Photo: AP For the first time ever, an economist studying the impacts of climate change has been honored with a Nobel prize. William Nordhaus, a Yale economist and Paul Romer, the former head of the World Bank, are this year’s recipients of the Nobel prize in economics for their pioneering work on climate change and technological innovation. The two fields are intimately related, as we’ll need to innovate the hell out of our economy and energy system to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. What makes the spotlight on Nordhaus so intriguing is that it comes on the heels of a major new climate report on limiting global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius. Advertisement Many of the assumptions in this new report are built on Nordhaus’s work, which began in the 1970s at a time when scientists were coming to grips with just how much human carbon pollution was altering the climate. But while the physics was clear—greenhouse gases trap heat—the economic impacts were still waiting to be untangled. While the relationship between climate change and economics may seem obvious today, the web of connections and feedbacks wasn’t always well-understood. What Nordhaus did was basically build a bridge […]

Latest Articles
New Electric Car Battery Charges in Just Five Minutes
Hot Minute A factory in China has manufactured a car battery that can be charged completely in just five minutes, The Guardian reports...
Simple change to fishing gear saves thousands of birds in Namibia
A cheap and simple change to the equipment used by Namibian fishing boats is saving tens of thousands of vulnerable seabirds annually, researchers...
Global sales of electric cars accelerate fast in 2020 despite pandemic
Global sales of electric cars accelerated fast in 2020, rising by 43% to more than 3m, despite overall car sales slumping by a...
New Black and Orange Bat Species Discovered in West Africa
A new species of bat has been identified in West Africa. MYOTIS NIMBAENSIS / BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL In 2018, a team of researchers...
EU Aims to Curb Carbon Footprint via Breakthrough in Space Program
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst stand at the Orion spacecraft during a visit at the training unit of...
Connecting Off-Grid – Digital Debbi
Connecting Off-Grid
Guest post by Debora Lucyk (@digitaldebbi) The inlet It’s all calm and quiet after hours of the sound of rain. A raven is squawking, and...