In Recognition

A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde’s bon mot expresses how some environmentalists and philosophers view the guild of climate economists. Admittedly, this perception is an exaggeration and in many cases misleading. Nevertheless there lies some truth in it. At first glance, climate economists focus primarily on the costs of emission reduction and underestimate the risks of dangerous climate change. Therefore, many ecologists and other concerned people have perceived economists as cynics because of their tendency to emphasize the price of climate policy and discount the value of a functioning natural environment. If these economists were challenged, they would even ask how much consumers are willing to pay for the existence of planet Earth. Even if some economists try to prove that people would pay for a well-functioning Earth system, not only non-economists feel that there must be something wrong with a profession analyzing these kinds of questions.