From Ernest Moniz’s written testimony for today’s House hearing on Obama’s climate change plan:
We have an increasingly clear idea of what the consequences of such disruptions will look like. In the short term, while we cannot attribute any particular storm to climate change, we have all seen and experienced the devastation due to recent extreme weather, such as the severe infrastructure and human impacts that Sandy inflicted on the Northeast. From that storm alone, economic damage has been estimated to be $65 billion. As sea levels rise, we can expect coastal flooding and the impacts of severe storms to worsen. We have also experienced protracted heat waves and droughts, which strain the power system and put some of our most vulnerable citizens at risk. Combined drought and higher temperatures have exacerbated the risk of forest fires and projections show wildfires will burn larger areas in the future and the season will last longer.
Keynesians aren’t concerned with adding up. That being said, there appears to be a statistical corelation between the economic slump and the reduction in tornado and hurricane frequency. When I was a kid in North Carolina, they had to rebuild the Outer Banks pretty much every year. The recent lack of major hurricane landfall has got to be hurting the construction industry. Maybe Climate Change is why The stimulous packages failed to yield promised results. Tornados knocking down fewer homes per annum could be the cause of the housing glut. At least blaming climate change breaks the monotony of blaming Bush for the economy.
Interesting thought–since the Boardwalk was destroyed twice by Hurricane Sandy, twice as much work is available. Then one thing I don’t understand is with all the hurricanes, flooding, etc, there is not more work. Are people moving away and leaving the areas barren, are they living in tents? It just does not add up (or was that the point with the Keynesian economics reference?).
But the boardwalk, and everything else, had to be fixed. That means work that didn’t exist before. By Keynesian economics, Not-a-Hurricane Sandy created jobs. Has anyone stopped to think about the positive impact climate change will have on economy?
But it’s Hurricane Sandy’s fault the Boardwalk burned in NJ–it damaged the wiring. So climate change might have burned down the Boardwalk.