Climate Change's Unknown Costs Written by Naomi Oreskes and Nicholas Stern Economists greatly underestimate the price...

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Climate Change's Unknown Costs Written by Naomi Oreskes and Nicholas Stern Economists greatly underestimate the price tag on harsher weather and higher seas. Why is that? For some time now it has been clear that the effects of climate change are appearing faster than scientists anticipated. Now it turns out that there is another form of underestimation as bad or worse than the scientific one: the underestimating by economists of the costs. The result of this failure by economists is that world leaders understand neither the magnitude of the risks to lives and livelihoods, nor the urgency of action. One problem involves the nature of risk in a climate-altered world. Right now, carbon dioxide is at its highest concentration in the atmosphere in three million years (and still climbing). The last time levels were this high, the world was about five degrees Fahrenheit warmer and sea level 32 to 65 feet higher. Humans have no experience weathering sustained conditions of this type. One reason the harms of climate change are hard to comprehend is that they will not occur in isolation, but will reinforce one another in damaging ways. In some cases, they may produce a sequence of serious, and perhaps irreversible, damage. For example, a sudden rapid loss of Greenland or West Antarctic land ice could lead to much higher sea levels and storm surges, which would contaminate water supplies, destroy coastal cities, force out their residents, and cause turmoil and conflict. Another example: increased heat decreases food production, which leads to widespread malnutrition, which diminishes the ability of people to withstand heat and disease and makes it effectively impossible for them to adapt to climate change. Sustained extreme heat may also decrease industrial productivity, bringing about economic depressions. In a worst-case scenario, climate impacts could set off a feedback loop in which climate change leads to economic losses, which lead to social and political disruption, which undermines both democracy and our capability to prevent further climate damage. These sorts of cascading effects are rarely captured in economic models of climate impacts. And this set of known omissions does not, of course, include additional risks that we may have failed to have identified. Source Citation: Oreskes, Naomi, and Nicholas Stern. "Climate Change's Unknown Costs." New York Times, 25 Oct. 2019, p. A27(L). Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A603720397/OVIC?u=saintpaul_edu&sid=bookmark- OVIC&xid=eda9a0b8. Accessed 16 June 2021. Question 7: (10.0 points) Write a one-paragraph summary of Article 1. Your summary should: - Have at least five contences Climate Change's Unknown Costs Written by Naomi Oreskes and Nicholas Stern Economists greatly underestimate the price tag on harsher weather and higher seas. Why is that? For some time now it has been clear that the effects of climate change are appearing faster than scientists anticipated. Now it turns out that there is another form of underestimation as bad or worse than the scientific one: the underestimating by economists of the costs. The result of this failure by economists is that world leaders understand neither the magnitude of the risks to lives and livelihoods, nor the urgency of action. One problem involves the nature of risk in a climate-altered world. Right now, carbon dioxide is at its highest concentration in the atmosphere in three million years (and still climbing). The last time levels were this high, the world was about five degrees Fahrenheit warmer and sea level 32 to 65 feet higher. Humans have no experience weathering sustained conditions of this type. One reason the harms of climate change are hard to comprehend is that they will not occur in isolation, but will reinforce one another in damaging ways. In some cases, they may produce a sequence of serious, and perhaps irreversible, damage. For example, a sudden rapid loss of Greenland or West Antarctic land ice could lead to much higher sea levels and storm surges, which would contaminate water supplies, destroy coastal cities, force out their residents, and cause turmoil and conflict. Another example: increased heat decreases food production, which leads to widespread malnutrition, which diminishes the ability of people to withstand heat and disease and makes it effectively impossible for them to adapt to climate change. Sustained extreme heat may also decrease industrial productivity, bringing about economic depressions. In a worst-case scenario, climate impacts could set off a feedback loop in which climate change leads to economic losses, which lead to social and political disruption, which undermines both democracy and our capability to prevent further climate damage. These sorts of cascading effects are rarely captured in economic models of climate impacts. And this set of known omissions does not, of course, include additional risks that we may have failed to have identified. Source Citation: Oreskes, Naomi, and Nicholas Stern. "Climate Change's Unknown Costs." New York Times, 25 Oct. 2019, p. A27(L). Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A603720397/OVIC?u=saintpaul_edu&sid=bookmark- OVIC&xid=eda9a0b8. Accessed 16 June 2021. Question 7: (10.0 points) Write a one-paragraph summary of Article 1. Your summary should: - Have at least five contences