About Social Media Today
Posts by Gernot Wagner Subscribe 
oPower's Gaming Technology Gets Neighbors to Compete to Save Energy
Wasting time Playing games online is fun. Even staid old utilities are catching on by now. In truth, ConEd didn’t come up with much of a game. It’s more like a guided tour of energy savings around your house, even though the link may say “play now...
Nature Accomplishes What Politics Won’t
A freak October snowstorm blanketed New York yesterday, likely setting a new October snow record. In the meantime, Bangkok is trying to cope with one of the worst floods in history. Standard journalistic decorum demands that I mention right about...
NIMBYism NY Edition, or Risky Energy Near Major Cities
Forty miles north of New York City is the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. I don’t care what you think of nuclear power, having an aging plant within forty miles of 20 million people isn’t the outcome of any rational policy decision. Still, Indian...
Gas Tax or Bust
0.5% of U.S. commuters bike to work. 5% take public transport. 80% drive. Mayor Bloomberg is trying mightily hard to build bike lanes and change the commuting culture of New York City. He may well succeed, and other cities may yet follow. Here’s...
Dash for Clunkers
You can motivate people to drive less through various means. Gas taxes come to mind. Or a tax on vehicles miles traveled, or a congestion fee. Whether you call it a “tax” or a “fee,” charging money is always part of the equation. The alternative to...
Energy Efficiency Fail: $20 Bills Hanging Out The Window
If you think energy efficiency is overblown, look no further than this window. Apparently, businesses are almost as bad. EDF’s own Climate Corps program has found $650 million in energy savings. No matter whether you care about the planet, you...
Pull The Highest Lever
Individual action won’t do to solve global warming. It needs to be something collective. But what if individual action is all you’ve got? Say you are running a small, grassroots organization with the aim of making a difference in the community. You...
I Remember Reading My A/C Thermostat Should Be Set To 60…
ConEd is asking New Yorkers not to buy its products. That’s not because they found religion; it’s because they have found regulators that understand the value of conserving electricity. So far so good. But here’s how they try to get the message...
Planetary Socialism
Yesterday’s New York Times published my op-ed under the somewhat provocative heading “Going Green but Getting Nowhere.” The point, of course, is not to give up, but instead to look for policy solutions that channel market forces in the right...
No Free Lunch on Climate
Plenty of studies show how we can save the planet and save money all at once. Many of them happen to be produced by McKinsey. Economists tend to deride them. If you could really save money by being green, why...
As Long As The Music Is Playing …
Betting against the herd turned out to be the smarter strategy in 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. But being right about the housing bubble was not enough. The first economists called the bubble in 2002. Putting your money on that bet in...
They're Heeeeeeerrree: Climate Wars
First came science fiction—with brave new worlds, meteors, earthquakes, and rising sea levels causing mass exodus, war, and worse—and there was no reason to react because it was science fiction. Then came fiction—with well-researched accounts of...
