Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Extreme Weather, Climate Change Costing Taxpayers Billions

My Comment: Even worse than climate change costing billions is the fact that firefighters fighting massive fires in the west caused by climate change droughts are coming down with vicious cancers -- brain, kidney, blood and many more. It is horrific and we are stuck with this immoral sick science denying excuse for a human being in the oval office calling climate change a hoax and pulling out of the Paris climate agreement.  More than 190 countries entered into the Paris agreement with only 1 (Syria) not signing and 1 (the United States) -- signed by President Obama but pulled out by the murderous Trump.  Nicaragua just signed it.  If I were a "Last Days" Armageddon Evangelical fanatic I could see where End Times Revelations would appeal.

In the end it does not matter, though, as nature does not care what man thinks. It will do what it will do.  In evolutionary fashion if human beings do nothing on climate change those who ignore it will die out and hopefully will NOT take those of us who are science oriented with them.
NB: (Latin for nota bene or note well): 98% of scientists involved in climate change research see the link between the smothering of the earth with filthy fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal as some of the major causes of climate change.  This is not in dispute but is only in dispute with 2% of oil and gas scientists and those in the Trump administration like Scott Pruitt, Trump's cabinet secretary head of the EPA he loathes, who do the bidding of the fossil fuel industries because the fuel industries fill their pockets with cash and spend billions in efforts to dispute its causal connection to climate change. The congressmen and women who dispute this science like those before them beholden to the tobacco industry who said the causal relationship of cigarettes to human health and cancer was inconclusive until they could not deny it anymore while hundreds of thousands died from their poisonous products.  Today the Congressmen and women who dispute fossil fuel's direct causation of climate change and its deleterious effects enjoy their pockets bulging with fossil fuel money. Sad!

WASHINGTON — Climate change is costing taxpayers billions of dollars in disaster relief and the tab will only increase as extreme weather events become more common, according to a new government study.
The federal government has spent an estimated $350 billion over the past decade responding to extreme weather and fire events, which are exacerbated by climate change, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. It comes as Congress moves to approve billions of dollars in extra funding for hurricane relief.
"Climate change impacts are already costing the federal government money, and these costs will likely increase over time as the climate continues to change," the report found.
Why Many Major Hurricanes in 2017? 
It is impossible to put a precise price tag on climate change, the report noted, but said research shows "the impacts and costs of extreme events — such as floods, drought and other events — will increase in significance as what are considered rare events become more common and intense because of climate change." 
A bipartisan pair of senators, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., requested the report from the GAO, an arm of Congress that helps provide research and oversight of the executive branch.

This year's unusually destructive hurricane season has already been a drain on Federal Emergency Management Agency coffers, and California’s historically deadly fires are likely to cost the government even more.

The Senate on Tuesday is expected to approve an additional $36.5 billion in disaster relief, which has already passed the House. That’s on top of the $15 billion in supplemental disaster funds Congress approved last month, suggesting this year's tab will be unusually high.

In addition to the $205 billion spent directly on disaster relief over the past decade, the government has spent $90 billion for crop and flood insurance, $34 billion for wildland fire management and $28 billion for repairs to federal facilities, according to the report.


Image: Puerto Rico Faces Extensive Damage After Hurricane Maria


Kids bike in an area without grid power or running water about two weeks after Hurricane Maria swept through the island on October 5, 2017 in San Isidro, Puerto Rico. Mario Tama / Getty Images
The report says the government should take more preparations to deal with climate-related weather events, noting that previous GAO studies had found "the federal government had no comprehensive, strategic approach" to disaster resilience, nor did it have "strategic government-wide priorities related to climate change."

The government has taken some steps to address climate risks, the report notes, but President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March to rescind some of the planning efforts, a move that "created uncertainty about whether other planning efforts would continue or take their place."

The report acknowledges that its conclusions are imprecise and incomplete, since it requires linking complicated climate and economic models, but the GAO is known for being conservative in its estimates, especially on controversial issues.

NOT ANYMORE

  I wrote this last week and for the most part sat on it because I did not want my writing to imply anything against Israel. As stated agai...