How Silicon Valley cities will adapt to climate change
Matthew Kah is a leading American educator in the field of environmental economics and the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Economics and Business at Johns Hopkins University. He recently spoke at a Saurman Provocative Lecture at San Jose State and explored the question of whether or not we are ‘passive victims’ to climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions keep rising. This is a graph from 1960 to present. Do you see the linear trend here that global carbon dioxide concentrations measured in parts per million just keep linearly rising despite the fact that we have more solar panels and wind turbines. . . I am not a climate denier, the challenge of climate change rises proportionally with the ambient concentrations. So for the young people in this room, I am fascinated by what will be your standard of living? Will climate change significantly degrade your quality of life?
[On the relocation of Los Angeles residents towards the coast to mitigate the future climate crisis inland] Economics is the allocation of scarce resources. If land that is inland enough to not flood, but close enough to the coast to be cool, we can rezone those areas and build up at Hong Kong density, and put millions of people in cooler places and help them to adapt to the new normal. So even in Los Angeles, not moving to northern latitude, I’m not sending you to Alaska, but you’re free to choose if we want to rebuild our cities there even within Los Angeles, we can rebuild Los Angeles and we’re always building new cities, to build higher density closer to the coast. Folks, that’s free market adaptation. We’re not passive victims here.
[Referencing a prediction list of negative consequences resulting from climate change; year 2050, San Diego, CA] I look at this list and I say the following: does anyone in this room want to be the next Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg? One person’s misery is another person’s opportunity. If I was the only bald man in the world, would any drug companies make baldness medication? In a world where people are suffering these outcomes, I’d ask you how could you get rich? If electricity demand is elected to soar and you can develop a more energy efficient air conditioner, you can get rich. One of the points I argue in my Climatopolis is because our climate scientists have given us this heads up about the risk we face in the future, it actually incentivizes our entrepreneurs to target their efforts. We’re not passive victims in the face of expected change.
Watch the whole thing here.
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