September 05, 2019 1:32 PM ET
Climate economist Martin Weitzman died Aug. 27 from a suicide about a year after being passed over for a Nobel Prize, as he reportedly grew despondent about his ability to contribute to his field.
The Massachusetts medical examiner’s office ruled Wednesday afternoon that his death was a suicide by hanging. Along with being upset about being passed over, Weitzman’s colleagues said he left a note questioning whether he still had the mental capacity to contribute to his field, according to The New York Times. He was 77 years old.
Many climate researchers rely on such cost-benefit analysis to determine the extent of actions to take on climate change, but Weitzman is known for research showing that constructing such analyses downplays the possible risk from global warming, TheNYT reported.
His contribution was known as the Dismal Theorem. Weitzman wrote in the 2015 book “Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet” that the unknowns of climate change should scare academics as much if not more than what is known.
His analysis helped create the groundwork for cap-and-trade programs.(RELATED:Climate Academic Appears To Compare Global Warming Skeptics With The 9/11 Hijackers)
Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President and Climate Reality Project Chairman, gestures as he speaks at the COP24 UN Climate Change Conference 2018 in Katowice, Poland December 12, 2018. Agencja Gazeta/Grzegorz Celejewski/via REUTERS.
“Most everything we know tells us climate change is bad,” Weitzman and his co-author, Gernot Wagner, an economist at New York University, concluded in the book. “Most everything we don’t know tells us it’s probably much worse.”
Many of Weitzman’s colleagues believed he would win the 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, but it was not to be. The prize went to two other economists, Paul Romer, an academic at New York University, and William Nordhaus, an economics professor at Yale University.
Things declined for Weitzman further after an economist pointed to a mistake in an unpublished paper he circulated to peers, TheNYT reported, citing his colleagues. Nobel Prize politics have become a bit of a sore spot for climate scientists. Penn State University professor Michael Mann has been criticized in the past for embellishing his credentials.
Mann has consistently been called out for falsely claiming to have co-won the Nobel Prize in 2007 with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former Vice President Al Gore. That year’s prize went to the former vice president-turned-activist for promoting knowledge about climate change.
Mann said in his lawsuit in 2012 against conservative pundit Mark Steyn and National Review that he was a Nobel Laureate, but the Nobel committee has consistently rebuked this claim. Mann has never responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s response for comment about his claims about the prize.
Climate ‘science’ is truly the dismal science…
Quotation:
“Most everything we know tells us climate change is bad,” Weitzman and his co-author, Gernot Wagner, an economist at New York University, concluded in the book. “Most everything we don’t know tells us it’s probably much worse.”
That statement, in the context in which it was written, is completely false.
Human-made catastrophic global warming and climate change is a false crisis – it is NOT HAPPENING.
Darwin Award.
That line is probably his greatest contribution. That is the perfect synthesis of the alarmist position.
A classic , worthy of Mark Twain or Winston Churchill.
A classic , worthy of Mark Twain or Winston Churchill… or Alfred E Newman…
… or Elmer Fudd: “Be vewy afwaid!”
Don’t forget Murphy
Those unknown knowns again. Are they the causes of their depression or merely the symptoms for these climate changers?
I think his suicide is actually his greatest contribution.
And if he was right, it was a noble (no pun intended) sacrifice.
Imagine getting to that age and realizing your entire career has been wasted.
Re: “Imagine getting to that age and realizing your entire career has been wasted.”
Most academics in the “social sciences” (which are typically NOT SCIENTIFIC) get a free ride through life and never contribute anything of value to society – in fact many of them are highly destructive, through their false hypotheses that have no basis in fact but are intended to promote a far-left extremist social and political agenda.
Note how their hypotheses (few if any qualify as “theories”) are routinely revised and even reversed every generation or so – there is no consistency to their scholarship, except a consistent move to the further and further political left.
There is also no utility to their scholarship – they have negative or zero predictive skill and when applied, their hypos typically do more harm than good.
We could cease funding all the social sciences at our universities and our society would be a better, safer place.
I imagine that I might hang myself. I think your musing is correct, as to why he did it.
Hate to say I called it…but I called it. The incredibly unhelpful and harmful current rhetoric coming from the warmists is as “yelling fire in a crowded theater” incitement as you can get.
Perhaps not a true “Death by Climate Change Exaggeration”, but it won’t be the last, unfortunately. When some of those socially inept and truly uneducated youngsters think all hope is lost…well.
Condolences to his family and friends.
Climate change is most assuredly happening but it is happening as it has always happened.
The combined inputs of solar, orbital variability, lunar cycles and variability, geology, and planetary biology.
…you left out the disreputable science.
With the prognosticating of doom and gloom, combined with the lemming-like mentality, it’s a wonder we don’t have crowds of people in progressive strongholds just leaping off tall buildings.
Although, with the mentality of these folks, it’s more likely they’d be looking for someone else to throw.
Having said that, my guess is that this gentleman’s suicide had a lot more to do with the micro than the macro – almost always does.
It’s a mental disorder.
Condolences to his family.
A victim of the belief in “CAGW”.
Sad.
It would be quite proper for this death to be attributed to Global Warming, as depression, wailing and gnashing of teeth is an observed consequence of the incessant drumbeat about everything under the sun (except the sun) being caused by humans. An expectable consequence is that a fate similar to Jonestown awaits the faithful. Mass delusion following by mass suicide, with gunpowder to assist those whose “faith” is weak.
Is CAGW a terminal, mental illness? Evidence is growing that it is. I think some salvation is in order.
It sounds like Martin Weitzman’s tragic death can be directly attributed to climate change anxiety. After all, I doubt that anyone reading these words won a Nobel Prize last year, yet you obviously have not committed suicide, and I doubt that you are feeling any anxiety over it.
Climate change anxiety is now caused more deaths than man-made climate change. Can we hold the extremists responsible?
Just think of how many children he frightened with his doomsayer nonsense. Child abuse, I tell you … child abuse.
on the bright side, I love stories with a happy ending!!!
I suppose in the end he actually did finally see the complete truth – his entire life had been a complete waste of time and effort.
Did he have ties to the Clintons?
or was he just doing his part for Bernie’s population control?
I really shouldn’t make fun of this… I know. Very poor taste.
Unless you’re Swedish behavioural scientist Magnus Söderlund, then Swedish meatballs will be on the climate crazy Harvard faculty cafeteria menu next week.
Dude that is just sick. I grew up on Carlin, Pryor and Python but that is even to0 twisted for me. “Very poor taste” and then a cannibalism joke? Dial 1-900-GETALIFE man. Uggg.
Not even worth a GROANER award, just bad all around.
Hmmm…sure it was sick, but I don’t think in a bad way. Joel is edgy, and I appreciate his crafty references to some pretty contemporaneous issues. I suspect he’d be a fine companion over a few beers, which is more than I can say about many.
Cheers mate!! Drinking a fine craft Ale at the moment on a fine Arizona night sky.
It’s Me pint o’courage and lubrication for a loose tongue.
Always gets a man in trouble … or laid.
Lately it’s more of the former I’m afraid.
Drinking while posting. Okay that explains it. Happens to me as well when I combine those 2 activities. It was just so twisted. Here’s hoping you get some of the latter 🙂
Malthusian Socialism isn’t a joke, and where it leads.
Where were you when Söderlund proposed cannibalism as a way to help fight CC?
Because I can tell you he wasn’t joking.
I was in shocked disbelief at that one. Of all the dumb, dumber & dumbest ideas the climate change crowd have come up with that one was off the charts. I’m with you on the Malthus+Socialism being a bane to humanity not to mention they both have been proven wrong so many times.
Personally I think the cannibal thing was MEANT to shock. As in, “OMG, the Climate Crises will get sooo bad, even cannibalism will seem normal. I guess energy poverty and totalitarianism won’t be so bad in comparison.”
Remember, the Left sees nothing wrong with lying to get what they want. They are after all leading us mindless plebs into a new Socialist Utopia.
~¿~
TRM – you are blaming the wrong people.
The guilty parties in this man’s death are not climate skeptics – they are climate alarmists, who have terrified the hysterical and the gullible with their extremist falsehoods about dangerous human-made global warming and climate change, the greatest scientific fraud in history.
I’m not blaming climate skeptics in any way. Depression and suicide are just topics I find no humor in.
TRM – life is difficult – you have to find humour whenever and wherever you can.
True story:
In a two-year period, I managed two armed hostage crises on my Kazakstan project, later sold to the Chinese by my successors for US$4.2 billion.
Point of pride: Everybody got to go home, even the bad guys – despite some pressure, I never called the police or the army – they are more trouble than the crooks.
In one case, my CFO phoned me in the middle of the night from our office in the capital and said, “Al, I’ve got a gun to my head! What do I do?” I needed a bit more clarity, so I asked “Is this your gun or somebody else’s gun? My guy replied “One of our drivers wrecked his car and he wants $10,000.” I said “OK, give him $10,000, but one thing – can you get a receipt?” At that point he shrieked at me: “Don’t f*ck with me Al, he’s got a gun!!! These financial types are easily upset, and have NO sense of humour!
The second armed invasion was at our 60-man field camp in the Central Asian Desert. Some drunken hunters invaded the camp and demanded alcohol and diesel fuel. They got both and left.
I was under pressure to bring in the army to guard the camp, but I firmly declined – the army would be more trouble than the hunters. The un-funny thing there is we had an environmental program to protect an ancient species, the nearly-extinct, critically endangered saiga antelope. What were these drunks hunting? Yup, the saiga antelope. Really!
Where is the Oreski study that shows climate alarmists are so whack that they all should be immediately put on suicide watch?
Sorry for his family, no one should have to deal with that.
A funny thing to commit suicide over not winning a Nobel prize in economics when (as has been repeatedly noted here), there is no GD Nobel prize for economics. And the Nobel family has expressed much dismay over the fake Nobel prize in economics. Given the nature of economics, economists should be vying for Oscars for the best dramatic performance.
I thought that my sister’s friend spending thousands of dollars that she doesn’t have on solar panels was a sad thing. But suicide is very sad. The real harm of the climate alarmist is just getting started.
I should have recognized the tragedy of the situation. It is a sad situation and the nonsense about a Nobel prize is hugely secondary to that.
I’m confused. There is something that people call the Nobel Prize for Economics. The Nobel Prize web site lists the winners of that prize. link
There are 5 Nobel prize fields, as in the Nobel family foundation
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
There are a number of others dedicated to Alfred Nobel and one of those is
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
So it has Nobel in the name but it is not a Nobel prize as such
I know this reads like “…I”m not an economist, but I did spend the night in a Holiday Inn…”, but I did just take an extensive tour of Stockholm, and our local Swedish guide explained:
The award is officially titled “The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel” and is considered the most prestigious in economics. It was funded by the bank in 1968 (not by Albert in 1895), and is awarded by the Nobel committee. At least some (remaining) direct descendants of the family are less than happy about the economics prize (apparently, Albert was adamantly opposed to “finance & profiteering”, which made him & his family very wealthy).
Just kidding about the Holiday Inn.
The award is officially titled “The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel”
One of the important characteristics of a successful science is the ability to predict with accuracy.
What has the subject of economics actually predicted with success? Note that prediction includes both an event and its timing.
I suggest that economics, as commonly practiced, is not a science because it has little real predictive skill.
I am open to arguments, but let’s see some real credible evidence of predictive skill in economics – both of event and timing – and trivial arguments do not count.
Nobody came to the defense of Economics as a science? Not one good argument? Not even one lousy one?
Well, that settles it – ECONOMICS IS NOT A SCIENCE – it is a DARK ART!
Allan
Agreed: economics is not a science. It is an observational activity (like bird-watching) with differential equations.
Couple of economic’s foundational principles:
1) man is a rational investor
2) labor is instantly fungable
Javert Chip wrote:
“Agreed: economics is not a science. It is an observational activity (like bird-watching) with differential equations.”
But bird-watching at least has some scientific aspects, IF the observer is a competent biologist. He/she might even have some predictive skill regarding bird behaviour.
In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. So this is not a “Nobel Prize.” It is a Sveriges Riksbank Prize. It has little or nothing to do with the Nobel family or heritage, but is awarded by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, as are the other “Nobel Prizes.”
Suicide is always a tragic event. I hope comments will respect that.
I would say this case is the proverbial exception that proves the rule.
I think most of us agree with you Susan . However I suspect that the cause of his suicide is less a fear of the consequences of climate change than a fear that his mental abilities, so important as an academic, were being bled away by symptoms of senile dementia or Alzheimers. To gradually lose the ability to recall facts, names, debates, the detailed literature of one’s profession would be like a slow death. Anyone who has witnessed it with a close family member knows how distressing it is for the victim and their friends and family.
No-one ever knows the reason for a suicide except the victim – and even they are often confused about it.
Is the possibility of getting a Nobel Prize what drives some people? or the fear of not getting one?
Yes, John Kerry.
Certainly the desire for approval is a motivating factor.
Is that why Mann sues folks, while claiming to be a Nobel recipient?
Mann sues folks to try and squash the Free Speech of those calling out his mendacity.
It’s a well thought-out, strategic MO.
He has a Green Slime backing, paying the lawyer bills. He’s the puppet. They are his puppet masters.
Martin Weitzman undoubtedly must have had other mental health issues, otherwise Michael Mann would have already committed suicide if these fraudsters have no shame in repeatedly lying about climate data. Mann is probably the slimmest climate change doomsayer there is, and instead of him committing suicide for his false witness, I would rather see him arrested for his non stop violations of the Data Quality Act, and made to wear a pin striped prison jump suit while he shames himself doing the perp walk. That would be the start of real justice in my opinion.
Slimmest? I think not, earthling. The execrable Mann is a fat little troll. Slimiest maybe?
Or perhaps you are a German speaker and have confused schlimm with slim? Mikey is indeed among den schlimmsten (the worst) but far from schlank! (slim).
Hehehe…just in case he sues me, I paid him a complement by seeing my Apple spell checker made a mistake, and infer he is slim. He does have the slimmest skin. But yes I agree with you…he is a fat, greasy little troll.
E2, If you mean State Pen instead of Penn State, I think the jump suits are orange these days. Wouldn’t it be a joy to see him picking up trash along the Penn turnpike?
It’s always the bogeyman you don’t know that’s scarier than the one you do. Duh. Stephen King uses that formula a lot.
How sorry are we to feel for someone who failed to look at actual data instead of the daily barrage of climate propaganda?
How sorry are we to feel for a climate zealot that felt despondent because he could not get recognized for his delusions?
This is no longer science – it is politics that is getting people killed with measures to control the climate. People like him are hurting all of us.
Sorry, for my lack of sympathy.
My condolences to his family and friends… I’ve read that climate change scare tactics are ruining people’s lifes, and its sad and painful to know that so many people across the planet are terrified of the constant in your face scare tactics by people like the ipcc and u.n who fly across the planet for big party’s on how to save the planet… 30 years of we are going to die, and they have implemented not one single solution… billions spent and nothing…
So then, he fulfilled his own prophecies Surely he will receive a posthumous Nobel Prize for scolding the earth’s inhabitants.
There is no such thing as a posthumous Nobel Prize since 1974 you have to be alive to receive any of them.
Shows what drives a lot of those people – big egos.
+99 ……. Epsteins
I look at Al Gore’s winning a Nobel Prize. In his movie he shows graphs of CO2 and temperature for the past roughly 600,000 years and he claims that these graphs clearly show that CO2 causes warming. A closer look at the data at higher resolution clearly shows that CO2 trends follow temperature trends so that higher temperatures cause more CO2 to enter the atmosphere. There is no real evidence that CO2 causes any additional warming. The mechanism is quite simple, warmer oceans cannot hold as much CO2 as cooler oceans and the temperature of the volume of the oceans lags the Earth’s surface temperature because of the ocean’s huge thermal capacitance. His chart also shows where CO2 is today because of mankind’s burning of fossil fuels. If CO2 were really the climate thermostat then it should be a heck of a lot warmer then it actually is. Instead of supporting the AGW conjecture, AL Gore’s chart defeats it yet they have yet to take his Nobel Prise away from him. The Nobel Prize often seems to be more political than it is scientific. I doubt that anyone showing that the AGW conjecture is really science fiction is going to win anything yet AGW is really science fiction and those that still believe in it are wasting huge amounts of money that could be applied to problems that mankind actually has the power to solve.
” The Nobel Prize often seems to be more political than it is scientific”
Obama won the Nobel Peace prize, yet destroyed 3 countries and was the first and only US president to bomb other countries every day of his 8-year presidency. They still haven’t asked for their prize back.
His prize is surrounded by a red line…
That’s because the Nobel Committee knows that Obama dropped the bombs between the minarets … for show, not for any real military purpose. Isis appreciated the gesture.
Obama won the Nobel Peace prize for being “Not Bush”.
Obama won the Nobel Peace prize for being from Column B…
William Hass… If his graph of co2 evidence is wrong, why does everybody believe him? Why does no true scientist call him out on his lies? How has he been allowed to lie for so long and why do so many scientists and other academics continue with the CO2 lie?? Also the ipcc and u.n demand that we get to pre 1940 levels, does that mean that there was no snow, hot days, rain, wind, hurricanes or storm’s before 1940???
It’s not wrong sunny, it’s just misinterpreted by Gore. Imagine a chart showing the number of roosters crowing vs days with a sunrise and then triumphantly declaring that the science is settled, rooster crowing causes sunrises. He has the correlation correct but he has the cause and effect reversed.
Sunny, There have been hundreds if not thousands, of real scientists that have stated Gore is completely wrong. Unfortunately the people that control the printing presses and control the airwaves refuse to denounce Gore for the fraudster he is.
The difficulty is not scientific review, it is media’s refusal to correct his lies in public and thus declare, the whole man made climate story is false.
because if they call HIM out, it also shows up their complicity in covering up
and makes a mockery of all that the others have been making money n fame from
Emperors new clothes indeedy
unfortunately the child being listened to is also a nutter,
not the honest one pointing out hes buck naked!
Martin Weitzman is clearly yet another tragic victim of the belief in CAGW.
If the shoe were on the other foot the alarmists would be gloating but we don’t stoop to their level – so my condolences to his family
No one here knows the motivation behind this man’s tragic death
I see it as most distasteful and insensitive to link it to climate change and to publish this implication here
I say this as someone who lost a very close family member to suicide just 2 weeks ago
M
My sincere condolences to you on your tragic loss.
Perhaps you missed the fact that Weitzman left a suicide note saying that his motivation was that he didn’t think he had the mental capacity to contribute to his field as a Climate Change economist?
The Daily Caller alleges that, “Weitzman’s colleagues said he left a note questioning whether he still had the mental capacity to contribute to his field.” This allegation does not establish that there was a note, and, if there were, doesn’t prove that the note reflected Weitzman’s true motivation. In cases of severe depression, virtually anything could suffice.
ok his family ,friends etc will miss him..
but being honest its a blessing he exited early whatever the combo of reasons he had
one less to be scaring kids and causing financial distress to the populations of the globe
how many kids growing up scared witless about co2- suffering real trauma about their futures due to the mistruths and outright bullshit this chap and others engender, are also far liklier to commint suicide because of them?
gores as bad and so is lil greta stirring panic in kids her age especially
a role model she is NOT
now is she going to stop talking n starve herself again when it all falls over/ probably, shes already not the full quid.
will I feel sorry for her?
no
Perhaps the REAL tragedy was that Weitzman did, indeed, have the mental capacity and actually understand the CAGW hoax, but he was so blinded by the political blustering that it made him think that he was wrong and they were right.
Michael Carter
The implication was made by Weitzman’s colleagues and first published in the NYT (this is not WUWT editorial opinion).
The second paragraph above clearly states: “Along with being upset about being passed over, Weitzman’s colleagues said he left a note questioning whether he still had the mental capacity to contribute to his field, according to The New York Times.”
Depression is horrible disease. if untreated it can lead to suicide. It knows no ageboundries. Many people fight it for years, but lose the fight late in life.
My condolences to Mr. Weitzman’s family, colleagues and friends.
I really do not think it is appropriate to make light of this situation.
De mortuis nihil nisi bonum (“Of the dead, nothing unless good.”) and
De mortuis nil nisi bene [dicendum] (“Of the dead, nothing [spoken] unless good.”)
De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est (“Of the dead nothing but good is to be said”),
which also is abbreviated as Nil nisi bonum.
In English usage, freer translations are the aphoristic phrases
“Speak no ill of the dead”,
“Of the dead, speak no evil”, and
“Do not speak ill of the dead”.
Let’s hope those who celebrate the deaths of anthropogenic climate change contrarians get your message, Walter.
Hear hear
Well put. Thank you.
All deaths are eventful. Many are tragic as in this case. Some are welcome relief from physical conditions that are too painful or debilitating to bear/survive. Some deaths are celebrated/welcomed by those being oppressed or degraded by tyrants and dictators.
It is perfectly acceptable to speak ill of the dead when the dead have deserved such comment. There have been many tyrants we should always speak ill of, the world is a better place with their passing.
I do not include this Economist in that group. He was clearly someone that knew less about science than he did about other things. Perhaps he realised, as the evidence piled up against man made climate change/global warming, that he had wasted his life promoting a false paradigm?
You know, if one focuses on abandoning the very things that have made modern humanity prolific, It could certainly make one despondent or even suicidal. Perhaps it’s the goal of of the global planners to induce this in the masses.
I am of the opinion that people that commit suicide in most cases belong to two groups. One is people with a very serious problem for which they see no solution. The other is people with a mental illness. I find it very unlikely that somebody without a mental illness would commit suicide because he didn’t win a prize or because he thinks he cannot make more worthy professional contributions. Most people at 72 are retired and a famous economist could surely afford golf. My guess is that he had a mental illness whether diagnosed or not, but it is a lot more newsworthy to say that he killed himself for not getting the Nobel prize. Every year lots of scientists that expect to win it feel disappointed and since it can only be awarded to three people max it is not uncommon that when a particular discovery is rewarded, somebody is unjustly left out. I personally know a scientist that if the limit had been four he would have got it. He did feel terribly disappointed but eventually got over it and continued his life.
I lost a teen to suicide. He must have been deeply depressed. The study of climate change offers no hope -unless you (Algore?) are riding the gravy train..
I am very sorry for his family…
That’s terribly sad.
You are very strong to share this.
Peace be with you.
False climate gloom is hardly helpful for those who are already troubled.
If the left was honest, they would admit Suicide is the leading cause of death from AGW.
C02 is at record highs, Weather deaths are at record lows. The media will never plot a graph showing long term weather related deaths vs Atmospheric CO2. It won’t fit their non-scientific narrative.
My condolences to his family, suicide is a terrible thing.
That said, this sentence stood out for me”
“Most everything we don’t know tells us it’s probably much worse.”
This is an absurd statement. The things you don’t know, cannot, by definition, tell you ANYTHING.
Has he said;
“Most everything we don’t know, tells us we don’t know everything” he might have been on the right track to win a Nobel Prize.
Suicide is always a tragic end to a life. I am sure he had positive attributes that were sadly overtaken by misplaced ignorance.
Condolences to his family.
Typo, it should read. “Had he said”
Paul Ehrenfest murdered his son before taking his own life. It didn’t have anything to do with global warming.
Source: Niels Bohr’s Times, by Abraham Pais.
Suicide is just inexplicable and sad.
Someone close to Weitzman should have told him a while back, that “his field” of climate economics is as real as Santa Claus.
Suicide is a product of brain malfunction. That happens because of a chemical imbalance in the brain. It can be a result of depression which is a further symptom of chemical imbalance. It can also be a result of many physical conditions such as dementia and diabetes.
It is always a tragedy when someone takes the suicide route but this gentleman was striving for a positive outcome to his lifes work however deluded he had been by the Political corruption of the atmospheric sciences.
He should be mourned as a political victim however much we disagree with him. Some of the tightly focussed intellects do not have the time or ability to question the inputs that they are given. They take them on faith.
We ordinary mortals with broad spectrum brains pick up the clues to a scam more easily but are unable in many cases to formulate our response. There is a world of difference between having thoughts and “thinking” in the philosophical sense. My sympathies are with his family. It must be an awful time for them.
Sad, but….
If he truly believed that “…the unknowns of climate change should scare academics as much if not more than what is known” then he was right, in so far as he couldn’t contribute to his field.
That is not the reasoned language and thinking of a dispassionate academic researcher.
Nordhaus, who apparently did get a Prize, is said to have totally discredited Weitzman.
Projecting the unknowns of severe personal trauma on the entire human species, is the brittle defense such use with climate.
Someone busts that defense – get quickly out of the way!
“Most everything we don’t know tells us it’s probably much worse.”
You have to be either stupid or pretty depressed to come up with a line like that.
I do wonder if most of the big climate change alarmists are depressed and it is simply their depression we hear so loudly in the media.
Actually, experience tells us that the things we don’t know are probably (likely) to NOT be very dangerous. We’ve pretty well figured out what is dangerous so the remaining unknown dangers just don’t come around that often. Humans do a rotten job at evaluating risks. The statement is evidence of that.
A lonely and painful death by suicide is always tragic and sad. Rest in peace Martin Weitzman.
Climate science is too politicised and alarmist-polemical for there to be much chance of impartial reward of academic merit.
Finally…A death due to global warming!!!
“Most everything we know tells us climate change is bad,” bla bla bla
Another one that believed he lived in the best of all possible worlds.
Voltaire wrote Candide about those.
John Donne
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine
Et lux perpetua luceat eis:
Requiescat in pace.
Some people inhale too much “climate” glue and they just go nuts
He’s not the first
What did this guy know about Hillary Clinton or Prince Andrew ? 🙂
I share the sadness of many of the commentators above. I don’t care what his views were. He felt the pain of feeling unable to contribute any more, and it was unbearable for him. My sympathy goes out to his family and friends, and my he rest in peace.
My condolences to the 10’s of thousands of people who die prematurely and unnecessarily from
fuel poverty . Policies developed from failed climate models and cheer leader rent seekers .
Innocent people that’s who I feel sorry for .
BTW, was this Griff?
Just checking.