Thus The Economist in its current issue. “How should economists quantify the cost of human extinction?” elaborates the newspaper. Easy-peasy. The cost of human extinction is infinite. That is, the human species is priceless. But the question is decidedly wrong, for human extinction is not at stake at this juncture. Massive reduction in the human population is actually at stake, as well as a massive impoverishment of the survivors, but the cost of that reduction is meaningless to quantify. In other words, the article is a waste of the reader’s precious time even though a whole bunch of Nobel laureates in economics are dutifully cited in it. Written by two professors from the Toulouse School of Economics, it is but an example of the dismal science at its worst. And most useless. To round it off, here comes my advice to the reader: when it comes to climate change and environmental degradation, make a wide circle around economics and the economists. The wider the circle, the better. The economics of the end of the world as we know it is a pile of crap, as this article from the mighty newspaper demonstrates beyond any doubt.