The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World

The 2018 Nobel laureate for economics analyzes the politics and economics of the central environmental issue of today and points the way to real solutions

Climate change is profoundly altering our world in ways that pose major risks to human societies and natural systems. We have entered the Climate Casino and are rolling the global-warming dice, warns economist William Nordhaus. But there is still time to turn around and walk back out of the casino, and in this essential book the author explains how.

Bringing together all the important issues surrounding the climate debate, Nordhaus describes the science, economics, and politics involved—and the steps necessary to reduce the perils of global warming. Using language accessible to any concerned citizen and taking care to present different points of view fairly, he discusses the problem from start to finish: from the beginning, where warming originates in our personal energy use, to the end, where societies employ regulations or taxes or subsidies to slow the emissions of gases responsible for climate change.

Nordhaus offers a new analysis of why earlier policies, such as the Kyoto Protocol, failed to slow carbon dioxide emissions, how new approaches can succeed, and which policy tools will most effectively reduce emissions. In short, he clarifies a defining problem of our times and lays out the next critical steps for slowing the trajectory of global warming.

• Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change
• How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate
• The Age of Sustainable Development
• Superpower: One Man's Quest to Transform American Energy
• The Soul: How We Know It's Real and Why It Matters
• Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet
• Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast
• A Question of Balance: Weighing the Options on Global Warming Policies
• Cool IT (Movie Tie-in Edition): The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
• The Climate Fix