After Jon Stewart’s recent fiasco illustrating just how ill-informed he was on climate change, I knew I’d be watching rather closely the next time such an issue came up. When the Tuesday show ended, he mentioned Al Gore would be his guest the next day. Here’s how it turned out: (more…)
November 5, 2009
July 17, 2009
Correction: Carbon pricing
Earlier, I provided an overview of carbon pricing systems, intended to help illustrate the discussion that, I felt, people should be having. Most of what I wrote there still stands, but I’ve been thinking on this a lot lately (especially since I’ve been almost obsessively following the Waxman-Markey bill discussion in the US House) and have realized two things: I left out a critical option, and my earlier support for cap-and-trade has waned. This post is intended to address those points. (more…)
July 6, 2009
Climate Change Discussion Resources
One of the many things I’ve been up to since my last period of activity was participating in an interesting pilot project on campus: The Alberta Virtual Classroom, which, in part, enables discussion between grad students and high school classrooms around the world (well, North America so far, but the principle holds), letting us serve as mentors to young students. Despite not being a grad student (formally) and not being involved in climate change (formally), my name showed up on a list of grad students involved in climate change work (likely due to my position in the Energy Club), so I was invited to speak with a handful of others on the subject of climate.
While the experience itself was worthwhile on my end, one ancillary effect was that I finally compiled an excellent list of go-to resources and notes intended for high school students and teachers covering climate change — basically, stuff that covers many of the facets of the issues in a way that’s both comprehensive and comprehensible. Since the website where they’re stored will be going offline shortly, I figured I should repost them here. They’re below the fold.
April 22, 2009
Carbon Pricing Primer
After a few extended discussions over the past several days, I find myself returning to the “we’re not having the debate we should be having” point — that is, while we continue to scuffle about on energy and climate issues with “should we act?”, we aren’t discussing “how should we act?”. The ultimate goal is to phase out fossil-carbon-based fuels and reduce the levels of atmospheric CO2, but the details of the numerous methods of doing so often elude folk.
Now, there’s a few idealistic, simple solutions that only really apply as utopian visions among lunatics or as straw-man arguments from opponents (even opponents who should know better). These include authoritarian all-out bans and libertarian Invisible Hand Free Market Fairy suggestions, for instance. No one that I know of in the western world is calling for a ban (it just isn’t realistic), and though several wingnuts in the US are seriously calling for deregulation, it isn’t gaining traction. The murkier mixed-market solutions are seriously being discussed (whenever our elected officials get around to it…) but are harder for lay folk to understand and thus easy prey for spin.
Consider this a very, very brief introduction to the three major mixed-market carbon pricing systems. It’s not very in-depth, nor is it referencing any particular bill — this is just an introduction. See below the fold.
