Efficiency and the social sciences: Nobel Prize-winner Burton Richter speaks to Near Zero about the need to understand why people don’t invest in efficiency even when it will save money.
Sites mentioned in the Video:
We have been much too narrow in focusing only on climate change when talking about changing our energy mix. Energy is important to our economy and our national security as well. In this YouTube piece I discuss why we will be much more likely to succeed in getting something done by including all three dimensions and thus gaining allies who may be skeptical about climate change but who want to cut out oil imports. View the video: Energy in Three Dimensions
Nuclear Power. Nobel Prize-winner Burt Richter speaks to Near Zero Perception vs. reality
Nobel Prize-winner Burt Richter speaks to Near Zero about his Four Laws of Government Inertia (Video).
Recorded on 8 August 2011, at the Carnegie Institution Dept. of Global Ecology at Stanford University with Burton Richter, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and Director Emeritus of SLAC. Produced by Ken Caldeira for Near Zero.
Richter’s Four Laws of Government Inertia:
Near Zero is a nonprofit that aims to increase the frequency and value of dialogue between energy experts and those who make and influence energy-related decisions in government, business, and NGOs.
Burt Richter’s statements represent his own views. He is not speaking on behalf of Near Zero.
Tue, Feb 9, 2010 — 9:00 AM
Iran Update
This week marks the 31st anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s return to Tehran after 15 years in exile. Usually marked by triumphant rallies, this time protests are expected for the anniversary. In a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has also just announced its intentions to begin processing its uranium stockpile to a higher level of enrichment. Listen to the Interview (starts at about minute 17)
This article was coauthored in 2004 with Jerry Jasinowski, head of the National Association of Manufacturers. I had met Jasinowski a few years earlier when we both were trying to convince the government to increase funding for research and realized that there was a coupling between what the scientists wanted and what the manufacturers wanted. This time we were coming out of the dot.com recession and both of us felt that if the U.S. did not get its innovation engine running at high speed we were going to suffer for it. We didn’t do enough, manufacturing jobs continued to move overseas, and median family income stagnated or shrank. Read more in SF Gate.
