Climate Change Talk

Here is a nice article written by Sir Nicholas Stern, one of the leading voices about climate change and possible policy recommendations. Just a couple things about this: I am glad that he goes to pains to emphasize the need for equity among countries on this. Second, I am glad he targets deforestation as a major cause of global warming, because people don't seem to talk about it enough. Anyways, he has a sort of 6 point plan in advance of a major meeting about climate change.

Also, for a "balanced" perspective, if you will, check out these interviews with Stern, Bjorn Lomberg, and Gary Yohe. I guess one of the problems of this whole debate is talking about the GDP "costs" of addressing climate change. There is no serious mention of how cutting back on resource use in general is essential for our growth to be sustainable. It seems any reference to sustainable growth is only tangential. Instead, the emphasis is on what are the costs and benefits with regards to GDP, the ever imperfect but ever-cited measure of all that is good on earth. Oh well, I suppose ecological economics, which would address these issues, is just not on the agenda at this moment. At least climate change is, though- something is better than nothing.