Environmental Economics

Maybe the dogs know something we don't

I know it's childish, but...eeeewwww.

...on Nov. 30, for millions of people here in Orange County, pulling the lever will be the start of a long, intense process to purify the sewage into drinking water — after a hard scrubbing with filters, screens, chemicals and ultraviolet light and the passage of time underground.

On that Friday, the Orange County Water District will turn on what industry experts say is the world’s largest plant devoted to purifying sewer water to increase drinking water supplies. They and others hope it serves as a model for authorities worldwide facing persistent drought, predicted water shortages and projected growth.

The process, called by proponents “indirect potable water reuse” and “toilet to tap” by the wary, is getting a close look in several cities.

Any volunteers to do a cost/benefit?

This is a green website

For what it is worth, see the bottom of the left hand column:

CO2Stats is a free tool that monitors and offsets your blog or web site's carbon dioxide emissions by calculating how much power your visitors are consuming to view it. For each pound of CO2 resulting from your site traffic, The CO2Stats Project purchases carbon offsets that benefit the environment. ...

Here is the website: http://www.co2stats.com.

Hat tip: Aaron Schiff

I'm the economics club speaker

Everyone is invited:

Speaker:

Dr. John Whitehead
Walker College of Business
Appalachian State University

Tuesday, November 27

5:00 p.m. Raley 1011

Topics
Environmental Economics
Q & A

*All Majors Invited

*Refreshments Provided

Here is a PDF of the flyer. Feel free to post around your workplace.

Promises, promises

In the past couple of years I've promised a few hats and t-shirts. Now that Tim has made this a reality, I need to follow up. Here is my list (via The Google):

• 100,000th visitor
• Name that band: Queen
• Name that band: Talking Heads
• Fact or crap (I can't figure out who the winner is, but I can spot a couple of losers!)

If you quality for the above send me an email and I'll be happy to email you a $20 Cafepress/envecon gift certificate. If there are any promises that I'm missing, send me a link to the promise and I'll send you a $20 gift certificate. I promise.

Only 29 Days, 15 Hours and 28 Minutes left to shop

On Wednesday of last week, John challenged me to get busy designing and selling EnvEcon merchandise.  As my usual way of getting in trouble, I took up John's challenge and started Environmental Economics The Store.  Thinking I was smart, I launched the store the day before the biggest shopping weekend of the year.  Unfortunately, I forgot that holiday weekends are the slowest blog visitation days of the year too.  So our grand opening announcement went unseen by many of our regular and faithful readers...there's a reason I'm not in sales.  So here's the announcement again...now buy something dammit.

We're going commercial and trying to take advantage of your blatant consumerism.  We're selling original env-econ merchandise (hats, t-shirts, mugs, stickers).  Check it out here.   My favorite is the Drive Less! trucker hat.

Start your holiday shopping early.  All proceeds go to pay our typepad bills first and if there's enough left, we might offset  some carbon--or partake in our own form of consumerism.

If you have suggestions for other products, let us know--this is a work in progress.

Boomer Sooner and other things I learned this weekend

Here's a brief list of things I learned over my weekend of gluttony.  I learned that...

• ..."Even at moderate levels, ozone is dangerous to people with asthma..."
• ..."Claims that ozone is causing a rise in asthma are simply not plausible."
• ...I'm an Oklahoma Sooner fan...at least for this week.
• ...neutering humans is environmentally friendly.
• ...Selling merchandise on-line is easy. 
• ...by using a Kroger fundraising gift card to buy gift cards to other stores to use for Christmas shopping, I can earn Kroger gas discounts while also earning money towards my daughter's gymnastics fees.
• ...environmentalism can take the joy out of life's simple pleasures.

Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner...I'm a Sooner born, And a Sooner bred, And when I die I'll be Sooner dead.

CBO 2007 Director's Conference on Climate Change: presentations

Here is the agenda with links to the presentations:

Opening Remarks

• Peter R. Orszag, CBO Director
• Issues in Climate Change

Allocating Allowances:  Efficiency and Distributional Effects

• Terry M. Dinan, CBO, Microeconomics Studies
• Lawrence Goulder, Stanford University
• Richard Goettle, Northeastern University
• Dallas Burtraw, Resources for the Future
• Gilbert Metcalf, Tufts University

Near-Term and Long-Term Emissions Reductions: Technology, Coverage, and Costs

• Robert G. Shackleton, CBO, Macroeconomic Analysis
• Howard K. Gruenspecht, Energy Information Administration
• Francisco de la Chesnaye, Environmental Protection Agency
• Henry D. Jacoby, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• John P. Weyant, Stanford University

Here is the webpage from whence this was, er, borrowed to make our blog appear very useful.

Yule tree Q and A

Q: Where does a pagan ritual and forestry economics collide?

A: Boone, NC

Q: When?

A: The weekend after Thanksgiving

Q: Why?

A: To provide env-econ post fodder

A common site in the high country the weekend after Thanksgiving is a big SUV with a yule tree or two strapped to the top, heading back home to Winston-Salem or Charlotte after a "day in the mountains" fetching the tree (and doing a little shopping we hope). We also export these trees to far off lands (e.g., Raleigh, and even further) with temporary markets set up in ad-hoc locations (e.g., parking lots).

Luckily for our readers, being a student of religion (in college and currently in the pilgrims class at the local Episcopal church) and a professor of natural resource economics (about 10 years ago), I have a keen interest in both the pagan ritual and the forestry ... enjoy!

I spent Saturday at the football stadium

I was sitting with two environmental economics (yet, oddly, I don't recall their names or even what they look like -- and my tailgating only consisted of a PB&J and an orange powerade) so forget about saying this is an off-topic post. I'll be at the stadium again this Saturday (I'm fairly sure, looking at the brackets) since Appstate improbably beat James Madison in the first round of the FCS playoffs:

James Madison had the Mountaineers -- yes, those Mountaineers that beat Michigan earlier in the year and are the defending national champions -- beat twice.

Just in time for your holiday shopping

I'm repeating Tim's ill-timed pre-Thanksgiving Day post. Any cognizant blogger would know that the ideal day for a commercialized post is Black Friday (I've already run my credit card up today at americangirl.com). Jeez, do I have to do everything around here?

We're going commercial and trying to take advantage of your blatant consumerism.  We're selling original env-econ merchandise (hats, t-shirts, mugs, stickers). Check it out here. My favorite is the Drive Less! trucker hat.

Start your holiday shopping early.  All proceeds go to pay our typepad bills first* and if there's enough left, we might offset some carbon--or partake in our own form of consumerism.

If you have suggestions for other products, let us know--this is a work in progress.

Wouldn't it be cool to hit Hawaii for the W2133 meetings sporting a black www.env-econ.net hat? Or impress your co-workers, friends and family with a "Drive Less!" sticker slapped on your big ass SUV (my sis and hubby are definitely getting a pair of bumper stickers and maybe some carbon offsets)?

*Note: The blogads have paid our first 2 years of Typepad bills. Any other revenues will be plowed into carbon offsets (this is a carbon-neutral blog) and our frequent muse.