The Great Debate UK
A freakonomic view of climate change
Ahead of a U.N. summit in Copenhagen next month, scepticism is growing that an agreement will be reached on a global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.
The protocol set targets aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which are believed to be responsible for the gradual rise in the Earth’s average temperature. Many scientists say that reducing carbon dioxide emissions is key to preventing climate change.
But authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner argue in their new book SuperFreakonomics that humanity can take an alternative route to try and save the planet.
“If the goal is to stop warming then geo-engineering solutions are worth considering because they are far cheaper, probably much more do-able and easily reversible,” Dubner told Reuters before a talk at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London.
How to become a freakonomist
What do you do when you are trained as an economist, but find economics too complex?
Become a freakonomist, of course.
Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the freshly published SuperFreakonomics, decided to “take the tools of economics and apply them to the kind of questions that no self-respecting economist would ever want to be related to — like: does the name that you give your children affect their life outcomes; what are the underlying economics of prostitution; or, is your estate agent ripping you off?”
Levitt, who teaches economics at the University of Chicago, co-wrote SuperFreakonomics and an earlier book titled Freakonomics with New York journalist Stephen J. Dubner.
Before a talk at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London, Levitt explained to Reuters how he became a freakonomist.
I subscribe to a theory known as Chumponomics.
The global market consists of chumps. Essentially, the secret of wealth is to indentify a group of chumps and enter the chump market. You purchase something from a chump for as little as he will accept. Then you need to find another chump, and sell that good for as much as the chump will pay. The result is profit.
Eventually you will soon have more money. This will allow you to purchase and sell more things to chumps. Eventually your chump profits will be large enough to identify new groups of chumps and open new markets.
Your ultimate goal is to have so much money, you can then pay some chumps to do all the work for you. Then you spend your days relaxing in a holiday resort, getting some chumps to massage your feet and mix your drinks.
Analogy: a smoker is found to have an early lung cancer.It is pointless to debated whether he should either (a) stop smoking or (b) have the cancer excised.He must do both. We must Both decarbonise our economy (which will itself deliver a much wanted boost to the world economy by creating jobs in energy conservation and renewables)and sequester the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.It’s a bit like walking along and chewing gum at the same time. Some cannot do this, but most, with a little application, find that they can.