Posted in Daily notes on Sep 1st, 2010
The world’s most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and “a challenge humanity must confront”, in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby. Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled “sceptical environmentalist” once compared to Adolf [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Aug 23rd, 2010
STRANGE AND WONDERFUL: An Informal Visual History of Manuscript Books and Albums (Sanctuary, $50), with an introduction by the art critic Jed Perl. But there are selections from a delightful handmade book called “Collezione di Rebus” (1820), with original watercolor drawings that replace words in sentences or phrases. This was produced 27 years before Oliver [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Aug 23rd, 2010
But social scientists have identified another major reason: Climate change has become an ideologically polarizing issue. It taps into deep personal identities and causes what Dan Kahan of Yale calls “protective cognition” — we judge things in part on whether we see ourselves as rugged individualists mastering nature or as members of interconnected societies who [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Aug 23rd, 2010
People have to make choices among many risks. Part of the skepticism towards climate change is based on fear that climate responses require global institutions and global management, and that is seen as high risk because “global management will be by elites that make big government and big corporations and screw us”. Science has the [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Aug 23rd, 2010
Re the previous post, Rifkin quotes Steve schneider “…To be risk averse is good policy in my VALUE SYSTEM–and we always must admit that how to take risk — with climate damages or costs of mitigation/adaptation — is not science but world views and risk aversion philosophy — and whether you fear more the type [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Aug 23rd, 2010
What if the Public Had Perfect Climate Information? By ANDREW C. REVKIN Not surprisingly, Joe Romm, “ America’s fiercest climate blogger,” has assaulted my piece examining ways in which scientists might make scientific information on issues like global warming more impactful. How could I write such a piece — he says — without also including a big [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Aug 20th, 2010
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Posted in Daily notes on Aug 19th, 2010
Pasted from <http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=657> Simon Glezos Excerpts.. I want to challenge the conception of a hard break between an immaterial and material capitalism, arguing there might be more continuity between the two than first appears. The question remains whether this might not be the latest incarnation of a similar transition that has [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Aug 19th, 2010
Thinking about paradoxes. Large government not liked but situation increasingly complex. Best method of coping? Goal quality of life but concentration of wealth causes problems, including excess of capital over investment opportunities, and the drive to go for financial instruments for high returns vs. the slow returns of investing in actual production. [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Aug 18th, 2010
Thinking about paradoxes. Large government not liked but situation increasingly complex. Best method of coping? Goal quality of life but concentration of wealth causes problems, including excess of capital over investment opportunities, and the drive to go for financial instruments for high returns vs. the slow returns of investing in actual production. [...]