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diff --git a/reading-log.md b/reading-log.md index c8fcee4..39cf3ca 100644 --- a/reading-log.md +++ b/reading-log.md @@ -6,6 +6,31 @@ author: Joe Carstairs ## 2026-04-15 +## @{net-zero} + +A very calm, practical book. Economics for a popular audience. The big idea: we +need unilateral action, not multilateral. Each nation that obeys these three +principles will eliminate their contribution to climate change in the cheapest +and most effective way: polluter pays, public money for public goods, net +environmental benefit. Decarbonisation is costly, a carbon tax is the most efficient way of pricing this cost in. + +I found him persuasive. + +I was surprised to see his statistics showing that the world as a whole has done +nothing to stop causing climate change, and has continued to accelerate at the +same rate. However, I was convinced, because of his pivot from looking at +production to looking at consumption. While Europe has hugely decreased its +contribution to carbon production, its contribution to carbon consumption has +not budged, because it has offshored its heavy industries to China, where those +industries are fuelled by coal. + +It was not particularly hope-inspiring. It put the onus on national politicians, +and I already don't feel hopeful that national politicians in the UK or much +anywhere else are capable of doing anything sensible. He persuaded me that this +is a sensible, practical course of action, but not that there is any likelihood +that it will happen nor that there is anything beyond mere token acts that I can +do to change anything. + ### @{heat} George Monbiot had a hard-nosed pop-science proposal for the cheapest way we |