carbon tax
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On dangerous air & the damnation of cyanobacteria.
Like us, cyanobacteria flourished! And in their exuberance, they poisoned their world.
air pollution, anthropocene, atmosphere, atmospheric carbon, atmospheric composition, bistability, buffered systems, calamity, carbon, carbon dioxide, carbon emission, carbon emissions, carbon tax, climate change, climate destabilization, climate justice, CO2, Covid, Covid-19, cyanobacteria, divine retribution, endosymbiosis, evolution of early animals, evolution of life, extinction, global warming, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gases, invisible dangers, justice, mass extinction, More Dangerous Air, oxygen, oxygen concentration, pollution, punishment, retribution, stromatolites, tipping point
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On apocalypse clocks.
It’s 10:58 a.m. If we’re still here at 7:26 p.m., we die. Can we escape? Not if we roast ourselves at 10:59.
24 hours, 24-hour geological clock, apocalypse, carbon dioxide, carbon emissions, carbon tax, climate change, climate destabilization, cognitive gaps, desertification, end of life, end of life on Earth, escape from Earth, evolution, evolutionary time, extinction, geological clock, geology, global warming, greenhouse gases, human evolution, human folly, humans arose in last 2 minutes, humans arose in last minute, illustrating data, illustrating time, interstellar migration, life of the sun, life on Earth in a single day, lifespan of the sun, lifetime of the sun, Marcia Bjornerud, mass extinction, representing data, representing time, representing time as a day, Revelation, review of Timefulness, space exploration, thinking like a geologist, Timefulness, Timefulness review
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On suboptimal optimization.
If you’re hoping that self-driving cars will prevent traffic jams, think again. They might be designed to make traffic worse.
Adam Millard-Ball, AI, artificial intelligence, atomic weapons, automation, capitalism, carbon costs, carbon emissions, carbon emissions from driving, carbon tax, climate change, cost benefit analysis, cost to park, did Heisenberg know linear algebra, driving, economics, finite, finite mathematics, general education requirements, global warming, graffiti that confuses self-driving cars, Heisenberg, Heisenberg and linear algebra, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, intentionally causing traffic jams, linear algebra, linear optimization, math, math panic, matrices, matrix, maximizing utility, minimizing costs, negative externalities, nuclear weapons, parking, parking fees, parking in cities, philosophy, pollution, pollution is free, pricing carbon, pricing externalities, public utility, quantum mechanics, robot cars, robot drivers, self-driving car, self-driving cars causing traffic jams, taxing carbon, taxing emissions, taxing pollution, teaching math, traffic, traffic laws, traffic patterns, trolley problem, university degree, university policies, university policy, usage fees, Werner Heisenberg, why didn’t Germany have atomic weapons, why is it free to pollute, why isn’t pollution taxed
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On two degrees and the worst year (yet) to be alive.
We’re hoping to limit climate change to two degrees … but even two degrees could turn our world into a terrible place to live.
536, 536 A.D., archaeology, atmospheric science, borrow Earth from our children, borrow the land from our children, carbon, carbon cycle, carbon economy, carbon emissions, carbon neutral, carbon tax, climate change, climate cycle, climate instability, crops, Dark Ages, Facebook, famine, feedback loop, food crops, forests, global warming, great depletion, greenhouse gases, heat sink, inherit the Earth, loss of fecundity, melting ice caps, Michael McCormick, most privileged generation, moving south for the winter, science, server farms, trains, trees, two degrees, two degrees Celsius, Venus, Venus was habitable, violence, volcano, weather, Wendell Berry, worst year to be alive
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On the water-fueled car.
Sometimes our fear of spooky, covert conspiracies makes us overlook the people blatantly conspiring to destroy us.
Ashes, automobiles, Berenstain Bears, Berenstain Bears conspiracy, Berenstein Bears, brancing points, carbon, carbon economy, carbon emissions, carbon tax, chemistry, choice of universe, climate change, cold fusion, combustion, comic, common mistakes, conspiracy, conspiracy theories, conspiracy theory, consumerism, decoherence, energy conversion, Evil Dave versus Regular Dave, false memory, fuel, fuel efficiency, gasoline, global warming, Hugh Everett, jail, Mandela Effect, mass incarceration, octane, oil companies, Old Hat New Hate, pollution, power, prison, prophecy, quantum collapse, quantum mechanics, reaction diagrams, Second Law of Thermodynamics jail poetry, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, thermodynamics, water cars, water-fueled car, wavefunction, webcomic
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On free-market economics & the actual meaning of words.
Despite being rather politically liberal, I consider myself a free market economist. (Maybe it’s unfair to self-describe as an economist, though? I did the coursework for a master’s degree in economics… but couldn’t get a degree because I didn’t complete the residency requirement. I was enrolled as an undergraduate at the time, and apparently would’ve…
basic research, beekeeping, CAFOs, cap and trade versus carbon tax, capital gains tax, carbon tax, Collapse, definition of fortuitous, definition of peruse, do taxes make people work less, Easter Island, economics, education spending, fortuitous, free market, free market distortions, free market economist, free-market fundamentalist, government subsidies, health spending, infrastructure, infrastructure spending, James Surowiecki, Jared Diamond, Joseph Stiglitz, market solutions, market solutions versus government solutions, mis-used words, misused words, New York Review of Books, patent protections, peruse, politicians misusing words, politics, pollution, positive externalities, pro-life, progressive taxation, right-wing economist, Stiglitz, subsidies, tax on high earners, taxation, taxing negative externalities, Thomas Friedman, tragedy of the commons, why does Easter Island have no trees, Why I Am Pro-Life, Why the Rich Are So Much Richer
Frank Brown Cloud 