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The Taxpayer Cost(s) of Climate Change

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Like most of my post, I write in response to my family members. This one is for the many Climate Change Deniers in my many family members that consistently seem to send me every Climate Change Hoax story. I love it when people only listen or read one ‘source’ of information, notably Donald Trump and his followers. Ergo this post, so I now have the information at my fingertips.

Whether you believe in Climate Change or not, one cannot ignore how much the weather has changed over the last several years. With that weather change comes costs.. and those costs come right out the taxpayer and victim pockets. Whether or not you believe in Climate Change, each taxpayer will continue to foot the bill.

Living in California, our Wildfire Season in 2017 was devastating. Coming on the back of extreme drought, water rationing, and high heat, generated huge losses that the California taxpayer picks up.

Image: American Progress

With extreme weather, it costs to prep for disaster, boarding up windows, shopping for food and water and emergency supplies and evacuations all cost. Then people can’t get to work, cannot get to stores, products cannot be shipped, homes and businesses are ripped apart and need to be rebuilt.. higher insurance. Unemployment, housing.. it adds up. Plus the cost of disease and death. Those dead bodies foster communicable diseases, which of course lead to more personal and taxpayer costs.

Add to the fact to the fact that as of January 2018, unless Trump declares a federal disaster, one cannot write off the cost of destruction. It is a quad-ripple whammy!

NOAA

According to the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

  • 6,873 natural disasters worldwide from 1994-2013. which claimed 1.35 million lives or almost 68,000 lives on average) EM-DAT)
  • 218 million people were affected by natural disasters on average per annum from 1994-2013 (Source)
  • 16 Major Weather Events in 2017; 1 drought (North, South Dakota and Montana), 2 flooding (Missouri-Arkansas, Southeast), 1 freeze (Southeast), 8 severe storm events (Midwest, Midwest, Minnesota, Colorado) 3 tropical cyclone events (Maria, Irma, Harvey) and 1 wildfire (California). Major Tornados in Southeast and Midwest, California Flooding (Compete list at NOAA)
  • $306 billion costs of those 2017 weather events:
  • 46% % of Americans say that they do not have enough money to cover an unexpected $400 expense (American Progress)
  • Hurricane Sandy (2012), caused $68 billion in damages
Center for Disease Control

Climate Change Effect on Health: (Source) When you think about the disruption of a hurricane or a flood, lack of clean water ,lack of food, festering piles of unsanitary good, rotting animals, people and food, influx of rats.. all leads to early deaths and disease and it costs taxpayer money.

  • 2-4 $Billion/ year direct damage costs to health
  • 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress. (World Health Organization)
  • 2040 to 2059, premature deaths could cost the health sector up to $161 billion a year.
  • 2080 and 2099, costs could increase to $90 billion to $506 billion a year.

Breaking down the dollar figures for the specific disasters examined: High levels of ozone air pollution cost $6.5 billion from 2000-2002; Louisiana’s outbreak of West Nile virus in 2002 cost $207 million; wildfires in Southern California in 2003 cost $578 million; Florida’s 2004 hurricane season cost $1.4 billion; the 2006 heatwave in California totaled $5.3 billion; more recently, the 2009 flooding in North Dakota cost $20 million: Treehugger 

Carbon Brief:

Here again.. this has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in Climate Change, it means how much money could the US taxpayer save by reducing their addition to fossil fuels?

  • $160 Billion saved a year by 2050 from costs attributed to air pollution
  • $930 Billion saved a years by 2100 by costs attributed to air pollution.
  • $200 Billion per yeas save from death prevention via extreme temperatures

So for those Climate Change deniers and those who do not feel that they don’t have to do anything to mitigate the change or have to change their behavior… well just maybe getting hit in the wallet will open up their eyes.

Resources

CapeTown, South Africa is Running Out of Water: It Could Happen To Anyone
Elder Abuse And Junk Mail