Climate Change and Environment – The Economics, Tech, Health and Culture Remix (beta)

An Economist’s Guide to Climate Change Science

November 12, 2018 Bilal 0

An Economist’s Guide to Climate Change Science https://ift.tt/2qfPY1l An Economist’s Guide to Climate Change Science NBER Working Paper No. 25189 Issued in October 2018 NBER Program(s):Development Economics, Environment and Energy Economics, Economic Fluctuations and Growth, Health Economics, International Trade and Investment, Labor Studies, Public Economics, Political Economy, Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Climate change management is a global challenge that requires social science as much as it requires natural science. We provide a brief introduction to the physical science of climate change, written to provide essential background for economists and other social scientists. We also highlight some key areas in which […]

Driven by climate change, fire reshapes US West

September 3, 2018 Bilal 0

Driven by climate change, fire reshapes US West https://ift.tt/2NdxZpg In this Aug. 2, 2018, file photo, a tower of smoke pours from Cow Mountain as Burney, Calif., firefighter Bob May keeps a watch on surrounding vegetation for spot fires during the River wildfire near Lakeport, Calif. Wildfires that have long shaped the landscape of the U.S. West are getting bigger and burning longer – bringing more choking smoke, deadly mudslides and habitat loss. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via AP, File) Wildfires in the U.S. have charred more than 10,000 square miles so far this year, an area larger than the […]

Climate change and finance: what role for central banks and financial regulators?

September 3, 2018 Bilal 0

Climate change and finance: what role for central banks and financial regulators? https://ift.tt/2PiV8nD Emanuele Campiglio, Yannis Dafermos, Pierre Monnin, Josh Ryan Collins, Guido Schotten and Misa Tanaka Climate change poses risks to the financial system. Yet our understanding of these risks is still limited. As we explain in a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, central banks and financial regulators could contribute to the development of methodologies and modelling tools for assessing climate-related financial risks. If it becomes clear that these risks are substantial, central banks should consider taking them into account in their operations. Both central banks and financial […]

Edge of Memory: Distrusting oral tradition may make us more ignorant

September 2, 2018 Bilal 0

Edge of Memory: Distrusting oral tradition may make us more ignorant https://ift.tt/2NbfyBM Edge of Memory: Distrusting oral tradition may make us more ignorant Aboriginal stories about startlingly rapid rises in sea level describe real events at the end of the ice age, says a new book. Are we stupid to distrust oral traditions? Aboriginal oral traditions incorporate song and danceBettmann/Getty By Jonathon Keats ONCE upon a time, Spencer Gulf in southern Australia was a land of lagoons contested by rival animal clans. The birds kept the snakes and lizards from drinking. This upset the kangaroos, one of whom drew a […]

Links between tax havens, deforestation and illegal fishing exposed

September 2, 2018 Bilal 0

Links between tax havens, deforestation and illegal fishing exposed https://ift.tt/2B8Hx08 Scale of foreign capital channeled through tax havens to beef and soy companies operating in the Brazilian Amazon between 2000 and 2011. Credit: Stockholm Resilience Centre The release of the “Paradise Papers” and “Panama Papers” exposed how multinationals, politicians and the wealthy use offshore tax havens to conceal their wealth and money flows, and reduce their exposure to tax. Now, a team of researchers from the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) at Stockholm University and the Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere (GEDB), Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, have published the […]

Air Conditioning: Problem, Solution, Problem, Solution (?)

September 2, 2018 Bilal 0

Air Conditioning: Problem, Solution, Problem, Solution (?) https://ift.tt/2PkiTMf Problem: Many places of planet Earth are so hot, at least during significant portions of the year, that it has adverse effects on human health and productivity. Solution: Air conditioning! Problem: The dramatic expansion of expansion of air conditioning all around the world raises demand for electricity. Generating electricity is often done with fossil fuels, which (especially in emerging markets where emissions standards are often more lax) can generate conventional air pollutants, and which in all markets add to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In addition, common methods of air conditioning also […]

Who should pay for fixing externalities?, by Scott Sumner

August 31, 2018 Bilal 0

Bloomberg has an interesting article on Amazon: For a little while earlier this year, it seemed as though 87-year-old Rosie Thomas and her neighbors in the small town of Gainesville, Va., had beaten Amazon. Virginia’s largest utility, Dominion Energy Inc., had planned to run an aboveground power line straight through a Civil War battlefield—and Thomas’s property—to reach a nearby data center run by an Amazon.com Inc. subsidiary. Source: Who should pay for fixing externalities?, by Scott Sumner