Steven Levitt Defends Freakonomics on Climate Change
- Posted by: Morgan Clendaniel
- on October 30, 2009 at 7:26 am
A few days ago, we told you about the burgeoning controversy about a chapter in the new Freakonomics sequel, SuperFreakonomics. Well, Steven Levitt appeared on The Daily Show to defend his position. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t speak fully to the controversy. But in this clip, Levitt’s argument—that we should be trying to drastically innovate our way out of climate change in addition to trying to conserve our way out of it—seems quite reasonable.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Steven Levitt | ||||
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DISCUSSION: 3 Comments
Morgan,There’s little point in you merely noting that there’s a controversy–and even less in innocently commenting on how ‘reasonable’ one position seems to be. We’re all denizens of the same net. It takes us no more than a few minutes to acquaint ourselves with the various ’sides’ of this controversy. If you’re going to use Good’s pages to comment at all, make a real comment.For my money, it’s clear to me that Levitt is on the wrong side of the controversy–and trying to gin up support by claiming that he is merely being his contrarian self is a technique that only works for grade-schooler’s.
Agree w/ Longposition. Bad article, bad position, do more for climate change now.
Morgan, here (http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/10/an-open-letter-to-steve-levitt/) is a simple, well-written response to the misunderstanding (deliberate or otherwise) that Professor Levitt displays in his book.