Archive of posts filed under the climate variability category.

Heat, Not Drought, May Pose Biggest Food Threat Under Climate Change

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Interesting bit of work in today’s Science arguing that heat, rather than drought, may be the most significant determinant of declining food production as a result of climate change: It will be extremely difficult to balance food deficits in one part of the world with food surpluses in another, unless major adaptation investments are made …

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Why I Am Skeptical About Successful Greenhouse Gas Reduction Measures

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From the Economist: Coal’s share in global energy will continue to climb because of its relative cheapness and abundance, especially in the two largest coal-producing/consuming countries, the US and China. In the US, more coal-fired than gas-fired power plants will come on stream in the next two years. Globally, demand for coal will rise by …

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NM Greenhouse Effort

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Stuff I wrote over at the work blog on an intriguing effort to control greenhouse emissions in New Mexico via the state’s Environmental Improvement Board. Basically, the argument is that the EIB already has the legal authority to do it, and no additional legislation is needed. Interesting approach.

Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Water in the Desert Edition

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Drier Climate on the Way for Southwest (ad gated): Climate change is increasing the chances of severe and persistent drought in the Southwest, according to a new report from a panel of federal scientists. “It’s going to get drier,” said Richard Seager, a climate researcher at Columbia University in New York. That means diminished water …

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Green Jobs Yet Again

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John Whitehead’s green jobs freight train has apparently completely burned its brakes on the run out of the mountains, and is hurtling headlong toward we know not what. In this morning’s epistle, Whitehead quotes a Forbes listing of the new green jobs (Could Forbes really misunderstand macroeconomics? This being a blog and not real journalism, …

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Liberal? Socialistic?

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A couple of months ago in this space, a commenter responded to a post about economists favoring a carbon tax as a response to climate change by asking whether said economists were “liberal and socialistic”. The question is perhaps best answered by reference to former advisors to George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan who favor …

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Elasticities in the Short and Long Term

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Via Dessler and Revkin, an interesting interview with economist Gary Yohe that gets to the heart of the puzzle about gasoline consumption this year. Gas prices soared over the summer, but consumption dropped only a bit (on the order of 3-5 percent year-over-year). The question posed by critics of a carbon tax as a greenhouse …

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Net Green Jobs Watch

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John Whitehead’s jihad against the green jobs argument continues: The implication of this type of study is that environmental policy creates net positive green jobs. The jobs lost as a result of environmental policy are never mentioned. You’ve really got to follow the comment threads on these. And to be clear – John is not …

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