The Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases

 

What does "Social Cost" mean?

Simply put, the social costs or each extra ton of CO2 in the atmosphere is estimated to be $51.

These social costs result from manifestations of climate change and global warming. Resulting in: 

Increased forest fire damage, more severe storms, increased flooding, more severe tornados and hurricanes, drought, increased hunger, incursion of salt water into coastal aquafers, eco-migration, coral reef death, etc. The list goes on and on and already impacts every person and living creature on the planet in one way or another.

The social cost of what we are doing is not showing up on people's electric bills or property taxes. Yet the costs are steadily mounting.

Each household's electricity use generates a ton of CO2 every seventy days on average. or $20 a month in additional social costs.

Pollution free sources of power are available as home solar or renewable energy certificates for about the same monthly cost. 

I believe an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of repair.

Who is paying this added cost, that does not show up on anyone's bill?

Governments, rather than undertaking preventative measures, are peddling remediation and adaptation.

I cannot imagine that prevention is not more cost effective than cleaning up the mess after the damage has been done.

Taking preventative measures is less costly, in many ways. The transition to a green planet will create countless jobs and preserve habitats for humans and animals alike.

Imagined if federal and state governments had practiced good forest management in the western United States. How much less costly to taxpayers and insurance companies and people's lives?