[extropy-chat] Global warming news

[Martin Striz]

On 3/25/06, Robin Hanson <rhanson at gmu.edu> wrote:

> Yes humanity will not go extinct due to global warming.   But those
> disruptions will have real costs, which we would prefer to avoid all
> else equal.   To economists the obvious solution is to try estimate
> the real disruption costs due global warming, and how they increase
> as the quantity of CO2 increases, and then charge people that price
> for CO2 increases (or decreases).   The price is clearly above zero,
> though the economic analyses I have seen suggest that many prices
> that have been proposed would be worse than a zero price.   I could
> invent some creative institutions to try to better estimate the right
> price, but I don't think there is much chance of their being used
> anytime soon.

That was one of my suggestions. Amortize the cost of possible future
economic and environmental problems into the price of fossil fuels. 
Of course, since that is not well known, you can charge an insurance
premium on, say, anything over 6000 ga of gasoline consumed per year,
etc.

Martin