Global Warming Costs Trillions
Scientists are urging the next U.S. president to protect the country from climate change, and they are using economic data to back up their request.
Eight scientific organizations report that about $2 trillion of U.S. economic output could be hurt by storms, floods and droughts.
"We don’t think we have the right kind of tools to help decision makers plan for the future," said Jack Fellows, the vice president for corporate affairs of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of 71 universities.
The groups, including the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society, urged Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain to nearly double the current U.S. budget for the area.
They want $9 billion in investments between 2010 and 2014 to help protect the country from extreme weather, which they believe could happen more often as temperatures rise.
The United States suffers billions of dollars in weather-related damages every year. They range from widespread events like Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the more recent droughts in the Southeast, to smaller, more frequent glitches like airline delays from storms.
They noted a quarter of the country’s economic output, about $2 trillion, is susceptible to extreme weather.
The investments would fund satellite and ground-based instruments that study the Earth’s climate and also for computers to help make weather predictions more accurate.
John Snow, the co-chairman of the Weather Coalition, a business and university group that advocates for better weather prediction, said better computers would help scientists forecast extreme weather events more accurately. That means better preparation during weather disasters.
Snow said it could also give businesses better information on where to locate their operations, if they produce virtually no greenhouse emissions, such as wind farms.
Scientists said cooler temperatures in the first half of this year are making their argument more difficult to make.
"One of the challenges we face … is to make the case that while we are in a period of warming, we should not expect every year to be the warmest year on record," Snow said.
The two presidential campaigns did not respond immediately to questions about the plea for funding.
Obama and McCain, who face off during a November election, both support regulation of greenhouse gases through market mechanisms such as cap-and-trade programs on emissions.
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Image Caption: This tornado was one of several that struck near Hebron, Nebraska, on May 22, 2004. Tornadoes are forming at a record-setting pace this year, with nearly 1,000 twisters confirmed by NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center for the period January through May 2008. (Photo by Bob Henson, ©UCAR.)
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