{"id":377152,"date":"2025-05-05T18:32:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T16:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=377152"},"modified":"2025-05-05T18:32:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T16:32:46","slug":"bloombergs-87-trillion-carbon-fantasy-when-climate-modeling-meets-magical-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=377152","title":{"rendered":"Bloomberg\u2019s $87 Trillion Carbon Fantasy: When Climate Modeling Meets Magical Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Charles Rotter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Carbon Costs: Corporate America Owes Us $87 Trillion – Bloomberg<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Mark Gongloff, an opinion columnist at Bloomberg, recently wrote a piece titled \u201cCorporate America Owes the Rest of Us $87 Trillion.\u201d<\/a><\/em> In it, he claims U.S. companies are causing carbon-related social damages worth 131% of all corporate equity and three times America\u2019s GDP. All based, of course, on models, not measurements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe social cost of the carbon emissions of US companies will amount to a cool $87 trillion through 2050.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not analysis. That\u2019s climate-themed performance art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The core of this fantasy is the \u201csocial cost of carbon\u201d (SCC), a figure so malleable it practically defines policy-based evidence. Gongloff acknowledges the controversy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThat hasn\u2019t been easy or uncontroversial.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Indeed. Under Trump, the SCC was $1\/ton. Biden\u2019s EPA pushed it up to $190\/ton, conveniently aligning with Net Zero mandates. Gongloff prefers the high end\u2014naturally. The study he cites by Lubos Pastor and Wharton School colleagues simply plugs this inflated SCC into an economic model and\u2014presto!\u2014out comes a multi-trillion-dollar guilt trip for corporate America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trick is simple: pick a damage number, apply it across a long enough time horizon, assume compounding effects, and declare catastrophe. That\u2019s not economics. It\u2019s speculation wearing a necktie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gongloff sets up skeptics as indifferent obstructionists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cModern deniers\u2026 fire back that the \u2018do something about it\u2019 part is too hard, too expensive to be worth trying.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is the typical bait-and-switch. Skeptics aren\u2019t denying costs\u2014they\u2019re questioning whether proposed solutions are worse<\/em>. Germany\u2019s disastrous energy transition, skyrocketing prices, and blackout risk demonstrate what happens when you ignore reality in favor of renewable fairy tales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gongloff\u2019s version of pragmatism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cBeing truly pragmatic means leaving fossil fuels behind as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not pragmatic. That\u2019s blind faith. Oil, gas, and coal still supply over 80% of global energy. The \u201cjust transition\u201d isn\u2019t happening\u2014because it can\u2019t without destroying the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a particularly deranged twist, Gongloff endorses holding companies responsible for emissions they don\u2019t even directly produce<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cMost of that falls under the category of \u2018Scope 3\u2019 emissions\u2026 the gasoline burned in cars and the natural gas burned in homes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So now energy producers are to blame for how consumers use their product? This isn\u2019t justice\u2014it\u2019s ex post facto criminalization. Under this logic, Ford is responsible for traffic, and McDonald\u2019s for your waistline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also forms the foundation for climate lawsuits, which Gongloff promotes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cNew York state and other places are pushing for polluters to kick into \u2018Climate Superfunds.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t accountability. It\u2019s green Marxism, thinly disguised as reparative economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gongloff writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201c$192 trillion is a bargain relative to the potential costs.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Only in a fantasy world where averted damages are based on inflated assumptions, infinite foresight, and zero economic friction. BloombergNEF, the source for this figure, assumes global coordination, endless spending, and perfect deployment of technologies still in the prototype phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no acknowledgment of risk, trade-offs, or unintended consequences. Just more money, more control, more modeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gongloff even dusts off the IMF\u2019s infamous claim:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe fossil-fuel industry gets $7 trillion in government largesse every year.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This number is fake. It counts the absence of carbon taxes as a \u201csubsidy.\u201d If governments don\u2019t charge you an imaginary fee, that\u2019s now a handout. It\u2019s like calling your paycheck a gift because the government didn\u2019t seize it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real direct subsidies to fossil fuels are minimal. But the green energy industry? That\u2019s a subsidy black hole, endlessly gorging on mandates, tax credits, and bailouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gongloff sums it up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cAdd it up over 25 years\u2026 and $87 trillion starts to seem like a low bid.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Of course it does\u2014when the number is built on circular logic, unprovable assumptions, and the moral conviction of a missionary. This isn\u2019t journalism. It\u2019s climate absolutism wrapped in pseudo-economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the real danger isn\u2019t the carbon. It\u2019s the crusade to control human behavior, dismantle prosperity, and punish the very systems that made modern life possible\u2014all in the name of speculative models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Let the markets\u2014not modelers\u2014guide our energy future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Gongloff, an opinion columnist at Bloomberg, recently wrote a piece titled \u201cCorporate America Owes the Rest of Us $87 Trillion.\u201d In it, he claims U.S. companies are causing carbon-related social damages worth 131% of all corporate equity and three times America\u2019s GDP. All based, of course, on models, not measurements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":377158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691834875,691820833,691822729,691834876,691818618,691818154],"class_list":["post-377152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-social-cost-of-carbon-scc-2","tag-bloomberg","tag-climate-modeling","tag-climate-superfunds","tag-energy-transition","tag-net-zero","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1A76","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":452376,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=452376","url_meta":{"origin":377152,"position":0},"title":"Wrong, Bloomberg, Climate Change Has Boosted Food Production and Lowered Prices, Not the Opposite","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/26\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Bloomberg\u2019s news agency recently published a story claiming that climate change has caused rising food prices, a problem that will only get worse in the future. 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