Read on Twitter
1 - yes crazy but true
2 - interestingly, economists of Nordhaus's type have no concept of dread (I asked the late Frank Ackerman)
3 - which, I think, means they have no real understanding of price, either https://twitter.com/leahstokes/status/1160925446315401216
2 - interestingly, economists of Nordhaus's type have no concept of dread (I asked the late Frank Ackerman)
3 - which, I think, means they have no real understanding of price, either https://twitter.com/leahstokes/status/1160925446315401216
4 - how the world actually works (here describing one of the biggest emission sources):
https://www.chron.com/life/article/High-and-Mighty-by-Keith-Bradsher-2132257.php
https://www.chron.com/life/article/High-and-Mighty-by-Keith-Bradsher-2132257.php
5 - Eugenia Kalnay, climate scientist & a student of Jule Charney (so, dating back to when Nordhaus began his work in the 1970s), has long suspected 'integrated assessment models' of economics & climate miss crucial elements. An insightful paper from her: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800914000615
To think about the HANDY model and compress the story of the last four decades into one perspective: Trump isn't the point, left/right political issues like healthcare, gun control, or immigration are not the point, and climate action or inaction isn't really the point.
The point is the inexorable concentration of wealth, and all these other issues are just artifacts of the process. Piketty, & others, have helped clarify the process, too. The governance, or public power, that can handle climate is an impediment to the concentration of wealth.
In any case, the HANDY model explains the existence of a lot of anomalies (and one may be Nordhaus's Nobel). In order to keep the party going, the power centers need a story.
Climate was recognized as an existential problem decades back, by the same science-educated society that enabled it. https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/virtuallibrary/documents/jul10/56.pdf
But questioning growth was anathema to both the legacy structure of society, and to the meritocratic power structure that was supplanting it. (And economists themselves were the intellectual shock troops meant to keep things in line.)
https://psmag.com/magazine/fallacy-of-endless-growth
https://psmag.com/magazine/fallacy-of-endless-growth
Slowing growth would mean that the only way to concentrate wealth would be open cannibalization. (Not coincidentally...)
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/25/15998002/eric-weinstein-capitalism-socialism-revolution
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/25/15998002/eric-weinstein-capitalism-socialism-revolution
Understanding the role of wealth concentration and the role of elites can change the way one views climate as an issue. On this graph, elites might *always know* about climate, but not be able to shake the need to concentrate wealth. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800914000615
This fits what we see. Just out of the latest news, Stephen Ross manages to both be on the board of WRI:
https://www.wri.org/profile/stephen-ross
https://www.wri.org/profile/stephen-ross
...and a Trump fundraiser: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-equinox-soulcycle-stephen-ross-trump-fundraiser-cancel-members-20190808-qpq5cm4k4vbfpm4psf2qyguavm-story.html
John Paulson endowed Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, @hseas, which means he can call up Dan Schrag with his climate questions.
https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/schrag
https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/schrag
Paulson is also a Trump backer: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/john-paulson-trump-favor-to-ask
Schwarzman at Yale, and others, are parallel examples. So are tech firms and banks. They 'know' about climate, but wealth comes first. The kind of governance necessary is an impediment. Tech in particular has low risk/hi impact ways to contribute (communications, etc) & doesn't.
The absence and/or negative effect of big tech firms is interesting, considering the enormous positive impact they could have. https://twitter.com/ritholtz/status/1160860249634422784
And the reverse effect they are having. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/world/americas/youtube-brazil.html
An even better diagnostic is gun control; virtually everyone at the elite level would be 'against' America's epidemic of shootings, but remains a direct or tacit backer of the GOP, which in turn depends on the NRA to deliver votes that can then be used to deliver tax cuts.
Anyway. This is scary, but at least we can figure it out, and it clarifies some things. 'Science education,' just like 'gun control education,' is not really the issue at the elite level. See Paulson and Ross above, or Harvard itself, for examples. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/jun/29/after-6-years-of-working-on-climate-at-harvard-i-implore-it-to-show-the-courage-to-divest
So let's let go of the "science education" story at least among elites, and see what else might work. Wealth concentration depends on harnessing talent. Our goal should be getting off the HANDY pathway to a bad outcome, and this may be the place to look. https://twitter.com/cityatlas/status/1160948913794424839
This social contract problem has an amazing parallel, 2000 years ago. The Paulson/Ross/Harvard kind of apparent anomalies are well explained here.
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/B/bo22555152.html
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/B/bo22555152.html
Remember that Paulson (largest donor to @harvard) and Ross (on the board of @WorldResources) are earlier in this thread, which ends with this: https://twitter.com/ElizKolbert/status/1160993785691684864
The challenge of being an oligarch is *remaining* an oligarch, and when that's at stake, apparently, anything goes. Here's an explanation: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/the-real-reason-stephen-ross-cant-quit-donald-trump
History gives us a tutorial on how people choose to live their lives, and the results. The lesson for Stephen Ross might be: take responsibility for your own life, and then your actions can be liberating, as demonstrated by Greta Thunberg. https://twitter.com/JonnyGeller/status/1161024468107571201
In other news, YouTube has agreed to use their $1B per month profit to buy us a new planet, with a new, intact Amazon, when they are done monetizing this planet. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/world/americas/youtube-brazil.html
...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/style/ghislaine-maxwell-terramar-boats-jeffrey-epstein.html
@LetsFishSmarter
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/style/ghislaine-maxwell-terramar-boats-jeffrey-epstein.html
@LetsFishSmarter
David Koch, major benefactor to NYC (Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, the Met, and more), was pretty much the definition of a non-sustainable entrepreneur. https://twitter.com/scottsantens/status/1164912743440429056
In order to stop living on this graph, we have to figure out how this graph works, and what a different graph might entail. https://twitter.com/cityatlas/status/1160977097726287880
An overdue reality-check connected to the rest of this thread. https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1165630947125080066
Adding this because the real, mostly unspoken story of the past 20 or 30 years is educated people, very smart people, waking up in the morning and spending the day punching themselves in the face, hard. Year after year. We need to find a way to stop that. https://twitter.com/tristanharris/status/1166051312733175808
Yale has one of the best programs on climate communications. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/02/17/why-yale-should-shun-blackstone-ceo-steve-schwartzman/
This scientist is funded by John Paulson, financier and pivotal Trump supporter. Access to science info is not the issue with elites in finance and tech who support inaction on climate. https://twitter.com/Jumpsteady/status/1169903068453818368
Anand, like Michael Lewis, has this part of the story down cold.
https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1169956304770805761
BTW, none of these people, or their institutions, really consent to the demands of the Paris Agreement, which is largely why it isn't happening. (Oil companies, obvious villains, aside.)
https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1169956304770805761
BTW, none of these people, or their institutions, really consent to the demands of the Paris Agreement, which is largely why it isn't happening. (Oil companies, obvious villains, aside.)
The problem with Vichy universities. https://twitter.com/amywestervelt/status/1170364151228583936
