Highlighted Article: The Climate Left Attacks Nobel Laureate William D. Nordhaus

From: American Enterprise Institute

By: Benjamin Zycher

Date: July 2020

The Climate Left Attacks Nobel Laureate William D. Nordhaus

"Key Points

• William D. Nordhaus, having received the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics largely in
recognition of his integrated assessment model of the science and economics of climate
policies, now is under attack from the environmental left, almost certainly because that
model does not support the policy preferences of the climate alarmists.

• The alarmists’ assertions about prospective climate phenomena are driven by climate
models that have predicted the past and present poorly, under a set of assumptions that
are deeply dubious. Those assertions are inconsistent with the evidence, and the alarmists’
policy prescriptions have been based in part on the application of low (or zero) discount
rates, on the grounds that such discount rates are appropriate as a tool with which to
incorporate the interests of future generations. That premise is incorrect.

• The proponents of the climate “crisis” attack on fossil fuels are driven by an imperative
almost entirely ideological. That rather than any reliance on “science” explains why a
dedicated scholar like Nordhaus finds himself under attack." ...

The Climate Left Attacks Nobel Laureate William D. Nordhaus