The Limits Of Innovation

For some reason, the New Republic loves publishing (Ted) Nordhaus and Shellenberger. N&S have an extremely annoying, and in my view very mistaken, shtick — that environmentalists and lefties generally are foolish for trying to use regulations to help limit greenhouse gas emissions, and instead they should support massive investments in technology, the better to achieve epic breakthroughs that make reducing emissions painless. There are many things wrong with this line of thought, and so it’s very refreshing to see TNR’s excellent climate writer Brad Plumer taking a long hard look at the potential for breakthroughs to save our hides. In a nutshell, he concludes that deployment of existing but only marginally economically viable technologies, and small scale innovations are likely to be much more important than game-changing breakthroughs. It’s simply very difficult to get a totally new technology into usable, marketable products in less than two or three decades.