The economic impact of global warming

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Forecasting Senior Director Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the April 11 edition of Climate In The News.

Transcript

00:00Today we'll cover two different climate stories starting with the impact of

00:03climate change on people's wealth and then turning specifically to the New

00:08York City area and looking at how homes could be reduced or the areas that

00:12homes can be built can be reduced due to flooding as we head through the next 15

00:16years. This first story, Brett, from The Guardian that focuses on the impact of

00:20climate change and potentially making people poorer over the next 10-20 years.

00:24Yeah, the new study looked at the economic models taking into account

00:30climate change forecasts and what they came up with is alarming actually. The

00:35average person could lose about 40% of their wealth if we warmed about four

00:40degrees Celsius, which is on the extreme side. Even 16% loss of wealth if we

00:46warmed to two degrees Celsius, which we're already very close to right now. And so

00:50what was the difference between this study and previous studies? This study seems to

00:52be a bit more far-reaching in scope. Yeah, it takes into account the impacts of

00:57extreme events, incorporates extreme events, droughts, floods, with global

01:02supply chains. And if you disrupt the global supply chains across the world,

01:06obviously you're going to have a disruption of food, clothing, electronics, you name it.

01:11And that's also going to equal much more expensive things as well. Yeah, all weather

01:16is local, but the weather across the world does impact goods where you are too

01:20because of those global supply chains. It underscores the need for immediate action on

01:24the climate change mitigation front. The second story today from the New York Times that focuses

01:30specifically on the New York City area and how 80,000 homes could be lost to flooding over

01:35the next 15 years by 2040. That's a staggering number. Yeah, the number is high. I'm not surprised

01:41with the flooding aspect over the next 15 years. We're seeing this occur more and more just with the

01:45weaker storms. Already, we've had a 300 to 900 percent increase in high tidal flooding in the

01:52region since over the past 50 years. Sea level rise about 1.6 inches per decade and accelerating.

01:59Yeah, the sea level rise, the high tide flooding certainly great contributing factors to flooding

02:03the New York City area. Some major storms in the past have caused flooding with what was left of

02:07Hurricane Ida, obviously Sandy being a major event for the New York City area. It seems like most of these,

02:13where I guess the housing laws could be really across the New York City area but focused in

02:16certain parts of the city. Yeah, Staten Island's a big one of course, Queens, Long Island. Westchester

02:22County was also included in that, but I would say Staten Island is probably the biggest because it's

02:26flat right up against the water there as well. Now, there are some proposals that have been made to

02:31alleviate this potential problem. Major zoning changes, retreat back away from the ocean, flood walls as well.

02:40Yeah, so certainly some types of mitigation strategies are either being employed or could

02:45be explored in the future, but very costly as well, although the cost of doing nothing

02:51has a cost down the road. Sure outweighs doing nothing. It does. There will be a cost at some

02:56point, whether we do it now or some point in the future. Well, thank you, Brett, for that insight. For

03:00other stories about climate and information, you can find that at acciweather.com slash climate.

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