Hidden Costs of Climate Change Running Hundreds of Billions a Year

[G_j]

https://apple.news/ABQsaFUQ4QmGXCIV_HSmqJA

A new report warns of a high price tag on the impacts of global warming, from storm damage to health costs. But solutions can provide better value, the authors say.

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

Extreme weather, made worse by climate change, along with the health impacts of burning fossil fuels, has cost the U.S. economy at least $240 billion a year over the past ten years, a new report has found.

And yet this does not include this past months’ three major hurricanes or 76 wildfires in nine Western states. Those economic losses alone are estimated to top $300 billion, the report notes. Putting it in perspective, $300 billion is enough money to provide free tuition for the 13.5 million U.S. students enrolled in public colleges and universities for four years.

In the coming decade, economic losses from extreme weather combined with the health costs of air pollution spiral upward to at least $360 billion annually, potentially crippling U.S. economic growth, according to this new report, The Economic Case for Climate Action in the United States, published online Thursday by the Universal Ecological Fund.

“Burning fossil fuels comes at a giant price tag which the U.S. economy cannot afford and not sustain," said Sir Robert Watson, coauthor and director at the U.K's Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research.

“We want to paint a picture for Americans to illustrate the fact that the costs of not acting on climate change are very significant,” Watson, the former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told National Geographic.



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[procon]

1. In California, the droughts are lasting longer and impacting millions of residents

and businesses. Its killing the forests, and bark beetles are destroying millions of trees, leaving the areas vulnerable to still more massive wildfires. In my desert area the winds have changed, becoming weaker and unable to push the cooler offshore winds far enough inland to give us an afternoon respite from the oppressive heat.

A squadron of fire fighting aircraft is based at the local airport and they are in constant use, the fire season keeps getting longer because of the growing heat and droughts. Its kinda worrisome as the planes often fly right over my house, heavily loaded and engines screaming as they struggle to gain altitude in time to fly over the mountains to reach a new fire zone.

[G_j]

2. Majority of Americans now say climate change makes hurricanes more intense

https://apple.news/AcnEkjo11SniW_wy0wNFL6g