New study finds incredibly high carbon pollution costs - especially for the US and India | Dana Nuccitelli

As a wealthy, warm country, the US would benefit from implementing a carbon tax to slow global warmingThe social cost of carbon is a measure of the economic damages caused (via climate change) by each ton of carbon pollution that we produce today.  It's difficult to estimate because of physical, economic, and ethical uncertainties.  For example, it's difficult to predict exactly when various climate tipping points will be triggered, how much their damages will cost, and there's also a question about how much we value the welfare of future generations (which is incorporated in the choice of 'discount rate').In 2013, the Obama administration set the federal social cost of carbon estimate at $37 per ton of carbon dioxide (up from the previous estimate of $22).  That was a conservative estimate - in recent years, research has pegged the value closer to $200 because recent research has shown that global warming slows economic growth, which makes it quite expensive.  A majority of economists in a 2015 survey believed the federal estimate was too low, but Republicans have recently been trying to dramatically lower it anyway. Continue reading...