Apparently, so is the true cost of climate change. One can look at my post below to see the study done by Tufts University. But there are some other numbers that I have been reading up on and thought that I might share. All these numbers are American and I can only imagine what the real cost is for the rest of the world. (Courtesy of the Environmental Defense Fund)
According to a University of Maryland study, costs already accrued include:
- $1.3 billion – the amount of damage associated with crop loss as a result of Georgia’s drought in 2007
- 300 million – reconstruction costs for the damage caused to rail transportation by Hurricane Katrina
- $272 million – insured catastrophic losses in 2007, as a result of increasing flood damage
- Four global warming impacts alone – hurricane damage, real estate losses, energy costs, and water costs – will come with a price tag of 1.8 percent of U.S. GDP, or almost $1.9 trillion annually (in today's dollars) by 2100, according to the same study.
- Losses will be massive to state economies. The impact of global warming on three sectors – tourism, electric utilities and real estate – together with hurricane damage would shrink Florida’s GDP by more than 5 percent by the end of the century.
- Delaying just two years will require twice the effort. An analysis of 2008 climate legislation shows that waiting just two years to tackle global warming would require more than double the annual cuts in emissions to achieve the same cumulative goal – 4.3 percent in annual cuts versus 2 percent
- We should not delay investment and job creation. Companies are waiting for new rules before they invest billions in new power plants and other projects. A cap is necessary to unfreeze this investment. A cap will also create new manufacturing jobs, like making steel for wind
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