Thursday Links
- The amount of thick sea ice in the Arctic in March appears to be way down in 2013 compared to prior years. Doesn't bode well for this year's melt season.
- Good sense on North Korea.
- The EIA is expecting gas prices to be about the same this summer as last year. That doesn't sound crazy - the US tight oil boom probably has some more to run, the Saudi's could also increase production a bit if necessary, and they can certainly lower production if prices get too low. So absent some unforeseen development (which can, I admit, very easily happen in the oil world), I'd expect (Brent) oil prices to stay in the general $100-$120 band where they've lived for the last couple of years, and then gas prices to stay around the same also.
- The spirit of Hugo Chavez lives on, it seems, and is influencing the presidential election that is about to happen.
- There are no grownups, says Paul Krugman. I fear this explains a lot about life in general.
- I love this Dave Roberts essay on how all aspects of the climate/environmental movement are important and necessary. More great stuff here.
- The state of the art in sustainable cities (Växjö, Sweden).
- Natural gas usage for electricity in 2013 is down significantly from the (very elevated) 2012 level due to higher natural gas prices.
Do you 100% agree with Paul Krugman?
ReplyDeleteI read that article and looked at his graph (he really needs to explain that a bit better).
Whenever I see an article like this, first I think of automation and where it can possibly go.
My belief is that a lot of people now living just aren't employable for meaningful work. By that I mean you are pretty much going to have to artificially manufacture something for them to do if you want "full employment."
I think past notions of "natural rates" of employment have much to do with the world as it is now, and certainly not what it appears to becoming.
Personally I really just kind of... ignore these economic things now. My thinking is pretty much "First you get the energy, then you get the resources, then you get the robots..."
I think economists are whistling past the graveyard of a world that is dead and gone, they just don't know it yet.
Well, and another link saz about British Columbia pest outbreak:
ReplyDeleteThe Beetles are coming ... from the BC to eastern parts of boreal forest. Percival Zhang better be quick with his hydrogen economy, or maybe its too late...