Economics for Dummies

Climate Change

Climate change skeptics first complained that calls for emission controls were unscientific, but now their argument has morphed into the fiscal impossibility of reducing our carbon footprint ("especially in this economy," they might add).

"First it was junk science and now it's junk economics," says Ecotrust spokesman Seth Walker.

So in response to the economic argument against taking action to combat climate change inaction, the Ecotrust non-profit has partnered with Economics for Equity and the Enviroment ( the E3 Network) to form a new website: RealClimateEconomics.org. The website involving more than 100 of the world's leading economists is meant to expose the real economics involved in stopping climate change, taking its inspiration from RealClimate.org, a website established in 2004 to battle "junk science" popularized by climate change skeptics.

The collaborative's first report combats the argument that emissions reduction will diminish Americans' quality of life by focusing on the differences of per-capita greenhouse emissions among states. The report finds that residents of a few states - including Oregon, Vermont, New York, Rhode Island, California and Washington - emit about half the national average of CO2 a year without compromising quality of life.

WWeek 2015

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