An Environmentalism Of Doubt

Matt Frost gets in on the cap and trade debate:

I remain unconvinced that it’s possible to mitigate climate change with any tools at our disposal, and I don’t think we’ll bring the next generation of energy sources to market by making fossil fuels more expensive in relative terms. Such an approach is especially fragile in an inflationary and increasingly zero-sum world economy, so I tend to agree with Indur Goklany and Tom Schelling that the best way to solve the problem of climate change is by applying the brainpower that only a wealthier developing world can deliver. The political consensus, however, is for getting a head start on direct mitigation, and emissions trading might be the least-bad way to do so.