Deron Lovaas's Blog
Going Green = Making $$$
October 17, 2007
Posted by Deron Lovaas in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming
The University of Maryland just released a review of economic studies of climate change. Here are the five key findings:
- Impacts will occur across the country;
- Impacts will be unevenly distributed across regions, economic sectors (with ag, energy and transport as standouts) and society;
- Negative impacts will outweigh benefits for most sectors that provide essential goods and services;
- Impacts will strain public budgets (for example, replacement and maintenance of infrastructure in the face of sea level rises);
- Secondary effects can include higher prices, lower income and job losses.
These are sobering conclusions, and presumably the costs will vary depending on the abruptness of the change. After all, there are points at which could tilt the system far enough to capsize the canoe.
On the other hand, there's the potential to create a plethora of investment opportunities and jobs when as a nation we tackle this issue head-on. The "CleanTech" field which would benefit from such a commitment is already growing by leaps and bounds. And a recent study found that additional investment in CleanTech will be $14-19 billion between 2007 and 2010, resulting in 400,000-500,000 new jobs.
Less strain on public budgets? More jobs? Sounds pretty good to me, and I imagine other parents would agree wholeheartedly.
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Comments
Gary Patton — Oct 17 2007 10:27 PM
The United States managed to make a fundamental change in its economy to meet the challenge of World War II. It only took about three years, and that change brought great prosperity, besides defeating what was nothing less than a fundamental threat to the continued existence of human civilization as it then existed.
Global warming poses the same scale of threat to our civilization, and we need the same kind of mobilization - a complete transformation of our economy. The problem, of course, is that the "enemy," now, is not external. It's us.