Bloomberg’s $87 Trillion Carbon Fantasy: When Climate Modeling Meets Magical Thinking
8 hours ago Charles Rotter
Mark Gongloff, an opinion columnist at Bloomberg, recently wrote a piece titled “Corporate America Owes the Rest of Us $87 Trillion.” In it, he claims U.S. companies are causing carbon-related social damages worth 131% of all corporate equity and three times America’s GDP. All based, of course, on models, not measurements.
“The social cost of the carbon emissions of US companies will amount to a cool $87 trillion through 2050.” — Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg
That’s not analysis. That’s climate-themed performance art.
The core of this fantasy is the “social cost of carbon” (SCC), a figure so malleable it practically defines policy-based evidence. Gongloff acknowledges the controversy:
“That hasn’t been easy or uncontroversial.”
Indeed. Under Trump, the SCC was $1/ton. Biden’s EPA pushed it up to $190/ton, conveniently aligning with Net Zero mandates. Gongloff prefers the high end—naturally. The study he cites by Lubos Pastor and Wharton School colleagues simply plugs this inflated SCC into an economic model and—presto!—out comes a multi-trillion-dollar guilt trip for corporate America.
The trick is simple: pick a damage number, apply it across a long enough time horizon, assume compounding effects, and declare catastrophe. That’s not economics. It’s speculation wearing a necktie.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/02/bloombergs-87-trillion-carbon-fantasy-when-climate-modeling-meets-magical-thinking/
