US will face the most deadly (and obvious) consequence of global warming: heat

[Mark Piazzalunga]

"Global warming is melting Artctic ices? Who cares? It doesn't affect me directly and it doesn't change my life."
                                     
Well, ignorant person, here's a nasty consequence of climate change that will revolutionize your life (especially in Summer): humidity. A nightmare for young people, a risk for old people, a good thing for a little minority of lucky ones. Will people finally believe in climate change when humidity will conquer the world? I think so. Humidity can be nasty for some one but it can be dangerous for business especially if it's rising.
 
 

That’s one of the findings in a report published today called “Risky Business,” commissioned by some of America’s top business leaders to put price tags on climate threats. For example, by the end of the century, between $238 billion and $507 billion of existing coastal property in the U.S. will likely be subsumed by rising seas, and crop yields in some breadbasket states may decline as much 70 percent. If this doesn't scare you...

By 2050, the average American is likely to see between two and more than three times as many 95 degree days as we're used to. By the end of this century, Americans will experience, on average, as many as 96 days of such extreme heat each year. The report says a child bron in the past 20 years can feel the heat over a lifetime.

What to do when it's hot? Air conditioner. It has a cost: according to the report in the next 25 years we'll need $12 billion and the average of 200 power plants.

"Heat is nasty, so? It isn't letal."
 
                                                                                                                                                                              Oh, yes it is. By the end of the century, the Southeast will see an additional 11,000 to 36,000 people die each year from heat-related conditions as the region swelters under as many as 130 more days of extreme heat, according to the report. In the milder Northeast, where the thermometer hits 95 degrees just 2.6 days a year today, the number will rise by between 17 and 59 days.



"The risks are much more perverse and cruel than we saw with the financial crisis, because they accumulate over time,” Hank Paulson (Treasure Secretary under George W. Bush) said in New York today. Business leaders are sometimes accustomed to moving slowly on long-term risks. In the case of global warming, he said, “a business-as-usual approach is actually radical risk-taking.”

And if it's a Republican to say it...