Newsweek - USA (2020-02-21)

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sions. A carbon dividend is an ingenious way to both make greenhouse gases expensive and to help people afford the resulting price increases. This dividend is a tax on carbon with an important twist: instead of keeping the money collected from companies, the ECONOMICS

a “dividend” to each household. Wdividend. Clearly, it’s an idea whose time has come.habitable, adding more animals to the sad parade of was one of the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics in large part for his work on the carbon government sends it right back out to the people as house gas emissions could make some habitats unin-dicted consequences of global warming. Our green-those already eliminated by our actions. But the threat Species loss is one of the most heartbreaking pre-illiam Nordhaus

50 years we’ve seen remarkable increases in this kind In 1970, less than 2.4 percent of the earth’s land area of extinctions doesn’t imply a need for degrowth. In-stead, it makes more urgent the opposite: a world of nations and people prosperous enough to be good stewards of our planet and the life on it. Over the past of stewardship. In 1982, for example, most nations agreed to a complete moratorium on the hunting of whales, and populations are rebounding. In addition to protecting species, we’re also protecting territory.

was designated as parkland or otherwise conserved, and only 0.04 percent of the world’s waters. By 2018 these figures had increased to 13.4 percent and 7.3 percent, respective-ly. In China, which has long been the world’s largest market for endangered animal products, another important EKC has taken shape. As the country got wealthier, it eventually applied less pressure, not more, to some important

animals. Strict bans are in place on buy-ing, selling and possessing rhino and tiger products, and trade in ivory has been prohibited since 2017.fight against extinctions? They are. Documented extinctions appear to have slowed down in recent decades; for example, no marine creatures have been recorded as extinct in the past Are efforts like these helping in the

fifty years. It is far too early to declare victory over the forces of annihila-tion, but not too early to say that we know what works. Less pollution and

more protection and prosperity are core elements of a winning strategy for protecting life on Earth. it as an unreasonable idea (given human nature), and an unnecessary one. This is not the same as saying that environmentalism is unnecessary. We should all be deeply grateful to the modern environmen-tal movement born around Earth Day. On that day and countless others, concerned people took to the streets; put pressure on businesses, policymakers and Degrowth is not. The past half-century has exposed

human prosperity and a healthy, endlessly abun-ture generations—tecting vulnerable species, we can have both greater mean continuing to support all of its original ideas. We now know that the core idea of degrowth—take better care of the planet we all live on. It worked.there is no other way to conserve the earth for fu-elected officials; and otherwise advocated that we smart moves, including limiting pollution and pro-But gratitude toward environmentalism does not is simply wrong. With a few that

including and DevelopinoCnhina, are not yetes sucfast-growing g countries,h as India Ơof how we learned to prosper using fewer re-sources—author of portions of this essay are adapted.dant planet. So let’s get to work on building one. Andrew Mmore from less: the surprising story and what happens next,cAfeeis a scientist at M from which IT and the

dthe not-too-distant future, they may start decreasineveloped and developinsome resources, year. One factor drivinworld is now usinndematerializinhihatutagheir consumption of devh-income countries erm. Macoul rateesouucnrith riaoflizrescesg^ tat. But inhajust asglikie^ oeac less rin ec iofh hgggs (^)
)(^77 (ʔ^3 )$ʔ^0 $/((^6 +$^21 <^77 (ʔ^3 ) 520 /() 7 -<:(/ 6 $ 0 $'ʔ$ Left: Bicycle riders battlesmoRipollution in Hyderabad. Another is competitiontgechnolofor companies to savegDPRQovernmental inaction, gmoney on resources.ht: A protest aprovides incentivesclimate chan in New Delhi, India. companies, whichJSURɿWVHHNLQgical progge and gainst ress. J