Those treehugging environmentalists and climate scientists are always trying to make a big deal out of nothing, you know? I mean, look at this recent study on 6 climate-related disasters of the past 10 years — it found that the health costs of these 6 U.S. disasters only totalled $14 billion. That’s a few times less than oil companies get in tax breaks over the same period of time. What’s the big deal?!
I mean, it’s true, I can’t imagine what $14 billion looks like and I will never see that much money in my life, but looking at the big picture and how much money has ever existed in the world, I don’t see what the big deal is!
This is only health costs, not insurance and property damage costs they might say. Still, what’s several billion more?
“This in no way is going to capture all of the climate-related events that happened in the U.S. over that time period,” Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and a co-author of the study, said.
Oh yeah, look at that, as soon as you knock down the fact that $14 billion doesn’t really matter to anyone, they come back and say, “But this is only 6 disasters — nothing compared to the total damage the world has faced.” And also mention that 14 more weather disasters in the U.S so far this year have cost at least $14 billion more. Well, add on 50 or a 100 or even 300 billion more — it’s still not a trillion or a zillion, and those are the big numbers, from what I remember from my high-level education in elementary school.
The 2000-2009 climate-related disasters these University of California-Berkeley, University of California-San Francisco, and NRDC researchers focused on, and their estimated costs, are below. Did any of them affect you? Probably not , right?
- U.S. ozone air pollution, 2000-2002 ($6.5 billion)
- West Nile virus outbreak in Louisiana, 2002 ($207 million)
- Southern California wildfires, 2003 ($578 million)
- Florida hurricane season, 2004 ($1.4 billion)
- California heat wave, 2006 ($5.3 billion)
- Red River flooding in North Dakota, 2009 ($20 million)
The health impacts calculated to get the numbers above? 1,689 premature deaths, 8,992 hospitalizations, 21,113 emergency room visits and 734,398 outpatient visits. Chances are, you weren’t one of those people affected. So, why worry?
Even if these types of disasters are supposed to get (and are already getting) much more common and severe due to global warming and climate change, I wish these crazy environmentalists would stop making such a big deal out of such a small matter. Seriously, call me when the costs at least get to $1 trillion a year. Until then, who cares?
North Dakota flooding photo via USACEpublicaffairs
2004 Florida Hurricane image via roger4336
