posted by
Geoff on 2nd Jan 2013
2nd,Jan
Tim Worstall is a Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute. I first heard of the Adam Smith Institute a long time ago when I took an interest in Henry George’s land value tax. The Adam Smith Institute were looking after his papers for the Henry George Foundation.
I still like the idea of taxing the value of land that occurs – not because of the efforts of the owners – but because of the location of surrounding activity. A plot in Park Lane owes its value to it’s location in London next to Mayfair and Hyde Park not to any effort of the land owners. I also like the start of the Adam Smith Institute’s Planning in a free society which considers London as a case study for a “spontaneously planned future”:
Planning policy has proven to be one of the most resilient pillars of the post-war command-and-control state.
… [It has] an unswerving faith in the ability of a bureaucratic planning process to achieve superior outcomes to those achieved in the spontaneous order resulting from voluntary action.
I suppose I like their Planning in a free society for its criticism of some of my bêtes noires of the planning system such as the ridiculous green belt policy, the product of NIMBY self-interest and muddled thinking.
I am uplifted when I read the Adam Smith Institute’s web page Learning About Liberty – the Adam Smith Institute cares about liberty and freedom – just like I think I do. I met some of their people at a conference arranged jointly between the Fabian Society and the Adam Smith Institute (True! But it was a decade or so ago) and came to believe they have a set of principles that they think will make the world a better place.
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posted by
Geoff on 30th Dec 2012
30th,Dec
I have just received my copy of the latest Fabian Review titled “Green Space”. It has depressed me very greatly. It is not the omen for the New Year that I had hoped for. All the pieces in it are well written and discuss important issues particularly the attitudes of public on green issues. For example
But new polling conducted by YouGov for the Fabian Society and WWP shows a large majority of the public still support the transition to a low-carbon economy as both an economic opportunity and an environmental necessity.
Keith Allott, Head of climate change WWF-UK
and
This latest polling confirms that the idea of a green economy that can help the planet while also creating jobs and boosting economic growth is no longer a fringe issue to be dismissed as fanciful, or a product of the wishful-thinking left.
Cathy Jamieson, MP for Kilmarnock
Most of the main articles in the review are concerned with this issue and associated ideas – the public are ready to support “green growth” which will create jobs and save the environment. (But do remember Job creation doesn’t need economic growth.)
I think the tone is summed up by the title of an article by the political adviser to Greenpeace: “The foundation of one nation Labour is the place we live, the land upon which we depend, and the climate that surrounds us all, argues Ruth Davis”. Rousing stuff.
Its good that political people are trying to argue for action on climate change to be integrated in mainstream politics but my worry is that it will be too little too late. My problem with the Fabian Green Space is that in the 15000+ words and eight “green” articles there is little awareness of the seriousness of climate change or any recognition that the official line on climate change is disastrously behind real world climate change.
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posted by
admin on 16th Dec 2012
16th,Dec
When I heard that a draft report of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report had been leaked by a climate skeptic, I had a look at Chapter 9 (Evaluation of Climate Models) to see if the latest versions of their computer models were up to speed on the decline of Arctic sea ice. I wanted to see if the experimental climate scientist was correct when he told me
The trouble with climate modellers is that when there is conflict between their models and the real world, they believe their models.
At the beginning of the leaked draft, it says
There is very high confidence that CMIP5 models realistically simulate the annual cycle of Arctic sea-ice extent, and there is high confidence that they realistically simulate the trend in Arctic sea-ice extent over the past decades.
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posted by
Geoff on 9th Dec 2012
9th,Dec
Bluesky has posted a response from Connie Hedegaard about the European Commission and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Neven’s Sea Ice Blog. He got a more explicit response than I did.
CONNIE HEDEGAARD
MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN COMMlSS|ON 29. 11. 2012
Brussels,
Ares (2012) 1245303
Dear ….,
Thank you for your E-mail of 22 October 2012 concerning the melting rate of the Arctic sea ice.
The European Commission bases its climate policies on the best available science and on the scientific consensus of experts in the field of climate change. The scientific consensus view on this subject is re?ected in the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Fourth Assessment Report from 2007.
The Fourth Assessment Report (AR) already anticipated that the sea ice extent will reduce in the Arctic at a significant pace and that this may have an effect on the occurrence of extreme events. The recent reports and measurements provide the evidence of what was predicted. The question, though, that requires further scientific clarification in the next IPCC AR, currently under preparation and due in 2014, is whether the pace of sea ice decline in the Arctic is accelerating.
In addition, the Commission is committing increasing resources in communicating the latest developments in climate policy (http://ec.europa.eu/clima/news/index_en.htm), engaging the general public with the campaign “A World You Like in a Climate You Like” (http://world-you-like.europa.eu/en/), and reaching out to the public through social media (facebook, twitter, flickr, pinterest).
Yours sincerely
Connie Hedegaard
This is not credible to me. Perhaps Connie hasn’t seen what Kevin Anderson is saying?
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posted by
Geoff on 27th Sep 2012
27th,Sep
This is work in progress and may change
A response to a the Call for Sites Consultation
from the City of York Council
September 2012
This is a submission for sites to be considered for development in York. The key issues concern
- The ownership of land and options on land
- The carbon footprint of new buildings
- The provision of housing that is truly affordable
- The growth of environmentally sustainable economic activity.
The ownership of land and options on land.
I have outlined most of the undeveloped land within the York boundary which avoids clusters of houses because their mixed ownership is likely to promote conflict. (e.g. The houses in a terrace of houses are likely to be owned by several different householders so nearby development would need their views to be taken into account.)
The area outlined in this submission is 15371.3 hectares. At ten homes to the hectare there is room for 153,713 dwellings. This is far in excess of York’s needs.
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posted by
Geoff on 25th Aug 2012
25th,Aug
The BEEB may be the best we’ve got but they get important issues – like climate change – very wrong. To help them out I’m going to tweet advice to the BEEB (as @GeoffBeacon) and publish the tweets on www.tweetstothebeeb.com. Before the site goes live they will be here.
Tweets to the BEEB
—
WHYS Myles: Sandy a category 1 not the worst cat 5. ESA: largest Atlantic hurricane on record Explain!
—
Listened to about the rich keeping climate change off the agenda then tells me @OnePlanetBBC has been scrapped!
—
could get in by adding Logged here
—
WHYS Climate attribution …”one for the scholars not for ordinary people”? Scholar Myles Allen?
—
You better hide Bloomberg story somewhere obscure on your foreign pages Oh! You did.
—
@rogerharrabin @BBCAmos @davidshukmanbbc Frankenstorm Look for news on Jennifer Saunders – put her in your #BBCbalance
—
@JeremyLeggett @BBCNewsnight Jennifer Francis never mentioned by #BadBeebClimate EU also problem
—
@rogerharrabin Frankenstorm. So not too much can be read into “wierd weather”?
—
@rogerharrabin Jennifer Francis is “getting more attention as the weather careers from one extreme to another.”
—
@rogerharrabin Scientists saying no weird weather should be bbc-balanced with Jennifer Francis
—
flood season was in winter – now often in summer but no “long-term trend”. What??
—
Google news search “food climate site:” shames BBC reporting
—
The Mail reports Tim Lang on R4 BBC website doesn’t?
—
Vicki Hird: Climate change is already damaging food production... Ooh! Tuck it away at the end
—
@BBCAmos @davidshukmanbbc Greenland’s ‘Ice Quakes’ Record More to ignore here
—
@davidshukmanbbc ‘big melt’ … You may have your facts wrong. See wayne’s comment here
—
@davidshukmanbbc ‘big melt’ Why the quotes? And don’t mention food security!
—
@rincon_p Christoffersen knows little about what less sea ice does so ask JF.
—
Note for Connie Hedegaard, EU Climate Commissioner BEEB! Look too! @BBCAmos @davidshukmanbbc
—
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posted by
Geoff on 29th Jul 2012
29th,Jul
Andy F [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Terraces and slums
Attitudes to housing are often driven by style and prejudice. Urban terraced housing is a good example. As a boy in the fifties, I remember thinking it odd that the prime minister lived at 10 Downing Street, which was a terraced house – as if the country could not manage anything better.
This prejudice took many forms and created many disasters for people who lived in perfectly sound houses only to find that “the authorities” declared them to be unfit for human habitation so that they were demolished and the owners given a few pounds site value. The prejudice was built on real cases. The History of York website says this:
Joseph Rowntree’s son, Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, undertook a comprehensive survey of the city’s poor in 1899. By that time, the Bedern tenements had gone, but Seebohm Rowntree still found evidence of appalling hardship.
Nearly 3,000 families lived in what Rowntree classed as sub-standard housing, many in slums. These were cramped, cold and dirty without proper water supplies and with overflowing privies shared by many households.
And this
The poor areas of York were filthy and stalked by disease. Human waste was left to accumulate in the alleys until there was enough to be collected and added to huge dung hills like those at Layerthorpe Bridge and behind St Margaret’s Church in Walmgate. Animal manure was added to the stinking heap.
Water supplies came from contaminated wells, the polluted Ouse and the stagnant Foss.
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posted by
Geoff on 23rd Jul 2012
23rd,Jul
This was posted on the Labour Policy Portal in Septtember 2012. The Labour Policy Portal no longer operates. Thanks to Martin Leah for his help in editing.
Wealth distribution and the housing crisis
The planning system in the UK restricts the supply of buildings and other developments. This makes existing buildings as well as new developments more valuable. This wealth has not been fairly shared; it lies at the disposal of property owners. It is spent by people who inherit property, people who downsize and by the multitudes that are able to borrow against the value of this undeserved form of wealth generation. This takes from the poor and gives to the affluent and takes from the young and gives to the old.
The restriction on the supply of planning permission – not the shortage of land – that has caused the current housing crisis for not much more than 10% of the UK land area has been developed. Early returns from the recent census have led to headlines such as UK housing shortage turning under thirties into generation rent and Census reveals housing shortage. Search for “housing prices UK” and you will see the concerns even of the affluent classes: Parents have to house their grown children … and the grandchildren. The poor have been priced out of home ownership long ago.
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posted by
Geoff on 2nd Jun 2012
2nd,Jun
Is EU Policy on climate seriously out of date? Can anyone help me find out?
European Commission waits for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report
Last year a reply from the European Commission Directorate-General Climate Action told me that they rely on IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) when making judgements about individual pieces of climate research. This also indicated that the Commission were actively engaged with the IPCC processes, in particular the Fifth Assessment Report, which they expect will produce new comprehensive climate assessments in the coming years.
But is this fast enough?
I have contacted them again to ask how newer climate science (and not several years old) can be fed into policy making.
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posted by
Geoff on 16th May 2012
16th,May
At the Progress Annual Conference, Phil Collins of The Times, Peter Kellner of YouGov and Mary Riddell of The Daily Telegraph thought that a carbon tax to create jobs could become mainstream politics. The politician on the panel ducked the question.
They should read the article in the latest Fraser Economic Commentary (1), “The impact of the introduction of a carbon tax for Scotland”.
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