Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
Over the past three decades, flood damage due to climate change in the U.S. has cost the country $73 billion, and will continue to rise as long as we don't do what is necessary to help the environment.
So said a study funded by Stanford University, which details that climate change accounts for one-third of the estimated $199 billion in losses generated by flooding in the country between 1988 and 2017.
"If we apply the empirical analysis to historical rainfall and flood damage, we estimate that approximately one-third - 36 percent - of the cost of flood damage between 1988 and 2017 is the result of historical changes in rainfall," the paper says.
The study, which used more than 6,600 state-level flood damage reports to quantify the historical relationship between rainfall and flood damage in the U.S., says that human impact on the environment has increased the likelihood of exceeding precipitation thresholds, which are responsible for most flood damage.
In that sense, he points out that climate models project a continued intensification of wet conditions over the next three decades, although a trajectory consistent with the goals of the United Nations' Paris Agreement significantly slows that increase.
"Given the importance of assessing the costs of climate change against the costs of mitigation options, empirical quantification of losses due to changing natural hazards provides critical information to assist in policy and decision making," he says.
