Jimbo

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Ah yes, "party near the exits" great phrase and great advice.

Climate Change: How to Invest for the Possibility

Experienced: Doubtless you will dismiss my comments ,above, as the ravings of a coal burning fanatic. Please note that I rode a bicycle to and from work most days of the week for the last 19 years before retiring. We have composted our household garbage for more than 30 years, we installed a very efficient solar water heater several years ago. We "farm" our back yard with 15 fruit trees, a large garden, and about 100 pineapple plants.All our appliances are energy certified and we use a clothes line for most drying. I could go on but I not only talk the talk, but I walk the walk.

Climate Change: How to Invest for the Possibility

Biomedives: there are also a large number of trained scientists who are skeptics about AGW. Astronomers at a well known observatory (Lowell in Northern Arizona) told me several years ago that they believe the main driver of global temperature, and much long term wet/dry cycles, are due to solar activity. My fear is that the Utopian movement has emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, Cambodia, etc. to seek to seize control of all human activity, in the name of "science" of course. There has always been a delay effect in the seasons: Summer warmth persists into the Fall and Winter cold persists into the Spring. The recently reported melting of glaciers could be reversed by the now observed significant drop in sunspot activity. We need more data and not breathless speculation. To access the scientists who are AGW skeptics, see the Heartland Institute.

Global Warming: Investment Implications

About 11,000 years ago, the world was in the grip of an ice age in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Ice was calculated to be 2,500 feet thick over most of New York and Long Island was a terminal moraine. Ice covered the midwest all the way to the north bank of the Ohio River. Then the world began to warm up dramatically and we are now in what geologists call an interglacial age. What caused this dramatic warming? It certainly can't be blamed on Peabody Coal or Exxon. The world has reportedly had much greater amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere in the past, but this has varied for reasons that seem implausible to blame on human activity. Several AGW advocates, including Al Gore and a professor at Stanford, have been quoted as saying that the problem has to be exaggerated to get the publics' attention and motivation. I submit this is very bad ethics and bad science. My cynical interpretation of all this is that, just like the French Revolution, The Soviet revolution, and others, the Utopian Impulse is irresistible to some people. The AGW folks want to seize the economy and control over society to achieve their "noble" goals. Aldous Huxley published "Brave New World" in 1932. If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it. Huxley forecast a grim world, controlled by a World Government that used science and technology to strangle mankind. Having said that, I believe the age of oil is coming to a close. The economic, and energy, costs of producing a barrel of oil is going to become economically impossible. We must move to a variety of energy sources. I fear that many "alternative" energy sources are, at present, impractical. But we should persevere in research and development.

The Truth About Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy (Part II)

A provocative, stimulating and thoughtful essay. I can only hope that some of the commenters who submitted critical comments are correct themselves. We are going to need all the help we can get.