I just downloaded a free copy of the National Academy Press's new book on climate change impacts. An impressive set of scholars participated but I don't see any academic economists on the following list. Why? Don't we know a thing or two about climate change's social and political stresses? Is the dark art of economics really so useless for studying behavioral change caused by climate change?
The cynic in me is slightly concerned that those who arranged for this analysis are aware that economists are optimistic people who believe that people and economies can "change their game" in the face of an anticipated but ambiguous threat. I hope that "doom and gloomers" didn't exclude the economists because they anticipated that we would cause trouble during the consensus process?
Again, I will read the NAP book and will blog about it but where are the economists? If we are the best social scientists, why weren't we invited to the party?
PS: I also see that no economists reviewed this document for NAP. That's ugly!
COMMITTEE ON ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STRESSES
JOHN D. STEINBRUNER (Chair), Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland;
Director, Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland
OTIS B. BROWN, Director, Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, North Carolina
State University
ANTONIO J. BUSALACCHI, JR., Director, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center,
University of Maryland; Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science
DAVID EASTERLING, Chief, Scientific Services Division, National Climatic Data Center,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Asheville, NC
KRISTIE L. EBI, Consulting Professor, Department of Medicine, Stanford University
THOMAS FINGAR, Oksenberg–Rohlen Distinguished Fellow and Senior Scholar, Freeman
Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
LEON FUERTH, Distinguished Research Fellow, National Defense University; Research
Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University; Founder and Director,
Project on Forward Engagement
SHERRI GOODMAN, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, CNA
Analysis and Solutions, Alexandria, VA; Executive Director, CNA Military Advisory
Board
ROBIN LEICHENKO, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Rutgers University
ROBERT J. LEMPERT, Director, Frederick S. Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy
and the Future Human Condition, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA
MARC LEVY, Deputy Director, Center for International Earth Science Information Network,
Earth Institute, Columbia University
DAVID LOBELL, Assistant Professor, Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford
University; Center Fellow, Program on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford
University
RICHARD STUART OLSON, Director of Extreme Event Research and Professor, Department
of Politics and International Relations, Florida International University
RICHARD L. SMITH, Director, Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute,
Research Triangle Park, NC
Here is a direct quote listing the set of reviewers.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Marc F.
Bellemare, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University; Andrew Brown, Jr.,
Michigan/Innovation and Technology Office, Delphi Corporation, Troy; Jared L. Cohon,
Office of the President, Carnegie Mellon University; Geoff Dabelko, Environmental
Change and Security Program, Woodrow Wilson Center; Delores M. Etter, Caruth
Institute for Engineering Education, Southern Methodist University; John Gannon, BAE
Systems, Arlington, Virginia; James R. Johnson, (retired) Minnesota Mining and
Manufacturing Company, Oak Park Heights, Minnesota; John E. Kutzbach, Center for
Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Monty G. Marshall, Center for
Global Policy, George Mason University and Center for Systemic Peace, Societal-
Systems Research, Inc.; Dennis Ojima, Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Warner
College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University; and Philip A. Schrodt,
Department of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University.
