This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change.

The Carbon Footprint of Consuming Experiences Instead of Things  September 2, 2017

Consuming experiences instead of things sounds so virtuous and life-enriching. Forget bling, raft down the Amazon! Have a culinary adventure in Thailand! Problem is, consumable experiences are often the kind that are bad for the planet, e.g. travel and dining out. What to do?

Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part V  July 23, 2017

I’m tempted to say “Estimating economic damage from climate change in the United States” is a noble failure, a well-meaning endeavor of questionable value due to a few missteps.  But I don’t believe it. What I believe is that the authors deliberately chose implausible worst-case assumptions because the resulting projections of economic damage would be more likely to spur policy action than more plausible middle-of-the-road assumptions. 

Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part IV  July 23, 2017

...we may have already reached "peak farm" as “the ratio of arable land per unit of crop production shows improved efficiency of land use, the number of hectares of cropland [having] scarcely changed since 1990” (Ausubel, Wernick, & Waggoner, 2013). This despite an additional two billion mouths to feed in the last 25 years.

Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part III  July 22, 2017

RCP8.5 also comes with a storyline that would be consistent with such high GHG concentration levels by the end of this century.  The storyline is a set of socio-economic assumptions that provide a narrative for how we might get from here to there. The storylines aren’t carved in stone; different socio-economic developments could lead to the same climate change outcome – but to be taken seriously, a storyline has to be plausible.