THIS is all global warming will cost? $1.1 billion over the next 34 years? We can afford that!
A sea level rise of 4 inches by 2050 would lead to $1.1 billion in economic losses https://t.co/jqMfmQyctB pic.twitter.com/NiGFXupCyN
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) March 1, 2016
Does Newsweek get how ridiculous their headline sounds? Probably not:
https://twitter.com/MetricButtload/status/704500334748545024
Uh, $1.1B is nothing today, let alone in 30 years https://t.co/sSEK9Euf4k
— Chris Miller (@c__miller) March 1, 2016
So politicians want to cause $2 trillion to fix that? https://t.co/z5Jg3gWiDy
— Paul Kugman’s Fax Machine (@deepereyes) March 1, 2016
A billion dollars is a rounding error in the US budget. Really, really scary. https://t.co/lDMQF9Vz3l
— Anti-Smatter (@mdrache) March 1, 2016
It turns out Newsweek is only talking about Copenhagen, Denmark in the article and it’s Copenhagen that will experience the $1.1 billion in losses over the next 34 years:
@Newsweek oh I see that just for one town in Denmark. Terribly misleading tweet.
— Totes McGoats (@TotesBryan) March 1, 2016
From Newsweek:
For example, the researchers found that in Copenhagen, Denmark, a sea level rise of just 11 centimeters (or just over 4 inches) by mid-century would lead to $1.1 billion in economic losses. And that’s a relatively conservative estimate; Denmark as a whole is projected to experience between 10 and 40 centimeters of sea level rise by mid-century. The researchers told Reuters if the rate of sea level rise doubles from that conservative estimate to about 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) by mid-century, the damage costs would quadruple to $4.35 billion.
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Newsweek’s alarmism is still hilarious, however. Denmark’s GDP is about $330 billion, which means the $1.1 billion over the next 34 years is still like a rounding error in the overall scheme of things.
Bring on the warming!
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