Climate change has costs.
Hurricanes, supercharged by a warm atmosphere, are sometimes the most damaging.
As I write this Friday, there are no detailed estimates of the damage caused by Hurricane Ian as it wrecked southwestern Florida.
By damage, I’m talking about brick and mortar costs here. Not to mention the immense cost of human suffering. For now it is also impossible to know. Many areas are impassable.
Roads and bridges are destroyed. According to our article, on the barrier islands, homes and businesses are “piles of wood pulp and broken concrete.”
“Hurricane Ian will be a storm that will be remembered for decades,” Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Dean Criswell said late Thursday.
Billion dollar disaster
As a Category 4 hurricane, Ian is almost certainly the US scientific and regulatory agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.multi-billion dollar disaster”
The country is experiencing a surge in multi-billion dollar disasters, according to a NOAA tally.
In 2021, the agency tallied 20 of them, leaving a total loss of $152.6 billion. It was the third worst year in U.S. history, after 2017 (Harvey year, $366 billion in losses) and 2005 (Katrina year, nearly $249 billion in losses).
For comparison, consider the cost of the Biden administration’s recent climate change bill. Its total value is his $369 billion for 10 years, or just under $37 billion annually.
any disaster
The number of extremely costly extreme weather events has also increased considerably.
NOAA’s 2021 tally is remarkable for its surprisingly wide variety. Last year’s multi-billion dollar disasters included 11 storms, four cyclones, one wildfire and one drought. There have certainly been more storms and fires, but none reached the billion dollar threshold.
why are they increasing? Property values are part of the answer, according to NOAA, but it also includes climate change, which “has increased the frequency of certain extreme events leading to multi-billion dollar disasters.”
Recovering from Ian is especially difficult for those who had not insured their property through the Federal Flood Insurance Program.
That’s the homeowner. It could very well be the worst for the tenant.
What does climate change have to do with it?
Depending on the weather phenomenon. Many people have traces of climate change. For example wildfires. Storm too.
In the most basic way, warm air holds more moisture. This means that storms can bring much more rain than otherwise. Think of it as a heavier, damp sponge. Squeeze it and more water will come out.
1 analysis by team of scientists Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the State University of New York at Stony Brook found that human-induced climate change made Hurricane Ian wetter by at least 10%.
Climate change also causes what meteorologists call “rapid intensification.” The wind speed increases significantly and rapidly. It’s as if an invisible hand has created a storm that has left us unprepared for its wrath.
“More storms are rapidly intensifying as the climate warms the Earth’s oceans,” writes colleague Elena Xiao. There have been several examples recently. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017; Hurricanes Michael and Florence in 2018; and Hurricane Ida in 2021. Many of these were multi-billion dollar disasters.
Ian turned into a tropical storm for several hours on Thursday before morphing into a hurricane again, heading into South Carolina, where it was expected to make landfall on Friday.
Join us for our next live streaming event
The Times runs a series of meetings leading up to this year’s big climate summit, COP27, in Egypt in November. Joining Lauren Powell Jobs, John Doerr, and others in San Francisco next time, we’ll focus on the role of art and technology in tackling the climate crisis. You can view it for free by registering.
Important news from The Times
Before you go: what about apples?
There are about 7,500 varieties of apples in the world. It’s a diversity bonanza, and scientists are working to understand the genetics so that the fruit can be improved in many ways. A researcher at one orchard in Nova Scotia may be developing your new favorite right now.
Thank you for being a subscriber. I will be back on Tuesday.
Manuela Andreoni, Claire O’Neill and Douglas Alteen contributed to Climate Forward. View past newsletters here.
If you enjoy what you are reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. View all subscriber-only newsletters here.
Please contact us at climateforward@nytimes.com. We read all messages and reply to many!