Can We Afford the Future?: The Economics of a Warming World »

FRANK ACKERMAN is a research fellow at Global Development and Environment Institute and a senior scientist at Stockholm Environment Institute-US Centre, both at Tufts University.

In this book, Frank Ackerman offers a refreshing look at the economics of climate change, explaining how conventional economic theories get in the way of understanding this urgent problem. The benefits of climate protection are vital but priceless, and often devalued in cost-benefit calculations. Modest preparation for the most predictable outcomes of global warming is less important than secure protection against the growing risk of catastrophic change; massive investment in new, low carbon technologies and industries is life insurance for the planet. Ackerman makes an impassioned plea to construct a better economics, arguing that if we can't afford the future, what are we saving our money for?

1 The status quo is not an option 1

2 Your grandchildren's lives are important 15

3 We need to buy insurance for the planet 28

4 Climate damages are too valuable to have prices 41

5 Some costs are better than others 55

6 Hot, it's not: climate economics according to Lomborg 70

7 Much less wrong: the Stern Review versus its critics 82

8 Climate, equity, and development 97

9 What is to be done? 113

Notes 133

References 140

Index 146