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the economist

How Realistic is The Economist’s Cool View of Nuclear Power?

March 19, 2012 by Barry Brook
with 836 views
2

Last week, the influential weekly news and international affairs publication, The Economist, ran an essay on the future of nuclear energy – The dream that failed: Nuclear power will not go away, but its role may never be more than marginal. [read more]

The Economist Embraces Climate Pragmatism

November 10, 2011 by Alex Trembath
with 383 views
0

"Next steps" to restart climate progress are to pursue emissions strategies that don't have to be centrally motivated by climate concerns, according to a recent article in the Economist. The approach resonates strongly with the recommendations made in the recent report "Climate Pragmatism," the product of the combined efforts of 15... [read more]

The Economist Seeks Responses To Nuclear Energy Debate

April 12, 2011 by Dan Yurman
with 302 views
0

Time to stand up to be counted This is to inform you that “The Economist” is conducting an online debate on nuclear  power – in which online voting is invited. Resolved  This house believes that the world would be better off without nuclear power. WNA’s Ian Hore-Lacy is presenting the pro-nuclear case by opposing the motion... [read more]

The Natural Gas Debate: Will It Do More than Renewables to Reduce Carbon Emissions?

February 6, 2011 by Robert Rapier
with 1,284 views
6
Credit: Igelball, via Wikimedia Commons

The Economist just finished hosting an online debate on natural gas. The resolution was an interesting one: This house believes that natural gas will do more than renewables to limit the world’s carbon emissions. At first glance, the statement may seem preposterous; after all natural gas is a fossil fuel and natural gas usage will... [read more]

Economists Moving Beyond Carbon Pricing

January 10, 2011 by Jesse Jenkins
with 1,190 views
5

Over at the Economist, Ryan Avent notes that economists are beginning to move beyond a simple reliance on carbon pricing as the sine qua non of climate policy:The typical baseline economist response to the problem of global warming is a very simple and straightforward one. Climate change is a negative externality, and the carbon... [read more]

Cancun Climate Talks: Irrelevant?

November 29, 2010 by Geoffrey Styles
with 1,110 views
3

The mood going into this week's global climate conference in Cancun, Mexico is decidedly different than that for last year's session in Copenhagen, which had been intended to culminate the process begun two years earlier in Bali. It's not just that expectations for a comprehensive and binding global climate treaty have been dramatically... [read more]

Cancun in November? To Dive, but not to COP

November 29, 2010 by Scott Edward Anderson
with 759 views
0

View from Club Akumal, MexicoSure I'd love to be in Cancun this week, as the chill winds of November blow into December. But I'd go for the diving rather than the hot air of another conference of the parties on climate change. I just don't think anything will come of more meetings on how to stop climate change. The Economist agrees... [read more]

Efficiency lives — the rebound effect, not so much - Shining some light on bad analysis in The Economist

September 13, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 966 views
2

Today’s guest debunker is Evan Mills, a leading scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  He is a widely-published expert on energy efficiency, which remains THE core climate solution and the biggest low-carbon resource by far. Misreading of a new Sandia National Laboratories study on efficient lighting has led The... [read more]

The Economist: Making lighting more efficient could increase energy use

September 2, 2010 by Michael Giberson
with 841 views
0

The current issue of The Economist reports on research that concluded “making lighting more efficient could increase energy use, not decrease it.” SOLID-STATE lighting, the latest idea to brighten up the world while saving the planet, promises illumination for a fraction of the energy used by incandescent or fluorescent bulbs. A win... [read more]

A New Approach on Global Climate Policy

May 13, 2010 by Breakthrough Institute
with 547 views
0

By Michael Shellenberger Global climate policy should be radically overhauled in the wake of the failure of the United Nations process, an international group of 14 climate policy experts and scientists argue in a new paper. The Kyoto-Copenhagen focus on national emissions targets and timetables was bound to fail because it proposed a... [read more]

How will we recharge all the electric cars ?

January 30, 2010 by Big Gav
with 184 views
0

The Economist has an overly-negative look at the issues involved in recharging electric cars in the US - How will we recharge all the electric cars?. IN THE ten years since hybrid electric vehicles first hit the highways and byways of America, they have come to represent 2.5% of new car sales. Yet, in places like Los Angeles, the San... [read more]

Reinhold Achatz, VP of Research at Siemens, discussed a recent study on green cities

December 16, 2009 by Mike Smith
with 351 views
0

Reinhold Achatz, VP of Research at Siemens, discussed a recent study by the Economist on green cities with Mike Smith at the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, where he revealed that cities account for 50% of all carbon emissions, and industry leaders should look use green cities' initiatives to standardize emission regulations... [read more]

Those leaked emails, and the politicization of climate science

November 30, 2009 by Lynne Kiesling
with 451 views
1

If you have not been following the story of leaked emails and documents from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit after their computers were hacked, Maggie Koerth-Baker’s Boing Boing post provides an overview with lots of supporting links. A couple of good overview stories are from the Economist’s most recent issue and... [read more]

Dressing for Copenhagen

October 19, 2009 by Joseph Romm
with 152 views
1

In the Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, an Emperor goes out among his subjects in his underwear. Two swindlers posing as tailors have convinced him he’s wearing a suit made from cloth that’s invisible to anyone who is stupid.  Not wanting to accept that he’s stupid, the Emperor parades through his empire believing he’... [read more]

German Political Leaders Debate Nuclear Plant Phaseout

September 15, 2009 by Rod Adams
with 193 views
1

On September 13, 2009 current German Chancellor Angela Merkel debated with her Social Democratic Party challenger (and current coalition partner) Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Though most of the debate indicated broad areas of relative agreement on issues and some amount of pride from both on the country's accomplishments in many areas, they... [read more]