A thought on the costs of global warming

Today I opened up the paper as I usually do every morning and began reading an opinion article by Washington Post writer Steven Mufson entitled “Is This Green Enough? We Can Clean Up Our Act, But It’ll Cost Us.” The first line of it, for some reason at present unknown to me, made me think of a couple things.

He writes, “How much are we willing to spend to save the planet? And just how much does saving a planet cost these days anyways?”

Now, the first line of this sentence is what threw me off. He is basically asking the question: What is the value of Earth?

Well we all know that the environmental challenge has been going around in circles for the last 15 years and very little has been done. Many countries have failed to meet Kyoto Protocol standards with a number of them increasing their gross greenhouse gas outputs.

So how much will it cost to save our planet? Well according to the Environmental Defense Fund, the figure is STARKLY less than you probably would think. According to them, the annual median projected impact on annual growth if the “greener” path was chosen would be three-hundredths of a percentage point, meaning GDP in 2030 would reach $23 trillion in April, instead of January. This amounts to hardly anything for the worlds largest economy which continues to refuse international treaties on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

Sure in the short term it’s going to be expensive but think of the spin off industries that can be developed by this. Smart, forward thinking companies should be investing in subsidiaries that can specialize in green technology so that the vertical integration that has become the business plan of so many companies can begin to integrate the technology of these new companies into their own development.

The problem with asking “how much” is knowing that if we don’t make these investments now, or at maximum in the next 10-15 years, we are going to be sending our planet down a perilous course that we are unsure we’ll be able to fix. Sure it’s going to cost a lot of money, but in the long run, it’s going to be necessary.

These companies that today hark at the thought of investing a couple hundred million in upgrading their facilities to improve environmental efficiency will have no one to sell their products to in 100 years if things are changed quickly.

Industry and government need to stop looking at the short term bottom line and instead look at whether they will be able to continue growing over the next century with the environmental and societal impacts that global climate change is having, and will continue to have on our planet.