How's this for irony? Global warming has gotten so bad in Alaska that it is no longer possible for oil companies to go up there and drill for more oil. According to a story in the Houston Chronicle:
Posted by Clive Thompson at July 27, 2003 09:59 PM
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Tracked on August 4, 2003 10:58 PM
» Wednesday, July 30, 2003 10:44 PM from Critical Section
Here's a strange feedback loop... The Houston Chronicle reports: "Global warming, which most climate experts blame mainly on large-scale burning of oil and other fossil fuels, is interfering with efforts in Alaska to discover yet more oil." [ via... [Read More]
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Well, this is grim and cynical, but I can only imagine that the 'state rule' that protects the Arctic environment will be changed to allow heavy equipment to be used when those conditions are not even close to being met. I'm sure there are oil-industry lobbyists working on it right now.
Fortunately, it'll probably be a long time before it is cost-effective to use refrigeration to maintain the permafrost, as they do for diamond mines.
Posted by: debcha at July 28, 2003 11:21 AM
Yes, I think that's precisely what's happening. There's a ton of oil money going into the lobbying as we speak ...
Posted by: Clive at July 28, 2003 11:24 AM
wow. thats some really pro-active policy making up there in Alaska. uh yeah.
Posted by: brent at July 28, 2003 12:06 PM
Posted by: Clive at July 28, 2003 2:38 PM
This is a very cool example of a policy-induced negative feedback loop
The loop: As oil is burned up, global warming increases, permafrost decreases and (because of policy) oil production goes down, thereby decreasing global warming. (more of a wave than a loop but what the hell)
Trouble is, like the loop which most economists blab on about (i.e. as resource use increases, resources become scarce, thereby costing more, therby decreasing demand for resources) it is not self-correcting, there is loads of potential for overconsumption/damage while waiting for demand to adjust, and the damage that is done is often irreversible (ie the resources usually don't come back in the same way - 'renewable' or not)
What is nice about it is that it is directly connected to the natural systems impacted by the activity. Hope springs eternal.
Matt
Posted by: matt at August 1, 2003 9:58 AM
Yeah, consider the ironies here! Economists love to argue about the self-policing feedback loops of the free market. But when a self-policing loop emerges in the environment, businesspeople immediately begin working on changing laws to let us try and ignore the message the environment is sending us.
Humans are, when you think about it, an interesting problem in self-policing systems. In many cases, we're unable to see our own self-interest -- at which point the basic assumptions of economics vanish in a puff of logic.
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Well, this is grim and cynical, but I can only imagine that the 'state rule' that protects the Arctic environment will be changed to allow heavy equipment to be used when those conditions are not even close to being met. I'm sure there are oil-industry lobbyists working on it right now.
Fortunately, it'll probably be a long time before it is cost-effective to use refrigeration to maintain the permafrost, as they do for diamond mines.
Posted by: debcha at July 28, 2003 11:21 AM
Yes, I think that's precisely what's happening. There's a ton of oil money going into the lobbying as we speak ...
Posted by: Clive at July 28, 2003 11:24 AM
wow. thats some really pro-active policy making up there in Alaska. uh yeah.
Posted by: brent at July 28, 2003 12:06 PM
Classy stuff, alright.
Posted by: Clive at July 28, 2003 2:38 PM
This is a very cool example of a policy-induced negative feedback loop
The loop: As oil is burned up, global warming increases, permafrost decreases and (because of policy) oil production goes down, thereby decreasing global warming. (more of a wave than a loop but what the hell)
Trouble is, like the loop which most economists blab on about (i.e. as resource use increases, resources become scarce, thereby costing more, therby decreasing demand for resources) it is not self-correcting, there is loads of potential for overconsumption/damage while waiting for demand to adjust, and the damage that is done is often irreversible (ie the resources usually don't come back in the same way - 'renewable' or not)
What is nice about it is that it is directly connected to the natural systems impacted by the activity. Hope springs eternal.
Matt
Posted by: matt at August 1, 2003 9:58 AM
Yeah, consider the ironies here! Economists love to argue about the self-policing feedback loops of the free market. But when a self-policing loop emerges in the environment, businesspeople immediately begin working on changing laws to let us try and ignore the message the environment is sending us.
Humans are, when you think about it, an interesting problem in self-policing systems. In many cases, we're unable to see our own self-interest -- at which point the basic assumptions of economics vanish in a puff of logic.
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