Based on what Assumptions

Head in the Sand   

CommonGround  

For the few of you that read CommonGround, you may remember that I’ve been wandering the Internet looking for reliable data about climate change and the Outer Banks.

A year ago, I felt like I needed a Climate Change 101 course: The What, The How, The When.  I wanted to know the real stuff from the real source.

 

So over the year, using Google Alerts and my own tenacious searching on the Internet, I’ve followed links to find the original sources of references made by policy makers and educators.   I found national environmental  groups making policy statements using references based on references based on references based a paper written by an associate professor at Eastern Carolina.   This is no reflection on Professor Bin, he may very well be brilliant. But policy based on once source, reliable or not. I’ve watched “information” move around the world through press releases,  specialty publications, newsletters, and blogs.  A quote taken out of context from an environmental professor in Florida made news in dozens of newspapers across the country.

So what is the real stuff from the real source.

I found a site* that provides tools for legislators for  environmental legislation and hearings. The site states:

All models involve some assumptions, and any claims about the effects of different environmental policies are based on models about future impacts. So the assumptions are critical to the claims.

But not all claims about impacts are balanced … some involve ignoring one set of effects and focusing on others. If a claim is made about the costs or benefits of any particular course of action, the argument is incomplete if there is no discussion of the costs or benefits of NOT taking the action. Sometimes the omitted information leaves out the effects of doing nothing, sometimes the omission involves the effects of an alternative policy or set of actions, but some comparison has to be present for numbers to make any sense.

Although we are not legislators, we could all benefit in learning and using these tools. It would be great if we had the opportunity to have a discussion about these assumptions without side track arguments about ‘inlet or outlet’ ,  playing to our feelings, scare tactics of living in a place with an expiration date, or being told we are idiots by those who think climate change is a conspiracy.

For some reason, the story of the Sirens in Greek Mythology comes to mind.  The  Sirens (sea nymphs) lived on a flowery Island.  They  lured sailors to their death with a bewitching song. The Sirens were later encountered by the Argonauts who passed by unharmed with the help of Orpheus, the poet drowing out their music with his song. Odysseus also sailed by, bound tightly to the mast, his men blocking their ears with wax. The Sirens were so distressed to see a man hear their song and yet escape, that they threw themselves into the sea and drowned.

Perhaps I’m bewitched or am I a Siren? I have all summer to figure it out. CommonGround on vacation til September.

 

 

 

* The E.P. Systems Group, Inc (EPSG) conceived of and designed the site structure and content. Center for Environmental Policy and Management of the University of Louisville.

 

 

 

The E.P. Systems Group, Inc (EPSG) conceived of and designed the site structure and content. Hosting is provided by the Center for Environmental Policy and Management of the University of Louisville.

Initial site content was written, and resources collected and classified, by:

Peter B. Meyer, President and Chief Economist, EPSG
Professor Emeritus of Urban Policy and Economics
Director Emeritus, Center for Environmental Policy and Management
University of Louisville

Kristen R. Yount, Vice President and Director of Research, EPSG
Professor of Sociology
Northern Kentucky University

H. Wade VanLandingham, Principal, VanLandingham Consulting

The economics of climate change and responses to it, broadly defined, is the scope of this website.

Our objective is to offer access to the best available objective analysis of the options facing the United States, fifty individual states and the US territories as we address the carbon intensity of our economy. As more and more Americans are realizing, our nation faces a growing double threat  posed by both climate changes in our local communities and the rapidly increasing costs of fossil fuels. Climate Change Economics will equip policymakers and researchers at every level of government with a clearinghouse of resources and tools to tackle these challenges comprehensively.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAMS – Special Announcement

Lessons From Experiencehave been added to the site to provide users with data on the implementation and impacts of state and local energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy programs that have been in operation in a variety of settings across the US and the globe. The materials have been selected to help state officials frame the contexts and incentives for creating similar programs in their jurisdictions.

The Lessons collection includes links to a special series of case studies gatheredfor a forthcoming book on Repowering Communities. The cases can be viewed individually by topic or you can go directly to for the whole series.

Additional information on this site is provided as always in several forms:

Basic Economic Guidance contains brief descriptions of economic principles and concepts for people who need some help using the logic of formal economic analyses when considering policy options.

Legislators’ Tools provides materials to help legislators do their jobs, including shortcuts for using this website and questions to ask to critically review the information about climate change economics that is being provided to them by advocates and various business interests

The Climate Change Library contains documents on the economics of climate change, including newspaper articles, testimony and reports, academic articles and other material-all rated for their readability by non-economists.

Web Resources provides a growing index of web sites offering commentary and analysis on climate change economics and the more general issues of mitigation and adaptation to climate change.