3. Growth Unlimited

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-72
Author(s):  
John S. Dryzek
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Earth Systems ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Long Term Trends

This chapter covers a response to the discourse of limits which stresses the unlimited capacity of ingenious humans to overcome ecological limits, especially when they are organized in capitalist markets. For Prometheans, long term trends show environmental improvement and declining resource scarcity, such that economic growth can therefore go on forever. This Promethean discourse has often been advanced by market economists, and has often been highly influential in government, especially in the United States. More recently a Promethean environmentalism looks forward to a ‘good Anthropocene’ in which government too plays a role in bringing natural systems under benign human control, so that technologies such as geoengineering can be used effectively against problems such as climate change. In the background of Promethean argument is an older cornucopian discourse that stresses natural abundance of resources and the capacity of ecosystems to absorb pollutants. Ecologists and Earth systems scientists are not convinced and remain critical of Promethean discourse.

Politicization and Polarization in Climate Change News Content, 1985-2017

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sedona Chinn ◽  
P. Sol Hart ◽  
Stuart Soroka
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Content Analyses ◽  
Long Term Trends

Despite concerns about politicization and polarization in climate change news, previous work has not been able to offer evidence concerning long-term trends. Using computer-assisted content analyses of all climate change articles from major newspapers in the United States between 1985 and 2017, we find that media representations of climate change have become (a) increasingly politicized, whereby political actors are increasingly featured and scientific actors less so and (b) increasingly polarized, in that Democratic and Republican discourses are markedly different. These findings parallel trends in U.S. public opinion, pointing to these features of news coverage as polarizing influences on climate attitudes.

Markets, Technological Change and Economic Growth (The Quaid-i-Azam Lecture)

1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (4I) ◽  
pp. 327-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Lipsey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industrial Countries ◽  
Canadian Institute ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Short Time

I am honoured to be invited to give this lecture before so distinguished an audience of development economists. For the last 21/2 years I have been director of a project financed by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and composed of a group of scholars from Canada, the United States, and Israel.I Our brief is to study the determinants of long term economic growth. Although our primary focus is on advanced industrial countries such as my own, some of us have come to the conclusion that there is more common ground between developed and developing countries than we might have first thought. I am, however, no expert on development economics so I must let you decide how much of what I say is applicable to economies such as your own. Today, I will discuss some of the grand themes that have arisen in my studies with our group. In the short time available, I can only allude to how these themes are rooted in our more detailed studies. In doing this, I must hasten to add that I speak for myself alone; our group has no corporate view other than the sum of our individual, and very individualistic, views.

scholarly journals American Engineering Doctoral Enrollments

2015 ◽  
pp. 23-24
Author(s):  
Richard Skinner
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
International Education ◽  
Doctoral Programs ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
Long Term Trends

International education has deep historical roots and has spurred relationships that persist for decades. In the case of the United States and the field of engineering, American dependence since the mid-1960s on other countries' students – especially Indian ones – for enrollments and graduates of engineering doctoral programs has been, is and will likely continue to be significant. But long-term trends portend a time when the appeal of American higher education may be less than has been the case.

scholarly journals Examining the Climatology of Shortwave Radiation in the Northeastern United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (10) ◽  
pp. 2869-2881
Author(s):  
Janel Hanrahan ◽  
Alexandria Maynard ◽  
Sarah Y. Murphy ◽  
Colton Zercher ◽  
Allison Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Predictor Variable ◽  
Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Long Term Trends

AbstractAs demand for renewable energy grows, so does the need for an improved understanding of renewable energy sources. Paradoxically, the climate change mitigation strategy of fossil fuel divestment is in itself subject to shifts in weather patterns resulting from climate change. This is particularly true with solar power, which depends on local cloud cover. However, because observed shortwave radiation data usually span a decade or less, persistent long-term trends may not be identified. A simple linear regression model is created here using diurnal temperature range (DTR) during 2002–15 as a predictor variable to estimate long-term shortwave radiation (SR) values in the northeastern United States. Using an extended DTR dataset, SR values are computed for 1956–2015. Statistically significant decreases in shortwave radiation are identified that are dominated by changes during the summer months. Because this coincides with the season of greatest insolation and the highest potential for energy production, financial implications may be large for the solar energy industry if such trends persist into the future.

scholarly journals Long-term trends and drought: spatiotemporal variation in juvenile sex ratios of North American ducks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sage Ellis ◽  
Madeleine Lohman ◽  
James Sedinger ◽  
Perry Williams ◽  
Thomas Riecke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North American ◽  
Sex Ratios ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
The United States ◽  
Avian Communities ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
Long Term Trends

Sex ratios affect population dynamics and individual fitness, and changing sex ratios can be indicative of shifts in sex-specific survival at different life stages. While climate- and landscape-change alter sex ratios of wild bird populations, long-term, landscape scale assessments of sex ratios are rare. Further, little work has been done to understand changes in sex ratios in avian communities. In this manuscript, we analyse long-term (1961-2015) data on five species of ducks across five broad climatic regions of the United States to estimate the effects of drought and long-term trends on the proportion of juvenile females captured at banding. As waterfowl have a 1:1 sex ratio at hatch, we interpret changes in sex ratios of captured juveniles as changes in sex-specific survival rates during early life. Seven of twelve species-region pairs exhibited evidence for long-term trends in the proportion of juvenile females at banding. The proportion of juvenile females at banding increased for duck populations in the western United States and typically declined for duck populations in the eastern United States. We only observed evidence for an effect of drought in two of the twelve species-region pairs, where the proportion of females declined during drought. As changes to North American landscapes and climate continue and intensify, we expect continued changes in sex-specific juvenile survival rates. More broadly, we encourage further research examining the mechanisms underlying long-term trends in juvenile sex ratios in avian communities.

Long-term trends in cancer mortality in the United States, 1930-1998

Cancer ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 97 (S12) ◽  
pp. 3133-3275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phyllis A. Wingo ◽  
Cheryll J. Cardinez ◽  
Sarah H. Landis ◽  
Robert T. Greenlee ◽  
Lynn A. G. Ries ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cancer Mortality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Long Term Trends

Are We Investing Enough

1954 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 142-168
Author(s):  
A. K. Cairncross
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Life Assurance ◽  
The Future ◽  
Interesting Discussion ◽  
Long Term Trends

Mr. President and gentlemen, I should like to express my pleasure at being back in the Faculty Hall, where I was privileged to listen to your interesting discussion last year on “The Growth of Pension Rights”. I am glad to find that the number of occasions on which economists and actuaries are not only on speaking terms but able to take counsel of one another is increasing, for I am sure that there are many problems, of which the future of pensions is only one, that can only be satisfactorily resolved through our joint efforts and deliberations. This conviction rests partly on my experience as a member of the Phillips Committee, which was heavily dependent both on the actuaries who served on it and on the members of the profession who, in one way or another, helped it along; but it is a conviction that is just as forcibly brought home to me when I look across the Atlantic to the inquiry that has been in progress since 1950 into the long-term trends in savings and investment in the United States—an inquiry carried out by economists but sponsored and largely financed by the Life Assurance Association of America.

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