The Cost of Climate Change
When climate change directly affects all of us, it can't be ignored.
Some issues see little progress through empathy or moral imperatives alone. People need to see the impact on their own lives to understand the importance of an issue. That builds the path from inaction to action.
The cost of climate change shows how real it is to each and every one of us. As the world's average temperature continues to increase, severe weather is becoming more frequent, disasters more devastating, and the impact on our daily lives continues to worsen.
We must ensure that the effects of climate change on societies worldwide, especially our own, are easy to see.
Displaced Populations
Many people are upset at the high rate of migration at our borders. Climate change is a part of that and will be an increasing factor for decades to come.
The number of displaced people in the world has climbed at a staggering rate. It passed the 110 million mark in 2023. Climate change accounts for almost one-quarter of that population, with 23 million people displaced due to climate change-related reasons.
If serious effort is not directed towards solving the climate crisis, 200 million people are expected to need humanitarian assistance each year by 2050.
Floods, fires, and severe storms are bad enough. But the most significant problem is drought.
Droughts cause crops to fail, livestock to die, and prevent people from having enough water to drink. People can’t sit around waiting for a drought to end. They need to leave to find a place to survive. Climate change starves people out of their homes.
That is the direct displacement from climate change. The indirect form is armed conflicts, which are the leading cause of displacement worldwide.
Climate change is a threat multiplier in that it makes these conflicts worse and more prevalent than they would otherwise be.Â
Fresh water sources are drying up, fisheries are becoming depleted, there are fewer areas to grow crops or raise livestock, and greater numbers of people are crowding into areas with limited resources. All of this will create new conflicts and worsen existing ones as groups fight to control the remaining resources.
Rising Costs
Droughts don’t only displace people from their homes. They raise the price of food for everyone on the planet.
Cocoa prices spiked to record highs in 2024, doubling their cost since the beginning of 2023 due to dry weather in the main cacao-growing nations of Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
The Mediterranean experienced an exceptionally hot and dry summer, which damaged olive trees, significantly reducing the olive oil supply and raising prices to record levels. Average temperatures in the area were 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than usual, and some areas experienced a staggering 4-degree Celsius increase. Combined with low rainfall, that created a devastating drought for the region.
Rice is grown around the world, and even that hasn’t protected the crop from climate change. Italy grows half of Europe’s rice and has faced two years of droughts reducing supply. India halted some rice exports after a heavier-than-usual monsoon season. In 2022, California faced a harsh drought that cut rice planting in half, resulting in the loss of over 5,000 rice-related jobs.
Then there are insurance costs. Climate change is increasing home insurance prices across the US, especially in California, Florida, and Texas.
Several insurance agencies have pulled out of Florida altogether. Others have stopped offering new home insurance policies in California because the state regulates insurance price increases in an attempt to help protect the public from rapidly rising prices.
That law has forced insurance companies to take a major hit on their finances as claims become more common and more expensive without allowing the companies to compensate for those higher expenses with higher costs. That simply makes home insurance a poor business model to continue to pursue.
Finally, there is the governmental cost of dealing with natural disasters, including:
The 2023 Hawaii wildfires that caused $5.5 billion in damages and took over 100 lives
Hurricane Ida in 2021 which caused almost $60 billion in damages and took over 90 lives
Hurricane Ian in 2022 costing $113 billion in damages and taking 150 lives
Overall, the number of US climate or weather disasters that cost at least $1 billion has increased in recent years and will continue to increase in the years to come.
2023 - 28Â
2022 - 18
2021 - 20
2020 - 22
If all other arguments fail to persuade people of the importance of addressing climate change, hopefully, the higher costs associated with that change should help the public understand that taking action aligns with their own self-interests.
Progress Made
President Biden has made the largest climate investment in history through the Inflation Reduction Act. Investments in wind and solar combined with a rapid decrease in coal power have brought America to a 40% emissions-free power grid today. The US is working towards a goal of an 80% emissions-free supply by 2030, with solar power production expected to increase by 8x in the next 6 years.
Also, by 2030, US emissions will be 50% below where they were in 2005. By 2050, the goal is for the US to be net zero on emissions, meaning that we would be at a point where we are removing the same volume of greenhouse gasses from the air that we as a nation emit. This will largely be accomplished through reductions in emissions, although CO2 removal will play a small role in this.
America is investing in cross-country electric vehicle charging stations along our highways. This is an important step in helping electric vehicles continue to grow their market share.
Then there are the investments being made into climate resilience. This comes from an understanding that climate change is going to get worse before it gets better, and therefore, we need to do what we can to limit its impact on American lives.
These investments include federally conserving more water sources, coastal and nature reconstruction efforts, improved infrastructure across the nation, and better regulations on building codes to make sure we are prepared to weather the literal storms coming our way.
It will get worse before it gets better.
That is because people have denied the reality of the situation, worked to block efforts to reduce emissions, and refused to fix the damage that we’ve already caused. That narrative simply can’t continue as the impact of climate change on all of us is here, and it isn’t going away any time soon.
The more people who accept this, the more we can accomplish, and the better the outcome will be for everyone.
https://www.unrefugees.org/news/how-climate-change-impacts-refugees-and-displaced-communities/
https://www.rand.org/pubs/articles/2024/how-climate-change-will-affect-conflict-and-us-military.html
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/02/climate-change-food-prices-drought/
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240311-why-climate-change-is-making-the-us-uninsurable
