The Economic Principle That Tells Us a Lot About Coronavirus and Climate

Report after report has documented the warning President Trump received about the growing threat the new coronavirus posed to the U.S. But Trump remained defiant, reports say, seeking to settle the markets and sustain the three years of economic growth that had underpinned his reelection campaign. Even after recommending social distancing and the closing of the U.S. economy, Trump insisted that the measures to protect human life couldn’t last too long because he did not want to “let the cure be worse than the problem itself.” This phraseology is all too familiar for anyone who has closely followed the last decade of debate around climate change. “Plans stemming from panic will constrain our economy,” Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio warned last year, saying we should stop trying to halt climate change and just adapt. “I’m not a scientist. I’m interested in protecting Kentucky’s economy,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2014. “The benefits do not outweigh the costs,” said Paul Ryan, the former Speaker of the House, of climate mitigation measures. Even a cursory look at science and economics casts doubt on these statements. With both climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, simple economics show that the benefits of early action outweigh the costs. The U.S. would have saved trillions of dollars by acting early. Transitioning the world away from fossil fuels is a gargantuan task that comes...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news