Discounting and the Environment

I'm thinking about writing an essay for one of my classes on the topic of discounting, which has gotten quite a bit of interest due to the recent Stern review on the economics of climate change. In part this is because I've only just begun learn about what discounting is and what it's for: It's virtually unknown outside of financial markets (and professional economists), even though it really should be a standard part of introductory economic texts. So this post is going to collect a bunch of relevant links for the purpose of coming back to them at a later time; therefore, not much substance.

• John Quiggin has a series of posts defending Stern's low discount rate used in the review.
• Nate Hagens of the Oil Drum connects discounting to evolutionary psychology.
• The most prominent critique of Stern's use of the discount rate comes from economist Bill Nordhaus (link found on Greg Mankiw's blog).
• Tyler Cowen has a series of critiques of Stern's discount rate.

At some point I'll get around to reading them all in detail.