The Economist Calls for ‘Complete Overhaul’ of Economy to Fight Climate Change

The Economist Climate Issue
The Economist

The Economist magazine has devoted an entire weekly issue to the “climate crisis,” calling for “all-encompassing” measures to curb global warming.

Because “the processes that force climate change are built into the foundations of the world economy and of geopolitics,” the UK-based journal insists, “measures to check climate change have to be similarly wide-ranging and all-encompassing.”

“To decarbonise an economy is not a simple subtraction; it requires a near-complete overhaul,” declares Zanny Minton Beddoes, the Economist’s editor-in-chief.

To justify an entire issue dedicated to climate, Minton Beddoes states that the topic of climate now touches on every aspect of the news.

“We have found that, whether it is in Democratic politics or Russian dreams of opening an Arctic sea passage, climate now touches on everything we write about,” the magazine states. “To illustrate this, we decided to weave articles on the climate crisis and what can be done about it into all parts of this week’s coverage.”

Economist cover stories on climate change

Economist cover stories on climate change

As would be expected, the issue devotes a full article to fawn over the Democrat Party in the United States and its “ambitious” climate schemes.

“Candidates are tripping over themselves to convey their plans’ ambition, from Joe Biden’s $1.7trn proposal for a “clean-energy revolution” to Bernie Sanders’s $16.3trn ‘nationwide mobilization,’” the magazine noted.

“Three candidates—Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg and Julian Castro—support a carbon tax or fee, which economists like for its ability to spur lower emissions across the economy, without trying to anticipate the success of any given technology,” the article remarks approvingly.

Meanwhile, “the biggest risk to a better policy comes from lack of support partly from Democrats in coal- and gas-producing states, like West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, and mainly from Republicans.”

“Pew’s polling shows that just 27% of Republicans consider climate change a major threat,” it states.

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