Read The Climate Casino Risk Uncertainty and Economics for a Warming World Audible Audio Edition William D Nordhaus Graham Winton Recorded Books Books
The 2018 Nobel laureate for economics analyzes the politics and economics of the central environmental issue of today and points the way to real solutions.Â
Climate change is profoundly altering our world in ways that pose major risks to human societies and natural systems. We have entered the Climate Casino and are rolling the global-warming dice, warns economist William Nordhaus. But there is still time to turn around and walk back out of the casino, and in this essential audiobook, the author explains how.Â
Bringing together all the important issues surrounding the climate debate, Nordhaus describes the science, economics, and politics involved - and the steps necessary to reduce the perils of global warming. Using language accessible to any concerned citizen and taking care to present different points of view fairly, he discusses the problem from start to finish from the beginning, where warming originates in our personal energy use, to the end, where societies employ regulations or taxes or subsidies to slow the emissions of gases responsible for climate change.Â
Nordhaus offers a new analysis of why earlier policies, such as the Kyoto Protocol, failed to slow carbon dioxide emissions, how new approaches can succeed, and which policy tools will most effectively reduce emissions. In short, he clarifies a defining problem of our times and lays out the next critical steps for slowing the trajectory of global warming.
Read The Climate Casino Risk Uncertainty and Economics for a Warming World Audible Audio Edition William D Nordhaus Graham Winton Recorded Books Books
"Bill Nordhaus does a great job of approaching climate change from a risk management, business oriented approach, incorporating new information from scientists about the risks of climate change. And he summarizes by considering practical political limitations to getting anything done. With the latest data on the impacts of projected CO2 and Temperature within likely ranges we will see, he shows impacts over the range, costs to avoid the worst tipping points, etc. His discussion of tipping points is especially helpful as the risk of triggering catastrophic impacts hinges around tipping points, understanding them, assessing our odds of tripping them, and evaluating the costs of options we have in the near term for optimizing our strategies to try to avoid passing any of these catastrophic thresholds. I'm hoping my generation (the baby boomers) won't be held responsible for catastrophic climate change, and while things are not looking too good right now, this PhD economist provides some valuable tools to the practical among us who want to deal with this as optimally as possible. I hope more of us read his book and give this huge challenge some serious consideration."
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The Climate Casino Risk Uncertainty and Economics for a Warming World Audible Audio Edition William D Nordhaus Graham Winton Recorded Books Books Reviews :
The Climate Casino Risk Uncertainty and Economics for a Warming World Audible Audio Edition William D Nordhaus Graham Winton Recorded Books Books Reviews
- I have been a climate scientist for more than 30 years, always staying away from voicing my opinion about policy issues. This book among other recent events has caused me to speak out more. The case for coal being the dominant cause of AGW is made convincingly in this book. Most other fixes are inconsequential. The various alternative approaches to dealing with the problem are explained clearly. Taxation of carbon via cap and trade or a direct tax is covered nicely. Another key principle often misunderstood by the public is discounting, again explained and illustrated well. This is a great book, clearly written and accessible to all who want to know more about the subject. I hope it is read by millions of caring citizens.
Gerald R. North - As someone with a science background, I was impressed at first by all the various models the author presented in this book. Unfortunately it appears to me that he missed the most important issues and those issues relate to just how fast this warming trend is occurring.
I lived in Paradise, CA when the November 8, 2018 monster fire destroyed our entire town, including 14,000 homes.
This fire was caused by human error (from our local utility) in part, but mostly it occurred from what has been a rapid change in the warming of California, along with all those positive feedback loops, many of which the author mentions, but for some reason downplays..
Some of the most important variables include sudden wind strengthening, along with rapid wind direction changes, and very high ground/soil temperatures. Then there is the increased length of "summers", along with prolonged droughts, rising temperatures, etc.
The author's major weakness here arises from his mistaken belief that most of the really bad ramifications from global warming will not arrive in the near future. Unfortunately these ramifications have already "arrived".
California is a true real-time model for what climate change is going to cause, and the fires and destruction that have already begun. This is NOT a slow process, as the author assumes it is, it has already begun and the rate of change is increasing. No book or books on global warming are going to be able to keep up with the catastrophes that are imminent, and those include fires, floods, hurricanes (and other high wind events), along with oppressive temperatures in our cities and beyond. - I was expecting a more dogmatic book pushing a specific agenda. That is not the case here. I thought Nordhaus spoke well about the limitations of modelling climate change and was even handed in presenting the costs and benefits of action. We should take steps to limit carbon emissions, not because there is a definite and known outcome, but rather because there is a higher likely hood of negative outcomes (the "casino").
Such even handedness is apparent in such statements
-Clouds are really though for modelling because they both heat and cool the planet
-Costs of warming seem to be about 1-2% of income
-Temperatures are modelled to rise only about 1 degree over the next four decades
-Warming would benefit a lot of the developed world (higher ag yields/co2 fertilization)
-The health and economic impacts would most likely be small
-Places 10 meters above sea level seem relatively safe from rising waters
-Carbon Concentrations were 8x higher during the Jurassic period
These are no reasons to not take action. If governments are going to tax anything, it makes sense to tax pollution. That would provide a pricing mechanism to the market to choose less polluting facilities and would incentivize the creation of new technologies. Given that the costs are not great, a carbon tax would not need to be high. The problem is also more tractable than I previously thought since 95% of US emissions are limited to electricity generation and transportation and as much as 80% of emissions come from the use of oil and coal. - Bill Nordhaus does a great job of approaching climate change from a risk management, business oriented approach, incorporating new information from scientists about the risks of climate change. And he summarizes by considering practical political limitations to getting anything done. With the latest data on the impacts of projected CO2 and Temperature within likely ranges we will see, he shows impacts over the range, costs to avoid the worst tipping points, etc. His discussion of tipping points is especially helpful as the risk of triggering catastrophic impacts hinges around tipping points, understanding them, assessing our odds of tripping them, and evaluating the costs of options we have in the near term for optimizing our strategies to try to avoid passing any of these catastrophic thresholds. I'm hoping my generation (the baby boomers) won't be held responsible for catastrophic climate change, and while things are not looking too good right now, this PhD economist provides some valuable tools to the practical among us who want to deal with this as optimally as possible. I hope more of us read his book and give this huge challenge some serious consideration.