Good point!

Climate scientist James Annan makes an important point about the economics of climate change in a comment (#4) over at Prometheus:

“Putting it a different way, If they come true, my children will inherit a world of hurt. I’d like to help them avoid that if I can.”

I do wonder when reading these sort of comments if the writer (and indeed the general public) is aware of the basic fact that under all plausible scenarios of climate change their children will be substantially richer than they are, and their grandchildren even more so.

Indeed. That is precisely why paying now to avoid harm in the future amounts, in my opinion, to a regressive tax on the poor of today to help the rich of tomorrow. That’s true even taking into account the time value of money.