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This week, just in time for the Copenhagen climate convention, the
annual Global Climate Risk Index was released, telling how vulnerable
each country in the world is to the costs of climate change. Guess
who was number one in financial losses from climate change? The United
States.
This week, just in time for the Copenhagen climate convention, the
annual Global Climate Risk Index was released, telling how vulnerable
each country in the world is to the costs of climate change. Guess
who was number one in financial losses from climate change? The United
States.
Surprised? There's a reason you haven't heard much about the
extent of climate change threat to the US. Strange bedfellows are
trying to conceal the threat posed to the US by global warming. No,
they're not the crowd that denies global warming even exists, or that
it isn't cause by man-made greenhouse gasses. They're people who don't
deny the scientific findings about climate change, but who for
political reasons underplay its devastating impact on the US.
One group of strange bedfellows are the advocates from and for
developing countries who emphasize the indisputable face that the
impact of climate change will be most devastating for the poor
countries of the global South. They argue that the rich countries are
overwhelmingly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, but the
effects are disproportionately on the poor countries. They use this
argument to justify their demand that the costs of climate change fall
on the rich rather than the poor. However valid their argument it
tends to obscure the damage that is occurring to rich countries as well.
The other group of strange bedfellows are the advocates for the
fossil fuel producers and users who don't want to sound like
anti-scientific cranks, but who want to be free to go on pouring carbon
pollution into the atmosphere. They downplay the fact that climate
change is already having devastating impacts on the US.
Even on the broader ranking that includes deaths as well as
financial losses, the US was number eighteen of the world's 176
nations. For the year 2008, we were number five.
The Global Climate Risk Index
uses the most reliable available data to evaluate the impact of extreme
weather events. While no single event can be attributed to a single
cause, the overall increase in extreme weather events corresponds to
scientific predictions based on rising greenhouse gasses in the
atmosphere. As the study notes, climate change is "an increasingly
important factor for the occurrence and intensity of these events."
These figures include only extreme weather events. The real cost
of global warming for the US would also have to include rising sea
levels, water shortages, species extinctions, expanding diseases,
agricultural costs, forest fires, and many other factors.
Americans need to start thinking of climate protection not just as
something we might do to help the most threatened people in poor
countries, but as something we must do together with them to protect
both them and ourselves. It's not a question of charity, nor just a
question of whether we owe developing countries a "climate debt." It
is a question of mutual self-interest.
And those Americans who think protecting the climate is too
expensive had better start reckoning with what the real costs of
climate change are going to be for us.
[To learn more go to www.labor4sustainability.org]
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This week, just in time for the Copenhagen climate convention, the
annual Global Climate Risk Index was released, telling how vulnerable
each country in the world is to the costs of climate change. Guess
who was number one in financial losses from climate change? The United
States.
Surprised? There's a reason you haven't heard much about the
extent of climate change threat to the US. Strange bedfellows are
trying to conceal the threat posed to the US by global warming. No,
they're not the crowd that denies global warming even exists, or that
it isn't cause by man-made greenhouse gasses. They're people who don't
deny the scientific findings about climate change, but who for
political reasons underplay its devastating impact on the US.
One group of strange bedfellows are the advocates from and for
developing countries who emphasize the indisputable face that the
impact of climate change will be most devastating for the poor
countries of the global South. They argue that the rich countries are
overwhelmingly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, but the
effects are disproportionately on the poor countries. They use this
argument to justify their demand that the costs of climate change fall
on the rich rather than the poor. However valid their argument it
tends to obscure the damage that is occurring to rich countries as well.
The other group of strange bedfellows are the advocates for the
fossil fuel producers and users who don't want to sound like
anti-scientific cranks, but who want to be free to go on pouring carbon
pollution into the atmosphere. They downplay the fact that climate
change is already having devastating impacts on the US.
Even on the broader ranking that includes deaths as well as
financial losses, the US was number eighteen of the world's 176
nations. For the year 2008, we were number five.
The Global Climate Risk Index
uses the most reliable available data to evaluate the impact of extreme
weather events. While no single event can be attributed to a single
cause, the overall increase in extreme weather events corresponds to
scientific predictions based on rising greenhouse gasses in the
atmosphere. As the study notes, climate change is "an increasingly
important factor for the occurrence and intensity of these events."
These figures include only extreme weather events. The real cost
of global warming for the US would also have to include rising sea
levels, water shortages, species extinctions, expanding diseases,
agricultural costs, forest fires, and many other factors.
Americans need to start thinking of climate protection not just as
something we might do to help the most threatened people in poor
countries, but as something we must do together with them to protect
both them and ourselves. It's not a question of charity, nor just a
question of whether we owe developing countries a "climate debt." It
is a question of mutual self-interest.
And those Americans who think protecting the climate is too
expensive had better start reckoning with what the real costs of
climate change are going to be for us.
[To learn more go to www.labor4sustainability.org]
This week, just in time for the Copenhagen climate convention, the
annual Global Climate Risk Index was released, telling how vulnerable
each country in the world is to the costs of climate change. Guess
who was number one in financial losses from climate change? The United
States.
Surprised? There's a reason you haven't heard much about the
extent of climate change threat to the US. Strange bedfellows are
trying to conceal the threat posed to the US by global warming. No,
they're not the crowd that denies global warming even exists, or that
it isn't cause by man-made greenhouse gasses. They're people who don't
deny the scientific findings about climate change, but who for
political reasons underplay its devastating impact on the US.
One group of strange bedfellows are the advocates from and for
developing countries who emphasize the indisputable face that the
impact of climate change will be most devastating for the poor
countries of the global South. They argue that the rich countries are
overwhelmingly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, but the
effects are disproportionately on the poor countries. They use this
argument to justify their demand that the costs of climate change fall
on the rich rather than the poor. However valid their argument it
tends to obscure the damage that is occurring to rich countries as well.
The other group of strange bedfellows are the advocates for the
fossil fuel producers and users who don't want to sound like
anti-scientific cranks, but who want to be free to go on pouring carbon
pollution into the atmosphere. They downplay the fact that climate
change is already having devastating impacts on the US.
Even on the broader ranking that includes deaths as well as
financial losses, the US was number eighteen of the world's 176
nations. For the year 2008, we were number five.
The Global Climate Risk Index
uses the most reliable available data to evaluate the impact of extreme
weather events. While no single event can be attributed to a single
cause, the overall increase in extreme weather events corresponds to
scientific predictions based on rising greenhouse gasses in the
atmosphere. As the study notes, climate change is "an increasingly
important factor for the occurrence and intensity of these events."
These figures include only extreme weather events. The real cost
of global warming for the US would also have to include rising sea
levels, water shortages, species extinctions, expanding diseases,
agricultural costs, forest fires, and many other factors.
Americans need to start thinking of climate protection not just as
something we might do to help the most threatened people in poor
countries, but as something we must do together with them to protect
both them and ourselves. It's not a question of charity, nor just a
question of whether we owe developing countries a "climate debt." It
is a question of mutual self-interest.
And those Americans who think protecting the climate is too
expensive had better start reckoning with what the real costs of
climate change are going to be for us.
[To learn more go to www.labor4sustainability.org]