Comments on: Nordhaus’s Nobel Prize is safe but the World isn’t

By: Henry

Henry — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 07:44:30 +0000

In reply to Tim. Hi Tim, of course you are right. The problem is space! But we do talk a lot about this elsewhere. You must have noticed our #NotTheNobel campaign, no? See here if not. Cheers Henry

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 06:35:29 +0000

Please don’t call it a nobel prize. It’s the The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel and was invented for themselves as they were feeling a little left out.

By: Stephen Keen

Stephen Keen — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 08:08:38 +0000

In reply to Mark Bahner.

It’s not the “Steffen curve”; simply a rational function that coincides with Nordhaus at 1 degree warming but has a discontinuity at 2. And a function with a discontinuity goes to infinity as it approaches the discontinuity, so no, it’s correct.

Also, see https://twitter.com/MichaelEMann/status/1163565539454783489?s=20 and others on discontinuities.

By: Rip Rinehart

Rip Rinehart — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 14:50:40 +0000

In reply to Mark Bahner. Mark Bahner: That's the point of the article. The rate of GDP reduction rises exponentially after the tipping point is reached. That's how an exponential function works. Small changes in the X variable result in increasingly large changes in the Y variable. Nordhaus's linear function is completely unrealistic, based on the predictions of almost all climate scientists.

By: Mark Bahner

Mark Bahner — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 02:31:23 +0000

In your Figure 3, the “Steffen” curve seems to show a 20 percent reduction in GDP (relative to no warming) for approximately a 1.9 degree Celsius temperature increase from pre-industrial levels, but a 100 percent reduction in GDP for a 2.0 degree Celsius temperature increase (only 0.1 degree Celsius additional increase).

Doesn’t that seem obviously incorrect to you?

By: Thatcher Ulrich

Thatcher Ulrich — Sat, 27 Jul 2019 13:42:29 +0000

Thanks for this. My first scan of his paper also has me concerned that his model of the cost of mitigations is bananas as well.