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Global Change and Market Economy
Tue Nov 22, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
As James Carville once said, it’s "the economy, stupid." And when we ponder Global
Climate Change, the economy is an area we cannot over look. Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton for
The Weather Notebook.
The Pew Center for Climate Research sponsored a study on Climate Change’s impact
on the US Markets. Dale Jorgenson of Harvard University was the lead
investigator:
Let’s begin with the most important: agriculture, forestry, and fisheries are the areas
that are most affected by climate change. That’s about two percent of the US economy,
but most of the market consequences of climate change would be felt in those sectors.
I think if you want the bottom line, it’s that Climate Change could have a positive impact
for some areas in agriculture, and a negative impact… in the long run the impacts are
likely to be negative.
Although Dr. Jorgenson says many folks may be surprised that climate change could
have short-term benefits, he reminds us that the overall effect will be
detrimental.
Because, in the long run there are going to be damages, and we can mitigate those
damages at minimum cost by taking action now.
And though the authors don’t make specific policy evaluations, they do draw
conclusions, like the need to control greenhouse gasses such as carbon
dioxide.
But there are other greenhouse gasses as well: methane is certainly a very important
greenhouse gas, The important thing is that this is a very comprehensive report. It
looks over all different sectors of the economy, not just agriculture, which we’ve
emphasized in this conversation, but all the other sectors that would be affected, like
energy use for heating and cooling and so on.
To link to the report, visit our website at www.weathernotebook.org. Funding for our
Climate Change series comes from Environmental Defense. Regular funding for The
Weather Notebook comes from Subaru of America.
Today's Links
Market Effects
http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-in-depth/all_reports/marketconsequences/i
ndex.cfm
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