A serious essay on the need to retire our old arguments and economic thinking. It is time that we, all of humanity, stopped using 18th-century economic paradigm(s) to solve vastly different 21st-century challenges. For starters, the global population has grown
In 2019, the 331 million people living within the United States spent an estimated $1.2 trillion to meet their combined needs for an array of energy services (EIA 2020). That is equivalent to an economy-wide per capita energy bill of about
John A. “Skip” Laitner The idea of stranded assets—that is, existing investments which have substantially less financial value as the result of market conditions impacted by climate change and/or the transition to a low carbon economy—is receiving greater attention in
John A. “Skip” Laitner Because I roam the desert a lot, the UV Index is something I pay attention to. It is an international standard that measures the strength of ultraviolet radiation from the sun at a given time and place.
John A. “Skip” Laitner There is a good deal of worry about the robustness of our nation’s future economy. And rightly so. Especially since the recession of 2008 and 2009, and as shown in the chart below, we still have
John A. “Skip” Laitner In the Sonoran Desert, where I live, the bizarre is very real. The heat of the sun and the harshness of the environment have forged an amazing assortment of wonderfully complex and adaptive life forms. The
There is neither a law of physics nor economics that prevents us from quadrupling the productive use of energy and other resources. Rather, it is much more an issue of imagination and our political will to get it done.
– John A. “Skip” Laitner