Paper
The required paper should be from 4 to 5 pages (double-spaced) and present the student’s understanding of how economics can help mitigate the most important environmental issue of our time, i.e., global warming (a.k.a. climate change.) A suggested outline for this paper is posted on Blackboard. The paper might begin with a short description of the student’s understanding of the importance of global warming/climate change as a global environmental threat and the scientific basis for its connection to economic activity. A second section might describe the policies that could mitigate global warming, i.e., regulation of the emissions of global warming gases, taxing fuels containing cargon or a cap-and-trade system. The third and most important section would evaluate each of these policies using the economic tools students learn in this course. Students should conclude with their own views about global warming and the best public policy combatting it. Students are advised the instructor is a liberal Democrat but he will not penalize students who defend the environmental policies of the Trump Administration if they are based on good scientific and economic reasoning.