Risk and Economics

Overheads, tables, instructor notes:

Figures from text (Fundamentals of Environmental Physics, Forinash).

Risk

• EPA's Integrated Risk Information System.

Risk tables (PDF):

• One in a million risks: one, two, three, four.
• Risk of an action: one, two.
• Recreation risk: one, two.
• Cancer risk: one.
• Historic risk by age.
• Cost of averting a given risk: one.

• List of Catastrophes.

• London fog.
• Coal miner risks.
• Dose response: one.
• Perceived risk: one, two, three.
• Brief discussion of risk.

Travel Risk

• National Transportation Safety Board on traffic fatalities, 2005.
• US Coast Guard Boating Saftey Division.
• National Transportation Safety Board on air travel.
• Driving risk reports from AAA.
• Are bigger cars really safer? Berkely lab report, fuel economy vs safety google site, size/risk chart.
• Car risks: historically, in other countries, by age, effects of laws, related to crime, historical in other countries, location.
• Travel risk (may not be reliable).
• Travel risk by John Brignel (may not be reliable).

Meteors

• Data on meteors colliding with the earth.
• The NASA NEO (Near Earth Orbit) site.
• The NASA workshop report on Hazardous Comets and Meterors.
• NASA asteroid watch.
• Pictures of Shoemaker-Levy colliding with Jupiter (1994).

Radiation risk

• See also the page on Nuclear Energy.
• Fault tree: one, two.
• Radiation exposure risk: radiation units, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, dose model.
• Radiation exposure: average exposure, US exposure, risk, risk2, one, two, three, radon, regulations.
• Summary of radiation exposure risk.
• Cancer rates due to radiation (Google books).
• Presidents report on 3 mile island.
• Chernobyl.
• The BEIR VII phase Two report (on health risks of ionizing radiation).
• Radon:
• CDC Web page on Radon.
• EPA Radon page.
  • Radon detection kits: http://www.radonzone.com/ , http://www.radonamerica.com/

Economics:

• Notes on Economics.
• GDP and HDI versus energy consumption.
• Will conservation hurt?
• Two examples.
• Cars: Energy use, CAFE standards.
• The cost of electricity.
• The pollution of different types of electricity sources.
• Externalities: types, cost, range.

Articles:

• 'The nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl, USSR', Bernard L. Cohen, American Journal of Physics, vol. 55 No. 12 (1987) p1076.
• 'Imapcts on the Earth by asteroids and comets: assessing the hazard', C. R. Chapman and D. Morrison, Nature vol. 367, Jan. (1994) p33.
• Should We Risk It? Exploring Environmental, Health, and Technological Problem Solving, D. M. Kammen and D. M. Hassenzal (Princeton University Press, 1999).
• 'The Clean Car Revolution' by J. Motavalli, J.H. Kay Sierravol. 84 no. 4 July/August (1999) p34.
• Not Cleaning Up by W. Wayt Gibbs, Scientific American vol. 284 No. 2 Feb. (1999).
• 'Radiation Risks and Ethics' A. Jaworowski  Physics Today vol. 52 No. 9 September (1999) p24.
• ' Technologies to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Next Decade' by A.H. Rosenfeld, T.M. Kaarsberg, J. Romm Physics Today vol. 53 No. 11 November (2000) p29.
• Risk-Benefit Analysis, R. Wilson and E. A. C. Crouch (Harvard University Press, 2001).
• Special Issue: ' The Energy Challenge' Physics Today vol. 55 No. 4 April (2002).
• 'Traffic Crashes' by Leonard Evans, Amercian Scientist, vol. 90 No. 3 (2002) p 244.
• 'Resource Letter: RA-1: Risk Analysis', Richard Wilson American Journal of Physics, vol. 70 No. 5 (2002) p475.
• 'The Asteroid Tugboat' R. Schweickart, E. T. Lu, P. Ht, C. R. Chapman, Scientific American vol. 289 No. 5 (2003) p 54.
• 'Incorporating externalities into a full cost approach to electric power generation life-cycle costing', Energy, I. F. Roth, L. L. Ambs, Vol. 29, Issue 12-15, October-December, 2004, p2125.
• Interesting books on economics:
• Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets by John McMillan.
• Human Well-Being and the Natural Environment by P. Dasgupta.
• John Kenneth Glabraith by Richard Parker.
• The Future of Ideas by Lawrence Lessig.
• Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen.
• Wealth and Democracy : A Political History of the American Richby by Kevin Phillips.
• The Environmental Endgame by Robert L. Nadeau.
• The rise and fall of the GDP by John Gertner (great summary in the New York Times about alternatives to the GDP).
• The State of the USA web site (an effort to replace GDP as the sole indicator of progress).