Climate Change – Building a Green Economy – NYTimes.com
The casual reader might have the impression that there are real doubts about whether emissions can be reduced without inflicting severe damage on the economy. In fact, once you filter out the noise generated by special-interest groups, you discover that there is widespread agreement among environmental economists that a market-based program to deal with the threat of climate change — one that limits carbon emissions by putting a price on them — can achieve large results at modest, though not trivial, cost.
This is a good article by Paul Krugman on the economics of addressing climate change. It explains why we need to act and what the costs are likely to be to the economy, as well as different approaches to action. A good primer from a liberal economist. If you accept that human activity has contributed to global warming, as I do, it is an article worth reading.
