Climate Change and Economics with Young Activists: An Introduction

Abstract

The chapter provides an introduction and overview of the book which has dual goals. One is to write a textbook of climate change and economics for the young scholars and the other is to explicate the inter-generational issues in the literature thereof. This introductory chapter starts with the description of the concerns expressed by and recent activism of generation-Z. This is followed by a big-picture overview of what will follow in the book. A compact review of climate change sciences is provided. The economic problems of climate change at both ends are elaborated: economic activities as a cause of climate change on the one end and the consequences of climate change on the economy on the other. Beyond the macro-economy level, this chapter sheds light on how individual citizens live with the climate system of the Planet which has never remained immutable at any time in its geologic time. The ways how such individual experiences as well as community experiences are critical for the humanity’s responses to climate challenges are a key message of this introductory chapter.