In stark contrast to climate scientists, economists have been sanguine about the dangers of climate change, with Nobel Prize winner William Nordhaus claiming that a 6°C increase in global average temperatures would decrease global economic output by less than 10%. This rosy prognosis is based on assumptions about climate change that are manifestly false, and misreadings of scientific literature warning of imminent tipping points in the planet’s climate. Though there is no excuse for Nordhaus’s misrepresentation of the science, the failure to comprehend the existential threat climate change poses to human civilization can be traced back to the lack of a biophysical foundation to Neoclassical models of production.