Paul Krugman
Recently, Paul Krugman, Nobel economicst published an article in the New York Times entitled “
Building a Green Economy”. The article looked at the economic and political aspects of one of the most critical questions of our times: “Do we have to act on global warming?” Some countries have already responded Yes and consider action an economic and moral obligation. For others, notably the United States and the emerging economies, the matter is open to debate.
Krugman doesn’t answer the question for us, rather he reasons on whether we have enough information to make a decision at all. In this sense, his response is affirmative: we do have sufficient information. According to the article, the effect of a very strong policy for reducing carbon emissions would reduce the gross world product by between 1 and 3 percent. (The proposed legislation is actually much blander.) In contrast, the potential cost of inaction, is too high according to the article.
