Environmental Economics

Yeah, but will it play all of these damned Betamax tapes I have in the basement?

I know it's irrelevant.  I just liked my headline:

For the past several years, Toshiba had pushed its high-definition DVD format while Sony shot back with its Blu-ray. Last month, Toshiba raised the white flag, giving the victory to Sony, which had lost the VHS-Betamax battle 20-some years ago.

But where does that leave all those folks who in some cases paid up to $1,000 to be the first on their blocks to upgrade from the standard DVD player to the HD DVD one?

"If you bought an HD DVD player, you pretty much made a wrong choice and you have to eat it," said Dan Ackerman, senior editor at CNET.com, which provides tech news, reviews and information for consumers.

PhD Comics goes green

Source: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1013

Demand vs Quantity Demanded (Colbert edition)

From the inbox:

More on changes in D vs. changes in QD.  Colbert got it wrong too.  Note the 2min mark.

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=167579

Why weren't you or Tim listed as "prominent economists?"

Here is what Colbert says:

Sure, if you think about it. Lifting the tax will increase demand and ultimately lead to higher gas prices. But doesn't it feel like this is going to help somebody [as "OPEC" appears in the sidebar].

Even serious political satirists get it wrong.

As for the question from the inbox: Krugman, Mankiw, Haab, Whitehead? Princeton, Harvard, Something State U, Something State U?

Must I self-loathe daily?

ManBearPig

A senior seminar presentation on the determinants of carbon intensity alerted me to South Park episode 145:

Stan accuses Al Gore of using ManBearPig to get attention, but Gore denies this, saying that any man who single-handedly killed ManBearPig is not a loser.

Here is one of the cultural references:

Al Gore's abbreviation of ManBearPig, MBP, is an actual term used in the field of global warming research, used when describing the melting and recession of glaciers, Mass Balance Potential.

I can't stopped laughing.

Consumer choice: AAA vs Better World Club

From Cecilia's Blog:

Good bye, AAA! After thinking about it for a while and missing my cancellation window (because I had it on auto-pay) last year, I finally pulled the plug on my AAA membership and switched to the Better World Club. It costs about the same as AAA and provides pretty much the same roadside assistance, but they also offer roadside assistance for cyclists and don't lobby against environmental protection.

I thought Panderer was a metal band*

If you were up late last night drinking beer and reading senior seminar papers you may have caught The Daily Show. In a bit appropriately cromulently titled "Panderer's Box," host Jon Stewart humorously reviewed Sen. Clinton's and Sen. Obama's attempts to win over Democratic voters with silly statements and behavior. The highlight, for me, was Stewart's comments on Sen. Clinton's economist-hating ("I'm not going to put my lot in with economists."):

Really? Even on economic issues? I mean I can understand health-related things. You're not going to an economist and say, "hey, what's this [while tugging at his lower lip]"? [laughter] There you go with a doctor. [pause] What's happened to her? One of the most educated people to ever run for President, Wellesley [a noun that I can't decipher from the clip], Yale Law, former first lady, sitting Senator, [pause] and not from some bull-[bleep] state either [laughter]. [looking at the audience] I was ... I was pandering ... [laughter]. All of a sudden she is rejecting the opinions of experts, speaking with a folksy accent, threatening to obliterate Iran, it's like, uh [horrified as a picture of Sen. Clinton morphs into a picture of Pres. Bush], he's never leaving, in one way or another he'll always be our president [as Pres. Bush's eyes redden and flash] NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

*Note: I was mistakenly thinking about Pantera.

Why herbicides?

Last week, I mentioned the nationwide recall of "Miracle-Gro Shake 'n' Feed With Weed Preventer All Purpose Plant Food."  In response, I facetiously asked

Why do I care?  Marysville, Ohio is the town next to Dublin, Ohio, the suburbanly sprawled city I call home.  Scotts is a major employer in the area.  Dublin's slogan is "It's Greener in Dublin."  How are we going to stay greener without fertilizer?

An astute commenter asked:

What has fertilizer got to do with herbicide?

My response:

Weed n' feed. Green lawns require no dandelions.

I now offer pictorial proof.  The image below the jump illustrates the effect of no herbicide lawn treatment in central Ohio. 

More ethanol dominoes*

From Cecilia's Blog at PhD Comics:

Wow, Costco and Sam's Club are limiting how much rice their customers can buy. That and the price increases for other grains sound like signs of the apocalypse to me. Damn you, biofuels!

I must admit that I'm part of the group of rice consumers who are picky about the kind of rice they will buy. White jasmine rice is my favorite (I'm not very particular about the brand as long as it tastes good), but lately I've changed my rice consumption to be half brown rice, half white jasmine rice, because brown rice is supposed to be better for me.

Oh, and instant rice is horrible! No amount of convenience is worth the taste trade-off of instant rice.

Cecilia is described as:

The perfect grad student and a chocoholic, it took years for Cecilia to admit she is, in fact, a geek.

*Stealing Tim's title when he is grumpy makes me smile.

 

And the perp is described as an awkward 6 foot tall middle-aged white guy wearing an Appalchian State University t-shirt...

From the Badger Herald:

In an attempt at an April Fools’ Day political statement, tires on more than 300 cars near the University of Wisconsin campus were deflated Tuesday.

Messages stuck in the cars’ windshield wipers said “Happy Fossil Fuel Day! Drive Less.”

Recreational user fees at work

Grand Canyon National Park charges a $25 per vehicle user fee.  Fees are used for infrastructure improvements to the park, and they seem to be working.  I couldn't help but think of John when I saw the sign to the right.  Sorry for the picture quality.  It's the best I could do while trying to inconspicuously take a picture of a restroom with a camera phone while people are streaming in and out (the sign in the middle reads UserFee: Your Fees at Work).   My kids hid in shame.