GAO: Climate change already costing US billions in losses
Source: AP
By MICHAEL BIESECKER Associated Press Oct 23, 2017 Updated 12 min ago 0
WASHINGTON (AP) A non-partisan federal watchdog says climate change is already costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, with those costs expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades.
A Government Accountability Office report released Monday said the federal government has spent more than $350 billion over the last decade on disaster assistance programs and losses from flood and crop insurance. That tally does not include the massive toll from this year's three major hurricanes and wildfires, expected to be among the most costly in the nation's history.
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GAO undertook the study following a request from Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
"This nonpartisan GAO report Senator Cantwell and I requested contains astonishing numbers about the consequences of climate change for our economy and for the federal budget in particular," said Collins. "In Maine, our economy is inextricably linked to the environment. We are experiencing a real change in the sea life, which has serious implications for the livelihoods of many people across our state, including those who work in our iconic lobster industry."........................
Read more: http://napavalleyregister.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/gao-climate-change-already-costing-us-billions-in-losses/article_a1ba026a-6d42-5c70-b6c0-3f616acf523e.html#tncms-source=behavioral
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Iliyah
(25,111 posts)loss in climate change - billions
loss in health insurance - billions
economy costs going up
military spending skyrocketing
minimum wage stagnant
GOP's budget cutting billions off from Medicare and Medicaid
and there's more
But alas, billions tax cuts for 1-2 %ers
and also large corporations.
cstanleytech
(26,295 posts)to bury their heads in the sand like an ostrich.
BigmanPigman
(51,610 posts)shouldn't be just repaired since it is ancient but that the entire government and country are going to have start preparing now and the costs are going to be astronomical for decades. Other countries like Holland have been preparing for years by building massive structures to protect the residents from the rising seas. The US is going to have to move or significantly alter the major coastal areas. The massive storms, fires, etc. will cause so much severe and ongoing damage and that doesn't get fixed for free.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Basically republicans are making taxpayers pay for their wild, radical liberation of corporate polluters and profiteers. Evil shit.
lordsummerisle
(4,651 posts)This needs to be spread far and wide. I wonder if Faux News covered it?
tclambert
(11,087 posts)There's no other possible explanation for why the GAO would support the climate change hoax, which was debunked by Sen. James Inhofe with one snowball.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Last edited Tue Oct 24, 2017, 12:03 PM - Edit history (1)
running HVAC longer and harder, protection and repair of property, increased insurance premiums and loss of insurance. Removing dead trees. Relandscaping. Insurance company payouts themselves. Business relocations. Abandoned farm and grazing lands. On and on.