The Climate Debate Matures

Jim Manzi writes:

The email you posted today gets it, I think, precisely right.  Though it was not public, I’ve spent an hour in a room with Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus (who seem like great guys) a couple of months ago, and the points of agreement and debate were exactly what your correspondent indicated.  In effect, it comes down to a debate about the size of the technology investment (though the numerical difference is huge – like two orders of magnitude huge).

This is a technical debate that boils down to what one thinks of government investments to direct the economy.  I am inherently skeptical of them, other than for targeted purposes with clear logic for why only the government can do it, while S&N are much more sanguine about the ability of the government to direct economic resources effectively.  The discussion, however, was positive and collegial, involving no accusations of either communism or fascism.