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Climate shock : the economic consequences of a hotter planet

By: Wagner, Gernot
Title By: Weitzman, Martin L, 1942-
Material type: BookPublisher: Princeton : Oxford Princeton University Press, c2015.Description: xi, 250 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.ISBN: 9780691159478Subject(s): Climatic changes -- Economic aspectsDDC classification: 363.73874 WA CL Online resources: Location Map
Summary:
If you had a 10 percent chance of having a fatal car accident, you'd take necessary precautions. If your finances had a 10 percent chance of suffering a severe loss, you'd reevaluate your assets. So if we know the world is warming and there's a 10 percent chance this might eventually lead to a catastrophe beyond anything we could imagine, why aren't we doing more about climate change right now? We insure our lives against an uncertain future--why not our planet?In Climate Shock, Gernot Wagner and Martin Weitzman explore in lively, clear terms the likely repercussions of a hotter planet, drawing on and expanding from work previously unavailable to general audiences. They show that the longer we wait to act, the more likely an extreme event will happen. A city might go underwater. A rogue nation might shoot particles into the Earth's atmosphere, geoengineering cooler temperatures. Zeroing in on the unknown extreme risks that may yet dwarf all else, the authors look at how economic forces that make sensible climate policies difficult to enact, make radical would-be fixes like geoengineering all the more probable. What we know about climate change is alarming enough. What we don't know about the extreme risks could be far more dangerous. Wagner and Weitzman help readers understand that we need to think about climate change in the same way that we think about insurance--as a risk management problem, only here on a global scale.With a new preface addressing recent developments Wagner and Weitzman demonstrate that climate change can and should be dealt with--and what could happen if we don't do so--tackling the defining environmental and public policy issue of our time.
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Item type Home library Call number Status Notes Date due Barcode Item holds
REGULAR University of Wollongong in Dubai
Main Collection 		363.73874 WA CL (Browse shelf) Available April 2018 T0058252
Total holds: 0
, Shelving location: Main Collection Close shelf browser
363.73874 KO FI Field notes from a catastrophe : 363.73874 PE GL Global warming / 363.73874 VO CL Climate change in world politics 363.73874 WA CL Climate shock : 363.738746 DR AW Drawdown : 363.738746 EL PR Pricing carbon : 363.738746 GI PO The politics of climate change /

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Frontmatter --
Contents --
Preface to the Paperback Edition --
Preface: Pop Quiz --
Chapter 1. 911 --
Chapter 2. 411 --
Chapter 3. Fat Tails --
Chapter 4. Willful Blindness --
Chapter 5. Bailing Out the Planet --
Chapter 6. 007 --
Chapter 7. What You Can Do --
Epilogue: A Different Kind of Optimism --
Acknowledgments --
Notes --
Bibliography --
Index

If you had a 10 percent chance of having a fatal car accident, you'd take necessary precautions. If your finances had a 10 percent chance of suffering a severe loss, you'd reevaluate your assets. So if we know the world is warming and there's a 10 percent chance this might eventually lead to a catastrophe beyond anything we could imagine, why aren't we doing more about climate change right now? We insure our lives against an uncertain future--why not our planet?In Climate Shock, Gernot Wagner and Martin Weitzman explore in lively, clear terms the likely repercussions of a hotter planet, drawing on and expanding from work previously unavailable to general audiences. They show that the longer we wait to act, the more likely an extreme event will happen. A city might go underwater. A rogue nation might shoot particles into the Earth's atmosphere, geoengineering cooler temperatures. Zeroing in on the unknown extreme risks that may yet dwarf all else, the authors look at how economic forces that make sensible climate policies difficult to enact, make radical would-be fixes like geoengineering all the more probable. What we know about climate change is alarming enough. What we don't know about the extreme risks could be far more dangerous. Wagner and Weitzman help readers understand that we need to think about climate change in the same way that we think about insurance--as a risk management problem, only here on a global scale.With a new preface addressing recent developments Wagner and Weitzman demonstrate that climate change can and should be dealt with--and what could happen if we don't do so--tackling the defining environmental and public policy issue of our time.

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