An alarming new report puts the impact of climate change in the stark terms that many skeptics might appreciate. By mid century, the study found, tens of billions of dollars worth of property could be below sea level, while rising temperatures could devastate agricultural crops and spawn heat waves that force workers indoors and put the poor, sick and elderly at risk of medical emergencies. These findings should be a wake-up call to Gov. Rick Scott and other Florida leaders to change direction and shore up the state's defenses.
The report by a bipartisan group of leaders in politics and business, including former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, seeks for the first time to quantify the financial impact of climate change across every region of the country. Its purpose is to try to bridge the partisan debate over global warming by framing in clear financial terms the risks of inaction to property, industry and public health.
In the short term, the report estimates, higher sea levels caused by warming likely will increase the annual cost of storms along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico by up to $3.5 billion. Crop yields in the South and Midwest could drop 10 percent, while new demands for cooling systems could cost homeowners and businesses up to an additional $12 billion per year.
By mid century, between $66 billion and $106 billion worth of property will likely be below sea level nationwide, a figure that rises to a half-trillion dollars by the end of the century. The Southeast would be one of the hardest-hit regions; some parts would be so "unbearably hot" that workers would be forced indoors, cutting productivity, while some homes threatened by rising seas "could quite literally be under water" before their 30-year mortgages are paid.
In Florida, rising seas that breach the porous limestone could put up to $23 billion worth of property underwater by 2050, the report estimated, a figure that grows to $208 billion by the end of the century. And the heavily urbanized Tampa Bay area would suffer some of the highest summer temperatures in the Southeast, putting more people at risk of heat-related deaths.
These findings by a group of longtime leaders from both major political parties, including former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Donna Shalala, a former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, should force state and local governments to show more urgency in addressing climate-related impacts, from working to curb development along the coasts and protecting wetlands to developing cleaner energy sources and hardening public works.
Floridians should insist that the governor, who has long questioned whether climate change is real, start investing the financial resources that communities and homeowners need to deal with rising seas in a low-lying coastal state. Scott may not want to hear it, but he has a responsibility as governor to put lives and property over his obsession with partisan appeals to climate change skeptics.