Covid-climate links
My Covid-climate thoughts organized in one place, in reverse chronological order
Columns
My monthly, globally syndicated column for Project Syndicate, translated into a dozen languages, and my earlier bi-weekly Risky Climate column for Bloomberg Green.
Someone's Going to Dim the Big Light
Solar geoengineering is fast, cheap, scary, and inevitable
How to Reset the US Pandemic Response
Whether the problem is COVID-19 or climate change, the market on its own will not produce a sufficient quantity of goods – like therapeutic drugs or environmentally sustainable growth – that benefit society. Capitalizing on America’s private-sector dynamism will require the state to create incentives to produce such “social goods.”
The Leadership Failure That Will Cost Us Everything
If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that delaying prudent policymaking does not merely result in higher marginal costs down the road. Rather, it puts us on an entirely different trajectory – one that all too easily can end in catastrophe.
How Virus Testing Is Just Like A Carbon Tax
Testing and taxing are important steps in the fights against the pandemic and climate change— and both have their limits.
Benefit-Cost Analysis in the Time of Coronavirus and Climate Change
Like climate economics, the economics of Covid-19 mean we need to take aggressive action, not incremental steps.
The Virus Is Teaching Everyone What Runaway Growth Really Means
To make sense of the spread of Covid-19, economics—particularly black swan events and compound growth—can provide guidance.
Compound Growth Could Kill Us – or Make Us Stronger
The power of compound growth has long been recognized as essential to economic development. But in both the COVID-19 pandemic and the slower-moving climate crisis, this same mathematical force is cutting the other way, revealing dangerous shortcomings in how we manage externalities.
How Economics Can Inform Coronavirus Decision-Making
When considering travel and other choices, economic principles can provide guidance.
The True Price of Carbon
A $40 carbon dioxide price? Try $100, $200, or possibly more.