It has been a busy week here with the start of the fall semester. Below are a few items that I did not have time to get to, and a few that are in the queue. To get your holiday weekend off to a peppy start, above is a music video from Fun (and I am told that the lead signer is not a moonlighting Michael Shellenberger, though I’m not so sure.)
Today’s FT has a editorial on the Australian-EU carbon trading alliance with a take that is very similar to my own, writing, “this deal may be little more than a matter of political convenience.”
Economic growth is over says Robert Gordon. Economic growth is just getting started says Mark Mills. Expect a full discussion of this subject next week.
Do you think we are at the start of a great stagnation? That productivity gains have been exhausted? That growth is over? I have one word for you. Pallets.
Also at Nature, Chris Rapley, a climate scientist, has a provocative essay on the role of climate scientists in policy and politics, in which he says some nice things about the work of Dan Sarewitz and favorably cites The Honest Broker. However, when Rapley cites some of the prominent climate science/advocacy websites as venues for possible progress, he is apparently unaware that they typically see Sarewitz and I (mostly me, Dan doesn’t blog) as the enemy.
Nature, which is on a roll this week, also has a thoughtful commentary by Colin Macilwain on UK government science advisers. He writes, “the scientific community’s hope that the scientific adviser will exercise meaningful influence is liable always to be frustrated.”