Climate
Shocks May Cost U.S. $1 Billion a Day
- Cost of dealing with climate change is rising, study finds
- Universal Ecological Fund examined impacts on crops, health
28
September, 2017
Stronger
hurricanes, hotter heat waves, more frequent wildfires and more
severe public-health issues are all adding to the costs of climate
change, which will reach almost $1 billion a day in the U.S. within a
decade, according to a report released Wednesday.
Total
costs to address the impact of rising temperatures will swell 50
percent by 2027, to $360 billion annually, according to the study
from theUniversal
Ecological Fund.
That equates to about 55 percent of expected economic growth in the
U.S.
The
report comes as the U.S. continues to reel from one of the costliest
hurricane seasons in history. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria have
inflicted an
estimated $173 billion in damage in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and
the U.S. Virgin Islands. On the West Coast, record dry conditions and
heat have triggered wildfires in nine states. Unless the U.S. cuts
fossil fuel use, the economic toll from such events will continue to
rise, the study concludes.
“The increasing damage from climate-change related storms, wild fires, human health, agriculture loss and the like are taxing the potential of economic growth,” said James McCarthy, a Harvard University professor whose co-authors included Robert Watson, former chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The researchers weren’t paid for their work.
States
with greatest losses from weather events
The
study’s conclusion that fossil fuels exacerbate global warming and
create a drag on economic growth runs counter to the view of the
White House.
President
Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, has put oil,
natural gas and coal production at the center of his economic agenda.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry told a meeting of the National Petroleum
Council on Monday that fossil fuels are even
saving lives in
developing nations by increasing access to energy.
The
economic toll of climate change is not limited to storms. Droughts in
states including California, Texas and Oregon have led to $56 billion
in crop losses since 2012, according to the study, which used data
from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies. If
global warming goes unchecked, corn and soybean production may fall
as much as 30 percent in the next three decades, costing farmers as
much as $25 billion annually, according to the study.
States
with greatest weather losses shifted somewhat in 1990s.
For
years, policy makers argued it was impossible to grow the economy
without increasing fossil fuel use. Renewable energy has become more
common, challenging that notion.
“That’s
no longer true,” McCarthy said.
