A new “spirit” to better our planet
The latest book by W.D. Nordhaus (winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize), now translated into Italian, describes a new plausible path towards safeguarding the environment and the economy
Smart and thoughtful change – this is what we need to tackle global warming, pandemics, overpopulation, climate disasters, and international political crises. To achieve all this, we also require a comprehensive and “revolutionary” approach, which could lead us to rethink economic efficiency, sustainability, politics, profit, finance and companies’ corporate responsibility. A complex knot of issues that William D. Nordhaus – winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2018 and Sterling Professor of Economics at the School of the Environment at Yale University – attempts to untangle in his The Spirit of Green, recently published as Spirito Green in Italy.
The book describes a compelling and promising path we could follow in order to manage looming threats without sacrificing economic wealth or increasing disparities.
Nordhaus, drawing upon his experience as an economist, offers a concise analysis on the theme, starting from its fundamentals and commenting on what has been happening; he goes on to discuss “sustainability in a perilous world”, and then explores possible suitable policies to embark on a different path than our current one (as well as outlining a kind of Green New Deal). The author subsequently situates this potential new approach within the concrete framework of individual social structures: profit, fiscal matters, corporate externality and social and ethical aspects, finance and social corporate responsibility – all of which become as many steps on the path suggested by Nordhaus, who concludes the book by emphasising the need for “climate agreements for the protection of the planet.”
Nordhaus’s work paints a hopeful picture: together, we can safeguard the environment and make our economy thrive once more. A work to be read attentively and, indeed, with a positive spirit (despite everything).
Spirito Green (original title: The spirit of green)
William D. Nordhaus
Il Mulino, 2022
The latest book by W.D. Nordhaus (winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize), now translated into Italian, describes a new plausible path towards safeguarding the environment and the economy
Smart and thoughtful change – this is what we need to tackle global warming, pandemics, overpopulation, climate disasters, and international political crises. To achieve all this, we also require a comprehensive and “revolutionary” approach, which could lead us to rethink economic efficiency, sustainability, politics, profit, finance and companies’ corporate responsibility. A complex knot of issues that William D. Nordhaus – winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2018 and Sterling Professor of Economics at the School of the Environment at Yale University – attempts to untangle in his The Spirit of Green, recently published as Spirito Green in Italy.
The book describes a compelling and promising path we could follow in order to manage looming threats without sacrificing economic wealth or increasing disparities.
Nordhaus, drawing upon his experience as an economist, offers a concise analysis on the theme, starting from its fundamentals and commenting on what has been happening; he goes on to discuss “sustainability in a perilous world”, and then explores possible suitable policies to embark on a different path than our current one (as well as outlining a kind of Green New Deal). The author subsequently situates this potential new approach within the concrete framework of individual social structures: profit, fiscal matters, corporate externality and social and ethical aspects, finance and social corporate responsibility – all of which become as many steps on the path suggested by Nordhaus, who concludes the book by emphasising the need for “climate agreements for the protection of the planet.”
Nordhaus’s work paints a hopeful picture: together, we can safeguard the environment and make our economy thrive once more. A work to be read attentively and, indeed, with a positive spirit (despite everything).
Spirito Green (original title: The spirit of green)
William D. Nordhaus
Il Mulino, 2022