“Stupendously” Expensive Climate Change

Unchecked climate change is going to be stupendously expensive

Ryan Cooper, January 15, 2018 (The Week)

“Climate change is first and foremost a threat to human society…[and one way that threat] is going to be expressed is through economic damage…[U]nchecked climate change is going to be terrifically expensive…[though] economic projections tend to be wildly inaccurate…[T]he amount of damage will depend greatly on what humans do in the future, and there have been few studies on what damage would be like under higher warming scenarios of 3 degrees or above…But we can say the damage is going to be very large — indeed, it's already quite bad. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information estimates that 2017 was America's most expensive year for climate disasters of all time, with 16 disasters costing over $1 billion (more than three times the 1980-2017 average, after accounting for inflation) and a total cost of over $300 billion. That's about 1.5 percent of total GDP — or enough to pay for a $300 per month child allowance for every parent in America, with some left over…[And this] year is already off to a bad climate start…[T]he faster we move on climate policy, the cheaper it will be…[E]very year of delay adds $500 billion to the world total of necessary investment…” click here for more

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