Economic Costs of Climate Change 'Will Affect Every American'

excerpt from:
Economic Costs of Climate Change 'Will Affect Every American'

by Haider Rizvi, OneWorld US
Wed Oct 17, 4:30 PM ET

NEW YORK, Oct 17 (OneWorld) - Independent economists and environmentalists are warning of dire consequences for the U.S. economy if policy makers fail to take urgent action on climate change.

"Climate change will effect every American economically in a significant and dramatic way," said Matthias Ruth, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research.

In a new study released this week, Ruth observed that further delays in tackling climate change would not only cause greater damage to the U.S. economy, but would also raise the future cost of dealing with natural disasters.

The authors of the study, entitled "The U.S. Economic Impacts of Climate Change and the Costs of Inaction," say their efforts to analyze the economic research done in the past and pull in other relevant data make the study the first of its kind.