When thinking about climate change and the extremely high negative externalities that are associated with it, I can’t help but think about what drives policy in the U.S. Study after study comes out warning of the huge costs that our neglect of global warming will have, and yet little to nothing changes. Maybe it is in part to the fact that the brunt of the damage will be done “somewhere else”, meaning the poor who are unable to deal with these changes. Maybe part of it is corporations push to keep the status quo so that they can maximize profits without having to worry about the future. But it has to only be a matter of time before, they come to terms with the blatant scientific research that is before them. That increases in heat will cause ruin to a lot of crops. That the Artic glaciers will continue to melt and raise the sea level to levels never seen before. That cyclone intensity will increase and continue to wipe out poor nations. And that there will be severe droughts and a lack of drinking water, which maybe fine for the U.S. but certainly not for developing countries. The only problem with this is that as the paper states, the time for change is now. We are at a critical point in terms of temperature and we need change now. I just find it hard to be optimistic with the current system.