The Power of Incentives to Drive Innovation
Aftermath of the Tunguska Event (wikimedia)
Environmentalists tend to think that conventional economic models overstate the difficulty of adjusting to a low-carbon economy. Given a clear and consistent economic incentive to find low-carbon solution through a well-designed cap-and-trade system, we believe that human ingenuity will find ways of getting the job done at reasonable cost. And I think that the currently existing climate debate illustrates that point. The evidence is clear and overwhelming that humanity needs to reduce its level of CO2 emissions. But special interests don’t want to do that, and opportunistic politicians want to do what the special interests want. Consequently, a huge market niche has opened up for “creative rationalizations for doing nothing.”
Take, for example, Jonah Goldberg who thinks that because asteroid strikes could be a serious problem we should do nothing about global warming. Personally, I’m sympathetic to the view that public policy should be more concerned than it currently is about asteroid strikes. But this is also a total non-sequitur. Failing to pass the Waxman-Markey bill or negotiate a good deal at Copenhagen doesn’t put us any closer to safeguarding ourselves against asteroids. Nor would enhanced monitoring of potential collisions require us to build new coal-fired power points. The two issues simply have nothing to do with each other.
21 Responses to “The Power of Incentives to Drive Innovation”
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July 31st, 2009 at 2:30 pm
How about you stop linking to morons?
July 31st, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Goldberg, author of the ridiculous “book” Liberal Fascism (key quote: “the white male is the Jew of liberal fascism”) is not deserving of dialogue, only ridicule. That he manages to earn a salary anywhere for either writing or his opinions, let alone writing *about* his opinions, is a disgrace to our society. Pointing out that his arguments make no sense or are disingenuous, or that his writing is awful, should simply be assumed by this point.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:36 pm
People also vastly overestimate the difficulty we will have finding alternatives to using carbon. Remember chlorofluorocarbons? Remember the ozone hole? It was a big problem, people said it couldn’t be fixed, governments passed STRONG mandates banning their use, we found alternatives, now the hole is closing. problem almost (in 2050, current estimates show) solved. CO2 is a bigger problem than CFC’s, true. All the more reason to get started sooner!
July 31st, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Ron,
Someone has to keep an eye on them. After all, stupidity tends to have distinctly deleterious effects not only on the stupid, but also on those around the stupid person.
But yes, I do find the constant stream of “Oh my god, look what stupidity Jonah Goldberg/Megan McArdale/The Corner Gang is spewing now” posts a bit tiresome after a while.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Peak oil is driving energy conservation, not CapnTrade. Driving is was down by 5% this recession even before CapnTrade. If you believe that oil constraints drive the recession, then CapnTrade is going to be a sideshow.
The real show is my neighbor who pays $350 in monthly charges to insure and pay off a truck he never uses. Using that truck to buy a few bags of groceries four time a month comes to $80 in transportation costs to the grocery store. Even the minimal small car has transportation costs to the grocery store at about $10, at a minimum.
Find a solution that brings the transportation costs to the grocer down to $3/trip.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Remember when removing SO2 and NOx from smokestack emissions was going to be so expensive that a profitable market it tradable credits was going to spring up?
Remember when banning leaded gasoline was going to lead the end of the American automobile industry…by 1975?
July 31st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I agree.
On another note, let me slip into TownHall visitors’ minds for a second:
“OOOH AN AD FOR A T-SHIRT THAT SAYS ‘I’D RATHER BE WATERBOARDING!’ THAT’LL GET THE LIBERALS REEEAL PO’ED!”
Me, upon seeing said ad:
*feels depressed about people losing their humanity and decency for ideology*
Honestly, it’s truly depressing.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:43 pm
But yes, I do find the constant stream of “Oh my god, look what stupidity Jonah Goldberg/Megan McArdale/The Corner Gang is spewing now” posts a bit tiresome after a while.
One of MY’s trademarks is that his is a very prolific poster, posting more often in a given day than anyone else I can think of. Keeping up this prodigious rate of posting means he has to link to a LOT of people in a day, since commenting on others takes a lot less time than coming up with new stuff. And taking the piss out of people you disagree with is fun in general, and MY I think clearly takes glee in it, moreso than most.
Thus, I would not hold my breath waiting for him to stop linking to people he dislikes. That would spoil all his fun.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Global warming, disappearance of large fish species in oceans, fresh water shortages, pollution of all sorts, urban sprawl, loss of wildlife habitat, soil erosion, etc. etc. are all tied to the same root cause – the never ending rise in the human population. Until environmentalists face this issue they’ll go on being a bunch of unserious clown.
BTW, zero population growth (ZPG) used to be a core belief of the environmental movement. Then some dickheads got the idea that since birth rates are higher for non-whites than whites, ZPG was obviously (as the spring follows the winter!) racist. And that was the end of that.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:46 pm
In the long run we’re all dead anyway. So why bother?
July 31st, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Wasn’t Tesla responsible for the Tunguska event?
July 31st, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I object to linking to rightwingers because I subscribe to the “share of mind” theorem, i.e. repetition is the greatest influence on the opinions held by casual, uninformed populations. If the average person constantly hears that “taxes are bad”, he will come to accept that proposition because it is familiar and counter arguments are not.
Conservatives pay a lot to develop their propaganda and they go for the simple, repeated message regularly. Repeating their messages reinforces them, plus it takes up space where a progressive argument could be.
July 31st, 2009 at 3:11 pm
In related news, the surgeon general has announced that nobody should ever stop smoking, because they might get hit by a bus tomorrow.
Well, either that, or they could stop smoking and try to watch out for buses. Seems a lot to ask, though.
July 31st, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Ah, but if we find out that we’re all going to be killed by an asteroid, it would be foolish to worry about global warming. Given that, I think it is in our interest to manipulate an asteroid into hitting the Earth. The resultant relaxation of all environmental standards would be a boon to growth, which, if extended to the long term, would alleviate all problems. In the very long term, our society would be wealthy enough to artificially recreate life on Earth. There are a few details to be worked out, but it seems like an obviously good idea.
July 31st, 2009 at 3:15 pm
There was an awesome documentary that posited that it was a massive ball of dark energy that caused the Tunguska Event. Obviously, it was also what killed the dinosaurs. It’s a perfect theory, because you can’t expect to find proof of dark energy, right? Kind of reminds me of the birther controversy. The proof is that you can’t find any proof!
July 31st, 2009 at 3:39 pm
conventional economic models overstate the difficulty of adjusting to a low-carbon economy
There are models? All I’ve ever seen is speculation.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:24 pm
“we believe that human ingenuity will find ways of getting the job done at reasonable cost.”
The development of industrial society has been based on fossil fuels and replacing them is not just a matter of companies tweaking existing technology. Scientific and technological innovation through most of the 20th century was done by government, not private enterprise. The only really new potentially viable basic energy discovery was nuclear power. Fission was discovered in a government lab and reactors were developed at enormous expense in a crash government program. American are proud of the space program and regard it as one of the country’s major technological achievements, but it could never have been done by private enterprise.
Private enterprise will direct its ingenuity to finance, evading regulations and making the quick buck. Liberals are making a mistake pushing cap and trade, especially as a starting bargaining position.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I’m less concerned about Jonah than many because I consider the probability that he will be struck by an asteroid or suffer spontaneous human combustion.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:58 pm
I’m currently making less than $16,000 a year. I rent. This time next year, I’ll have a solar water heater and a windmill to run pumps for irrigation. By the end of the week, all my windows will be coated with mylar. By the end of next month, I’ll have water coolers that very efficiently heat water, and a pump to move my bath water into the garden. By the end of the year I’ll have all energy star appliances.
Sustainable technology is affordable and readily available. The excuses are lame.
July 31st, 2009 at 5:28 pm
One of MY’s trademarks is that his is a very prolific poster, posting more often in a given day than anyone else I can think of.
Well, Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds posts even more than Yglesias does, but Ta-Nehisi Coates manages to pack more insight into his 2-3 posts a day than Reynolds does in a month.
August 1st, 2009 at 3:34 am
MY “Consequently, a huge market niche has opened up for “creative rationalizations for doing nothing.”
Rationalizations love a niche. We already have quite a few.
The disadvantage of: markets being strangled, our grand kids, and power bills going thru the roof.
The advantage of: shipping lanes across an ice free Arctic, St. Petersburg and Wasilla getting balmy weather all year long, our grand kids, and Africa and other undesirable continents being burnt to crisp.
Now we can add existential strikes from deep space. Not sure which category that goes in, but it is a good one.