A new White House report released Tuesday warns that delaying environmental action would be costly and argues that swift action serves as “climate insurance” to mitigate the “most severe and irreversible potential consequences of climate change.”
The report, titled “A Cost Of Delaying Action To Stem Climate Change,” comes in the wake of the Obama administration’s decision to bypass Congress and propose new rules on coal-fired power plants aimed at slashing carbon pollution by 30 percent by 2030.
Citing the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, the report lists economic consequences of putting off action.
“Impacts include decreased agricultural production; coastal flooding, erosion, and submergence; increases in heat-related illness and other stresses due to extreme weather events; reduction in water availability and quality; displacement of people and increased risk of violent conflict; and species extinction andbiodiversity loss,” it reads. “Although these impacts vary by region, and some impacts are not well-understood, evidence of these impacts has grown in recent years.”
The report claims that the rule on power plant emissions would “generate large positive net benefits, which EPA estimates to be in the range of $27-50 billion annually in 2020 and $49-84 billion in 2030” — including health benefits from cutting harmful emissions.
The president’s action is fiercely opposed by congressional Republicans, most of whom doubt or deny the scientific consensus that human activities are significantly exacerbating global climate change.
Read the report below:
Being the anti-science, anti-gay, anti-immigration, anti-women, anti-poor, anti-minority party hasn’t hurt us so far.
Besides, we don’t believe in physics. Gravity, climate change, evolution? All liberal plots to overthrow freedom.
The next argument against action (after “I’m not a scientist” folds up the tent) will be that the developing world isn’t going to curb their emissions so why should we? Why should we harm our “economy” while they grow theirs?
So yeah, let’s all choke to death together with a strong economy.
I think that line is dumb. It is a way to basically point out that you are not making a decision on anything but an uninformed opinion. Unless you go to a scientist. At which point you would need to take up the scientific consensus and not the opinions of a few nutjobs.
Yes exactly. I think Charlie Crist finally blew the doors off of that one.
This report is not directed at the deniers. In fact, it is just archiving the affects that are undeniable to the sane.
The deniers plan is to deny more and then some more, there is the denial report in full.
Obama is trying to hit them where he thinks they live and love, which is with the economic, financial damages and repercussions. But, they can’t even do that because it would be a mild form of recognition which would constitute not playing totally ignorant and that is their ace in the hole, shameless ignorance.
It is climate change action go time.