The Price of Everything - Eduardo Porter [142]
209-216 The Ethics of Tomorrow: Americans’ declining concerns about climate change are discussed in Frank Newport, “Americans’ Global Warming Concerns Continue to Drop,” Gallup Report, March 11, 2010 (www.gallup.com/poll/126560/americans-global-warming-concerns-continue-drop.aspx, accessed 07/19/2010). Data on carbon emissions by selected companies and the impact of a carbon tax on their profits is found in Investor Responsibility Research Center, Institute for Corporate Responsibility, “Carbon Risks and Opportunities in the S&P 500,” June 2009, and American Electric Company financial filings. The discussion of the rationale for Republicans’ skepticism about the perils of climate change draws from Michael I. Cragg and Matthew E. Kahn, “Carbon Geography: The Political Economy of Congressional Support for Legislation Intended to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Production,” NBER Working Paper, May 2009. Data on the impact of energy taxes on the poor are found in Dallas Burtraw, Rich Sweeney, and Margaret Walls, “The Incidence of U.S. Climate Policy: Where You Stand Depends on Where You Sit,” Resources for the Future Discussion Paper, September 2008 (http://www.rff.org/rff/documents/rff-dp-08-28.pdf, accessed on 08/08/2010). The impact of climate change on agriculture is in William Cline, “Climate Change Economics 2008,” Lecture presented at Colgate University, Center for Ethics and World Societies, Hamilton, New York, March 10, 2008; Orley Ashenfelter and Karl Storchmann, “Measuring the Economic Effect of Global Warming on Viticulture Using Auction, Retail and Wholesale Prices,” American Association of Wine Economists Working Paper, May 2010; and Orley Ashenfelter and Karl Storchmann, “Using a Hedonic Model of Solar Radiation to Assess the Economic Effect of Climate Change: The Case of Mosel Valley Vineyards,” NBER Working Paper, July 2006. The analysis of the impact of warming on industrial production in poor countries draws from Melissa Dell, Benjamin Jones, and Benjamin Olken, “Climate Change and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century,” NBER Working Paper, June 2008. Population projections for the end of the century come from “World Population in 2300,” Report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2003 (www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/Long_range_report.pdf, accessed 08/08/2010). The discussion of rich countries’ likely reluctance to provide financial aid to help poor countries deal with the impact of climate change draws from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “Development Co-operation Report 2010, Statistical Annex,” (http://www.oecd.org/document/9/0,3343,en_2649_34447_1893129_1_1_1_1,00.html, accessed 07/18/2010); and Joe Barton, “How Congress’s Drive to Stop Global Warming Is Fueling China’s Drive to Out-Compete the U.S.,” The Hill, July 7, 2009. The discussion about people’s reluctance to sacrifice present resources to improve the lives of future people draws from Talbot Page, “Conservation and Economic Efficiency: An Approach to Materials Policy,” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977), p. 169; Maureen Cropper, Sema Aydede, and Paul Portney, “Rates of Time Preference for Saving Lives,” Economics of the Environment, American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings , Vol. 82, No. 2, May 1992, pp. 469-472; and Shane Frederick, “Measuring Intergenerational Time Preference: Are Future Lives Valued Less?,” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2003, pp. 39-53; Susmita Pati, Ron Keren, Evaline Alessandrini, and Donald Schwarz, “Generational Differences in U.S. Public Spending, 1980-2000,” Health Affairs, Vol. 23, September /October 2004, pp. 131-141; Pew Research Center, “Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming,” October 22, 2009; and W. Kip Viscusi and Joni Hersch, “The Generational Divide in Support for Climate Change Policies