Reports Reiterate Link Between
Environment and Economy
Two new reports
reiterate the scientific veracity of anthropogenic climate change while
reinforcing the interconnectedness of the economy and the environment. The
World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report 2013 clearly points to the
interrelationship between the environment and the economy.
A draft of the third
National Climate Assessment Report indicates that climate change is both an
environmental and economic issue. The draft report was prepared by a federal
committee and offers a comprehensive analysis of the latest and best
peer-reviewed science on the extent and impacts of global warming on the US.
The report restates the fact that climate change will have a wide range of
impacts ranging from agriculture to water.
The draft report was
prepared by a Federal Advisory Committee known as the "National Climate
Assessment and Development Advisory Committee" (NCADAC). The report was
mandated by Congress in 1990 with the passage of the Global Change Research
Act, which requires that a national climate assessment be conducted every four
years and the results be issued to the President and Congress. As a consequence
of the 1990 legislation, the US Global Change Research Program was formed,
which is an inter-governmental body involving 13 federal agencies and
departments.
The 2013 NCADAC report,
which engaged more than 240 authors, indicated that one of the salient reasons
given for the rapidly changing climate is the copious burning of fossil fuels.
Following two consecutive years of extreme weather, the report makes the
connection between the increased incidence and severity of extreme weather and
anthropogenic climate change.
According to Munich
Reinsurance America, the North America has seen a five-fold increase in natural
disasters in the past 30 years. In 2011, the German reinsurance giant also
produced a report called "Severe Weather in North America." According
to the report, between 1980 and 2011, the overall losses from weather
catastrophes was over $1 trillion. In 2012, there were a record number of
extreme weather events which were eclipsed only by the number of such events in
2011. Hurricane Sandy alone cost an estimated $60 billion.
In an emailed statement,
Gene Karpinski, the president of the League of Conservation Voters, said the
NCADAC report confirms what many Americans already know: "If we put off
action on climate change, the costs of addressing its impacts will only rise
and this extreme weather will be just the beginning. This report should serve
as a wake-up call that it's time to act."
Continue reading
at Global Warming Is Real.
