Oxymorons: Carnival of economics

April 3, 2007

It would be an oxymoron, were it a material carnival — but it’s a virtual carnival, right?

The Boring Made Dull hosts the XXXVIIth Carnival of Economics and Social Policy.

I’ve ignored economics a bit on this blog lately.  For you Texas high school economics teachers, the kids who need to pass economics have just realized they can graduate, and they’re going to get a little frantic thinking economics is hard and may stand in the way of their graduation march.  Perhaps you can find something in the carnival that will help you make the dismal science, less dismal for them.

For example, start with a good warm-up exercise that ought to fill one of the requirements on personal finance that is new this year:  10 Ways Retailers Make You Pay More.  It’s at the bottom of the carnival listings.  The others cover the housing bubble, health care, nutrition, philanthropy, and the Fed.  You’ll find something there you can use.

Leave a Comment » | Economics, Education, Freedom - Economic, Pedagogy, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Chief victim of global warming today: The U.S.

April 3, 2007

The Earth Policy Institute looks at numbers of people running from the effects of global warming and concludes that the U.S. has more global warming refugees than any other nation today, ironically. The U.S. is also the largest emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for the human component of global warming.

EPI estimates at least 250,000 people fled New Orleans and surrounding areas after Hurricane Katrina, in the single largest migration prompted by the effects of global warming.

In a press release, EPI’s president Lester R. Brown said:

Those of us who track the effects of global warming had assumed that the first large flow of climate refugees would likely be in the South Pacific with the abandonment of Tuvalu or other low-lying islands. We were wrong. The first massive movement of climate refugees has been that of people away from the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in late August 2005, forced a million people from New Orleans and the small towns on the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts to move inland either within state or to neighboring states, such as Texas and Arkansas. Although nearly all planned to return, many have not.

Financial markets act as if global warming is a fact, even with a few deniers still hanging on and the Bush administration’s not moving very fast as if it were concerned: Insurance companies refuse to issue new policies for homes for people living in certain hurricane-prone areas.

The market has spoken: Global warming is a problem we need to act against.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Stolen Moments: A green digest.

2 Comments | Current History, Disasters, Environmental protection, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Immigration, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell