Introduction

When leading climate economist Richard Tol publicly criticized a Twitter thread of Alex Epstein’s blaming anti-fossil fuel policies for the current energy crisis, Epstein invited Tal on Power Hour to discuss the issue as well as Tol’s work in climate economics.

The result is an illuminating and wide-ranging discussion of many topics, including:
- What climate economics is
- Criticisms of climate economics by Noah Smith and others for not portraying man-made climate change as sufficiently catastrophic
- The philosophical assumptions underlying climate catastrophism
- How both Tol’s and Epstein’s work is based on a pro-human standard of evaluation
- Why Richard Tol withdrew from a major role in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- How politics shapes every facet of the IPCC
- The role of government restrictions on fossil fuel production and transportation in the energy crisis
- The role of standard boom/bust cycles in the energy crisis
- The role of unexpected demand in the energy crisis