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The Ezra Klein Show · September 15, 2023 · 74m

Why We Can't Stop Climate Change — Even Though We Know How

The Ezra Klein Show

Klein explores the psychological and political barriers to climate action. The technology exists. The economics work. The science is settled. So why can't we act? The answer lies in psychology, politics, and temporal discounting.

This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.

Highlights

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Temporal discounting — humans systematically undervalue future costs and overvalue present benefits
Klein presents temporal discounting as the core psychological barrier to climate action: the costs of action are immediate and concrete, while the benefits are distant and abstract.
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The tragedy of the commons applied to the atmosphere — rational individual behavior produces collective catastrophe
Klein explains why climate change is a collective action problem: every country benefits from emissions but suffers from cumulative warming. Individual rationality produces collective irrationality.
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