Air Pollution and Growth

 

ACADEMIC PAPERS

ENVIRONMENTAL RANKING FOR CANADA AND THE OECD
Together with Elmira Aliakbari and Ashley Stedman of the Fraser Institute we constructed a comprehensive index of environmental quality for 33 high-income countries. Canada ranks 10th, contrary to a number of past studies that claimed we were a filthy bottom-dweller:


On some key individual measures Canada is well inside the top 1. We ranked poorly on sulphur dioxide, which surprised me, but if you look closely at that one, most countries are clustered together near the top and there is little distinction among them. 
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CANADA'S AIR QUALITY SINCE 1970: AN ENVIRONMENTAL SUCCESS STORY

Elmira Aliakbari and I published a report in April 2017 through the Fraser Institute examining air quality trends in Canada since 1970. The results won't be a surprise to anyone who has looked at the data previously, though it might be a surprise to a lot of people in general. Air pollution is way down and in comparison to the tightest standards used in the world most Canadians experience clean air year-round. 
AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AIR QUALITY AND INCOME IN CANADA

Joel Wood and I published a paper that arose from his Ph.D. dissertation research, looking at the relationship over time between air pollution and income in Canadian regional data. We find that for most air contaminants the patterns fit the pattern of the Environmental Kuznets Curve for an advanced economy, namely pollution levels decline as income grows. The picture for ground-level ozone is a bit more complex as it depends on how one constructs the exposure indicator. 


ECONOMIC GROWTH AND AIR POLLUTION IN THE US 
This paper presents a VAR-based model for analyzing the question and provides some plausible answers to what caused the postwar decoupling of US growth and pollution.
POLITICAL PARTIES AND AIR QUALITY IN CANADA
My one foray into the political science of environmental policy argues that Canadians have not historically based their votes on environmental outcomes. Despite all the current hoopla about the environment being at the top of the polls, I still expect that it does not affect party preferences that are formed on other bases than environmental platforms.

COMMENTARY AND OP-EDS

EARTH HOUR
THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: THE DEVIL IS IN THE LACK OF DETAILS
In 2014 I spoke to a new organization called the Canadian Sustainable Use Network (CSUN) at its inaugural meeting, June 24 2014, at the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. My talk focused on the need to stop thinking about the environment as one big abstract crisis and start seeing it as it really is, namely thousands of different issues, many of which aren't problems or which used ot be but aren't any more, and all of which exhibit their own complex aspects and attributes. My presentation (powerpoint) is here. Partway into it I switched to a web browser to give the audience a guided tour of YourEnvironment.ca. 

I also published an essay in the magazine Academic  Matters in April 2008 with nearly the same title, exploring the same ideas. 

ENERGY AND GROWTH: 
I made a presentation called "Energy, Pollution Control and Economic Growth" at a workshop called "Energy: Friend or Foe" organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Potsdam, Germany on September 18, 2012. 
PROPOSALS FOR AIR POLLUTION POLICY IN CANADA
I wrote a chapter for a 2008 Fraser Institute book on air pollution, and I think it does a good job explaining the current situation and proposing how future developments should be focused. I was writing it while the federal Conservatives were floundering around with their Green Plan, whose eventual form I think was pretty inferior.
MISCELLANEOUS OP-EDs