(MIDDLETOWN, CT.) - The time to act is now against the nation's global warming. So says Wesleyan University John E. Andrus Professor of Economics Gary Yohe in a new policy forum paper published recently in the journal Science.

Yohe calls attention to the enormous uncertainty that clouds our understanding of the climate research and indicates that greenhouse gas emission prices should be slowed down over the next few decades while the science to combat global warming improves.

One way to implement this, according to Yohe and his Science co-authors, is to raise the price of the carbon content of fossil fuel to roughly $10 per ton in 2005 and allowing that price to gradually rise to near $35 per ton in 2035. The $10 charge would add a few cents to the price of a gallon of gasoline and a few more cents to the price of a gallon of home heating oil next year.

"An immediate, but modest climate policy would reduce the cost of an unpleasant, but plausible event in the future," says Yohe. "To do nothing over the next few decades, while it would cost nothing over the near-term, ignores the significant value of 'buying insurance' against the severe cost of finding out that global warming will be extremely damaging."

Yohe worked on the Science paper with co-authors, Michael Schlesinger, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) where he directs the Climate Research Group (CRG) and Natasha Andronova, who is a Research Specialist in the UIUC CRG.

Established in 1831, Wesleyan University is a coeducational, private university of the liberal arts and sciences. It serves approximately 2,700 undergraduates and 150 graduate students and offers a challenging academic environment promoting independent thought and action. To view a full .pdf file of Yohe's Science paper, please click here or contact Laura Perillo at 860-685-3813 or lperillo@wesleyan.edu