2 ms·

Fight climate change? How? "The smart people" provided a recipe for preventing/fixing climate change several decades ago. The politicians have never gone along

• perl4ever 7y ago
  "the one that would have worked was "Tax externalities and reduce CO2 emission"." Why? Internalizing externalities with a tax only works if the actual correct amount of those externalities equals or exceeds the amount that would reduce demand for fuel enough to stop climate change. This is a huge assumption that I never see anyone even acknowledge needs to be demonstrated. I think in fact they are far less, but my point is that debating that would be a red herring, since people seem to talk of externalities while never even believing in the concept, and that tension needs to be resolved. The externalities are a number that in principle has a correct value, and the increase in price to change behavior sufficiently to stop warming is another number that independently has a certain value. But you have to have a logical reason for thinking they match if you think internalizing the costs is a solution.
• bjornjaja 7y ago
  Mother Earth has a magical technical solution. It’s called a “hard reset” so hopefully we can come up with something better.