Earth Day is arriving soon. April 22nd to be precise. I know thanks to my new Google Calendar, which is totally awesome. But that’s unrelated…

Earth Day is a good time for us to think about what we’re doing for the environment. Clearly, the environment is one of the most necessary and neglected aspects of our modern world. The main problem is simply that people don’t believe their actions can have a meaningful impact. The truth is, however, that if everyone does a little to conserve, the world can see huge environmental gains. Gains beyond that which can be acheived by government policy changes.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the way the US government is handling environmental policy. Take the Kyoto Protocol for instance (massively simplified):

Uncle Sam: Nations of the world, we must bond together and stop global warming!
Everyone Else: That sounds noble! We will commit to help you even if it means we will have to spend money to reduce our emissions.
Uncle Sam: Fantastic, let’s all sign this fancy form and commit ourselves.
Everyone else signs form. Uncle Sam goes to the bathroom before signing, doesn’t come out, feigning explosive diarrhea. To this day, Uncle Sam has yet to leave the bathroom.

As cheap as I feel linking to another news item instead of writing a proper article…here is another news item instead of a proper article.

Washington Post: Greenpeace Co-Founder Now Favors Nuclear Power Plants

In short: Patrick Moore, who helped start Greenpeace back in the ’70s, has written an op-ed piece laying out the environmentalist argument for nuclear power. He argues that the US could drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions by widely adopting nuclear power in place of coal-burning plants. At severe risk to his hippie credentials, Moore insists that nuclear power would be both cleaner and safer than coal, and furthermore, that nuclear power is presently the only plausible alternative to coal.

Absent from Moore’s argument is any acknowledgement of thermal pollution.  Water used to cool nuclear reactors is released back into the environment several degrees warmer, destroying local marine environments. I’m not sure how much of a danger thermal pollution poses…it seemed like an apocalyptic threat in seventh grade science class, but there are several possibilities. It could be that the threat was exaggerated. Or that scientific evidence showed the threat to be negligible. Or it could be that Moore, who would most likely be aware of such problems given his affiliation with various environmental groups, simply ignores it. I’m afraid I’m not up to speed on the pros and cons of nuclear power.

Have you ever tried connecting two seemingly unrelated concepts, such as slices of pizza eaten and the grade you will receive on a test the next day?  If so, you should read Freakonomics, written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

Although Levitt seems a little conceited (every chapter is prefaced by a line from a New York Times magazine article about how Levitt is so amazing), his writing is very down to earth and easy to read.  If you’re afraid of economics, this book won’t scare you away, I promise, there is very little in-depth econ involved.

The most controversial part of the book is the discussion of abortion and crime.  Levitt hypothesizes that the legalization of abortion led to a huge decrease in the crime rate.  He compares the US before and after Roe v. Wade, and finds that about 20 years after, crime dropped substantially.  Clearly this is not enough to prove anything, so Levitt goes further and uses all sorts of interesting facts that point towards supporting his hypothesis.

If you’re going to read the book, you’re going to have to put any strong moral ideas you might have on the shelf for a while, and just try to read objectively.  But trust me, it is totally worth reading.

Have you spent more money on printer ink than you have your actual printer? Most people probably have. Why? Because printer ink is really, really expensive!

It’s quite clear that the printer companies that make the ink have something to do with it. They sell you a printer cheap, force you to buy a cartridge that only works for that specific printer, and then jack up the prices to $20-$30 per cartridge. On top of that, some printers, specifically certain Epson models, won’t let you print in black and white if you run out of color ink, and won’t let you print at all if a digital management chip in the cartridge says that you’re out.

So what is someone who needs to print but doesn’t have tons of money to blow on ink going to do? The first option is to buy third party ink. Printer companies say that using this will damage your printer and make ink explode all over you and your life will be ruined. This is not true. I’ve been using third party ink for the past three years and the quality is better and the cartridges last longer than the brand name ones.

I find it supremely ironic that capitalism and greed blew Kilgore’s brains out. It really was only a function of time, but still it was gratifying to watch it transpire.

I like reading economics articles because most of the authors I read understand that it’s just a social science and that many models are missing some important components to the equation, but it still doesn’t stop them from going to the brink on making stupid-ass predictions and leaps of logic. They know we’re finite beings and given enough ambiguity they’ll write books, conduct research, punditize and get the tenure they want. It’ll be years and they’ll be in the ground, rotting before we catch on. But it will have served its purpose so I can’t fault it too much.

I was reading this article in the NYT and remembered Kilgore’s love of all things Thomas Friedman.

The Long Distance Journey of a Fast Food Order

By MATT RICHTEL

SANTA MARIA, Calif. — Like many American teenagers, Julissa Vargas, 17, has a minimum-wage job in the fast-food industry — but hers has an unusual geographic reach.