Episode description

Economist Gernot Wagner visits Google to discuss his book "Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet".

In the book, Wagner explores the likely repercussions of a hotter planet, drawing on and expanding from works previously unavailable to general audiences. He argues that the longer we wait to act, the more likely an extreme event will happen. Zeroing in on the unknown extreme risks that may yet dwarf all else, the book looks at how economic forces that make sensible climate policies difficult to enact, also make radical would-be fixes like geoengineering all the more probable. What we know about climate change is alarming enough; what we don't know about the extreme risks could be far more dangerous. Wagner helps readers understand that we need to think about climate change in the same way that we think about insurance -- as a risk management problem, only here on a global scale.

Originally published in April of 2015.

Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.