Environmental Economics

74-72

For those of you following my intramural basketball season, and I know there are several of you who sincerely enjoy giggling about a middle-aged male bragging about hoops played with students who could be his sons, it is with a little bit of embarrassment and some hesitation that I post this game summary provided by our captain the morning after the game. While I open myself to ridicule, I realize that I have opened this story and must follow it to its playoff conclusion. Plus, my kids are having a snow day and I'm finding little else to do.

Mike Moffat's $1200 weight loss gamble

From About.com:Economics:

The Goal: Starting on March 1st, I must lose at least one percentage point in body fat, month-over-month, for the next four months. My body fat percentage is currently in the ballpark of 21%.

Why: After spending a year ill I was diagnosed with celiac disease. Changing my diet improved my health and my appetitite. I have a lot of friends and family who felt bad for my situation and kept buying me candy in order to make me feel happier. The candy worked, but it's making it so that I can't fit in my clothes; I have been gaining 2-3 lbs a month, with no signs of slowing down. This needs to stop.

Penalty for failure: Each month where I do not have at least one percentage point in body fat less than the previous month, I will pay a fine of $300 (USD) through the website stickK.com.

Where will the money go?:  As I mentioned yesterday, I am letting the economics blogging community decide where my failure money will go. I chose 12 blogs each to determine where $100 of my failure money should go. Ten have agreed to participate:

We've signed up for April and have chosen $100 to go to Environmental Defense. I knew that Tim would want $60 for his-own-damn-self so I preempted that gambit by joking about it.  Tim felt foolish, since I knew exactly what the greedy bastard was thinking, and he agreed to the donation. Nevertheless, good luck Mike! Don't buy new clothes!

Sniff

From Common Tragedies (Cross-Pond Love):

Green Central, the environment blog of the TimesOnline, has named us one of the top 50 eco blogs:

Common Tragedies

An American perspective on the economic impact of climate change from research assistants at Resources for the Future.

We love you too, Britain!

Environmental Economics must have been ranked #51.

Here's their props: Common Tragedies has that inside-the-beltway wonkish RFF-thing down pat. When I read that blog I feel like I live in a real backwater (and I do).

Climate seminar series at EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics

http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eed.nsf/webpages/ClimateSeminars.html:

EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics (NCEE) is pleased to announce the NCEE Climate Economics Seminar Series. This is a new, monthly seminar series dedicated to examining various issues related to the economics of climate change. On occasion, the series will include presentations on aspects of climate science that are particularly relevant to economics. Upcoming topics include the intersection of technology and pollution control policy, economy-wide versus sector-based approaches, the health impacts of climate change, and competitiveness and leakage issues.

The purpose of this series is to keep EPA offices and interested outside researchers informed of the latest research on issues critical to designing and modeling policies that address climate change. To this end, presenters will be recognized experts in their field of research. The series will complement other climate seminars hosted by EPA that focus on scientific, legal, and other policy areas.

If I lived in the DC area, and didn't have anything else to do, I'd certainly attend these seminars.

Hmmm. Thinking about people in the DC area with nothing else to do, maybe the Common Tragedies guys could go to these and let us know what's up!

Joking guys. Just joking!

Coffee Break

Not sure why, I just liked this story.

Warning to Starbucks junkies who usually get a fix on their way home from work: You're out of luck on Tuesday.

Starbucks, which last week announced 600 layoffs, plans to temporarily close its 7,100 U.S. stores on Tuesday for three hours of employee training.

The coffee chain said the in-store training program which will begin at 5:30 p.m. local time, would foster enthusiasm in its 135,000 U.S. employees and improve the quality of drinks made by Starbucks baristas.

...

Dunkin' Donuts - "to ensure that no coffee lover is denied a delicious espresso-based beverage" - announced that it will offer small lattes, cappuccinos or espresso drinks for a promotional price of 99 cents on Tuesday from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

In related news, all other economics and environmental blogs will double their registration fees immediately.  To ensure that no env-econ lover is denied a delicious env-econ-based experience, John and I will continue to provide our content for free.

It's the Economy, Stupid

Following up on yesterday's Ethanol Domino/Inflation post, this from today's New York Times:

Inflation at the wholesale level soared in January by the fastest pace in 16 years, pushed higher by rising costs for food, energy and medicine.

...

With the January jump, wholesale prices have risen over the past 12 months by 7.5 percent, the fastest increase since the fall of 1981, when the country was in a deep recession.

...

The wholesale report said that energy prices jumped 1.5 percent, reflecting a 2.9 percent rise in gasoline and an even bigger 8.5 percent jump in the cost of home heating oil.

Food prices, which have been surging because of increased demand stemming from ethanol production, rose by 1.7 percent last month, the biggest monthly increase in three years. Prices for beef, bakery products and eggs were all up sharply.

Core wholesale inflation, which excludes food and energy, posted a 0.4 percent increase, the biggest increase in 11 months. This gain was led by a 1.5 percent spike in the cost of prescription and non-prescription drugs.

Today's frustration

I just sent this to the limdep listserv:

Hi all,

I'm trying to simulate a nested logit model: 3604 cases and 50 alternatives. When I try the simulate command NLogit crashes and I get the following error message:

limdep.exe - Application Errror

The instruction at "Ox5f402181" referenced memory at "0x0000000004". The memory could not be "read". Click on OK to terminate the program

I am able to simulate a conditional logit model with the same data and a nested logit model with different data.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

John Whitehead

Large farm animal poop-onomics

Let the record show that I think that animal poop is a potential negative externality (Farms may be exempted from emissions rules):

Under pressure from agriculture industry lobbyists and lawmakers from agricultural states, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to drop requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases, despite findings by the agency's scientists that the gases pose a health threat.

When was the last time you called 9-1-1 and reported a large farm animal poop-related emergency? Never? If I'm reading this article correctly the EPA sees as a reason to keep large animal poop a secret.

Some lighthouse economics

A environmental economics contributor allegory (Lighthouse seeks a beacon of hope):

Long overshadowed by the bigger and better known Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the Bodie Island Lighthouse is still living up to its reputation as the [Horatio Caine] of Outer Banks beacons.

Ethanol Domino Quote of the Day: “I think we need to tell the American consumer that prices are going up”

I've been saving the picture on the right* for a year an a half waiting for just the right occasion.  This seemed like it.  From the Financial Times:

When William Lapp, of US-based consultancy Advanced Economic Solutions, took the podium at the annual US Department of Agriculture conference, the sentiment was already bullish for agricultural commodities boosted by demand from the biofuels industry and emerging countries.

He added a twist – that rising agricultural raw material prices would translate this year into sharply higher food inflation.