April 24, 2019

Did you know that we can lose half our food supply and it won’t matter? That’s because agriculture is only 3% of GDP, so there’s no need to worry about the effects of climate change on farming. Or so says the latest genius to win the Nobel Prize in economics. This “logic” is pretty darn disturbing on its own, but what happens when such muddled thinking comes to infest climate models? Besides causing Jason, Asher, and Rob to lose their minds (and their cool), it can lead to unrealistic optimism surrounding the Green New Deal and other worthwhile policies for dealing with climate change. Well, maybe we can use cryptocurrencies to purchase information about food for our virtual bellies when we run into problems on the farm.

Click here to go back to the Crazy Town home page.

Show Notes

• Jason Bradford’s uh-oh moment when it comes to lack of feedback in IPCC’s climate models
• The research group Jason was part of when he read the IPCC report (ABERG)
• Economic failings and a critique of William Nordhaus by environmentalist Rex Weyler
• Takedown of William Nordhaus by economist Jason Hickel
• John de Graaf’s measured, realistic support for the Green New Deal
• Good look at the limits to growth in the context of the Green New Deal
• Donella Meadows’s classic book, Thinking in Systems: a Primer
• Herman Daly’s book Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development (available online)
• Current IPCC report section on future changes, risks, and adaptation
• RCP = Representative Concentration Pathways
• A good write-up of the Shared Socio-economic Pathways
• David Hughes and the American Geophysical Union meeting looking at possible geological limitations to fossil fuel reserves
• Justin Ritchie on coal limitations compared to IPCC scenarios
• Richard Heinberg and David Fridley’s review of a low-energy-demand scenario without negative emissions technologies for climate modeling
• Kevin Anderson, the climate scientist who could be elected the mayor of Crazy Town, as he sees right through the B.S.