Economic Growth and Mitigating Climate Disruption — Nothing Is More Powerful Than an Idea Whose Time Has Come

In one breath, climate deniers tell us that tens of thousands of our top climatologists have covertly gotten together and conspired to perpetrate a hoax on the world’s people.  In the next breath, they tell us that attempts to deal with this non-problem will stifle economic growth.  Both these notions are incorrect.

In this article, leading economists explain how addressing the climate issue will actually stimulate the economy.  Of course, this isn’t exactly news, as it’s been the subject of numerous studies since the 1970s.  In fact, it was also the main point that Dr. Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, made in the interview I conducted with him in my second book, “Is Renewable Really Doable?”  It would be hard to find anyone more familiar with the math here; his life’s work is calculating the number and quality of jobs that are represented by various approaches to the energy sector.

What will happen when the truth takes root, and we see that clean energy is a friend to the U.S. economy?  As Victor Hugo is often (mis)quoted: “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”