151–160 of 218 posts
This is why everyone should read The Economist instead of The New York Times. The Economist does a phenomenal job avoiding the selection bias and finding a way to cover mundane trends. It makes the mundane interesting, and gives a view of the world that's much closer to reality than any other publication I've ever seen. I'd strongly encourage everyone to give it a shot.
Volkswagen deliberately subverted regulations on emissions control. It would have been corruption if they also bribed officials to get away with it.
I'm not attempting to defend Volkswagen in any way, but the phrase is sensationalist and strictly incorrect, even if only very slightly so. This is interesting given the overall point of the article.
Yes, a vast number of the world's poorest population have been raised out of nominal abject poverty, this is true. What Kristof doesn't state, however, are these facts: 1. Those people live almost entirely in China and India. 2. The rise in nominal wealth has come from a tremendous increase in energy consumption. 3. Both nations have extreme environmental problems, including the worst air pollution situations in the…
> And finally: the foundations of modern economic wealth, vast quantities of nonrenewable resources, tapped at uttelry unsustainable rates, are quite simply not sustainable. Without looking to this basis, effectively the fuel in the tank, observations of altitude or velocity tell little. the fuel in the tank has been increasing a lot actually in the past 20 years. Did you notice that the US became the first producer…
No we don't. If you keep up with energy demand it's more like 300-1000 years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can putting those numbers side-by-side in such a way mislead people on the social impact of those events? Murder is rare, but it has a very high impact on society and the surrounding people. It creates an environment of stress and fear. Car accidents do the same to a much lesser extent. Smoking related diseases are somewhat more expected, they aren't so sudden. People have time to adjust, receive medical attention, a…
The negative effects of mass shootings are largely because people don't understand the risks. So I think they'd go away if we realized they didn't matter. You're right though that smoking shouldn't be top. Everbody dies of something but we can't save all old people from old age diseases forever.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the classic tragedy of the commons. Nobody owns the waterways and the air, and hence individuals have neither the power nor incentive to protect them.
It is reasonable to believe that the tragedy of the commons is caused by society being organized around private ownership, not the nature of the commons itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons#Critici...
Another big secret, is that the source of a lot of poverty being lifted is because of China. That's right, that terribly communist government suppressing its people and free speech, is actually responsible for lifting 500 million people out of poverty over the last 30 years. That is definitely a big secret of american media, and something that it neglects to report on, in favor of free speech violations, naval exerci…
> That's right, that terribly communist government suppressing its people and free speech, is actually responsible for lifting 500 million people out of poverty over the last 30 years. Indeed, China's success has been a great testimony to the efficacy of centralized planning and communism...
One economic historian was asked to speak to the Politboro and when he got there, found out they wanted to know why it was that the government of Britain did not fall in the 1870s. These guys know they're riding the tiger.
It looks pretty good right now.
or the topics he covers: http://www.nytimes.com/column/nicholas-kristof?action=click&...
It's really weird to me how commonplace the attitude of "It is what it is" and "Government can't do anything". The air and water quality in the US is vastly better since the passage of laws that created and empowered the EPA (Created by the Republican President Nixon). The endangered species act has had many similar successes. I live on Maui. The waters are now filled with Green Sea Turtles and Humpback whales that w…
The creation of the EPA, (and OSHA, Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, Highway Safety Act, FOIA) was created because people demanded it, not because a Republican President was benevolent. Ralph Nader, and the organizations who were influenced by his work, took advantage of the social upheaval in the late 60s/early 70s to make these laws pass. Even though activist voices are as loud as they've ever been, we…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And finally: the foundations of modern economic wealth, vast quantities of nonrenewable resources, tapped at uttelry unsustainable rates, are quite simply not sustainable. Without looking to this basis, effectively the fuel in the tank, observations of altitude or velocity tell little. the fuel in the tank has been increasing a lot actually in the past 20 years. Did you notice that the US became the first producer…
> we have uranium for the next 10 000 of years at least. No we don't. If you keep up with energy demand it's more like 300-1000 years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bubbles always go higher than anyone expects, and those who attempt to call the top always look like fools for a time. Fossil fuel extraction is a bubble. That's just grade school math: finite supply, constant and increasing demand. But when will it pop and what happens then? That's a lot tougher to know, and so far all attempts to call a top have been wrong. But a crash will come. How bad will depend on just how far…
It won't "pop" because that's not how economics works. If the alarmists are correct and peak fossil fuels is just around the corner, then after the peak the cost of fossil fuels will gradually go up until alternatives -- alternatives that we know about and can make use of relatively quickly -- make more economic sense. At some point, certain sources of oil will become economically viable which aren't now. At a higher…
The 1970s oil shock did change the world dramatically. And local peak oil in Syria has been a contributory factor to the war: spike in prices led to riots, which were repressed, igniting the violence.
