How Much Climate Change Will Cost Each U.S. County

Governing ^ | August 23, 2017 | BY NATALIE DELGADILLO

[Oldeconomybuyer]

States and localities across the U.S. are already experiencing profound weather shifts associated with climate change, from rising sea levels and flooding to drought and dangerously hot summers. Economists have long been warning that these changes will come with a cost. But until now, there’s been no measure of what that cost might be.

A study published in the journal Science in June is the most extensive model available of what climate change could cost the United States, county by county. The study is the first of its kind, linking climate projections with economic effects like mortality, labor productivity, energy demand and crop yields.

According to the study, the American South and lower Midwest will bear the brunt of the economic costs associated with climate change through the end of the century.

“It turns out that the areas that are preferentially harmed by warming are also areas that tend to be poorer on the whole,” says Robert Kopp, a lead author of the study.

In the worst-case-scenario modeled by the researchers, temperatures could increase by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. If that happens, the poorest counties in the country could be hit with anywhere from 2 to 20 percent income loss. Such a loss would hurt the workers and the local governments that rely on their income tax revenue, and would exacerbate income inequality in the country.

But other experts have pointed out that the study could actually have underestimated some damages. For example, an unexpectedly rapid disintegration of the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland would drastically worsen economic effects along the East and West coasts.

Still, the study provides a valuable blueprint for local governments and citizens to avoid, or at least plan for, the negative economic effects of climate change.

[bigbob]

Sol's fault.

[FlingWingFlyer]

All weather is local. Mother Nature doesn’t know anything about county lines.

[Wuli]

From fake science the fake economic forecasters produce fake projections of costs.

How many fakes does it take to light fear in the chattering masses?: as many as it takes until everyone is scared to death.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It’s spiritual. Acceptance of the earth as it is, is part of a godly worldview. When the fear of God leaves, the fear of a capricious Mother Nature enters and fools shake in their vegan boots.

The whole idea that mankind’s tiny little fires could do more towards making the earth uninhabitable than the great cataclysms of nature have tried and failed to, is a laughable one.