Germany’s energy policy is expensive, harmful and short-sighted

83.9 KPCC AirTalk with Larry Mantle Episode: AirTalk for November 12, 2010

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Global warming is real. But climate activist Bjorn Lomborg says it’s not so bad and Al Gore is an inconvenient truth-stretcher. Yes, we need to do something about it--but will manufacturing millions of compact fluorescent bulbs really help? 

2013-12-12 Trade-offs are an inherent part of life. We all recognize this from our private budgets. To fix the roof, we may have to accept a less extravagant summer vacation. When we pick a cheaper wine, we can splurge on dessert.  Trade-offs also pervade environmental policy: Cutting more of one pollutant, for example, leaves fewer resources to address other issues. For example, coal is phenomenally polluting, but it also provides for cheap and reliable power, which drives development.

Is global warming to blame for the Syrian war? Democratic presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke and Bernie Sanders seem to think so. At the CNN climate town hall this month, Buttigieg and O'Rourke referred to climate change as a national security threat that contributed to causing the Syrian civil war. “Wars that were precipitated by climate change, like Syria, will pale in comparison to the wars that we see in the future,” O'Rourke warned. Both candidates follow the lead of Sanders, who has long claimed that “climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism”.