CLIMATE CHANGE is many problems in one. Developing and deploying zero-carbon technologies is a formidable challenge. So is the politics of co-ordinating disparate groups to achieve the necessary collective action. In America, where the Republican Party persists in climate denialism, it is an epistemological pickle. Policymakers met in Katowice, Poland, this week to discuss implementing the climate deal signed three years ago in Paris, from which America withdrew under President Donald Trump.
Behind all this, however, lies an economic problem. Humanity must work out how many resources should be diverted from other, valuable uses—from life-enriching consumer goods to funding for pensions—to the task of limiting global warming. These calculations may look bloodless, but they are built on weighty moral assumptions, namely, how to value other people’s lives. Though it is hard to know what might finally impel humanity to take the…
