Fighting Climate Change is Cheap!
Over the past few decades, climate scientists have gradually converged to a consensus about global warming: it's real, humans are causing it, and over the next century or less it could be a very, very big deal. Sure, there are still a few naysayers out there; but the large majority of the nerds in the world's climate labs -- the ones who devote their lives to thinking about this stuff -- are now convinced that climate change is the real deal.
This article claims that top economists are gradually converging on a parallel consensus: that over the long term, it's much, much cheaper to fight climate change than it is to let global warming continue unchecked.
Obviously, transitioning to a cleaner energy system isn't free. But according to the emerging consensus among economists, it could be a lot cheaper than people expect -- and far, far cheaper than you think if you only read coal industry propaganda. On the flip side, paying for the consequences of climate change -- dealing with droughts and floods, safeguarding homes and cities from rising sea levels, managing the flow of global climate refugees, and so forth -- could be a lot more expensive over the long haul than a shift to cleaner energy.
It's possible that the economic consensus isn't as solid on this issue -- not yet, anyway -- as the scientific consensus is. Still, the article is very much worth reading. and I imagine this isn't the last time we'll hear about the high cost of slacking off on the fight against climate change.
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