Researchers from Tufts’s Global Development and Environment Institute predict that upon reaching an increase of 2 degrees Celsius in the mean global surface temperature, “incalculable” social and environmental harms could be triggered, including more tropical diseases, decreased crop yields in the developing world and a “total loss of arctic ice and the extinction of many arctic species“, collapse of the Amazon ecosystem, a major increase in sea levels and a shut-down of the ocean’s circulation system.
Trillions of dollars in climate change damage could be averted by immediately reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A 2005 study by German Institute for Economic Research economist Claudia Kemfert said climate change would cost up to $20 trillion by year 2100 and that even if policies halted warming at 2 degrees Celsius, costs would be $8 trillion.
In another study, University of Cambridge researcher Chris Hope estimated in 2003 that average annual damages would be $26 trillion from 2000 through 2200 if no new climate change policies are enacted.
Source: Scientists Detail Social, Economic Costs of Unbridled Climate Change – The NewStandard
Date: 17 October 2006
