Comments anotherID has made

It is a disinformation campaign based on agnotology.

Basically, culturally constructed ignorance.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/01/agnotology/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology 

Like it or not adaptation is going to be much more important than mitigation...

disappointment

Larry Summers was easily the most disappointing appointment yet in the Obama administration.

As Dean Baker would say, why would anyone take advice from someone who failed to notice a $2T housing bubble that made every large bank in the US insolvent?

You would tend to think that economists would pay attention to those TEOTWAWKI types of events.

Hopefully, Obama knows the very limited utility of neo-classical economists.

Lawyers and neo-classical economists at the bottom of the sea would be a great start.On Summers doesn't advocate for climate solutions, but Obama's climate team makes up for it posted 10 months ago 1 Response

VIA

Village Idiot AlertOn 'Anti-science syndrome' plagues the right-wing as well as blogosphere posted 10 months, 3 weeks ago 10 Responses

utility decoupling can be botched

It is obvious that none of you have actually done hand to hand combant with utilities over energy efficiency funding.

The decoupling, public goods charge shareholder incentive mechanism is pretty much totally broken.

California's investor owned utilities run circles around the PUC and play 3 card monty with ratepayers funds.

Scale is the problem and reducing scale is the sustainable solution.On Why the much-ballyhooed utility decoupling is inadequate posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago 16 Responses

I like the Casten's but...

This argument looks like the author is talking his book.

Nothing wrong with that as long as it is disclosed.On Upstream carbon prices will not substantially change downstream carbon-emitting behavior posted 1 year ago 36 Responses

That has got to be a joke

If not, that is certainly some "change" On Obama's 100-days energy agenda posted 1 year ago 6 Responses

Where's Debbie Cook v. Do Nothing Rohrbacher?

Rohrbacher has a big fat goose egg from LCV?

http://debbiecookforcongress.com/On A look at House races with hot eco-angles posted 1 year ago 2 Responses

rhetorical genius does not equal business genuis

Newsflash.

McDonough is a great orator and an average businessman.

He wasn't the first and won't be the last "big picture" architect that was a business failure.

Hubris is eventually punished even in today's society.

I would buy tickets for a Hubris morality play with green themes.On Fast Company publishes an unsparing take-down of green architect William McDonough posted 1 year ago 3 Responses

Here is a real simple one

Fund the Energy Efficiency Community Development Block Grants authorized in the 2007 Energy bill/law.

This will put money into local government's hands to expressly invest in energy efficiency.

The enabling legistlation is already law, it just needs funded.

This investment will return multiple dividends (energy, fiscal, environmental) and stimulate the economy.On Voices in favor of green stimulus spending posted 1 year, 1 month ago 6 Responses

I prefer Churchill's

"Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, after exhausting all other options."

Winston ChurchillOn Extreme exceptionalism posted 1 year, 4 months ago 8 Responses

Even better is the joke

Utility assets are amortized over infinity.  It is a good business if you can get it and defend it.

Ratepayers just keep paying for the infrastructure, over and over and over again.

Check out the utility company owned streetlight tariffs for an example.

Talk about predatory tariffs...On Framing the energy revolution like the computer generation posted 1 year, 4 months ago 9 Responses

Pretty good except...

No props for the DFH's.

DFH's weren't right or effective.

You can live a low-carbon lifestyle that is rewarding without buying all of the DFH baggage.On Target your peak oil message to your audience posted 1 year, 6 months ago 24 Responses

Idiocracy

I glimpsed the future last night.

I watched Idiocracy.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jqa4LpdtOD8&feature=relate ...

We are well on our way.

Oh well, mammals are over-rated and over-due to turn over the stage.On Fewer Republicans saying earth is warming posted 1 year, 6 months ago 19 Responses

Preview of the future

With the confluence and conclusion of the easy cheap fossil fuel era (peak oil) and the concomitant population growth it fueled, we are witnessing the endgame humanity has been de facto planning for at least the last 50 years.

Food is natural gas.

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2008/0 ...

Malthus was right, just early.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/malthus-was-r ...

Wolverine is right but I would take it one step further.

Nearly all sustainability is totally anthropocentric once you strip that out, there is peace.

Nature bats lasts and humans don't stand much of a chance in the long run.On The rhetoric of population in the hunger crisis posted 1 year, 7 months ago 11 Responses

What about McDonough's concept?

McDonough another big ego, can't be bothered with actual effectiveness details visionary already uses blue/green for the nonprofit he spun off.On Adam Werbach follows up 'Death of Environmentalism' with 'Birth of Blue' posted 1 year, 7 months ago 46 Responses

Sean's right

I am in the energy efficiency business and his post is a clear elucidation of the lament of the front-line energy manager.

Meanwhile, the world is burning while we argue over additionality.

The price of carbon regardless of formal financial additionality will be a tipping point for a lot of these types of projects.On When additionality always matters posted 1 year, 7 months ago 18 Responses

winguttery!

wingnuttery!

I humbly refer the resident troll to the Columbia study, Unskilled and Unaware.

http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

For those trying to educate trolls, try this excerpt out.

"People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The
authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these
domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make
unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Paradoxically,
improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them
recognize the limitations of their abilities."

It is cruelty to try to educate a troll.On Subsidies contribute to muddying of biodiesel instead of boosting the industry posted 1 year, 7 months ago 16 Responses

Market based carbon = price rationing

If the regulatory regime for carbon emissions is market based, without significant public policy to address social inequity, we will be rationing liquid fuels by price.

Price rationing increases social unrest.

Social unrest in LA is manifest ultimately through riots.

Seems pretty reasonable to me.On Mood in the hood posted 1 year, 8 months ago 10 Responses

Puhleeze CEO's aren't that smart

How about Bear Stearns, Merril Lynch and Citibanks CEOs they thought the house price appreciation would never end the toxic mortgage sales business.

How many airline bankrupctcies have we already witnessed before carbon regulation.

It is a revolving door of airline bankruptcies.On Reducing your carbon footprint from travel posted 1 year, 8 months ago 41 Responses

For the financial types that crossover to Grist

I think the proper term (from Tanta at Calculated Risk) is shocked & stunned.

Calculated Risk has been on the mortgage debacle since before it was widely known as a debacle.On CEO charged with seeking profit posted 1 year, 8 months ago 2 Responses

Inflation-Deflation

Really what we are seeing is wild under-stated inflation in the things we need.  (food, energy, education, healthcare)

And deflation in the things we want.  (cheap, toxic electronics, stucco boxes, paper assets, surfboards from China, etc.)On Meyerson on the need for a new New Deal posted 1 year, 8 months ago 13 Responses

It is a miracle

Amazingdrx posts something I agree with.

The scammers and con men that were in the Enron/Worldcom & tech bubble, that moved over to the mortgage/credit bubble are now moving in on the emerging cleantech/greentech bubble.

The con men are coming!  The con men are coming!On Delayers and doomsayers receive a chilly reception from pragmatic business leaders posted 1 year, 8 months ago 37 Responses

nkdawe

Beautiful comment!

Economists are the market's high priests and as RMI has stated.

Markets make great servants, Terrible masters and horrible religons!On A few thoughts for environmentalists posted 1 year, 8 months ago 95 Responses

Stupid Log-ins - Normally Sunsetbeachguy

The only economist that could be trusted by everyday Joe's and Jane's are:  

Dean Baker (called the housing bubble and regularly calls for introducing accountability to the economics "profession" in the same way economist advocate for accountability for janitors, if you do your job badly you get fired.)

Robert Shiller (called the tech bubble and housing bubble and is relatively free from talking his book)

Chris Thornburg (called the housing bubble and left UCLA when Real Estate interests bought the Anderson forecast with donations)

Contrast that with the dirty paid shill Economists like David Lereah (pumped both the tech and housing bubbles for a salary), Lawrence Yun (still pumping the housing bubble), Alan Greenspan (still denying the error of his asymmetric response to bubbles), Nicolas Retsinas of Harvard, etc.

Bernanke was a compliant Fed Governor under the bulk of Greenspan's reign, so he is in the latter category.  For the last six months his line about the sub-prime, then Alt-A now prime mortgage debacle was that it was contained and the economic damage was minor.  What an astute economist with a gift of accurate forecasting!!

Bernanke falls into the hack economist category right along with Lereah, Yun, Greenspan.

Here is a funny economist joke:

A mathematician, an accountant and an economist apply for the same job.
The interviewer calls in the mathematician and asks "What do two plus two equal?"
The mathematician replies "Four."
The interviewer asks "Four, exactly?" The mathematician looks at the interviewer incredulously and says
"Yes, four, exactly."
Then the interviewer calls in the accountant and asks the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The accountant says "On average, four - give or take ten percent, but on average, four."
Then the interviewer calls in the economist and poses the same question "What do two plus two equal?"
The economist gets up, locks the door, closes the shade, sits down next to the interviewer and says "What do you want it to equal?"On A few thoughts for environmentalists posted 1 year, 8 months ago 95 Responses