Without significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, climate change will cause substantial damage to the environment and the economy. The scope of the threat demands a close look at the policies capable of reducing the harm. Confronting the Climate Challenge presents a unique framework for evaluating the impacts of a range of U.S. climate-policy options, both for the economy overall and for particular household groups, industries, and regions. Lawrence Goulder and Marc Hafstead focus on four alternative approaches for reducing carbon dioxide emissions: a revenue-neutral carbon tax, a cap-and-trade program, a clean energy standard, and an increase in the federal gasoline tax. They demonstrate that these policies—if designed correctly—not only can achieve emissions reductions at low cost but also can avoid placing undesirable burdens on low-income household groups or especially vulnerable industries. Goulder and Hafstead apply a multiperiod, economy-wide general equilibrium model that is distinct in its attention to investment dynamics and to interactions between climate policy and the tax system. Exploiting the unique features of the model, they contrast the shorter- and longer-term policy impacts and focus on alternative ways of feeding back—or “recycling”—policy-generated revenues to the private sector. Their work shows how careful policy design, including the judicious use of policy-generated revenues, can achieve desired reductions in carbon dioxide emissions at low cost, avoid uneven impacts across household income groups, and prevent losses of profit in the most vulnerable U.S. industries. The urgency of the climate problem demands comprehensive action, and Confronting the Climate Challenge offers important insights that can help elevate policy discussions and spur needed efforts on the climate front.

An atmospheric scientist explains why global climate change mitigation and energy decarbonization demand American diplomacy, technology, and policy “Daniel Cohan makes a compelling case that the problem of climate change is solvable. Fixing the gridlock on global action requires fixing the gridlock here in the United States of America. Cohan shows how that can be done.”—David Victor, UC San Diego Professor of environmental engineering Daniel Cohan argues that escaping the gravest perils of climate change will first require American diplomacy, technological innovation, and policy to catalyze decarbonization globally. Combining his own expertise along with insights from more than a hundred interviews with diplomats, scholars, and clean-technology pioneers, Cohan identifies flaws in previous efforts to combat climate change. He highlights opportunities for more successful strategies, including international “climate clubs” and accelerated development of clean energy technologies. Grounded in history and emerging scholarship, this book offers a forward-looking vision of solutions to confronting climate gridlock and a clear-eyed recognition of the challenges to enacting them.

"The real fault line in American politics is not between liberals and conservatives.... It is, rather, in how we orient ourselves to the generations to come who will bear the consequences, for better and for worse, of our actions." So writes David Orr in Down to the Wire, a sober and eloquent assessment of climate destabilization and an urgent call to action. Orr describes how political negligence, an economy based on the insatiable consumption of trivial goods, and a disdain for the well-being of future generations have brought us to the tipping point that biologist Edward O. Wilson calls "the bottleneck." Due to our refusal to live within natural limits, we now face a long emergency of rising temperatures, rising sea-levels, and a host of other related problems that will increasingly undermine human civilization. Climate destabilization to which we are already committed will change everything, and to those betting on quick technological fixes or minor adjustments to the way we live now, Down to the Wire is a major wake-up call. But this is not a doomsday book. Orr offers a wide range of pragmatic, far-reaching proposals--some of which have already been adopted by the Obama administration--for how we might reconnect public policy with rigorous science, bring our economy into alignment with ecological realities, and begin to regard ourselves as planetary trustees for future generations. He offers inspiring real-life examples of people already responding to the major threat to our future. An exacting analysis of where we are in terms of climate change, how we got here, and what we must now do, Down to the Wire is essential reading for those wanting to join in the Great Work of our generation.

Although strategies to prevent global warming – such as by conserving energy, relying on solar and wind power, and reducing motor vehicle use – are well-known, societies have proved unable to implement these measures with the necessary speed. They have also been unwilling to confront underlying issues such as overconsumption, overpopulation, inequity, and dysfunctional political systems. Political and social obstacles have prevented the adoption of improved technologies, which would provide only a partial solution in any case if the fundamental causes of greenhouse gas emissions aren’t addressed. Climate Change and Social Ecology takes a new approach to the climate crisis, portraying global warming as a challenge of rapid social evolution. This book argues that, in order to address this impending catastrophe and bring about more sustainable development, we must focus on improving social ecology – our values, mind-sets, and social organization. Steps to do this include institutional reforms to improve democracy, educational strategies to encourage public understanding of complex issues, and measures to prevent corporations and the wealthy from shaping societies in other directions instead. This book presents a captivating vision of how to help social systems evolve toward sustainability and explores the social transformations needed for dealing with the climate crisis in the long term. It reviews the climate change strategies considered to date, presents a detailed description of a future sustainable society, and analyzes how this vision might be realized through more conscious public nurturing of our social systems. This interdisciplinary volume provides a compelling rethink of the climate crisis. Authoritative and accessible, it will be of great interest to anyone concerned about climate change and sustainability challenges and is essential reading for students, professionals, and general readers alike.

"This guide details five key practices for effective sustainability leadership. Lead for the Planet develops climate solutions that prioritize the wellbeing of people and ecosystems globally. This is the first book to apply a broad range of social sciences, from anthropology to psychology to economics, to help decision makers explore how humanity can best address the climate crisis. Leaders get things done through people. Just as they have applied natural science to understand climate change, now they should apply social science to improve how society makes decisions about the climate crisis. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Lead for the Planet also explores some of the harsher realities of the climate challenge--issues like resource limitations and stakeholder power. Refined over a decade in university courses on leadership for planetary sustainability, this book starts conversations and asks crucial questions: Who exactly is going to get this thing done? Will Team Humanity save the planet? Taking human nature into account, what is the best way forward? "--

With melting ice caps in the Arctic causing catastrophic environmental issues, it’s hard to believe that we’ve had to spend so much time convincing each other that climate change is real. Lead for the Planet shifts the focus to how we, the members of Team Humanity, are going to organize to solve the twin issues of climate change and energy evolution. The book channels a broad range of social science perspectives, from anthropology to psychology to economics, to help decision-makers explore how Team Humanity can get this thing done. Lead for the Planet outlines five practices that successful climate leaders will need to adopt, from getting the truth about the state of the planet, to assessing the risks and identifying the interests of key stakeholders, to implementing change within and between organizations and sectors on a global scale. Building on her experience as an organizational psychologist, Rae André shows how these practices comprise an effective model for climate leadership. Lead for the Planet is a guide for the kind of leadership that is necessary to help us all avoid the worst of global warming and to create a clean energy future for the generations to come.

A book for facing head-on—and averting—the oncoming global climate change disaster, by inspiring people to move from general concern and passive support to active protagonists for change. Climate change is our era's defining issue. We know, beyond reasonable doubt, that climate change is accelerating. To face a challenge greater than humanity has ever seen before, we must also accelerate ourselves, by summoning a sense of urgency, courage, and shared effort to match it. Jonathan Porritt's Hope In Hell is meant to do just that, by confronting the issue directly and strongly, but also with inspiration and hope; it's not too late to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Ultimately optimistic despite the dire challenge presented to the world, Porritt explores current science and new technologies, mobilization of younger people and political action, and encouraging intergenerational solidarity as older generations learn their own responsibilities in creating a better world for their successors.