So in an effort to figure out how environmental issues falls within the scope of an economics blog, please see this excellent overview of the complicated relationship between our environment and modern economics.
The entry outlines the four major problems that occur when applying basic economic principle to the environment: market failure, presence of externalities, common property & non-exclusion, and the existence of public goods.
Most rational people know that these problems exist when you're trying to apply economics to environmental issues, but the problem in most of these situations is the simple fact that valuing the outcomes of certain choices on the environment is an indeterminate science. One of the blog's editors likes to refer to a favorite graph of his that actually attempts to draw a correlation between average temperature and the number of pirates that exist in the world. Shockingly, the regression has a great R-squared!!! This is clearly meant to be a joke, but many people look at the data behind the hypothesis on global warming and draw the conclusion that the evidence is just not there to support it.
All humor aside, these issues are fairly serious, and looking at them in a logical manner without attempting to inject partisan politics is important. These issues may indeed seem secondary when we are faced with a financial system that looked to be on the brink of collapse, but these issues are very important in the long run.
And with that, let me say that I'm looking forward to exploring these topics with you.
The entry outlines the four major problems that occur when applying basic economic principle to the environment: market failure, presence of externalities, common property & non-exclusion, and the existence of public goods.
Most rational people know that these problems exist when you're trying to apply economics to environmental issues, but the problem in most of these situations is the simple fact that valuing the outcomes of certain choices on the environment is an indeterminate science. One of the blog's editors likes to refer to a favorite graph of his that actually attempts to draw a correlation between average temperature and the number of pirates that exist in the world. Shockingly, the regression has a great R-squared!!! This is clearly meant to be a joke, but many people look at the data behind the hypothesis on global warming and draw the conclusion that the evidence is just not there to support it.
All humor aside, these issues are fairly serious, and looking at them in a logical manner without attempting to inject partisan politics is important. These issues may indeed seem secondary when we are faced with a financial system that looked to be on the brink of collapse, but these issues are very important in the long run.
And with that, let me say that I'm looking forward to exploring these topics with you.
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