Not only are ~42 million Americans lacking (health) insurance, but the global climate is uninsured, as well. Thousands of people declare bankruptcy in the U.S. each year because of unaffordable medical expenses, and some of these people even had insurance. In bankruptcy, your debts are erased and you get to start over economically.
Climate bankruptcy would not be so benign. How much is saving the lives of billions of people worth?
Another study has been released which estimates the cost of long-term climate change mitigation is not that high, with figures in this case of only 1 to 3 percent of GDP.
“The net cost to U.S. households and the economy looks to be pretty small,” said Frank Ackerman, a professor at Tufts University and a senior economist with the Stockholm Environmental Institute, in a recent interview with Green Inc.
He suggested that the 1 percent to 3 percent estimate was akin to one year of foregone economic growth in the United States.
The article:
A group of eight leading climate economists has a message for United States senators now considering a bill to cap emissions: don’t think of long-term mitigation costs as a massive expenditure, but rather a form of reasonably-priced “planetary climate insurance.”
via The Economics of Climate Stabilization – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.
