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Climate Change Action is Better for Long Term Economic Growth, IPCC Reports

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World GDP Over Time Depending on Climate Change Investment
World GDP Over Time Depending on Climate Change Investment

Every time that a discussion is started on climate change, the economy gets dragged into it and the comment, by climate change deniers, especially, is that climate change activists “hate the economy.”

Every time I hear that excuse for environmental inaction, it makes me laugh when we hear how much the last severe storm cost us to repair. Of course, it makes me sad that people lost lives and property to a climate-change-fueled storm, such as Hurricane Sandy, but then someone says that switching to renewable energy sources is bad for the economy. Speaking of climate change and sea levels alone, some reports estimate repairing the damage after just Hurricane Sandy will finally tally up to $70 billion. Rising sea levels are expected to increase the global costs associated with coastal city storms to $50 billion annually, that is, if world industry and markets maintain the status quo.

The latest United Nations [UN] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] report addresses these costs, and the bottom line is all bad. It could be too late to stop the ball from rolling, even if we cut emissions drastically, just from all the greenhouse gases that have already been pumped into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, but doing nothing is sure to be much worse for world economies. The costs associated with repairing damages from severe storms is one thing, but what about economic instability that stems from conflicts that rise from factions asserting control over increasingly limited food and water sources?

On the other hand, what can be done to address climate change as well as ensure steady economic growth? IPCC’s report suggests that investing in renewable energy and putting a price on carbon can at least push the economy in the right direction. In the short term, carbon pricing adjustments, such as increased fossil-fuel taxation and development of emissions-reduction technology, may seem to be worse for the economy, but once the initial investment period is over, IPCC suggests that the next hundred years’ growth will be significantly better than maintaining the status quo.

Image © IPCC

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5 COMMENTS

  1. LoneWolffe mememine
    ‘Mememine69’ is a well known astro-turfer for the denial industry.
    He spams the same off topic gish gallops of the most absurd nonsense to any and every publication and
    blog that includes the word “climate” in the header.
    He posts to about 40 threads under around 5 or 6 different screen-names and his total number of spam
    posts under the sceen-name ‘mememne69’ alone is nearly 10,000.

    Just shows what intelligent people are up against when there exist repulsive individuals who are
    prepared to threaten ours and our childrens future for his ideological beliefs and whatever pennies the carbon corporations toss to him.
    Shamefull.

  2. @J Matthis 
    Wow! Just Wow!
    Now that climate change is simply obvious the denial has become hysterical beyond all reason.
    Desperate stuff Matthis.
    By the way – there are now more jobs in Solar (117,000) than there are in steel in the US.

  3. What a pile of hooey. There is no such thing as a green job in America. Why because we can not manufacture at a cost effective price without government subsidies. Without  manufacturing how many jobs does a solar panel generate? How about a wind turbine? Each of these technologies once installed require very little to maintain and typically last between 10 and 20 years. That’s the whole reason to get into renewables because once installed they produce every time the sun shines and every time the wind blows.  Everything said in the above article might be true if you just drop the word “change” out of it and just say climate. Here’s why, the climate is in constant state of change  just because you have decided to take notice of the change does not mean you caused it and or can control it. I love the crap spewed about all the carbon emited into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution like that carbon is still in the air! Every life form on this planet is carbon based where the heck do you think the carbon came from? What a load of poppycock, climate change is the largest scam in the history of the world not because it’s not real but because it is real. We might be adding to it but we didn’t start it and we cant stop it. Logic dictates that the earth has been on a steady rise in temp since the last ice age…. and I guess the industrial revolution caused that too. Give me a break. Look I understand people are gullable and they will believe most anything if it’s told to them enough times and it is reinforced when we say it’s their fault because everyone wants to think they are in control, and it’s far easier to believe the bad than the good. But the truth is it’s a lie. It is simple mind games. Oh and btw why in the world would anyone believe anything coming out of the UN? My suggestion would be to investigate this source of information and then consider it carefully the UN does not operate in the best interest of America.

  4. mememine it doesn’t mean that we should just sweep the problem under the rug, either.
    If you can’t see the ravenous bugblatter beast of traal, then it can’t see you?

  5. We must do as science does; NEVER say
    a crisis WILL happen, just might happen and probably happen and likely happen
    and potentially happen and……………………for  another 28 years? A consensus of “maybe”
    is an unsustainable consensus of nothing so get ahead of the curve now and be
    happy a crisis for the planet was just a tragic exaggeration. It doesn’t mean
    we give up stewardship it just means 28 years of needless CO2 death threats to
    our children have ended. You can end it now and join the former believer
    majority.
    *Occupywallstreet now does not even
    mention CO2 in its list of demands because of the bank-funded and corporate run
    carbon trading stock markets ruled by politicians.

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