Environmental Economics

Are the NOLA levees worth the cost?

Nearly five years after Katrina and the devastating failures of the levee system, New Orleans is well on its way to getting the protection system Congress ordered: a ring of 350 miles of linked levees, flood walls, gates and pumps that surrounds the city and should defend it against the kind of flooding that in any given year has a 1 percent chance of occurring.

The scale of the nearly $15 billion project, which is not due to be completed until the beginning of next year’s hurricane season, brings to mind an earlier age when the nation built huge works like the Brooklyn Bridge, the Hoover Dam and the Interstate highway system.

via www.nytimes.com

I'm sure to get in trouble here, but here goes:

According to the National Hurricane Center [PDF], about 1300 lives were lost as a direct result of flooding in Louisiana. Valuing these lives at $7 million each leads to a social cost of $9.1 million. If there is a 1% chance of another hurricane Katrina each year then the expected value of the social cost is $91 million.

The NHC also reports that property damages in the U.S. totaled $81 billion as a result of Katrina (roughly double the insured property losses). Assuming that all of the property damages would be avoided by the levees, an overestimate, and an annual 1 percent chance gives an expected value of $810 million. 

The total annual expected benefits would be $901 million. Since the $15 billion is an upfront cost, it should be compared to the avoided social cost over time. Discounting by 3.5% for a 30 year life of the levees leads to a present value of benefits (avoid social cost) of $16.57 billion, just over the costs. The net present value is $1.57 billion and the benefit-cost ratio is 1.1.

My guess is that if the property damages are scaled back to cover only NOLA then the result is less optimistic. Of course, if social benefits that would be enjoyed by the rest of the country from category 5 levees are included then the result would be much more optimistic (a benefit-cost ratio of about 1.8 holding constant damage costs).

Three questions: Did I make any errors of assumption, omission or commission?

More on college rankings (self-promoting edition)

Just saying:

Appalachian State University has been included in new national rankings related to teaching, affordability and sustainability. The honors come from U.S. News & World Report, Forbes Magazine and Sierra Club Magazine.

Appalachian remained No. 3 among the top public master-degree granting universities in the South in U.S. News and World Report’s 2011 America’s Best Colleges Guide. Appalachian is ranked ninth in the South among public and private four-year institutions. The university has placed among the top 15 public and private southern universities since the rankings first appeared in 1986. ...

Appalachian also is included in the magazine’s “Schools With a Strong Commitment to Teaching,” “First-Year Experience,” “Learning Communities,” “A+ Schools for B Students”  and the “Up-and-Comers” lists. ...

Forbes Magazine included Appalachian in its 2010 list of “America’s Best College Buys.” The university was listed 20th among 100 colleges and universities in the U.S. cited for providing a high quality education at the lowest cost to students.

Appalachian also is included in Sierra Club Magazine’s recently released 2010 list of 100 “Cool Schools,” an annual list of schools doing the most for the planet, and was cited as one of six universities that had significantly improved its activities related to sustainability.

via www.news.appstate.edu

I wonder, who is John Whitehead?

John Whitehead just reblogged your post Shock: Unemployed people care more about finding jobs than global warming on their blog Environmental Economics to share it with their readers.

Check out John Whitehead's post and see what they had to say: Great minds thinking alike

Wondering who John Whitehead is? Check out their profile to see what they're up to on TypePad.

Great minds thinking alike

KAAAAAAHHHHHHN!!!!!

Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn!

Unemployment Vs. Global Warming - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn!

Is “thinking green” an economic luxury?  Intuition implies that it may be, but so far there’s been little empirical evidence on the subject. Two economists recently changed that: using data from Google keyword searches between 2004 and 2010, Matthew E. Kahn and Matthew J. Kotchen found that “higher unemployment rates within a state decrease internet search activity for global warming, but increase search activity for unemployment. Based on this revealed preference for interest in global warming, therefore, it appears that recessions crowd out concern for the environment…” The authors also used recent survey data to analyze the link between unemployment and climate-change denial, concluding that “an increase in a state’s unemployment rate is associated with a decrease in the probability that residents think global warming is happening, and with a reduction in the certainty of those who think it is. Higher unemployment rates are also associated with views that we should do less with respect to policies designed to reduce global warming.”

via freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

Shock: Unemployed people care more about finding jobs than global warming

Is “thinking green” an economic luxury?  Intuition implies that it may be, but so far there’s been little empirical evidence on the subject. Two economists recently changed that: using data from Google keyword searches between 2004 and 2010, Matthew E. Kahn and Matthew J. Kotchen found that “higher unemployment rates within a state decrease internet search activity for global warming, but increase search activity for unemployment. Based on this revealed preference for interest in global warming, therefore, it appears that recessions crowd out concern for the environment…” The authors also used recent survey data to analyze the link between unemployment and climate-change denial, concluding that “an increase in a state’s unemployment rate is associated with a decrease in the probability that residents think global warming is happening, and with a reduction in the certainty of those who think it is. Higher unemployment rates are also associated with views that we should do less with respect to policies designed to reduce global warming.”

via freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

KAAAAAAHHHHHHN!!!!!

Had to be done.

Some people like 'em fried

Two stretches of beach at the Cape Hatteras National seashore have reopened for off-road vehicles and pedestrians.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported Tuesday the shoreline access corridor on Bodie Island Spit south of ramp 4 to Oregon Inlet and a beach between ramp 23 and the southern boundary of Salvo is open for vehicles and pedestrians. The sites were closed because of nesting shorebirds, but the nesting season is ending.

Other parts of the park remain closed. Visitors cannot drive between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on any Cape Hatteras National Seashore beaches.

via www.wral.com

I'm not sure what else to say about this one since we've worn out the piping plover story over the years.

Oh my Jonas!

A job for the Mystery Hunters:

THE amount of plastic thrown away by Americans increased fourfold between 1980 and 2008. It is a reasonable assumption that as more plastic is produced and discarded, this will affect oceanic pollution. But a study of the north Atlantic and the Caribbean, just published in Science, suggests things are not getting worse. Between 1986 and 2008 there was no increase in the concentration of plastic in the areas looked at despite a steady rise in the amount discarded. Kara Law and her colleagues at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts have no explanation for this lack of accumulation. A programme by the American plastics industry that resulted in a decrease in the number of pellets in the water is still insufficient to explain the data. Nor does the missing plastic seem to have sunk; trawls at depth show no sign of it. The Sargasso Sea of legend, and its modern equivalent, the Bermuda Triangle, are supposed to be places where things disappear without trace. Dr Law seems to have come up with a real example.

Read article

via www.economist.com

The best explanation received in the comments section will receive a warm and hearty pat on the back.

Hat tip: PEC.

Bizarro Tim?

From Facebook:

G'gay [sic] from Tim Haab in Tasmania Australia. very odd to see someone has my name. especially as its such a rare name in Australia. Only my familly of 5. do you have a Swiss background?

Another Tim Haab?  My wife just passed out.

As for the Swiss background, there is a family rumor that I am somehow related to former two-time (1922 and 1929) President of the Swiss Confederation, Robert Haab from Wadenswil (that 'a' should have those two little dotty things over it, but I don't feel like looking up how to do that in html).

He was a radical liberal.

On second thought, maybe we're not related.

 

Updating your computer is almost complete. You must restart your computer for the updates to take effect.

Microsoft install some automatic updates on my computer Friday and wanted me to restart the machine to complete installation. I didn't want to restart because I was ... working dag gummit (!). I figure I'd shut down for the weekend and Microsoft would be happy, right? Monday morning and I start my machine and get busy reading Peter King ... er, working and 20 minutes in Microsoft has installed more updates and wants me to restart again.

As polite as I can be: Buzz off Microsoft.