It’s clearly a triumph of engineering, manufacturing and design sciences, right? Now people who could not afford transportation to places like work, health care facilities and schools may be able to.
It marks an unprecedented rise in standards of living for the Indian people.
Right on cue, enter the doomsayers:
Chief U.N. climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who shared last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said last month “I am having nightmares” about the car.
In almost every case I will generally oppose new taxes and higher taxes. I generally oppose taxes for the purpose of initiating social change, such as “sin taxes” on cigarettes and booze.
But I am a member of the aforementioned Greg Mankiw’s “Pigou Club,” supporting higher gasoline taxes. And here is why:
I don’t know if global warming is real or not. I don’t know if it’s man-made or not. I am not a climate scientist and I lack the time and resources to understand the complexities of their conflicting research. I am an economist and an expert in insurance-risk issues.
I know that the chances of your house catching fire is relatively small, but everyone has homeowners insurance in case it actually does. You sacrifice a small portion of your income to protect against that rather calamitous outcome.
I think the same should be said for global warming issues. Even if it isn’t happening or isn’t man-made, the possible negative outcomes are so bad that we should at least sacrifice a little bit to take steps we feel reasonable certain will prevent them. No, I don’t think we should all give up our cars and live on the prairie. I said a little bit.
That being said, I think there sufficient external costs imposed by burning fossil fuels that we should begin to internalize some of those costs… AS LONG AS those costs go directly to abating the problem itself.
If you were to impose a carbon tax and use the money for some other purpose, it fails the test of a Pigouvian Tax. If you use the money as an insurance plan against future negative events associated with the burning of carbon-intensive fuels, I think it’s a fair trade-off.
Let the bashing begin. I am fully prepared.
A new film “presented by Leonardo DiCaprio” purports that, according to DiCaprio, “we face a convergence of crises.”
The talking points from the movie include this statement:
Energy is the key to solving our environmental crisis. Energy from renewable sources such as solar and wind need to be massively integrated into our life. Modern life needs to be redesigned.
Gulp. Precisely who is going to be redesigning modern life on my behalf? And what powers does this person (or committee) need?
