An interesting article in the FT by Tim Harford, Saving the planet demands sacrifices just as Covid-19 does (arch), which links Covid and GW more usefully than previous attempts. The best line I think is The pandemic is giving us a taste of what an end to growth might look like. Which is aimed at the many environmentalists [who] nod along with Greta Thunberg’s sentiment about “fairy tales of eternal economic growth”. You can weasel about this as "of course this wasn't planned and it would be better if we planned it" but I don't believe that - apart from anything else, Covid shows how poor any central planning attempt is likely to be. As to the actual question, see my How much would we have to adjust our lifestyle to stop global warming?As you see from my pic, the premature eternal summer is over. In other news, my cat has an Instagram account. And it rather appears that some people need to read stuff like Price Signals, Price Gouging, and Philanthropy.
we might be pleasantly surprised at how flexible economic activity can be, and how much fun we can all have while respecting planetary limits.
ReplyDeleteI largely agree with the above comment from the article. I'm certainly no expert at economics, but it does seem quite likely that if we were (as the article suggest) to actively try to do things to "save the planet" (his words) we may actually find that our economies are flexible enough to accomodate this and that although they may well require some lifestyle changes, it's doesn't necessarily mean that we can't still have perfectly pleasant lifestyles (and also continue to improve the lifestyles of those whose lifestyles aren't particularly pleasant at the moment).
The problem that I can see, though, is that we don't yet seem to be in a position where everyone (or those in positions of power) think that this is necessary. So, I don't know how you can begin to apply these policies with sufficient vigour to have a substantive effect without there being the standard outcries from some corners about economies being destroyed and these policies threatening our personal freedoms etc. Maybe I'm missing something obvious, though.
" I don't know how you can begin to apply these policies with sufficient vigour to have a substantive effect without there being the standard outcries from some corners about economies being destroyed and these policies threatening our personal freedoms etc. Maybe I'm missing something obvious, though."
ReplyDeleteJust one someting ?
Do you expect Climatic Change to run a review article entitled 20 Things That Are Wrong With Social Engineering any time soon?
"apart from anything else, Covid shows how poor any central planning attempt is likely to be. "
ReplyDeleteThis may need expanding...
There have been a variety of responses - not sure they have all been poor.
We've done pretty well in Australia.
> how flexible economic activity can be
ReplyDeleteSure. As long as people don't get in to way. Which is why a carbon tax is a good idea.
Did "these policies" refer to anything specific, or just the general idea of doing something, which I agree is under-supported?
Probably not coming out clearly from what I wrote: I think the idea that pols+power oppose GW, but the public is generally supportive, is because the public is clueless about the cost; but this stuff might give them a hint.
> We've done pretty well in Australia.
Could be. I'd guess that a spread out country and no underground helped a lot; and a fairly early response.
"I'd guess that a spread out country and no underground helped a lot; and a fairly early response."
ReplyDeletewell, we're a very urbanised country https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-highest-urban-populations-in-the-world.html
Almost everyone lives in the 5 big cities.
Sydney (4,627,345)
Melbourne (4,246,375)
Brisbane (2,189,878)
Perth (1,896,548)
Adelaide (1,225,235)
And we may not have an Underground like London, but we have large rail/tram and bus systems that are arguably equivalent.
The point I was making was that this was Central Planning and it largely worked (probably because they stopped international travelers from China, Italy, Spain and Iran early on).
They stopped internal travel pretty early too.
All the countries that have largely managed to control the outbreak acted quickly and went hard early.