Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to analyze and critique two conceptual bases in the analysis by Nobel Prize economist William Nordhaus about the costs and gains of climate change. Simply put, his modeling indicates that global warming and climate change are not problems that require policies that would significantly slow economic growth. Thus, his work has been used by climate-change deniers, conservative policymakers, and industrial groups as the basis to prevent needed policies to mitigate climate change. Additionally, his work has been adversely criticized by economists who stress the need for such mitigation. Their criticism has mainly dwelt with his numbers, while leaving the basic structure of Nordhaus’s analysis intact. The critique here is different, it is about two of his basic concepts that are incorrect. They are the inconsistencies with systems principles and the assertations about linear time in his work.

摘要：

本文的目的是分析和批判诺贝尔奖经济学家威廉诺德豪斯关于气候变化的成本和收益的分析中的两个概念基础。简而言之，他的模型表明，全球变暖和气候变化并不是需要采取显着减缓经济增长的政策的问题。因此，他的工作已被气候变化否认者、保守派政策制定者和工业团体用作防止缓解气候变化所需政策的基础。此外，他的工作受到强调需要这种缓解措施的经济学家的不利批评。他们的批评主要集中在他的数字上，同时保留了诺德豪斯分析的基本结构完整无缺。这里的批评是不同的，是关于他的两个基本概念是不正确的。