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Climate change could cost US ‘hundreds of billions’ a year: study
TAMPA, Nov 24, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Climate change is already hurting the
global economy and will cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars annually
by century’s end unless drastic action is taken to cut carbon emissions, a
major US government report warned on Friday.
“With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in
some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars
by the end of the century — more than the current gross domestic product
(GDP) of many US states,” the latest edition of the National Climate
Assessment said.
“Without substantial and sustained global mitigation and regional
adaptation efforts, climate change is expected to cause growing losses to
American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth
over this century,” it added.
The effects will spill over into global trade, affecting import and export
prices and US businesses with overseas operations and supply chains, it
added.
Some of these impacts are already being felt in the United States, the
report said, and recent extreme weather and climate-related events can now be
attributed “with increasingly higher confidence to human-caused warming.”
Compiled by more than 300 scientists, the Fourth National Climate
Assessment Volume II is a congressionally mandated report that spans more
than 1,000 pages.
US President Donald Trump dismissed last year’s report, and just this week
appeared to confuse weather with climate when he tweeted: “Brutal and
Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS – Whatever happened to Global
Warming?”
Trump also yanked the United States out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate
accord, signed by more than 190 nations to limit carbon emissions.
David Easterling, director of the technical support unit at the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental
Information, said there had been “no external interference” in the report.
Scientists found “clear and compelling evidence that global average
temperature is much higher and is rising more rapidly than anything modern
civilization has experienced,” he told reporters.
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“And this warming trend can only be explained by human activities,
especially emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”
– Cascading effects –
Reporters questioned the timing of this year’s release, which came on the
Friday after Thanksgiving, a national holiday when many people are traveling
and shopping.
A NOAA spokeswoman said the report was “out earlier than expected” and was
released ahead of two major scientific meetings on climate change in the
coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the report warned that even if major cuts are made to harmful
greenhouse gases (GHGs) like carbon dioxide and methane, the damage will
linger for years.
“Because several GHGs, in particular carbon dioxide, reside in the
atmosphere for decades or longer, many climate-influenced effects are
projected to continue changing through 2050, even if GHG emissions were to
stop immediately,” said the report.
Sea levels are continuing to rise, and extreme events like heavy rain and
floods continue to increase worldwide, which will “cascade across economic
sectors,” Easterling said, warning of “substantial net damage to the US
economy.”
The report said it was “very likely that some physical and ecological
impacts will be irreversible for thousands of years, while others will be
permanent.”
The publication is designed to inform policy makers but does not make any
specific recommendations on actions to take.
“In light of the report’s findings, it’s critical that federal, state and
local governments take aggressive action to protect US residents by both
reigning in emissions and helping communities adapt to the climate impacts
that are now inevitable,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, the director of climate
science at the Union of Concerned Scientists and one of the study’s authors.
Rush Holt, chief executive officer of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, said the economic warning shows that “policymakers
can no longer afford to dismiss or ignore the overwhelming scientific
evidence of climate change.”
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