We've spoken a few times here at TakePart about how much failing to fight climate change might cost in the long run, but the tally in a new report [pdf] is truly staggering. Conducted by German insurer Allianz S.E. and the World Wildlife Fund, the study found that the United States alone has over seven trillion dollars of assets at risk due to the effects of climate change. Seven. Trillion. Dollars. A site called Business Insurance has the scary news:
According to the report, a sea level rise of 20 inches by 2050, as predicted by climate scientists, could jeopardize roughly $7.4 trillion of U.S. assets. About $1.4 trillion worth of U.S. coastal-area assets are at risk due to storm surge from a one-in-100-year event, the report said. ...“ In addition to rising sea levels, the report highlighted three other tipping points that are likely to have the biggest impact by mid-century: an increasingly arid climate in California, disturbances in the summer monsoon in India and Nepal, and the reduction in the Amazon rainforest due to drought. ”
Now, to extrapolate this away from an insurance setting, all those assets are, of course, things and businesses and homes and property belonging to real, actual people, who would be quite affected by the loss of all those things. The report, it should surprise no one, recommended "immediate action" by the leaders attending the Copenhagen conference starting next month (which itself starts, oh, tomorrow).
Holy crap. This Copenhagen thing starts next week. Well, luckily, President Obama is doing his thing, China has announced they're willing to wheel and deal; against everything it looked like a couple weeks ago, we might actually get some of that aforementioned immediate action!
thebadastronomer's flickr photostream/Creative Commons
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