On the Financial Crisis, Climate Change and Population: Economist Jeffrey Sachs Calls Out Failures in U.S. Policymaking

In this sobering post from Triple Pundit, economist Jeffrey Sachs issues a scathing critique of U.S. policymaking on everything from the Financial Crisis to Global Warming:

Sachs...describe(d) the bigger challenges–a crowding planet that hasn’t even begun to acknowledge the limited nature of its resources. We have almost seven billion people in a $70 trillion dollar world economy, which is connected to an environmentally unsustainable model. At this pace, we are on track to emit enough greenhouse gases to wreck the planet in 30 to 40 years.

The only solution, Sachs argued, was global cooperation, likely led by the G20, the group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 leading economies. If we believe that the US can do it alone, we will not find the necessary global solutions. Global cooperation lies at the center of our ability to survive, which may require nuclear energy and, the unspoken tactic that few dare to mention, family planning to stabilize population growth. Sustainable development must be attended to as the central challenge, not a side note taught in the classrooms of kids who will face the climate challenge as perhaps the greatest challenge of their lives.

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