Disqus - Latest Comments for chrisdudley

Re: Chevy Bolt EV sales are slumping in the US, GM says production going to Canada and South Korea

Chris Dudley — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 10:09:49 -0000

It seems to me that the most important word here is backorder. Chevy competes with itself in the EV v ICE space. How much backorder do they have for other products? Tesla reservations motivate strongly increased production but perhaps not as much for GM if Bolt sales cut into other product sales with higher margins.

Re: 2018 Leaf vs Long Journeys — Can It Take The Heat?

Chris Dudley — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 14:56:22 -0000

I was aware the Leaf would be an adventure. The trip cost a little under $5 for charging so that was also part of the fun.

Re: 2018 Leaf vs Long Journeys — Can It Take The Heat?

Chris Dudley — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 09:56:08 -0000

Having traveled from Maryland to New Hampshire and back last summer in a 2016 Leaf SL (30 kwh battery), I can report that trip planning is an extensive exercise. Heat management meant staying overnight in New Jersey. This was fine since the kids took a trip into NYC from the hotel. Owing to the locations of fast chargers, spending time looking around or shopping during charges was OK as well. But traveling to Tennessee for the eclipse could not work owing to a lack of charging stations along the way.

Re: Divest Dartmouth nears 2,000 signatures on petition

Chris Dudley — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 11:24:05 -0000

Worth remembering that a bumbled response to the divestment movement in the 1980s forced the resignation of the College President. http://thedartmouth.com/201...

Since DivestDartmouth started, it has been proven that fossil fuel companies have committed academic fraud. For schools with Academic Honor Codes, delay in divesting and finding other ways to shun these companies is not excusable. http://slashdot.org/journal...

Chris Dudley '85

Re: Targeted by crusading Congressman, scientist speaks out on conflicts, climate and controversy

Chris Dudley — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 10:35:57 -0000

The funding of the Breakthrough Institute has always been murky and Pielke's association with them may be a conduit for funding that his home institution can not fully explain.

More information on Pielke's associations can be found here: http://www.sourcewatch.org/....

Re: Dining Service “Mistakenly” Factored Politics into SodaStream Decision, Spokesperson Says

Chris Dudley — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 07:40:23 -0000

President Faust is getting coal in her stocking. She was warned that fossil fuels were a poor investment and now her stubbornness is costing the school money as oil company stocks follow coal company stock down. The politics claim is itself politics and the hypocrisy is becoming costly.

Re: Faculty Make the Case for Divestment

Chris Dudley — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 08:54:14 -0000

A great deal of the coping with the consequences climate change will be borne by present and future students. Their wishes concerning efforts to reduce that burden through present action should be given a great deal of weight.

Re: Committee weighs divestment options

Chris Dudley — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 08:27:23 -0000

For a large endowment, being the smart money means starting early since it takes a while to rearrange the structure of the fund. In this case, a five year long program is proposed.

As Bevis Longstreth (Retired partner, Debevoise & Plimpton; former member, Securities and Exchange Commission) and Timothy E. Wirth (Former U.S. Senator, president of the United Nations Foundation, and Harvard Overseer) have pointed out to Paul J. Finnegan and James F. Rothenberg (members of the Harvard Corporation, and Treasurer and past Treasurer, respectively), "Over the past three years, equities in the coal industry declined by over 60 percent while the S&P 500 rose by some 47 percent. Coal, we submit, is the “canary in the oil well.” Disinvestment now, before this opinion becomes commonplace, is just sound, risk-averse investment judgment, fitting well within the duties of a fiduciary." http://harvardmagazine.com/...

There is a long term structural problem in relying on fossil fuels and we can see the response domestically as our oil and coal consumption shrink as a result of regulation. Initiating divestment now is only prudent.

Chris Dudley '85

Re: Faust Talks Campaign, Harassment, Admissions in Kristof Conversation

Chris Dudley — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 08:34:25 -0000

Regarding divestment:

"She added that manipulating the endowment for political purposes could
be viewed as a conflict with the University’s nonprofit status, giving
ammunition to those who want to tax endowments to boost government
coffers." http://news.harvard.edu/gaz...

Harvard has divested from tobacco stocks and from companies doing business in Apartheid South Africa which makes this argument presented by Faust especially weak. And, even in its weakness it may be turned. As pointed out by Bevis Longstreth, J.D. ’61 and Timothy E. Wirth ’61 "Over the past three years, equities in the coal industry declined by
over 60 percent while the S&P 500 rose by some 47 percent. Coal, we
submit, is the “canary in the oil well.” Disinvestment now, before this
opinion becomes commonplace, is just sound, risk-averse investment
judgment, fitting well within the duties of a fiduciary." http://harvardmagazine.com/...

Faust is thus taking a political stand to support fossil fuel companies at the risk of the endowment. Does she feel that risking the endowment demonstrates that Harvard is not for profit?

Re: Faculty for Divestment Renew Call for Open Forum

Chris Dudley — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 08:45:13 -0000

Dartmouth President David McLaughlin adopted similar tactics to Faust, talking with one group then another with no broader participation regarding divestment from companies doing business in apartheid South Africa. His weaselly leadership and insincerity eventually led to violence and he had to resign. http://news.google.com/news...

Facing issues openly is a much better approach. Faust should learn from this negative example and agree to a forum with broad participation.

Explanations should certainly be forthcoming as to why the advice of Bevis Longstreth, J.D. ’61 and Timothy E. Wirth ’61 that "Over the past three years, equities in the coal industry declined by
over 60 percent while the S&P 500 rose by some 47 percent. Coal, we
submit, is the “canary in the oil well.” Disinvestment now, before this
opinion becomes commonplace, is just sound, risk-averse investment
judgment, fitting well within the duties of a fiduciary. " has been ignored by the Corporation. http://harvardmagazine.com/...

Re: The Divestment Debate

Chris Dudley — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 12:07:05 -0000

Jim,

I think this article addresses you concerns. http://chronicle.com/articl...

Re: The Divestment Debate

Chris Dudley — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 11:24:00 -0000

President Faust's behavior is very reminiscent of former Dartmouth President David McLaughlin's highhanded way of ignoring faculty and students regarding divestment. Those failures led him to condone violent attacks by right wing apartheid supporters against student demonstrators by shielding the perpetrators and he ultimately had to resign. Let us hope that, by ignoring student expression, Faust does not also create an atmosphere where violence is condoned. http://www.apnewsarchive.co...

Surely, on this issue, students should be listened to first. It is they who will most suffer the consequences of climate change.

Re: Family Planning is Vatican’s Blind Spot on Enviroment | Religion Dispatches

Chris Dudley — Mon, 12 May 2014 13:45:37 -0000

In your opinion then, poor people have extra children but not rich people. Strangely, however, the world grows much more food than gets eaten so the hunger you invoke to name those children as worthless and unneeded seems to be structural.

Re: Family Planning is Vatican’s Blind Spot on Enviroment | Religion Dispatches

Chris Dudley — Fri, 09 May 2014 12:39:48 -0000

I think your example is in error if you want to discuss fertility. First, there are no extra children born in America, or anywhere. Scrooge might make that mistake, but you should not. Next, in consideration of fertility rates, it is not one child, but rather the progeny of a typical woman that counts. A fertility rate of 6 surviving children per woman with first child birth at age 13 and and a spacing of two year between births comes to about 1654 person years in the course of a 70 year life while a fertility rate of 2 with first birth at age 25 and a spacing of four years comes to 188 person years in that time. The high emissions low fertility country would have to maintain a per capita emissions rate a factor of 8.9 higher than the low emissions high fertility country to end up with equal emissions from a fertility perspective. The US is about 5.7 times higher in per capita emissions than typical undeveloped countries. And the US will cut emissions by 83% from 2005 greenhouse gas emissions levels by 2050, so most of the US progeny will live as low emissions rate people.

The climate issue is not really about population, it is about technology and rapid deployment of clean energy technology. The demographic age distribution brought on by high fertility rates may even help in providing manpower to deploy that technology.

You also seem to be mistaken about the importance of the Vatican position on artificial birth control and fertility rates. Burundi is the only very high fertility country that is majority catholic and they comprise only 65% of the population. They can't possibly be putting the average fertility rate at 6.8 all on their own.

The Vatican makes a mistake by naming something sinful which very likely isn't. That can harm people's souls. But it just does not seem very relevant when it comes to environmental issues. Education of woman, which the Vatican supports, seems to have a much larger role in that area. Remembering that some cultures consider education of women an assault on their values, and will kill and main girls who go to school, you might want to refocus your attention to that issue.