Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
Stephan: This is what our failure to effectively respond to climate change has wrought. It will appall you.
What is going to drive climate change forward, I think, is money. What can be made out of it? What does it cost compared to a more life-affirming way? I don't think the culture can move fast enough to do it any other way. Here for the first time, is a sense of what climate change has cost in just one year. It's staggering. And much of it is paid for with public money, which is to say your money, and my money.
Daniel J. Weiss is a Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress.
Jackie Weidman is a Special Assistant at the Center.
Click through to see the charts.
The United States was subjected to many severe climate-related extreme weather over the past two years. In 2011 there were 14 extreme weather events - floods, drought, storms, and wildfires - that each caused at least $1 billion in damage. There were another 11 such disasters in 2012. Most of these extreme weather events reflect part of the unpaid bill from climate change - a tab that will only grow over time.
CAP recently documented the human and economic toll from these devastating events in our November 2012 report ‘Heavy Weather: How Climate Destruction Harms Middle- and Lower- Income Americans.
