A Random Man on Planet Earth: Clive Hamilton "Nordhaus' Carbon Tax: An excuse for more delay?"

Friday, May 08, 2009

Clive Hamilton "Nordhaus' Carbon Tax: An excuse for more delay?"

This email came through today on the climate-l listserve. Clive Hamilton explains why a carbon tax is not the solution to climate change. Originally from the Australia Institute, he has written a number of books that critique capitalism and consumerism (see list below). Well worth a read.

Anyway, here is the email:

William Nordhaus is perhaps the most influential US economist in the global warming debate. While climate scientists are calling for urgent and strong action, he has been urging a cautious response, stressing the high costs of cutting emissions and the uncertainties associated with climate change. This paper argues that his latest proposal for a carbon tax, based squarely on neoclassical economic assumptions, contravenes agreed international principles, exposes the environment to risk, accords unwarranted privilege to private over public decisions and would result in more years of delay before the world responds.

To read the paper please go to

http://www.clivehamilton.net.au/cms/index.php?page=articles

Clive Hamilton
Senior Visiting Fellow
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Yale University

List of books by Australian author Clive Hamilton (source Wiki):

Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough (2005)
Capitalist Industrialization in Korea
Growth, Efficiency and Fixed Capital in Linkage Analysis
Growth Fetish (2003)
Human Ecology, Human Economy: Ideas for an Ecologically Sustainable Future (1997)
Running from the Storm: The Development of Climate Change Policy in Australia
Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change (2007)
Silencing Dissent: How the Australian Government is Controlling Public Opinion and Stifling Debate (2007)
The Economic Dynamics of Australian Industry (1992)
The ESD Process: Evaluating a Policy Experiment
The Freedom Paradox: Towards a Post-Secular Ethics (2008)
The Mystic Economist (1994)
What's Left? The Death of Social Democracy (2006)