“A major new variable to estimate the social cost of carbon [SCC] is the positive side of CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations, which promote plant growth and economic activity…. A negative value for the SCC creates a new, better term: SBC, or social benefit of carbon.”
“Will RFF hold an open debate with critics of Obama’s SCC in the months ahead? Or will RFF continue to circle the wagons? Scholarly integrity demands the former, while persuading its funders to be realistic toward the tiring Malthusianism of catastrophic climate change.”
Resources for the Future (RFF) has launched a project to (re)estimate, post-Obama, the social cost of carbon (SCC), defined as “an economic tool used to quantify the societal benefits of reducing —or conversely the damages of emitting—one ton of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere.”…
Continue Reading“‘I will always put the needs of our country first,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘That is why we are withdrawing from one-sided international deals,’ he added, citing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris agreement.”
– Lisa Friedman, “New Talks on Paris Pact Are Set, and That’s Awkward for U.S..” New York Times, October 18, 2017.
” The president made a tremendously courageous decision by saying we’re going to get out of the Paris accord, put America first, and make sure that we lead with action and not words.”
– Scott Pruitt, EPA Administrator, “Trump EPA Chief Charts a New Course: An Interview with Scott Pruitt.” Daily Signal, October 20, 2017.
It is time for the realists, the cooler heads, to play offense after playing defense on climate and energy issues.…
Continue Reading“Some form of ecocatastrophe, if not thermonuclear war, seems almost certain to overtake us before the end of the [twentieth] century.”
– John Holdren and Paul Ehrlich (1971) [1]
Doom and gloom—repeatedly falsified—hallmark the long career of John P. Holdren, neo-Malthusian and President Obama’s start-to-finish science advisor. Back at Harvard University, the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy has been been quiet. He avoided making specific, apocalyptic predictions during his Obama years (January 2009– January 2017) and has rarely made the news since. But his many written and spoken statements beginning in the 1970s, never disowned, remain for the record.
Today is a good time to refresh memories of the man who just might be the scariest man in Boston/Cape Cod on this day.
Read—but don’t be frightened.…
Continue Reading