Holy Crap—Yes We Can!?

Photograph by Yoshikazu Nema; Artwork by Yuken Teruya / NYT

What is amazing about Paul Krugman’s latest article for the New York Times Magazine—besides his hallmark combination of unpretentious, efficient prose with subtle and thorough thinking—is that despite all the doom and gloom, it’s actually optimistic.

No, not optimistic politically. In “Building a Green Economy,” Paulie K. is decidedly dreary on the prospects of a climate plan passing in the cumbersome, partisan U.S. Senate. And he doesn’t have a lot of good to say about getting China, India and the rest of the developing world to cut their skyrocketing share of greenhouse gas emissions. It is particularly depressing considering that Krugman is a pessimist when it comes to the climate science itself, putting his money on the researchers who think the Earth’s industrial nations need to start cutting carbon emissions big time and in short order in order to avert possible catastrophe.

And yet, the brilliant truth staring the reader in the face is that both science and economics are completely capable of solving what is probably the greatest single danger our little civilization has ever faced. I know this isn’t anything really new. It’s just that Krugman’s quick-and-dirty review of the state of climate change made it that much clearer. If anything, we should be proud as a species that we’re up to this kind of challenge.

And then we should remember Congress. <sigh>. End.