Speaking of Nobel Prizes....

[JayB]

Fascinating stuff. Actually has some bearing on the "C02 Emissions Problem," and Gore and his acolytes would do well to acquaint themselves with it.

 

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2007/ecoadv07.pdf

[cj001f]

psst: it's not a Nobel Prize.

[foraker]

One thing I'd like to see in this entire 'discussion' is a separation of the science versus policy. There are a lot of valid questions and concerns about what, if anything, we can/should do about warming trends. However, I'm really tired of listening to the diatribes of amateur scientists on teh intertubes who clearly didn't pass high school science class but now see themselves as well-informed scientific critics.

[JayB]

I generally agree with that sentiment, but one could make the same statement concerning scientists championing specific policies to address C02 emissions when they have next to no qualifications or experience in the areas that are necessary to construct them well.

 

One reason why I thought that this work was so interesting is that it deals with how to (and not to) structure incentive systems to best achieve a specific outcome in cases where you're dealing with public goods.

 

 

 

[foraker]

I generally agree with that sentiment, but one could make the same statement concerning scientists championing specific policies to address C02 emissions when they have next to no qualifications or experience in the areas that are necessary to construct them well.

 

One reason why I thought that this work was so interesting is that it deals with how to (and not to) structure incentive systems to best achieve a specific outcome in cases where you're dealing with public goods.

 

Some scientists, being human beings and citizens, will go out on a limb and suggest policy changes. We certainly free to accept or reject them. That said, if you've read the IPCC science sections and talked to the the authors and editors, you'll know that they go to great, sometimes ridiculous, lengths to avoid anything that even looks like a policy suggestion. They are incredibly aware about how much scrutiny they are under.