Economics, ethics, and climate policy

Fire assisted pastoralism vs. sustainable forestry—the implications of missing markets for carbon in determining optimal land use in the wet–dry tropics of Australia

“…It has often been noted that a future climate catastrophe cannot be excluded with any certainty because of the complexity of the climatic global system and the unprecedented stress imposed on it (Fankhauser, 1995). Worst-case scenarios include a redirection of the Gulf Stream, melting of the Antarctic ice-sheet and release of methane from previously frozen materials through the melting of permafrost soils (Cline, 1992;Fankhauser, 1995;Howarth and Monahan, 1992). There is a possibility that failure to mitigate atmospheric CO 2 concentrations could result in major suffering for future generations thus favouring low rates of discount.…”