PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

W D Nordhaus

Publications and source records attributed to W D Nordhaus.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Abrupt climate change.

Large, abrupt, and widespread climate changes with major impacts have occurred repeatedly in the past, when the Earth system was forced across thresholds. Although abrupt climate changes can occur for many reasons, it is conceivable that human forcing of climate change is increasing the probability of large, abrupt events. Were such an event to recur, the economic and ecological impacts could be large and potentially serious. Unpredictability exhibited near climate thresholds in simple models shows that some uncertainty will always be associated with projections. In light of these uncertainties, policy-makers should consider expanding research into abrupt climate change, improving monitoring systems, and taking actions designed to enhance the adaptability and resilience of ecosystems and economies.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

The ecology of markets.

Economies are sometimes viewed as analogous to ecological systems in which "everything is connected to everything else." In complex modern economies, the question arises whether the market mechanism can appropriately coordinate all the interconnections or whether instead some supramarket body is needed to coordinate the vast web of human activities. This study describes how an idealized decentralized competitive market in fact coordinates the different economic organisms in an efficient manner. The problems of pollution and other externalities can undo the efficient outcome unless corrected by appropriate property rights or corrective taxes. But in closing the economic circle, the internalized economy does not actually need to close the natural cycles by linking up all physical flows through recycling.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

Lethal model 2: the limits to growth revisited.

The author examines some major concerns about global economic growth from both theoretical and empirical points of view, using "the limits-to-growth debate as a reference point to understand the earlier debate about the limits to and perils of growth, and to provide some perspective about the newer debate about environmental threats." He concludes that environmental and resource constraints on economic growth should be modest over the next 50 years and that economic growth is possible providing emphasis is given to "the importance of careful scientific and policy analysis and establishing or strengthening institutions that contain incentives that are compatible with the thoughtful balancing of long-run costs and benefits of social investments."

Conservation of Natural Resources↗