Energy Musings contains articles and analyses dealing with important issues and developments within the energy industry, including historical perspective, with potentially significant implications for executives planning their companies’ future.
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August 2, 2023
Climate Uncertainty And Risks Viewed By Judith Curry
Curry’s book is a tough read because it forces you to consider how much is unknown and uncertain about climate change science. A controversial climate scientist who was harassed and pressured to resign her tenured professorship and position as chair of the engineering school at Georgia Tech, Curry began to investigate why questioning the science was so unsettling. According to Curry, there are better ways to seek climate change solutions than our current fortress mentality approach. Read the book to understand this critical policy debate that is changing our economy and lives. READ MORE
Higher Oil Prices Drive Energy Stock Recovery
The S&P 500 Index sector report for July showed Energy was the top performer. After six months of poor performance in 2023, the rise in oil prices and improving economic outlooks boosting demand helped performance. Crude oil prices reached the highest level since April ($80 per barrel) and the monthly increase matched that of January 2022. Headwinds have become tailwinds and investors may be forced to reconsider their aversion to owning Energy stocks. READ MORE
Climate Uncertainty And Risks Viewed By Judith Curry
We just finished reading Judith Curry’s book, Climate Uncertainty And Risks: Rethinking Our Response, which provides a wonderful but challenging journey through the political minefield of climate change science and its policy prescriptions. For those of us who have been researching and writing about climate change – the science, data, and policy recommendations – we noted that the book’s title is suddenly out of date. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has just upped the climate rhetoric. The greenhouse effect of the 1980s was overtaken by global warming, which often was described as global heating. Then terminology shifts came quicker going from climate change to the climate crisis, the climate emergency, and now global boiling. What’s next – global vaporization?
Exhibit 1. Discovering What We Know And Do Not Know
Source: eBay
Curry’s new book was published in June. In January, Curry wrote on her blog about the book, its origin and objectives, the peer review process it was subjected to, and the book’s cost. The book was peer reviewed and issued by an academic publisher, Anthem, which wished to expand its ‘Environment and Sustainability Initiative’. Choosing this publisher made for a better volume in Curry’s view because of the peer review process, but it also created a cost problem for the book and its various formats. Imagine an author worried about how an expensive book might limit the reach and impact of her thinking!