Posts Tagged ‘economics’
global warming: solved »
Monday, October 5th, 2009
You may think it odd I can make such a claim, solving the prevailing issue of our days. We haven’t met, call me Draynd.
Anyway… For all those with smog-filled dreams, fret not. I have good news. (Of sorts.) Global warming is likely unavoidable but the blow will be softened. By oil.
Well, technically the lack of it. Black gold has turned Econ majors into bumbling morons. Demand has garnered no supply and has failed to produce viable alternatives, as predicted.
Here are a few fun notes:
- Four million barrels per day (BPD) less come out of the ground each year.
- There are no new worthwhile reserves to make that up (much less add to it to meet demand).
- Producing countries are fudging reserve estimates (probably because their production quotas are based on them).
- ANWR won’t produce 800k BPD until 2028 (even if all environmentalists are shot tomorrow). The US currently consumes 19 million BPD.
- More natural gas use means wells are losing pressure with maturity, proving we’re almost out of dino-puddles.
- Off-shore drilling is a pipe dream (har har) with rigs that barely stand up to category three storms.
- Gulf drills are still producing 250k less BPD than they were before Katrina.
- Producing countries are using more and more oil themselves, reducing exports.
Wind and solar power are far too inefficient. Any talk of hydrogen as fuel should be muted by its exponential cost and that it takes more energy to produce it than it provides, rendering it useless.
(Ethanol is too big a joke to laugh at here. Food costs, scarcity, nutrient and resource depletion, etc. Every subsidized ounce ruins our future. Rapidly.)
Food will be more expensive, exported jobs may return and travel will be cost prohibitive (any variety). “Think global, buy local” will be reality (not a hipster, ironic t-shirt slogan).
Cheap energy looks more like the last bits of milk shake than the mile-high gushers. With it goes the wholesale polluting that started the climate change mess and it will probably slow before the worst comes.
Global warming averted. World saved. What’s next?
Photo courtesy GreenPeace.org
i’ll take that award now, Nobel Foundation »
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
Some of you may think (rightly) that I don’t deserve a Nobel Prize. Your reasons may include, but are by no means limited to, my only completing an Undergrad, not having any expertise (in much of anything) or my unique ability to offend with a passing comment.
Not exactly a prime candidate for such a “prestigious” award, I’m aware. Still, their standards can’t be that high. I wouldn’t aim for anything worthwhile, like Physics or (for the good of all mankind) Literature. Instead, I set my sights on Economics.
Whoa, you’re thinking. Money? Financial theory? He’s kidding right? He can barely count. I am not. (Kidding, that is. You’re spot on with the counting.) In defense, I give an example of one recipient proving I’m just as qualified.
Milton Friedman, you say? Sure, an obvious target because his thoughts on perpetual consumption drove Reaganism, multiple nation-state failures and ignored any glaring issues (rampant unemployment, catastrophic inequality, unsustainable models, etc.).
Too easy.
My exhibit A (though, it’s the only exhibit, so I don’t know why I named it) is Mr. Robert M. Solow. For those unfamiliar, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1987 for magic and is (or was; not sure) a professor of wizardry at MIT.
How did he get a Nobel Prize and the subsequent funds in economics then, if he’s a less-fake Dumbledore? Your guess is as good as mine.
In theory, it’s because he helped solidify Economic Growth Theory (notice the redundant “theory” usage; told you I’m not aiming for the Literature prize). Here’s where I’m just as qualified, if not more so.
The theory only uses capital and labor as inputs for dozens of “calculations” that prove our economic growth is sustainable. This, to a Fox News devotee, is common knowledge. Which is the main problem.
Let’s take something as simple as a car. Dumbl— err, Solow claims to make that car you’ll only need tools, cars and a little know-how. That’s it. See where I’m going with this?
Yeah… so by sheer force of will (magic), he manifests recyclable resources like steel and glass and other barely reusables (like tires, plastics, fiberglass, etc.). Then, he forgets those in his “equations.”
What does that mean and why do I deserve a medal and related financial windfall? Not only is resource depletion ignored completely, but waste and pollution creation are non-factors. I can create a theory in 10 minutes that factors out entire mountains of common-sense and I want recognition for that.
Photo courtesy Google Images