Monday, February 25, 2008

"Big foot" in the New Yorker

Michael Specter has a smart article in last week's New Yorker on the practical and ethical challenges of measuring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It touches on the complications of food miles – e.g., food may be produced more efficiently in Africa - the need for a carbon price, and how reducing deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia is the lowest of the low hanging greenhouse gas fruit.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I came across your Big Foot review. I enjoyed his article too, though I thought he cozied up to idea of cap and trade too easily. I think cap and trade is a bad and even dangerous idea that is taking hold without enough thought. I recently read a wonderful book on clean energy by S. David Freeman called Winning Our Energy Independence: An Insider Shows Us How. I loved it so much I wrote a book review, if you're interested: http://www.chasingcleanair.com/chasing_clean_air/2008/03/winning-our-ene.html

I'm looking to leave Los Angeles for a clean air destination, and will travel to British Columbia in the near future. I'm looking forward to exploring your beautiful areas.

Simon Donner said...

True, there are pros and cons to cap and trade. There are also people devoting a lot of research and time to designing an effective, equitable system. Unfortunately, a lot of other people advocate cap-and-trade simply because it is pro-market, without giving much thought to the details.