Christopher Flavelle at the NY Times has a grim story:
...After three years of brutal flooding and hurricanes in the United States, there is growing consensus among policymakers and scientists that coastal areas will require significant spending to ride out future storms and rising sea levels — not in decades, but now and in the very near future. There is also a growing realization that some communities, even sizable ones, will be left behind.
New research offers one way to look at the enormity of the cost as policymakers consider how to choose winners and losers in the race to adapt to climate change. By 2040, simply providing basic storm-surge protection in the form of sea walls for all coastal cities with more than 25,000 residents will require at least $42 billion, according to new estimates from the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental advocacy group. Expanding the list to include communities smaller than 25,000 people would increase that cost to more than $400 billion.
emphasis added
(note: “consensus among policymakers and scientists” does not include Donald Trump or any of his appointees, or the Republican Party.)
This is a de facto carbon tax being imposed on us, while the rich and corporations get their taxes cut. We are paying so the fossil fuel interests and their shareholders can keep cashing in as long as possible. Every dollar for disaster relief, every dollar to repair and reinforce infrastructure that wasn’t built for the ‘new normal’ is a carbon tax. Every move by Republicans to deny and reverse climate policies is a carbon tax increase.
Mind you, this is talking about just dealing with storm surge — and rising seas mean the problem will continue to get worse. What’s adequate in 2040 will not remain so; we are going to end up in a Red Queen’s Race. Building sea walls only addresses part of the problem too. There’s a whole range of infrastructure issues that will have to be addressed.
Read the whole thing. Then ask the DNC again why at least one debate just on Climate Change is not worth doing. Here’s what the Democratic Candidates have to say on Climate Change, from the NY Times 18 questions project. You can scroll down the page to hear each candidate’s longer answer. (Be advised, the article is behind the Times pay wall.)