At our meeting, we will hear a presentation from Dr. John Talberth on Industrial logging and climate change: impacts and economic policy interventions. 

John is the founder of Center for Sustainable Economy (CSE) and currently serves as both President and Senior Economist. John coordinates consulting work with non-profits, businesses, universities, and government agencies seeking environmental economics expertise and analysis to support their sustainability initiatives and programs. He also leads work on CSE’s Wild and Working Forests, Genuine Progress, and Green Infrastructure Programs.

John holds a Ph.D. in International and Environmental Economics from the University of New Mexico and an M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon. His areas of expertise include non-market valuation, international trade, public policy, benefit-cost analysis, forest management, sustainable development, sustainability indicators, and land use planning. He has published articles in several peer-reviewed journals including Ecological Economics, Contemporary Economic Policy, Natural Resources Journal and Environment, Development and Sustainability as well as several book chapters. He has also published dozens of reports and studies quantifying the costs and benefits of public policy decisions for CSE’s non-profit and government clients and has received extensive international, national, and regional media coverage of his work.

Prior to CSE, John served as Senior Economist for World Resources Institute’s People and Ecosystems Program in Washington, D.C., and directed the Sustainability Indicators Program at Redefining Progress in Oakland, CA.

Industrial logging activities generate significant quantities of greenhouse gas pollution and are making the land more susceptible to a variety of stressors already on the rise due to climate change. These include increases in the risks associated with wildfires, floods, landslides, water shortages, invasive species, heat stress, and harmful algae blooms. The presentation will include a review of the science pertaining to these climate impacts, and then move on to a discussion of economic policy interventions – like a forest carbon tax or including industrial logging emissions in cap-and-trade – that can be implemented by federal, state, or local public agencies to reduce emissions and reduce the externalized economic costs of this sector.