Wednesday, March 19, 2008

"Thermo Economics"

In our search for new fields of economics with outlandish names comes a high quality offering from John Bryant (Vocat International).

His new brand of economics is called:

"Thermo Economics".

What is it you may ask.

An analysis of possible restrictions on economic development posed by climate change and resource factors. The paper examines international trends over several decades of GDP, capital stock, population and energy demand and intensity, and the extent to which these trends may need to change to meet restrictions on CO2 emissions arising from consumption of fossil fuels.


This short 4 page article is worth reading not least as it has some interesting and odd looking graphs. My interest is also perked when I read a final line that states:

A new economic age beckons

The article concludes:

All the forgoing analysis shows that in predicting the future, policymakers, managers and economists are increasingly having to take account of the impact of resource and waste factors on the world. Releasing unlimited CO2 into the atmosphere is no longer an option, in terms of temperature rise and potential loss of land. Over-fishing the world’s seas for food on behalf of a growing world population could be short-sighted. A part of the problem is the escalating size of the world population itself. Though overall this is now growing at a lower rate, for some countries, with large and densely-populated areas, future growth will present policymakers with a difficult situation to deal with. Over the next few decades humankind may have to get used to a
low or nil growth GDP scenario, placing a limit on consumption and what this may mean in terms of the distribution of world wealth. A new economic age beckons.


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