Money spent trying to change the weather is wasted, and takes away money needed to adapt to the weather. We can stop emitting CO2, sure, and we can become damned poor and unable to help the people who are REALLY POOR. I'm not worried about us. I'm worried about the poor people in low-lying areas. Who's gonna take care of them if the rich countries have impoverished themselves and not succeeded at changing the weather.
Remember: Kyoto has cost the world half a trillion dollars already. How much of that money would we have been able to spend to buy up low-lying land in India, Bangladesh and other such countries? That's how the free market would deal with warming: people in rich countries buying out the property of people in poor countries, so they can afford to move elsewhere and rebuild. How many shanties in India could you buy with a half-trillion dollars? All of them, I'll venture.
posted at: 15:53 | path: /economics | permanent link to this entry