Climate Determinism Reborn

Richard Tol

Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: Environmental determinism in the past followed from the belief that the godsbestowed political power and the best possible weather on the sponsors of early scholars.Although later discredited in academia because of the associations with racism and the lackof support for any monocausal explanation of history, environmental determinism in popularculture has morphed into the unfounded idea of catastrophic climate change. Although ahandful of papers in the literature on the economic impact of climate change appear tosupport this concern, closer inspection reveals severe methodological and conceptual issueswith the analyses. Climate policy will not dominate major economies, because politicians willpull back before it does, but small economies may be overwhelmed by the export of carbon credits.

Keywords: climate change; environmental determinism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sus:susewp:0725

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