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The New York Times reports in-depth that power executives and economists are increasingly worried about global warming’s future impact on profits and society at large. To head off a crisis, more and more of them are calling for a federal pricing policy that taxes or caps carbon emissions and encourages technological innovation.

“Global warming can be seen as a classic ‘market failure,’ and many economists, environmental experts and policy makers agree that the single largest cause of that failure is that in most of the world, there is no price placed on spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” reports The Times’ Steve Lohr. “Yet it is increasingly clear that there is a considerable cost to carbon dioxide emissions, especially to future generations, as climate specialists warn of declines in farm output in poor tropical countries, fiercer hurricanes and coastal floods that could make many people refugees.”

Lohr reports that discussions are brewing among executives and politicians about how best to reduce carbon emissions. A standard pricing policy that exacts taxes and penalties while creating incentives is gaining steam. And to illustrate the feasibility of this strategy, some experts are now comparing the fight against global warming to the cold war.

“The issues are similar in that you pay now so things are less risky in the future — it’s an insurance policy,” says Richard Cooper, a Harvard economist. “And in the cold war, we taxed ourselves fairly highly to mitigate that threat.”