This article and video I found is really interesting.
What happens when the government, without taking into confidence the people, starts doing things that we are not even aware of? Is this for the public good - if yes, then why are the public left in the dark about it?
Battling Global Warming (a great example of externalities) is definitely a daunting task but how does one choose between two evils (as 'Chemtrails', suggested by the article, is probably not without its own negative externalities).
There is definitely a case of asymmetric information here and from the outlook I'm not sure I trust what the government is doing!
While I found the video to be a little of the inflammatory, conspiracy theory side, governments, like markets do not function perfectly and there is always asymmetrical information on both sides. It is always good to scrutinize whatever the government is doing, especially if it isn't well publicized.
ReplyDeleteThere's a link in the article for the whole movie and I just saw the first bit of it and it really is captivating. Some of the things I wanted to share here was that it was said in the movie that this is a 'risk vs. risk' issue and at a conference of Geoengineers they listed out the potential benefits versus the potential risks. One of the potential benefit was cooling the earth and two of the risks were droughts in Asia and Africa and ozone depletion! It really is no zero sum game.
ReplyDeleteSeems like it is also an issue of Global equity. Real interesting stuff!
there was certainly some suspense build up on the production side of this video, but I sure don't like the idea of the government operating under the radar, even if it is for the good of the public. If they think this is the best alternative to fight global warming, than they should be able to explain their actions and defend them
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me a lot of whats going on with natural gas drilling and the butt load on associated negative externalities.
ReplyDeleteIf the government thinks that these chemtrails are the best solution to fighting global warming, then why can't the citizens of the US be aware of what's going on? Why keep it so secret? But like Ashley mentioned, there will always be asymmetrical information to some extent because the market does not function perfectly. This reminds me of the asymmetric information involved with how the government is constantly battling terrorism and such; if the public knew of every single incident that occurred in our country, there would constantly be unnecessary fear and chaos among the American people. So, in the more extreme case of counter-terrorism, I think it may actually be better for the public to be left in the dark to some extent. In terms of the chemtrails and global warming issue, it seems that it's unfortunately a lose-lose situation. This is when in depth cost-benefit analysis would come into play.
ReplyDeleteAs Ashley and Kaitlin have mentioned, there will always be asymmetrical information to some extent because the market does not function perfectly, but in this situation it seems like an easy fix. Don't hide information that relates to what society can see with their own eyes. It just seems like there shouldn't be any reason to hide something like this.
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