Hurricane Sandy Perfect Example of Climate Change Impacting Economy

I’ve reserved Mondays for discussions about the economy (unless some personal issue is thrust to the forefront.) Of course, the big news this weekend, and– I suspect– for the rest of the week, will be hurricane Sandy. That actually works for an economic topic.

globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/10/hurricane-sandy-update-first-100.html

The article notes that this particular category 1 storm, as massive as it is, hitting during a full moon high tide, and running into 2 more weather systems, may well end up being the first storm to cost the U.S. $100 BILLION. Even Katrina ended up costing about $96 billion– if that helps put things in perspective. Sandy is hitting an area of the country that is much more densely populated, and much less used to dealing with tropical storms. However, a strange glitch in the typical weather systems both last year and this year– not to mention the Gulf Stream with its heated water barreling up the coastline much more powerfully than normal– have encouraged these normally tropical storms to head far to the north and make landfall rather than petering out at sea.

Even setting aside the personal devastation this type of thing can have on individuals, families, and regional societies– a topic I can touch on after the storm has passed– simply dealing with the money lost in damages, wages, commerce, etc. is almost too much to comprehend.

Climate Change is real. And my snarky commentary a few days ago about it were in reaction to my frustration having a society that WANTS to talk about this (polls show over 90% of people want to hear MORE about this on the news) but because of the inconvenience of change, politicians and their monied sponsors will do everything to avoid the issue. Its so ridiculous to find ourselves in this state of affairs when we don’t have to be!

I’m not just frustrated about this topic because we need to stop polluting and super-heating the atmosphere. But also because emergency preparedness doesn’t go far enough. The population has not been mentally and emotionally prepared to understand that this type of devastating weather disasters are going to become more and more common. Losses from weather disasters will soon far outstrip any loss from having to invest in less polluting ways of burning fossil fuels, or of reducing emissions through conservation and green technology.

These types of disasters, like the massive crop losses and livestock losses from the drought this year, have far-reaching and deep negative impacts on our way of life. They make everything progressively more expensive just for starters. Repairing and replacing buildings and infra-structure require a lot of non-theoretical (numbers in a computer) money quickly available. And let’s just say I would not invest in the insurance industry if you paid me to!

All this doesn’t even touch on the human suffering that these events wreak upon whole populations. The loss of home, security, LIFE– have very real and long-lasting impacts on people. We’re about to see that up close as the media frenzy, which has already begun, continues its voyeuristic intrusions into the lingering horror of the aftermath.

Update: In acknowledgement of this, activists in Times Square, New York City– held a protest in the midst of hurricane preparations.

My thoughts are with the people facing this now and through the week. May you all emerge unscathed. Let’s hope you’re all miraculously lucky beyond our wildest expectations.