Costs of NOT Stopping Climate Change
Lately, I’ve been seeing more and more articles and statements about the occurrence of climate change, as I’m sure you have also. They have been in magazines, newspapers, on television news, television documentaries, and speakers on television and in person in our area. It seems everyone who is honest with themselves understands that we have a problem. There are still some who deny the problem or throw up their hands and say there’s nothing we can do about it. There are also those who say fixing the problem is just too expensive. It’s time we look a little harder at the costs of not fixing the problem.
We are now experiencing major storm after major storm, each of which causes major damage in the US and Caribbean Island nations. Storms are adding up to billions of dollars of damage and destroying people’s lives. Retired people living in Florida and other southern states are being wiped out by flooding. The water destroys their homes and possessions and takes all their savings to try to recover. The east coast of the US is now experiencing unprecedented flooding from hurricanes and other storms. When our government aids them in rebuilding, it puts a burden on the federal budget, and we all pay for it indirectly through taxes, even though we live far away from the storms.
Severe droughts in the western US cause wildfires to burn nearly all summer every year. This kills the trees we are counting on to sequester carbon in their trunks to prevent more carbon from escaping into the atmosphere. This sets up a vicious cycle of more fires leading to more climate change, and more climate change leading to more fires. My family experienced the smoke up close in both Oregon and northern California on our vacation there in July. The smoke itself causes lung and heart problems. Firefighters are being moved from state to state to fight these fires, and more territory is burning every year.
Extreme heat in the southern US is costing people their lives. Heat is the leading weather-related killer, surpassing lives lost to hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. Temperatures have reached 25 degrees above normal in some locations. The last 10 years have been the hottest on record with 2023 surpassing all previous years, and 2024 likely to overtake last year’s heat record. Farm workers and other outside workers are becoming sick with heat illnesses and kidney disease due to dehydration. Average summer air conditioning costs rose to $719. and cause low-income families to be disconnected or cut back on medicine and food to pay their bill. Turning off their air conditioning can be deadly.
As Mark Wolfe of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association said, “There’s a cost to climate change.”
Sandy McKitrick, Climate Care Team