Everything Will Be Bigger In Texas, Including # Of Heat-Related Deaths, Storm/Hurricane Losses
Texas probably will see a sharp increase in heat-related deaths and coastal storm-related losses in the coming decades if nothing is done to mitigate a changing climate, according to a new study commissioned by a bipartisan group of prominent policymakers and company executives aiming to spawn concern – and action – in the business community over the much-debated warming trend.
The study is the third region-specific analysis by the so-called Risky Business Project, an eclectic coalition led by former banker and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr., former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and billionaire hedge fund manager-turned-environmentalist Tom Steyer. The men co-chair a bipartisan 20-member governing committee made up mostly of former presidential Cabinet members – including President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state – who agree that climate change is occurring and that it will have negative economic consequences, but have consciously avoided the debate over whether human activity is causing it — or how to respond.
The first step in their mission? Highlighting the potentially devastating economic impact of climate change in the not-too-distant future. And, of course, not everyone is buying it. Published Tuesday, "Come Heat and High Water: Climate Risk in the Southeastern U.S." found that Texas will be one of the states most negatively impacted by climate change by mid-century absent any changes.
Among the findings of the study, Texas will probably see by the 2050s:
The number of extremely hot days per year – with temperatures exceeding 95 degrees – more than double, from an average of 43 to 106.
About 4,500 additional heat-related deaths per year with nearly half that increase coming in the next five to 15 years. (For comparison’s sake, the study points out there were about 3,400 total automotive fatalities in Texas in 2013.)
A sea level rise of up to 2 feet in Galveston.
A $650-million-per-year increase in storm-related losses along the coast, bringing the state’s total annual damages to more than $3.9 billion.
A marked decrease in both worker productivity and crop yields.
EDIT
http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/study-climate-change-big-threat-texas/
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