Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg are sponsoring a study of how climate change will affect the United States and what that disruption will cost.
The true price of deadly storms, prolonged drought and other extreme weather that most scientists believe is climate change brought about by human actions is unknown. That knowledge could aid business and government leaders trying to respond to the changes, the men said in a video statement announcing the study.
“I believe the … study will be a catalyst for action,” Paulson said, referring to the examination of climate impacts around the country. Paulson and Bloomberg are lending their names and financial support to the roughly $1.2 million analysis due to be released in June that will tally costs from around the country…
The impacts of a warming planet will vary over geography and worsen over generations so it is important that officials try to anticipate those risks now, Paulson said.
“As a former banker and Treasury Secretary, I’ve learned that you can’t always see the extent of a looming crisis before it hits with full force,” said Paulson, who helped lead the United States during the onset of the global financial shock in 2008.
Superstorm Sandy that blasted the East Coast last year and wildfires that have recently devastated the West are among the phenomenon that might have a climate change component and policymakers need to understand the costs of future risks as they brace for the worst impacts…
Before the voices predominant in today’s American conservatism became more concerned with ideology than science, obedience before inquiry, it wasn’t uncommon for stolid sources of business policy and information to delve into scientific fact, reports with conclusions rooted in peer-reviewed fact. Not anymore.
Though I may not especially agree with Mayor Bloomberg’s politics or Hank Paulson’s economics, I give them credit for acting like public servants instead of nutballs at the service of do-nothings like the Koch Bros. One of whom sponsored a study by a climate skeptic to examine the sum of climate change research – and had to face paying for a study that said the climate change analysis was correct.
Not that his politics changed or his efforts to impede change in environmental policy. Like the rest of his peers, today’s conservatives figure they can grab enough money to maintain a safe fortress somewhere while the rest of us face a dying planet.