Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Global Warming & Sustainability

J.S. at Environmental Economics applies a concept of sustainability suggested by Robert Solow to the policy choices presented by global warming. Here is his conclusion:

In summary, even through a sustainability lens it is ambiguous whether we must act now to do whatever we can to avert global warming. Given the massive cuts in carbon emissions (in the realm of 70%) that many think would be required to prevent any further warming, one doesn’t have to be a pessimist to believe that given current trends the probably of this happening is extremely low, and therefore, as I have mentioned previously, mitigation strategies may be preferable.

In the end, global warming presents us with very tough choices based on a huge range of scenarios that are highly uncertain. People in the future may look back at us one day and condemn us for our inaction, or they may be grateful that we didn’t spend so much on the problem, depending on how it plays out.

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