The Economics of the Yasuní Initiative

Climate Change as if Thermodynamics Mattered

By (author) Joseph Henry Vogel Prologue by José Manuel Hermida Foreword by Graciela Chichilnisky

Publication date:

01 January 2010

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

140x216mm
9x6"

ISBN-13: 9781843318781

Climate change lends itself to both political economy and humor. Vogel argues that mainstream economics fails to recognize the thermodynamic nature of climate change, thereby missing the point of Northern appropriation of the atmospheric sink. The payment Ecuador seeks for not drilling in the Yasuní is equitable and efficient. Heeding the call of Deirdre (formerly Donald) McCloskey that economics needs humor, Vogel has written a scathing critique of economics-as-usual which also entertains.

Prologue by José Manuel Hermida; Foreword by Graciela Chichilnisky; Introduction; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Chapter 1: Thermodynamics: The Language Chosen Defines the Debate; Chapter 2: The Tragedy of the Commons: A Class of Problems that has no Technical Solution; Chapter 3: The Willful Ignorance of Realpolitik: Market Failure or Cost-shifting Success?; Chapter 4: The General Theory of Second Best: A Rigorous Justification for an Intuitively Just Proposal; Chapter 5: Through the Bottleneck of a Cowboy Economy: Financing Shovel-ready Projects; Conclusions: Reason for Hope and Despair; Appendix: Annotated YouTube Filmography; Notes; Index

'A springboard for a succinct, passionate exploration of the economics of anthropogenic climate change… It does what all good books should do: it makes you think.' —Doug Macdougall, Professor Emeritus, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and author of ‘Nature's Clock: How Scientists Measure the Age of Almost Everything’