By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 26 Jul 22
Mock up of future development of Sri Lanka’s port city of Colombo (Source: YouTube) Sri Lanka is deeply embroiled in a crisis. Fuel shortages have led to protests. Food protests have led to riots. The President fled the country and then resigned by email. A new President was just elected on Wednesday, July 20, but he is no outsider – he has been Prime Minister six times already. The crisis appears to be the result of a convergence of factors, all hitting simultaneously in just the past couple of years: a collapse in tourism revenue due to COVID, greater fossil …
Mock up of future development of Sri Lanka’s port city of Colombo (Source: YouTube) Sri Lanka is deeply embroiled in a crisis. Fuel shortages have led to protests. Food protests have led to riots. The President fled the country and then resigned by email. A new President was just elected on Wednesday, July 20, but he is no outsider – …
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 2 Mar 22
With the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) being released, it’s important to revisit the climate scenarios that are its centerpiece. These scenarios form the basis of the climate science community’s modeling and projections, which in turn affects governance and investment decisions across the world. Trillions of dollars and the policymaking of the entire planet thus ride upon these climate scenarios, and so the cost of getting things wrong is extremely high. Scenarios past and present The previous generation of climate scenarios published in the Fifth Assessment Report in 2014 were known as …
The UN climate panel still doesn’t understand technology – and it matters Read More »
With the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) being released, it’s important to revisit the climate scenarios that are its centerpiece. These scenarios form the basis of the climate science community’s modeling and projections, which in turn affects governance and investment decisions across the world. Trillions of dollars and the policymaking of the …
The UN climate panel still doesn’t understand technology – and it matters Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 22 Feb 22
Last year, the folks at Our World in Data published an article and some graphics about how human diets affect land use. The conclusion, as you can see on their chart below, is that if everyone in the world ate a vegan diet – one without any animal products at all – global agricultural land use would decrease by 75%. Examining land use makes it clear how inefficient consuming animals really is; the carnivore’s footprint is huge compared to the vegan’s. Our World in Data suggests that globally about 1/3rd of forests and 2/3rds of grasslands and …
Last year, the folks at Our World in Data published an article and some graphics about how human diets affect land use. The conclusion, as you can see on their chart below, is that if everyone in the world ate a vegan diet – one without any animal products at all – global agricultural land use would decrease by …
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 7 Feb 22
“What about the Jevons Paradox?” This is a common refrain in environmental discourse. It’s another way of asking, “won’t new technology always just create more problems than it solves?” William Stanley Jevons was an English economist and mathematician who noticed in 1865 that, paradoxically, the consumption of coal actually increased when technological progress improved the efficiency of steam engines. Efficiency lowers costs, which lowers prices, which increases demand. And, sometimes, the increase in demand is so disproportionately large that overall consumption actually grows. This outcome came to be known as the Jevons Effect, or Jevons Paradox. The Jevons Effect …
“What about the Jevons Paradox?” This is a common refrain in environmental discourse. It’s another way of asking, “won’t new technology always just create more problems than it solves?” William Stanley Jevons was an English economist and mathematician who noticed in 1865 that, paradoxically, the consumption of coal actually increased when technological progress improved the efficiency of steam engines. …
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 2 Dec 21
We are witnessing the start of the most profound disruption of the energy sector in over a century. Like others throughout history, this disruption is the result of a convergence of several key technologies – namely, solar photovoltaics, onshore wind power, and lithium-ion batteries (SWB). A 100% SWB energy system is possible as soon as 2030 in regions that choose to lead, and because energy accounts for over half of all greenhouse gas emissions, the clean disruption of this sector will be a large part of how we can reduce emissions by 90% by 2035.  A common question that arises …
We are witnessing the start of the most profound disruption of the energy sector in over a century. Like others throughout history, this disruption is the result of a convergence of several key technologies – namely, solar photovoltaics, onshore wind power, and lithium-ion batteries (SWB). A 100% SWB energy system is possible as soon as 2030 in regions that choose …
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 10 Nov 21
During COP 26, as he was on route to the G20 summit, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had an extraordinary message. Civilization could collapse “like the Roman empire”, he warned, “unless we get this right in tackling climate change.”  “Humanity, civilization and society can go backwards as well as forwards and when they start to go wrong, they can go wrong at extraordinary speed,” he said.  The UK Prime Minister’s recognition that civilizations can experience a life cycle of growth and collapse is a milestone. But understanding what’s really driving the risk of going “backwards” is crucial to navigating our …
The Next Economy: Why the growth and degrowth debate misses the point Read More »
During COP 26, as he was on route to the G20 summit, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had an extraordinary message. Civilization could collapse “like the Roman empire”, he warned, “unless we get this right in tackling climate change.”  “Humanity, civilization and society can go backwards as well as forwards and when they start to go wrong, they can go …
The Next Economy: Why the growth and degrowth debate misses the point Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 8 Nov 21
Global business groups are calling on governments to pursue an international strategy on carbon pricing at the COP26 UN climate summit. While well-intentioned, the reality is we don’t need carbon pricing to create a level-playing field in global markets. We just need to end trillions of dollars of subsidies to the coal, oil and gas industries: because these industries are already stranded. Carbon polluters, like any polluters, should pay for the damages they impose on societies. But carbon pricing is not the most effective way to accelerate the clean energy disruption and get to net zero. Carbon pricing takes mainly …
Global business groups are calling on governments to pursue an international strategy on carbon pricing at the COP26 UN climate summit. While well-intentioned, the reality is we don’t need carbon pricing to create a level-playing field in global markets. We just need to end trillions of dollars of subsidies to the coal, oil and gas industries: because these industries are …
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 5 Nov 21
OK, Doomer… Doom and gloom are everywhere, and not just because of what the COVID-19 pandemic has done to societies and economies across the globe over the last 18 months. A deeper contagion of pessimism has been spreading as well. The belief that we are doomed by climate change, and that all other human progress has been for nothing, is a pathogenic idea that has infected an entire generation worldwide.  Although it is dead wrong, this idea is far more pernicious and destructive than is widely appreciated.  At the individual level, despair over climate change and the false belief that …
Restoring Our Faith in Human Progress: Part 1 – How Prosperity Solves Problems Read More »
OK, Doomer… Doom and gloom are everywhere, and not just because of what the COVID-19 pandemic has done to societies and economies across the globe over the last 18 months. A deeper contagion of pessimism has been spreading as well. The belief that we are doomed by climate change, and that all other human progress has been for nothing, is …
Restoring Our Faith in Human Progress: Part 1 – How Prosperity Solves Problems Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 26 Oct 21
Despite all of the doom and gloom that surrounds climate change today, there has never been greater cause for optimism about the future of the environment. The reason why is that we already have the tools we need to meet this formidable challenge. But some tools are better than others, and if we get distracted by the wrong ones we could lose trillions while failing to solve the problem, so it is crucial that we stay focused and use the right tools for the job. Climate change represents a genuine existential threat to our civilization that is rivaled in magnitude …
We Already Have the Tools We Need to Solve Climate Change Read More »
Despite all of the doom and gloom that surrounds climate change today, there has never been greater cause for optimism about the future of the environment. The reason why is that we already have the tools we need to meet this formidable challenge. But some tools are better than others, and if we get distracted by the wrong ones we …
We Already Have the Tools We Need to Solve Climate Change Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 21 Oct 21
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, is bringing together world leaders to discuss the world’s future action on climate change. At present, the world’s biggest polluters are China, the United States, and India – three enormous countries with large populations and extensive infrastructure built on fossil fuels. In these, and all, countries, it’s often assumed that decarbonization requires painful sacrifices that could damage prosperity. But in reality, it’s the opposite. Greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation actually offers an unprecedented opportunity for new forms of economic prosperity that regenerate the earth. This is not just an opportunity that every country …
Decarbonization is an unprecedented economic opportunity for the developing world Read More »
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, is bringing together world leaders to discuss the world’s future action on climate change. At present, the world’s biggest polluters are China, the United States, and India – three enormous countries with large populations and extensive infrastructure built on fossil fuels. In these, and all, countries, it’s often assumed that decarbonization requires …
Decarbonization is an unprecedented economic opportunity for the developing world Read More »
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