Felix Pretis

Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow Osuna-Mascaró and Auersperg report flexible, multipurpose tool use in a cow, expanding the known range of mammalian tool users and underscoring overlooked cognitive capacities in livestock.

Austria's newly famous tool-using cow - maybe it should have been a co-author? "Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow" - www.cell.com/current-biol...

“if you take carbon out of the ground, you must put it back” - Our OpEd with Andrew Weaver @ajwvictoriabc.bsky.social and Myles Allen in the Calgary Herald.

Opinion: Decarbonized oil is Canada’s climate opportunity calgaryherald.com/opinion/colu...

Grizzly hunting won’t reduce attacks, experts say | The Narwhal After recent attacks in B.C. and Alberta, some are calling to re-open the grizzly hunt — but experts say there’s no evidence it would reduce conflicts

Grizzly hunting won't reduce attacks - article in @thenarwhal.ca cites our working paper in which we 'find little evidence that lethal control interventions lead to significant long-run reductions in human-black bear conflict' (albeit for black bears): papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The costs of Direct Air Capture will not fall as much as hoped. "Efforts to reduce carbon emissions should therefore* continue at pace, says the research team."

*Therefore is problematic here, as it implies that if DACCS was cheap less reductions are needed. No, no, no.

ethz.ch/en/news-and-...

1/

History of Climate Economics Editors of the Special Issue Christophe Cassen (CNRS, CIRED Paris) Béatrice Cointe (CNRS, CSI Paris) Antoine Missemer (CNRS, CIRED Paris) Call for Papers In 2018, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Eco...

Call for papers:

HISTORY OF CLIMATE ECONOMICS

Details at:
journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/19...

Editors of the Special Issue

Christophe Cassen (CNRS, CIRED Paris)
Béatrice Cointe (CNRS, CSI Paris)
Antoine Missemer (CNRS, CIRED Paris)

Deadline for abstracts : January 15th, 2026

Drought influences human-wildlife conflict in California, very cool paper! Results seem consistent with our work on human-wildlife conflict in BC: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Fascinating study! I wouldn't mind a domesticated raccoon.

My paper examining the accuracy of hurricane damage nowcasts is now out in the International Journal of Forecasting.

Open access link (until Jan 3) is here: tinyurl.com/4eztf7xx

Fig. 2. Learning rates for technologies in the Performance Curve Database are seldom constant. (b) Past learning rate (i.e., the learning rate for the first half of points in the data series) versus future learning rate (i.e., the learning rate observed in the second half of the points in the data series) for the same technologies. The past learning rate is not a good predictor of the future learning rate as measured by the Pearson correlation coefficient for the learning exponent of 0.12 and not significantly different from 0 at the 5% confidence level. Outliers (not shown) include nuclear electricity (−109,−32), offshore gas pipeline (−59,13), crude oil (−87,55), and motor gasoline (−29,64).

Experience curves indicate that successful technologies reduce in cost by ~20% for each doubling of cumulative production.

However, we find that past learning rates are not very predictive of future learning rates, throwing many energy tech cost projections into doubt.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ad...

YouTube video by The Nick Standlea Show The AI Revolution Is an Ownership Problem, Not a Tech Problem — Economist Justin Wolfers

I sat down for a nice long chat on the Nick Standlea Show
about the economics of AI: How it's changing our labor market, who it's going to help and hurt, how policy can help, and what each of us can do to stay relevant.

Posted to my (fledgling) youtube channel here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oful...

Working on econometrics and climate? 🌦️ The Econometrics Journal & EMCC call for papers for a new special issue on 'Econometric Modeling of Climate Change and the Green Transition' - submit by February 28th, 2026. More information on the EMCC website: sites.google.com/view/emcccon... #Econsky

Thanks to all the attendees and presenters for making the trip to Victoria for the 9th Conference on Econometric Modelling of Climate Change tinyurl.com/emcc2025uvic! See you next year in Aalborg! #EconSky

"Going deep: Can CO2 be locked away below the seafloor?" - great overview on our Solid Carbon project for offshore geological CO2 storage by the team at New Frontiers (who are kindly funding the research): sshrc-crsh.canada.ca/funding-fina... #Econsky

Canada Excellence Research Chair - University of Victoria - University of Victoria Find information about applying to be Canada Excellence Research Chair at the University of Victoria

Attention Climate Solutions Scholars! @uvic.ca seeks its next Canada Excellence Research Chair 🇨🇦: www.uvic.ca/research-inn...

You: world class scholar, looking to make a move

Us: #5 in world for climate action, collegial, stunning location (B.C.) w award-winning climate policy

Pls share widely!

Excited to announce a new funding opportunity for research on "what works" in climate adaptation. We are specifically looking for strong causal designs that tell us what interventions work (or don't) to reduce impacts of a changing climate. Plz share + apply!
seedfunding.stanford.edu/apply/U5N4

The preliminary programme for the 9th Conference on Econometric Models of Climate Change at the University of Victoria, 2025 is now available online! Looking forward to seeing everyone in Victoria in August! #EconSky tinyurl.com/emcc2025uvic

How much did the carbon tax actually impact inflation?

My latest for @TheHubCanada: thehub.ca/2025/05/22/... #cdnecon #cdnpoli

Interesting meta analysis on the social cost of carbon - quite surprising to see authors themselves be variables in a regression!

"I'm going to govern in econometrics" is a winning campaign slogan for the ages.

Only 4 more days to submit! The abstract submission deadline for the 9th Conference on Econometric Models of Climate Change is coming up on April 17th! #EconSky

This chart from Australia allows for some optimism though...

The carbon tax in British Columbia (BC), Canada.

Carbon pricing and the elasticity of CO2 emissions Using newly constructed sector-specific carbon price data, we study the response of CO2 emissions to carbon pricing policies for a cross-country panel…

Today the BC carbon tax has been removed. It's unfortunate that a simple climate policy had become so politicized.

Talk about ironic timing: our paper on the CO2 response to carbon pricing just came out in the April issue of Energy Economics. Hot off the press, cold in the policy grave. #Econsky

Heads (and elbows) up: The call for abstracts for the 9th Conference on Econometric Models of Climate Change (University of Victoria, BC, Canada – Aug. 27-28, 2025) is open until April 17th! #Econsky

Looking forward to seeing you in August!

More info at: www.tinyurl.com/emcc2025uvic

Thanks to the Canadian New Frontiers in Research Fund for supporting our Solid Carbon project on offshore geological carbon storage solidcarbon.ca! @uvic.ca

Many open economic questions to be explored - reach out if you're working on the economics of carbon storage and removal! #EconSky

In Nature Climate Change, @chrisbataille.bsky.social and I describe three common situations when energy/economic models are detrimental to climate policymaking efforts 🧵
rdcu.be/ecSMX

Like Vincent says, this is a big release with a shedload of new features. Same small footprint, though ;-)

Here’s quick rundown of some of my favourites...

#rstats #dataviz

{tinyplot} 0.3.0 is out! 🚨

It's a lightweight #Rstats 📦 to draw beautiful and complex plots, using an ultra-simple and concise syntax.

This is a massive release! @gmcd.bsky.social @zeileis.org and I worked hard to add tons of new themes and plot types.

Check it out!

grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/