Environmental Economics

Global Warming: Man versus Sun?

Browsing a few of my favorite Internet news sources earlier this week (some left leaning, some right leaning, some not leaning, and one 'fair and balanced') I came across Drudge's link to this DailyTech blogpost on evidence for global cooling.  That's right, there is scientific evidence for global cooling.  Or so DailyTech claims:

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded

...and the reason for cooling?  The sun.

Scientists quoted in a past DailyTech article link the cooling to reduced solar activity which they claim is a much larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases. The dramatic cooling seen in just 12 months time seems to bear that out. While the data doesn't itself disprove that carbon dioxide is acting to warm the planet, it does demonstrate clearly that more powerful factors are now cooling it.

Intrigued I decided to dig further.  Is it possible that sun activity swamps any effects of CO2?  Let's take a look.

Environmental Economics, Experimental Methods: Table of Contents

As Tom mentions, Routledge doesn't seem to want to reveal the full table of contents of Todd et al.'s new experimental/environmental economics book. This seems odd ... you definitely want to view the guts of the book before you pay $190 for it.

Anyway, thanks to my close proximity to Todd Cherry (office numbers 3094 and 3095), I was able to secure a PDF of the front matter this morning [there is a joke somewhere in there about friends in low places (use the comments section)].

Download contents.pdf

A leap day post

Ordinarily, a February 29 post wouldn't make it to the blog (I have several of these 2/29 posts that have  vanished in previous common years).

What follows is the introduction to my chapter in the Cherry, Kroll and Shogren edited volume, Environmental Economics, Experimental Methods, that was orginally titled "Confessions of a Contingent Valuation Economist."

Teaser

Stay tuned.  Tomorrow I will provide evidence to settle at least one major climate change debate (I'll give you a hint, it's not the sun's fault).

I planned to post it this afternoon, but for some reason students think I need to be 'accessible'  when I'm not in class. Don't they know that I have more important things to do than answer their questions?

Concrete evidence that people do respond to higher gas prices

Phone conversation last night:

Dad: I finally bit the bullet.

Me: What's that?

Dad: I bought a new car [to replace his 11 year old Nissan Maxima].

Me: Cool, what'd you get?

Dad: A Nissan Altima.

Me:  Why'd you pick it?

Dad: It has good gas mileage [32 mpg highway].  I was tired of only getting 20 or so miles to the gallon. Gas is expensive...oh, and it's red.

See people do respond to high gas prices...and shiny colors.

A 2009 conference trip already on my calendar

From the inbox:

The fifth biennial Forum of the North American Association of Fisheries Economists (NAAFE) will be held May 17-20, 2009. The Forum will be organized by Dr. Jim Anderson and Dr. Jon Sutinen of the Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (ENRE) department at the University of Rhode Island (URI), in Kingston, RI, USA.

Please mark your calendars for the event, and look for the Call for Abstracts with more details by June 1, 2008.

I'm planning on this being my first NAAFE Forum. My paper, if accepted, will be something about North Carolina charter fishing ... and it will be spectacular.

Note: I'm using Google Calendar these days.

Another missed opportunity

From the inbox:

Dr. Soren T. Anderson of the University of Michigan will be presenting a paper entitled "The Demand for Ethanol as a Gasoline Substitute" at the [Triangle Resource and Environmental Economics] workshop today (Thursday, February 28).

"Capitalism works"

From Wired, an interview with ED's Fred Krupp (The Environmental Defense Fund's Fred Krupp on the Best Capitalist Climate Solutions).

Book Review

Environmental Economics, Experimental Methods
By Todd L. Cherry, Stephan Kroll, Jason F. Shogren

The experimental method is one commonly applied to issues of environmental economics; this book brings together 63 leading researchers in the area and their latest work exploring the behavioural underpinnings of experimental environmental economics.

The essays in this volume will be illuminating for both researchers and practitioners, specifically in relation to questions of environmental policy and how a proposed change in incentives or benefits might affect behaviour and consequently, the likely success of a policy. This book argues that the experimental evidence complements theoretic insights, field date and simulating models to improve our understanding of the underlying assumptions and incentives that drive behavioural responses to policy.

Covering topical areas of interest such as tradable permit markets, common property and public goods, regulation and compliance and valuation and preferences, the critical advantage of this volume is that each section concludes with discussion points written by economists who do not use experimental methods.

One blogging irritant: where is the image file at the Routledge website? The book has a nice royal blue (i.e., University of Kentucky) cover that I'd like to highlight.

It's almost Spring, must be time for dire gas price forecasts

Here we go again:

The rapidly rising cost of crude oil has prompted a big spike in U.S. gasoline prices, with some experts saying the cost of regular gas could hit $4 a gallon.

The AAA reports that the average cost of regular gasoline in the nation was $3.14 a gallon - up 19 cents a gallon in the past two weeks, according to The New York Times. The cost of gasoline was $2.35 a gallon a year ago.

AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom told the Times it was possible gasoline prices could hit $4 a gallon this summer.

And before anyone asks, my answer is: Drive Less!