Reading: Long-term Cost of Climate Change

Global Warming and human waste ,Pollution Concept - Sustainability. showing the effect of arid land with tree changing environment, Concept of climate change. Sky background, different weather

A reading by Louise Lerner, The University of Chicago, that summarises the economic cost of carbon as viewed from the perspective of geologists. This research challenges the traditional cost of carbon, which has been priced at $100 per ton of carbon emission, by stating the cost of carbon to be between $10,000 to $750,000 depending on the geophysical and economic scenarios.

Students will learn about the cost of carbon, discount rate, climate models, and socioeconomic costs amongst others. They will learn the difference between short term and long term carbon cost modelling and why a carbon cost of $100 does not give a holistic scenario of the impacts of carbon emissions.

Use this tool to help your students find answers to: 

  1. What does ‘cost of carbon’ imply?
  2. What is the difference between the traditional cost of carbon and the new cost of carbon calculated in this reading?

About the tool

Tool NameClimate change will ultimately cost humanity $100,000 per ton of carbon, scientists estimate
DisciplineEconomics
Topic(s) in DisciplineEnvironmental Economics, Economic Cost, Social Cost of Carbon, Cost of Carbon, Discount Rate
Climate Topic Energy, Economics and Climate Change
Type of tool Reading
Grade LevelHigh School, Undergraduate
LocationGlobal
LanguageEnglish
Translation
Developed byLouise Lerner,  University of Chicago
Hosted atPhys.org by Science X Network
Linkhttps://phys.org/news/2020-09-climate-ultimately-humanity-ton-carbon.html
AccessOnline
Computer SkillsBasic
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