Environmental Economics
User Contributions (0)
Ask a Question
Around 2:45 here, you acknowledge that economic growth generally comes with increased CO2 emissions, yet you frame this as if it were just one of many more or less equally significant environmental issues to consider.
So I'm wondering whether you're aware of the most recent findings of climate change scientists over the last couple of years, as reported in this talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ina16XSJQvM
Or if that's too long, here's a shorter talk that covers a subset of the most relevant findings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ktYbVwr90
Is there anything about the climate science reported in these talks that you disagree with? If not, how can you be so sanguine about the CO2 impact of our modern economy?
Maybe they're "so sanguine" because this isn't a course on the environment. It's a course on development economics. Do a survey of the poorest billion people on earth and see how much they care about CO2. Feel free to come back and report your results.
Let's assume you are deluded enough to still believe in Global Warming; even under such an assumption it is perfectly possible that a warmer World will bring benefits that make any of the damages worth having. After all Economics is the science of trade-offs: more CO2 and warmth will increase food production and will make food cheaper, something that will benefit poor people the most; cold weather kills a lot more people than hot weather does, so a warmer World will be a safer World, especially for older people. The Roman Optimum wasn't called that for nothing!
By the way, a readable version of most of the information in the first video above is available here:
http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/