Mar 13,2013

UP Links 13 March 2013

+ Brandon Fuller

The Case for Biometric Identifiaction

From Brazil to South Africa, governments have access to a growing number of biometric identity techniques: fingerprints, facial recognition, iris and retinal scans, voice and vein patterns, tongue mapping, lip movements, ear patterns, gait, DNA, brain waves, and, yes, even, um, posterior prints. A new study by Alan Gelb and Julia Clark of the Center for Global Development (CGD) reports that more than 1 billion people in developing countries have already had their biometrics taken over the past few years. (Biometrics is a global growth business; the worldwide market for such services is estimated to hit $16.5 billion by 2017.)

The Case for American Exports of Natural Gas

Gas prices in America are unsustainably low (see article), and will eventually rise a bit whether exports are allowed or not. However, they will remain much lower than elsewhere, because other countries have failed to frack as deftly as America. If Mr Obama prevents companies from exporting American gas, it will be left in the ground. The world will be a dirtier place, and America a poorer one.

The Case for Genetically Modified Food

Genetically engineered animals could do real good for the world. Scientists at Cambridge University and Scotland’s Roslin Institute — the facility that created Dolly, the cloned sheep, in 1996 — have been working to genetically engineer chickens that are resistant to bird flu. They haven’t pulled that feat off yet, but they have managed to engineer birds that can’t spread the flu to others in their flock, which is a good start. Given how hard it is to develop vaccines to combat the rapidly evolving flu virus, this genetic modification could end up saving the lives of many birds, and perhaps humans.

The Case for Nuclear Power

The emergence of the pronuclear Greens represents an important schism in modern environmentalism. For decades, groups like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace have pushed an antinuclear agenda and contended that the only energy path for the future is the widespread deployment of wind turbines and solar panels. But fear of carbon emissions and climate change has catalyzed a major rethinking. As Brand puts it in a new documentary,Pandora’s Promise, which explores the conversion of antinuclear activists to the pronuclear side: “The question is often asked, ‘Can you be an environmentalist and be pronuclear?’ I would turn that around and say, ‘In light of climate change, can you be an environmentalist and not be pronuclear?’”

And Finally, the Case for Freer Markets in Parking

Insofar as people want to park cars—and lets make no mistake, lots of people want to park cars—they will pay for the privilege, and property developers will provide parking spaces.What’s at issue here is whether non-parkers should be forced to offer a cross-subsidy to parkers. The case against such a subsidy seems strong. It encourages extra traffic congestion and extra pollution, as well as inducing some kind of deadweight loss in the form of stifled real estate development.