This is my second trip to Singapore and I've been here for a week.  Each day it is over 90 degrees and quite humid.  Has violence and low productivity broken out?  Fascinating Berkeley research suggests that it should  but Singapore is peaceful and quite rich.  How has this nation achieved this?  The answer is urbanization.   As I argued in my Climatopolis book, city growth will protect us from climate change allowing us to continue to thrive in our hotter future.  Permit me to offer some lessons from Singapore.    

1.  I am the only person walking around the streets during the day time.  All sane people take buses everywhere and minimize their time outside in the strong sun.

2. Buildings are naturally ventilated with shade and wind blows leading to cool outdoor spots.

3. Juice vendors are everywhere selling tasty juices such as strawberry-banana juice at $1.2 USA a glass.

4. The city really comes to life at night when the sun has set.

5.   The air conditioning is cranked up.  But note that this World Bank data shows that Singapore consumes much less electricity than the U.S on a per-capita basis.

Urbanization breaks the link between climate exposure and the economy.  My NUS is a very productive place on hot days and on cooler days.

If climate change poses a new challenge for Singapore such as sea level rise, then the city will need to engage in figuring out where to build on "higher ground".  There is a lot of room here to build taller buildings. I'm in a great building (Kent Vale 2) that is 25 stories tall and there is plenty of land nearby to build vertical.   For some specifics about Singapore and its plans to adapt to climate change read this.  Are we doomed?    Yes Singapore is wealthy but this highlights the growth imperative.   

Read this reasonable piece about FEMA and natural disasters but ponder a simple question;  why do areas affected by natural disasters receive any transfers at all from other regions?  National defense is a public good but how is natural disaster insurance a public good?  You can convince me that the state that is impacted can provide disaster relief to the affected community but why are federal funds used for this cause?  When I buy dinner, I use my own funds to pay for the dinner.   Why don't I ask other tax payers to buy me dinner?   Yes, it is true that dinner is a nightly anticipated event but why don't states at greater risk for disasters keep their own "rainy day" fund?  If they don't keep such a fund, why should other states "bail them out"?  If no private insurance company will provide market insurance for those taking risks, why should the government implicitly provide that insurance through ex-post payoffs?  What risks do we subsidize and what risk taking do we tax? 

Tom Smith has published an excellent OP-ED in the LA Times about his research project on preserving natural capital in Cameroon during a time when China is sharply increasing its investments in "extractive resource technologies".    I am working with him on this project and this stuff fascinates me.

I had a great time on Sentosa Island in Singapore last night.   When the sun sets and the heat fades, the people of Singapore head on out to have fun.  They have figured out how to adapt to their climate conditions. At NUS, most people use air conditioned buses to travel around the campus.  I'm not that wise. I walked several miles yesterday carrying a heavy computer in the 100 degree heat.  Sure, I got hot but you drink a Diet Coke and you cool down.

To celebrate my first day as a Visiting Professor at NUS, I'm giving away my new environmental and urban economics book away for free.  This offer is only good for August 26th 2013.

Watch this video to hear me discuss what is unique about my new book.

Many educated women choose not to "Lean In" and instead engage in some home production with their delightful kids.  Do the kids benefit from this extra investment?  Or, are these moms just engaging in another form of consumption?  A recent paper using data from Denmark concludes that working women should feel no guilt about getting out of the house.

The Effect of Maternal Employment on Children's Academic Performance

Rachel Dunifon, Anne Toft Hansen, Sean Nicholson, Lisbeth Palmhøj Nielsen

How will Texas adapt to drought conditions?  Will suburban homes continue to have lush green lawns?  As I argued in Climatopolis, if water authorities raise the price of water to signal scarcity then suburban households would have an incentive to demand innovative solutions and some entrepreneur would supply them.   Whether the "solution" is to plant AstroTurf or zoysia grass does not concern me and I'm not qualified to guess what new approach will be the winner.   The key point about the economics of climate adaptation is to allow free markets to work their magic.  Prices of energy,water and coastal insurance must be allowed to freely fluctuate to reflect scarcity.  In this sense, we need less government intervention to help us to adapt.  On the other hand, there are many local public goods that local governments can supply that will help us to adapt to climate change.  In late February 2014, I will be giving a speech for a group of California local officials where I will sketch out what I believe they can do to enhance our cities' ability to adapt to climate change.    

I have just spent two days visiting Stanford University.  If you ever have the opportunity to be an undergraduate, graduate student, full time faculty, visiting faculty or cook at Stanford, accept that offer!  You won't regret it.

To celebrate my first day Visiting NUS next week,  I will be giving away free copies of my Fundamentals book on Monday 8/26/13.   The new version now includes a good example of a regression discontinuity design (for testing for whether California's energy efficiency laws have caused the Rosenfeld Curve) and many other ideas that closely link micro environmental economics to basic econometrics.   Since 99.9% of the economics profession has never read an environmental textbook, I figure that there are a lot of possible sales here.

Tomorrow I give 3 hours of lectures about the economics of China's pollution problems at UC Berkeley.  I will post a link to these slides at some point in the future.

For folks looking to stream some deep thoughts about the future of California, you can click here.