An economist responds to Greta Thunberg

Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst Sep 24, 2019
HTML EMBED:
COPY
Youth Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks during the UN Climate Action Summit on September 23, 2019 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

An economist responds to Greta Thunberg

Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst Sep 24, 2019
Youth Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks during the UN Climate Action Summit on September 23, 2019 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
HTML EMBED:
COPY

“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth,” said activist Greta Thunberg, speaking at the United Nations yesterday. “How dare you?”

“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal asked Ashoka Mody, professor of international economic policy at Princeton, what he thought of Thunberg’s speech.

“I think she is cutting out a political path on which economists must now travel,” Mody told Ryssdal. However, said Mody, economic growth itself is not the issue.

“We need to change the way we do things,” he said. “It requires a much more intrusive environmental regulation on the premise that that regulation will create a new avenue for innovation and investment.”

Click the audio player above to hear the interview.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.