Sunday, May 21, 2006

TCS Daily - An Economy of Davids

Today was the middle of the May long weekend in Canada, the traditional "start" of the summer cottage season. In some parts of Southern Ontario, it snowed. I don't suspect the various media will comment on this event as "evidence" that global warming is not occurring. Nor should they, as weather and climate are two distinct entities. But I do wonder, if the temperatures had been in the high 20s C. how many stories would have appeared about the "warmest" May holiday weekend on record, etc..

The media are highly selective about what they report and the school system is even more set in what it teaches. Therefore, we should not be surprised that many ecomyths persist long past their due date: long after real facts are in evidence that not only dispute the myth but utterly defeat it.

As is the case with Keynesian economics and its later popularization by Galbraith. As I posted earlier this month (May 6), Galbraith was more moralist than economist, which is part of his enduring popularity with environmentalists, particularly those who don't wish to acknowledge that the world has changed and that change continues faster than ever. Many don't like it and/or fail to understand it: and, what we don't understand we seek to deny or destroy.

Critiquing is easy. Envisioning alternatives, being creative and understanding future change is hard. Which is why so few attempt to do it and even fewer are successful. Today's post gives an excellent introduction and context to the impact on economy of technology, especially the trends underpinning the present era of globalization. Trends that negate the stasist theory of economics and constitute the dynamics of contemporary global change.