Global Warming Index: Costs of Inaction

Posted: 14-Nov-2007; Updated: 07-Aug-2008

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A warmer world will deliver heavier rainfalls and more flooding.

Opponents of global warming action frequently claim that the costs of global warming action will be too great.

But, as these facts show, there are serious costs to global warming inaction.

153 million

Number of Americans who live along the coasts.

1-3 feet

Projected sea level rise in the next 100 years

$1.9 billion

Cost of upgrades to drinking and wastewater infrastructures in Hawaii alone over the next 20 years due to projected sea level rise.

90%

Amount of increase in homeowner's insurance in coastal areas in South Carolina over the last year.

$35 billion

Amount of insured losses caused by hurricanes in 2004 & 2005 in Florida alone. Hurricanes will become more intense due to global warming.

$6 billion

Estimated economic loss in California's Central Valley during forecasted dry years due to decreased rainfall – another consequence of global warming.

7 million

Number acres of forests burned in the National Forest System each year for the last 4 years. Global warming is predicted to cause more frequent and more severe forest fires in the West.

$1.3 billion

Cost of the last four years of fires in the National Forest System.

100%

Projected growth of the US economy by 2030.

0.74%

Projected cost of smart cap-and-trade climate policy on US economic output in 2030.

0

Number of bills passed by Congress to cap and reduce America's global warming pollution.

Sources: 

• Blown Away [pdf]. Environmental Defense, 2007.

   

• Upcoming Report: Climate Policy and the U.S. Economy. Environmental Defense, 2007.

• The US Impacts of Climate Change the Costs of Inaction. Center for Integrative Research, University of Maryland, October 2007.