Global
climate change has been the subject of many agendas around the U.S.
Unfortunately, not much has been done to substantiate an effective method to
systematically reduce the detrimental effects of climate change. If all those
pictures of innocent polar bears desperately looking for suitable ice frontiers
won’t get to you, I have something that will – the sheer numbers created by
climate change. The month of June broke some high temperature records across
the United States. May was the warmest on record for the Northern Hemisphere – the
327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire globe exceeded
the 20th-century average.
But,
of course, everyone is too pre-occupied with FIFA to even bat an eye towards
climate change. American leaders haven’t even noticed last month’s 20th
anniversary reprise of a massive 1992 environmental summit. Unlike Bush,
President Obama didn’t even attend the summit. British journalist George
Monbiot wrote it was “a ghost town of a meeting.” When most of us think of
global warming, we automatically assume scientific analogies. But what we
really should be analyzing is the economic dilemma of the predicament. If you
think climate change won’t affect your pocket – think again. According to a
former Secretary of the Treasury & Goldman Sachs alum Henry Paulson and
environmentalist Tom Steyer, we are literally headed for a meltdown. In their
recent analysis, the aforementioned have detailed that the United States is
headed for a tremendous increase in the price of many commodities. Annual
property losses from hurricanes and other coastal storms have amounted to $35
billion. There has also been a decline in the yield of crop by 14%. This will
cost wheat famers billions of dollars. Meanwhile, heat wave-driven demand for
electricity has spiked to $12 billion per year. What is worse is that these
price hikes are just the appetizer. Analysts have said today that the price tag
affiliated with these commodities can soar to hundreds of billions by the year
2100.
The
report comes three weeks after U.S. President Barack Obama told American
regulators to take strong actions to tackle greenhouse emissions, including
requiring power plants to cut their carbon dioxide emissions to 30% below 2005
levels by the year 2030. The report carries a lot of weight as it covers not
only America’s position on global climate change but also concludes the
necessary steps that smaller nations must implement. In essence, the report
concludes that crop losses are not the cause of computer projections as
climate-change skeptic routinely predict but rather the cause of data from past
heat waves. “Our economy is vulnerable to an overwhelming number of risks from
climate change,” said Henry Paulson. Rising sea levels and heat waves will not
only cause deaths but will also hamper productivity and put a heavy strain on
power grids.
Analysts
are predicting a staggering $106 billion worth of coastal property will
potentially be below sea level by the mid-century. What is even more shocking
is that by 2100, this number could reach $700 billion, with average annual
losses from rising oceans amounting to $42 billion to $108 billion along the
Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Seaboard. Needless to say, extreme heat will take a
heavy toll on the productivity of labor. A hotter temperature means more
difficult work conditions. Simply put, laborers working outside at construction
and other outdoor jobs will find it more rigorous to sustain their regular
daily duties. Analysts from Princeton University have pinpointed areas that
will tend to be hit harder from extreme heat. They have targeted areas in the
Southwest, Southeast and upper Midwest as being hardest hit. As a result of
rising heat, electricity will surge as people will require air conditioning
just to survive. This is expected to take a heavy toll on electricity
generation capacity over the next two decades. Experts are estimating a total
of at least 95 gigawatts of generation capacity over this time period, or 200
average-size coal or natural gas power plants. This is will undoubtedly cause a
heavy hit to customers, as added construction costs will require payment of between
$8.5 billion to $30 billion more every year by mid-century.
Sources: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719
http://business.financialpost.com/2014/06/24/climate-change-to-cost-billions/?__federated=1
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