Home

Climate change is expected to decrease US GDP by 6%, which would turn it negative. The lower 48 states, however, cover a great diversity of geography and climates. Some states, particularly those in the east, south, and in already hot climates, could see local GDP drop by as much as 30%. Northern and mountain states could actually see local GDP rise by as much as 15%. Too much heat in the south reduces farm yields. Too much sea rise affects Atlantic coastal states. In contrast, northern states benefit from warmer temperatures for farming and less heating requirements in winter. Pacific coastal states will see some sea level rise, but the geology and hydrology is different making the impact much smaller. Ironically, those most worried about climate change may actually see a local (though not global) benefit. Those least convinced about climate change may see the greatest impacts. Climate change refugees may create societal and political dynamics that further shift the collective culture, probably in ways that are harder to predict than climate change.

One thought on “Climate Change In US Varies By State

  1. Pingback: Data That Matters June 2017 | Pretending Not To Panic

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s