Category Environment
We are all Albertans / On est tous des albertains
One of the least edifying spectacles of the domestic coverage of the Copenhagen conference was the pointing of fingers at Alberta, most notably by the leaders of the provincial (in every sense of the word) governments of Ontario and Québec. The tar sands are in Alberta, so the reasoning goes, and it's up to Albertans […]
Underestimating the costs of climate change policy is not helpful
One of the things about blogging is that you never know what posts will be jumped on or how they will be interpreted. This post about the Suzuki-Pembina report is a case in point: both sides of the debate seemed to think that I was offering aid and succor to the cause of the climate […]
Random Thoughts
Sometimes my brain can't concentrate on any one topic long enough to write a serious post. Or maybe I just don't know enough to give a good answer to some question I want to answer. So here is a random collection of thoughts:
If Canadians were serious about climate change, Prime Minister Stéphane Dion would be the toast of Copenhagen
Here is what Paul Krugman put at the top of his list of Paul Samuleson's contributions to economics: Revealed preference: There was a revolution in consumer theory in the 1930s, as economists realized that there was much more to consumer choice than diminishing marginal utility. But it was Samuelson who taught us how much can […]
Memo to journalists: Disregard the Suzuki-Pembina report on the costs of climate change policy
The David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute recently sponsored a study that concludes that the economic effects of a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be relatively small. Since its release, any number of journalists have dutifully cut-and-pasted bits from the summary report into their commentaries. But it never seemed to occur to […]
Climate change talk is cheap, and Canadians are bargain hunters
Some numbers to consider: Percentage of Canadians who tell pollsters that "Climate change is mankind's defining crisis, and demands a commensurate response": 65. In the 2008 federal election, percentage of votes cast for political parties that acknowledged that any meaningful climate change policy would affect consumer prices: 33. In the 2008 federal election, percentage of […]
“Presentation of the Liberal position on climate change and the environment” – cont’d
I went. And apparently it's being sold as a Big Deal; here's the speech. Here are the points I was curious about last week: Is this a real policy proposal, or a recital of Conservative failures? A healthy dose of the latter, and some generalities. No details, though. Cap-and-trade, or a carbon tax? Cap-and-trade it […]
Macroeconomics and Climate Science: compare and contrast
Similarities: S1. Both do general equilibrium analysis, trying to understand the interaction between parts of a whole system, with lots of positive and/or negative feedback loops.
“Presentation of the Liberal position on climate change and the environment”
It's not often that the internal Laval e-mail listserve grabs my attention. I guess I have to go, if only to satisfy my curiosity about the following points: Is this a real policy proposal, or a recital of Conservative failures? Cap-and-trade, or a carbon tax? How much material can he cover in 45 minutes? Will […]
Economic growth, the universe, and the meaning of life
Notes for a panel discussion in Ottawa on Tuesday evening (details below). 200 years ago, economists made a prediction, and we got it wrong. "Big deal" you might say. But it was a big deal; a much bigger deal than some piddling mistake like failing to predict a global financial crisis. Basically, 200 years ago […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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