ABSTRACT: In a disturbing discussion-list post, Al Bartlett http://bit.ly/19jfGEU wrote that his non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, previously dormant, has returned such that doctors give him “30 days, plus or minus.” As a tribute, it may be appropriate to publicize one of Al’s latest attempts to emphasize the crucial but under-appreciated importance of overpopulation.
In his pungent Population Press letter “Close the Fire Department!” soon to be online at http://populationpress.org/, Al describes his experience at a recent AAAS symposium on sustainability where a panelist, in answer to his question as to why the obvious benefits of reducing our present overpopulation were never mentioned, explained that “United Nations figures show that the growth rate of world population is declining and world population growth is expected to stop on its own later in the century. So the population is under control and there is no need to worry ourselves about it at this time.”
Al responded by inviting the panelist to come with him to City Hall and seek to convince city government that it doesn’t need a Fire Department since it's an established fact that all fires will eventually go out!
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To access the complete 14 kB post please click on http://yhoo.it/12mMNFH.
Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Links to Articles: http://bit.ly/a6M5y0
Links to Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) Labs: http://bit.ly/9nGd3M
Academia: http://bit.ly/a8ixxm
Blog: http://bit.ly/9yGsXh
GooglePlus: http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE
Google Scholar: http://bit.ly/Wz2FP3
Twitter: http://bit.ly/juvd52
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/XI7EKm
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/14uycpW
REFERENCES [URL shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 25 July 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. “Sad News About Al Bartlett,” online on the OPEN! Net-Gold archives at http://yhoo.it/12mMNFH. Post of 25 Jul 2013 10:56:39-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are being distributed to various discussion lists.
Showing posts with label Sustainability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sustainability. Show all posts
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Would a Carbon Tax Alone Save Life on Planet Earth? Probably Not: Overpopulation Must Also Be Addressed
Some blog followers might be interested in a recent post “Would a Carbon Tax Alone Save Life on Planet Earth? Probably Not: Overpopulation Must Also Be Addressed” [Hake (2013)]. The abstract reads:
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ABSTRACT (CAPS in quotes are mine): As I pointed out in a post “Would a Carbon Tax Save Life on Planet Earth?” [Hake (2013a)] at http://yhoo.it/16ECfUn, Hansen & Romm (2013) at http://bit.ly/12djtSf wrote:
“We must have a simple, honest, across-the-board carbon fee COLLECTED FROM THE FOSSIL FUEL COMPANIES AT THE SMALL NUMBER OF DOMESTIC MINES AND PORTS OF ENTRY. All of that money should be distributed to the public -100 percent of it - with equal amounts going to all legal residents.”
Art Hobson (2013a) in an OpEd “Our planet passes a climate benchmark” at http://bit.ly/19tBwGD made a similar point but did not indicate, as did Hansen & Romm, that the carbon fee should be “collected from the fossil fuel companies at the small number of domestic mines and ports of entry.”
Al Bartlett (2013a) responded at http://bit.ly/10loNjf to Hobson's OpEd thusly:
“Here I want to comment on the FIRST OF TWO OMISSIONS in your otherwise excellent and comprehensive presentation. . . . . The ‘stop emissions’ is right on but unrealistic. As long as there are humans on earth, emissions of CO2 will continue at some level. It seems to me to be more realistic to say that: ‘We must embark on a long-term program of continually reducing the annual number of tons per year of greenhouse gases that are released world-wide into the Earth's atmosphere.’ . . . . [To do this] we have to STOP GLOBAL POPULATION GROWTH AND THEN REDUCE THE SIZE OF THE GLOBAL POPULATION TO SOME "SUSTAINABLE" LEVEL. And in a later post Bartlett (2013b) at http://bit.ly/11Og32G stated: “You did state that the solution is to put a tax on carbon. . . . . . The next question that needs to be addressed is: Given the real world in which we live, WHAT IS THE PROBABILITY THAT ON ANY USEFUL TIME SCALE WE CAN ACHIEVE THE GOAL . . . .. OF STOPPING CARBON EMISSIONS BY MEANS OF . . . . . . .PUTTING A TAX ON CARBON?”
Bartlett (2013c) discussed the SECOND OMISSION in a post “Exporting U.S. Fossil Fuels” at http://bit.ly/14sPuBM, stating: “Art and most of the environmentalists who strongly advocate the reduction of U.S. carbon emissions omit one important point. The U.S. exports a significant fraction of the coal that it mines. Thus U.S. coal is burned in other countries where it makes about the same contribution to global warming as it would have if it had been burned in the U.S.”
Hobson (2013a) may have “missed a point,” but Hansen & Romm (2013) did not!
As indicated above they, unlike Hobson, specified that “the carbon fee should be collected from the fossil fuel companies AT THE SMALL NUMBER OF DOMESTIC MINES and ports of entry.” Thus Hansen & Romm's carbon tax would discourage coal mining in the U.S. regardless of whether or not U.S. coal is shipped out of the U.S.
Hobson, in a response at http://bit.ly/124gGEU appeared to be unaware of Hansen & Romm (2013) and failed to make the above argument. But Hobson agreed with Bartlett that THE OVERPOPULATION PROBLEM NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE IMPOSITION OF A CARBON TAX. I also agree with Bartlett - see e.g. “L.A. Times Population Report: Beyond 7 Billion - Fighting the Last War?” [Hake (2012)] online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/TeOpJj.
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To access the complete 27 kB post please click on http://yhoo.it/1aRLIqF .
Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Links to Articles: http://bit.ly/a6M5y0
Links to Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) Labs: http://bit.ly/9nGd3M
Academia: http://bit.ly/a8ixxm
Blog: http://bit.ly/9yGsXh
GooglePlus: http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE
Google Scholar: http://bit.ly/Wz2FP3
Twitter: http://bit.ly/juvd52
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/XI7EKm
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/14uycpW
“If any fraction, large or small, of the observed global warming
Can be attributed to the actions of humans,
Then this is positive proof that the human population,
Living as we do,
Has exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth.”
- Al Bartlett (2013a)
REFERENCES [URLs shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 27 June 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. “Would a Carbon Tax Alone Save Life on Planet Earth? Probably Not: Overpopulation Must Also Be Addressed.” Online on the OPEN! Net-Gold archives at http://yhoo.it/1aRLIqF. Post of 27 Jun 2013 14:55:33-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are being distributed to various discussion lists.
********************************************
ABSTRACT (CAPS in quotes are mine): As I pointed out in a post “Would a Carbon Tax Save Life on Planet Earth?” [Hake (2013a)] at http://yhoo.it/16ECfUn, Hansen & Romm (2013) at http://bit.ly/12djtSf wrote:
“We must have a simple, honest, across-the-board carbon fee COLLECTED FROM THE FOSSIL FUEL COMPANIES AT THE SMALL NUMBER OF DOMESTIC MINES AND PORTS OF ENTRY. All of that money should be distributed to the public -100 percent of it - with equal amounts going to all legal residents.”
Art Hobson (2013a) in an OpEd “Our planet passes a climate benchmark” at http://bit.ly/19tBwGD made a similar point but did not indicate, as did Hansen & Romm, that the carbon fee should be “collected from the fossil fuel companies at the small number of domestic mines and ports of entry.”
Al Bartlett (2013a) responded at http://bit.ly/10loNjf to Hobson's OpEd thusly:
“Here I want to comment on the FIRST OF TWO OMISSIONS in your otherwise excellent and comprehensive presentation. . . . . The ‘stop emissions’ is right on but unrealistic. As long as there are humans on earth, emissions of CO2 will continue at some level. It seems to me to be more realistic to say that: ‘We must embark on a long-term program of continually reducing the annual number of tons per year of greenhouse gases that are released world-wide into the Earth's atmosphere.’ . . . . [To do this] we have to STOP GLOBAL POPULATION GROWTH AND THEN REDUCE THE SIZE OF THE GLOBAL POPULATION TO SOME "SUSTAINABLE" LEVEL. And in a later post Bartlett (2013b) at http://bit.ly/11Og32G stated: “You did state that the solution is to put a tax on carbon. . . . . . The next question that needs to be addressed is: Given the real world in which we live, WHAT IS THE PROBABILITY THAT ON ANY USEFUL TIME SCALE WE CAN ACHIEVE THE GOAL . . . .. OF STOPPING CARBON EMISSIONS BY MEANS OF . . . . . . .PUTTING A TAX ON CARBON?”
Bartlett (2013c) discussed the SECOND OMISSION in a post “Exporting U.S. Fossil Fuels” at http://bit.ly/14sPuBM, stating: “Art and most of the environmentalists who strongly advocate the reduction of U.S. carbon emissions omit one important point. The U.S. exports a significant fraction of the coal that it mines. Thus U.S. coal is burned in other countries where it makes about the same contribution to global warming as it would have if it had been burned in the U.S.”
Hobson (2013a) may have “missed a point,” but Hansen & Romm (2013) did not!
As indicated above they, unlike Hobson, specified that “the carbon fee should be collected from the fossil fuel companies AT THE SMALL NUMBER OF DOMESTIC MINES and ports of entry.” Thus Hansen & Romm's carbon tax would discourage coal mining in the U.S. regardless of whether or not U.S. coal is shipped out of the U.S.
Hobson, in a response at http://bit.ly/124gGEU appeared to be unaware of Hansen & Romm (2013) and failed to make the above argument. But Hobson agreed with Bartlett that THE OVERPOPULATION PROBLEM NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE IMPOSITION OF A CARBON TAX. I also agree with Bartlett - see e.g. “L.A. Times Population Report: Beyond 7 Billion - Fighting the Last War?” [Hake (2012)] online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/TeOpJj.
********************************************
To access the complete 27 kB post please click on http://yhoo.it/1aRLIqF .
Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Links to Articles: http://bit.ly/a6M5y0
Links to Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) Labs: http://bit.ly/9nGd3M
Academia: http://bit.ly/a8ixxm
Blog: http://bit.ly/9yGsXh
GooglePlus: http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE
Google Scholar: http://bit.ly/Wz2FP3
Twitter: http://bit.ly/juvd52
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/XI7EKm
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/14uycpW
“If any fraction, large or small, of the observed global warming
Can be attributed to the actions of humans,
Then this is positive proof that the human population,
Living as we do,
Has exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth.”
- Al Bartlett (2013a)
REFERENCES [URLs shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 27 June 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. “Would a Carbon Tax Alone Save Life on Planet Earth? Probably Not: Overpopulation Must Also Be Addressed.” Online on the OPEN! Net-Gold archives at http://yhoo.it/1aRLIqF. Post of 27 Jun 2013 14:55:33-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are being distributed to various discussion lists.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, FREE Online Books
Some blog followers might be interested in the post “Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, FREE Online Books)” [Hake (2010b)]. The abstract reads:
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ABSTRACT: Some subscribers may not be aware of the FREE online book “Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air” [MacKay (2009)] dedicated to “those who will not have the benefit of two billion years' accumulated energy reserves,” and favorably reviewed by John Roeder (2009) and David Hafemeister (2010). This post:
(a) contains brief excerpts from those reviews;
(b) lists three other free online books that may be of interest: "Teaching Physics With the Physics Suite" (Redish, 2003)], "Science Teaching as a Profession: Why It Isn't How It Could Be" (Tobias & Baffert, 2009), and “Educational Psychology” (Seifert & Sutton, 2009);
(c) quotes from Steven Pearlstein (2010) on trends in publishing and James Koch (2006) on escalating college textbook prices; and
(d) references “Over Two-Hundred Education & Science Blogs” (Hake, 2009b) for references on OPEN ACCESS, internet usage, the Academic Discussion List Sphere (ADLsphere) and the Blogosphere.
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To access the complete 13 kB post please click on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/31840.
REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy http://tinyurl.com/create.php .]
Hake, R.R. 2010a. “Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air, FREE Online Books,” online on the Physoc archives at http://tinyurl.com/yb6h8ew. Post of 8 Feb 2010 21:43:39-0600 to AP-Physics, Phys-L, Physhare, and PhysLrnR (submitted to the moderator). To access the archives of PHYSOC one needs to subscribe, but that takes only a few minutes by clicking on http://listserv.uark.edu/archives/physoc.html and then clicking on "Join or leave the list (or change settings)." If you're busy, then subscribe using the "NOMAIL" option under "Miscellaneous." Then, as a subscriber, you may access the archives and/or post messages at any time, while receiving NO MAIL from the list!
Hake, R.R. 2010b. “Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, FREE Online Books,” online on the OPEN! Net-Gold archives at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/31840. Post of 9 Feb 2010 09:05:16-0800 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. For a preliminary and less refined version of this post see Hake (2010a).
MacKay, D.J.C. 2009. “Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air,” online at http://www.withouthotair.com. To download a high-resolution copy of the entire book click on http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sustainable/book/tex/sewtha.pdf (49.2 MB) - Version 3.5.2. November 3, 2008. This (as well as the low resolution version) displays color and has the advantage of accommodating MacKay's expectation “to further update some of the numbers in this book as I continue to learn about sustainable energy.”
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