[H]appiness is achieved through a balanced approach to life by both individuals and societies. As individuals, we are unhappy if we are denied our basic material needs, but we are also unhappy if the pursuit of higher incomes replaces our focus on family, friends, community, compassion, and maintaining internal balance. As a society, it is one thing to organize economic policies to keep living standards on the rise, but quite another to subordinate all of society’s values to the pursuit of profit. [more]
Daily Archives: August 29, 2011
Against Bruce Everett’s “Climatistas”
I normally am rather skeptical about non-climatologists engaging in arguments about whether there is anthropogenic climate change or not (it’s better to rely on expert’s opinion here). However, I just read a powerful and informed response to Bruce Everett’s post about whom he calls “climatistas” – written by an economist, Frank Ackerman, but nevertheless worth reading (in the end, Ackerman’s main field of enquiry is the economics of climate change). Here is an excerpt:
In a recent blog post, Fletcher professor and former ExxonMobil executive Bruce Everett claims to have had hundreds of conversations with advocates of active climate protection over the last ten years. From these conversations he claims that they – an almost entirely unnamed group of “Climatistas” – make ever-changing, unsubstantiated arguments, and cannot answer his objections. [more]
The Sceptical Economist 