The Tide Is In

Conor Clarke interviews Kenneth Arrow about global warming:

[T]he affect of the seashore is going to be major. If you have large portions of the Arctic ice disappear, the rise in sea level will be in meters and yards. If it takes place gradually we can move back and there is no tragedy. If it rises more quickly then I think there is a real possibility of bad consequences. And while the United States, I guess it is true, will not be losing half of the world's agriculture, you have to realize that if it's happening here it's happening elsewhere. Food is going to become more valuable around the globe. Food will become scarcer. It's not going to be 3% of the American economy anymore. If we replaced food with imports, the imports won't come easily or cheaply. The price of goods will shoot up if there is additional scarcity. So the cost could be a much bigger number than [climate change experts] Mendelson and Nordhaus find.