Are economists globally understating or overstating the cost of climate change?

In a blog written after the devastating bushfires that swept across his home state of New South Wales, Australian economist Steve Keen states, "I have to admit that I am personally not coping well with climate change".

Some economists argue that the world can
financially cope with 4°C of warming.

Professor Keen says he's feeling the "same generalised anxiety about the future felt by Greta Thunberg and the young people she's inspired to strike for the climate", before criticising the work of William Nordhaus and other neoclassical economists.

William Nordhaus is a renowned American economist whose work modelling the economic impact of climate change earned him the 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

He is not a climate change denialist. His view is that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities will have a negative impact and he's urged governments globally to implement a carbon tax.

Read the ABC News story why Nassim Khadem - “Are economists globally understating or overstating the cost of climate change?” 

‘Staggering': Full impact of WA heatwave revealed with stark warning on climate

Researchers have warned WA is the “canary in the coalmine for climate change” in the wake of a new study shining light on the impact of a heatwave that swept across the state in 2011.

The study — a collaboration between international academics led by WA researchers — catalogued the devastation from a heatwave that struck most noticeably in March 2011, on the back of a dry 2010 winter.

Murdoch University lecturer and Kings Park
Science research scientist Dr Katinka Ruthrof.

It also coincided with one of the strongest La Niсa weather events on record, which started in the summer of 2010-11 and peaked between February and March 2011.

Researchers put together a database of information on the response of plants and animals to the heatwave across an area about the size of California, spanning from Exmouth down to Cape Leeuwin.

Maximum temperatures in the area studied were 2C higher than the long-term March average while Perth saw weekly maximum temperatures about 5C higher than usual.

Read the WAtoday story by Cameron Myles - “‘Staggering': Full impact of WA heatwave revealed with stark warning on climate.”