The Spirit of Green

William D. Nordhaus – Nobel Prize-winner and professor of economics and environment at Yale University – approaches environmental issues with an economist’s eye for rationality and practical efficiency. In this accessible overview, he details how to fold climate change mitigation into market processes. Nordhaus advocates policies, such as a carbon tax, that create maximum benefits at minimal costs, and he advises against arbitrary command-and-control regulation.

Global warming is a trillion-dollar problem requiring a trillion-dollar solution, and the battle for hearts, minds and votes will be fierce.William D. Nordhaus

Pragmatic environmentalists will recognize the necessary role of markets in protecting the planet. Nordhaus sensibly argues that measures that inflict the least harm to people’s lives and wallets will most easily gain widespread support.