Paul Krugman’s essay in tomorrow’s New York Times Magazine is generating a lot of buzz. I like it more than most of what’s written on climate and economics these days, but I’ve still got a few reservations. I’ll write about those in a later post (whose title you should be able to guess). But first, here’s what I think Krugman gets right.
* The basics.
All the fundamental on how cap-and-trade works, why its better than command-and-control alternatives, why a perfect carbon tax only exists in theory, why cap-and-trade costs are likely to be limited, etc, are basically perfect. There’s really no need to expand.
* He focuses on risk and uncertainty as the main reason for action.
Advocates of serious action on climate have been burned for so long by people who use uncertainty as an excuse for doing nothing that they’re afraid to talk about the flipside: uncertainty about potentially catastrophic consequences is the biggest reason to act now.
See full Article.
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