Democrats’ proposed ban on fracking would hurt a lot of people, says American Petroleum Institute. . Matt Ridley discusses the environmental provenance of the coronavirus. Stanford law students say they won’t work for law firm that represented ExxonMobil.
Tag: Energy
Tuesday’s Links
California new solar-panel rule: A misguided effort at virtue-signaling? Michael Shellenberger: Why do environmentalists fight the best ways to reduce carbon emissions (nuclear and natural gas)? California wants more hunters—to pay for protecting public lands.
Wednesday’s Links
Note: We apologize for being offline earlier this week due to a major outage caused by a fiber cut. Welcome back! Georgetown University to divest fossil fuel stocks. Will sanity (about climate change) make a comeback? Old wind-power turbines are going into landfills.
Thursday’s Links
Sales of electric vehicles fell 6.8 percent in 2019. British newspaper the Guardian halts fossil fuel ads, accepts auto ads. H-T Charles Rotter. Subsidies, regulation, or both? Recycling bills percolate through Congress.
We’ve Just Had the Best Decade in History
Extreme poverty has fallen below 10 percent of the world’s population for the first time. It was 60 percent when I was born. Global inequality has been plunging as Africa and Asia experience faster economic growth than Europe and North America; child mortality has fallen to record low levels; famine virtually went extinct; malaria, polio and heart disease are all in decline.
And here is the environmental good news: We are using less stuff:
The quantity of all resources consumed per person in Britain (domestic extraction of biomass, metals, minerals and fossil fuels, plus imports minus exports) fell by a third between 2000 and 2017, from 13.7 tons to 9.4 tons. That’s a faster decline than the increase in the number of people, so it means fewer resources consumed overall.
Are You Willing to Bet Money on Your Environmental Views?
Andrew McAfee is offering to take a number of bets centered around predictions and implications from his new book More From Less
- In 2029, the US will consume less total energy than it did in 2019.
- In 2029, the US will produce less total CO2 emissions than it did in 2019, even after taking offshoring into account.
- Over the five years leading up to 2029, the US will use less paper in total than it did over the five years leading up to 2019.
HT to Alex Tabarrok.