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behavioral economics

Bound by the Chains of Oil: The Need for Energy Innovation

May 22, 2013 by Gal Sitty
11

bound by oil prices?

So, when gas prices go up, we all suffer and our economy lags. What we really need are more choices to break the iron-clad grip that oil prices have on our lives and our economy.[read more]

Thailand: Where Environmentalism Rules, Sort Of

March 20, 2013 by Gernot Wagner
0

Bangkok traffic

Recently, I spent a month in Thailand and was struck by how ordinary Thais simultaneously embraced and ignored environmentalism. On the one hand, few Thais recycle, but virtually every home uses CFLs.[read more]

Can behavioral economics help save the planet?

March 14, 2010 by Marc Gunther
3

“Consumption is a tricky issue for us, but we need to start talking about it.” So says Peter Lehner,  executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. This is welcome news. Like the other big environmental NGOs, NRDC has shied away from telling people what to eat (less red meat and dairy), what kinds of cars to drive (...[read more]

Oil Price Hangover

March 1, 2010 by Geoffrey Styles
0

The price of oil is an odd thing. It's watched by millions of people every day, especially when it reaches uncomfortable levels, yet no two observers agree on all the details of how it's determined. Having traded the stuff professionally, I've always given a lot more credence to the fundamentals of supply and demand than to the...[read more]

What’s for lunch? Behaviorial economics meets climate change

November 16, 2009 by Marc Gunther
0

At the Net Impact conference last week, a waiter stopped by before lunch to ask if anyone at our table wanted a vegetarian meal instead of chicken. Just one or two people did. This, as it happens, is typical. When a meat-based entrée is being served, and people are offered a vegetarian alternative, about 5 to 10% will request it. But...[read more]

Price gouging and the “dark side of cooperation”

September 17, 2009 by Michael Giberson
0

At Overcoming Bias, Robin Hanson points out that the human instinct for cooperation has good and bad consequences.  A handful of recent articles in reaction to Frans de Waal’s new book, The Age of Empathy, and other writing on cooperation have treated it as a good thing, as a helpful counterweight to human instincts to act...[read more]

Cognitive Gaps

July 8, 2009 by Lou Grinzo
0

There’s an undeniable fact that overhangs peak oil, climate chaos, and probably a few hundred other issues one could name. Far worse than being merely an “inconvenient truth” or a “nasty reality”, it’s the issue that stands between humanity and the action needed to deal with those problems. And this is it: We live in reality, but we...[read more]