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Episode 472: The One-Page Plan To Fix Global Warming ... Revisited

Camille Seaman
/
Barcroft Media/Landov

Climate change seems like this complicated, intractable problem. But maybe it doesn't have to be.

In 2013, we talked to a couple economists about a very simple idea that could solve the climate change problem: Tax carbon emissions. A carbon tax could be paired with cuts in the income tax. It would drive down emissions without picking winners or losers, and without creating complicated regulations. It all seemed so elegant. So doable. At the time they made a bold prediction.

We promised to revisit their prediction in the summer of 2018, as many of you wonderful, fastidious, dedicated listeners have reminded us. We hear you.

Today on the show, exactly five years after we aired the original episode, we check in with one of those economists to find out how carbon taxes have fared around the world.

Music: "Daydreaming" and Noah and the Whale's "5 Years Time."

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David Kestenbaum is a correspondent for NPR, covering science, energy issues and, most recently, the global economy for NPR's multimedia project Planet Money. David has been a science correspondent for NPR since 1999. He came to journalism the usual way — by getting a Ph.D. in physics first.
Alex Blumberg is a contributing editor for NPR's Planet Money. He is also a producer for the public radio program This American Life, and an adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia University. He has done radio documentaries on the U.S. Navy, people who do impersonations of their mothers and teenage Steve Forbes supporters. He won first place at the 2002 Third Coast International Audio Festival for his story "Yes, There is a Baby." His story on clinical medical ethicists won the 1999 Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI) award for best radio documentary.
Robert Smith is a host for NPR's Planet Money where he tells stories about how the global economy is affecting our lives.