Chris and Charley conclude Issue 1 by discussing how mainstream economists and climate scientists can look at the same data and reach wildly different conclusions. How can mainstream economists predict small dents to the economy when climate scientists see existential threats to civilization itself? Perhaps Sahelian desertification and climate change can only be solved if we stop listening to mainstream economists.

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Issue 1: Climate Change and Freshwater

Intro: Why did Lake Chad collapse and why are Cameroonians so thirsty?

Chapter 1: Desertification of the Sahel and Cameroon’s water infrastructure

Chapter 2: Cameroon gains “independence” from France

Chapter 3: Poverty, structural adjustments, and dictators

Chapter 4: The US New Deal’s Soil Conservation Service is a proven model

Bonus 1: More on Cameroon’s independence movement

Bonus 2: How did Ahidjo make himself a dictator?

Bonus 3: How did Biya take control from Ahidjo?

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Issue 1 is available in written and podcast format

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How mainstream economists and climate scientists estimate our climate risk:

Slide from William Nordhaus’s Nobel Prize for Economics lecture summarizing his work calculating that 4 degrees is “optimal” warming:

Exponential increase in fossil fuel consumption:

President Reagan and Ahmaduo Ahidjo:

President Obama and Paul Biya: