{"id":289672,"date":"2023-12-02T19:13:14","date_gmt":"2023-12-02T18:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=289672"},"modified":"2023-12-02T19:13:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T18:13:17","slug":"no-cnn-climate-change-is-not-costing-the-u-s-billions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=289672","title":{"rendered":"No, CNN, Climate Change is Not Costing the U.S. Billions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


By Linnea Lueken<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CNN Business posted an article titled \u201cClimate change is costing the US $150 billion a year. Here\u2019s what that looks like<\/a>,\u201d which cites a recent government climate report to claim that global warming is causing an increase in costly weather disasters. This is false. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data refutes the assertion that extreme weather is becoming more frequent or severe. As a result, climate change cannot be behind the rise in weather related damage. The real reason is a matter of demographics and economics, especially population growth and increased development in natural disaster-prone areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNN claims that the United States experiences a weather event costing $1 billion in damage every three weeks, as opposed to \u201c40 years ago, when extreme weather episodes that cost an inflation-adjusted $1 billion happened once every four months on average.\u201d This figure comes from the Biden administration\u2019s recent National Climate Assessment (NCA) report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What CNN neglects to mention in their effort to tie rising disaster costs to climate change is that property values \u2013 both in the form of objects like houses, cars, and home goods, as well as land values \u2013 have increased over time. This obviously contributes to the rising costs of damages, with or without inflation factored in. In addition, more people than ever before insure their property, under various government backed flood, disaster, and crop insurance programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coastal development has increased over time as well, and the total number of people (and their possessions) has also increased in the United States, particularly in states like Florida, Texas, and California, which are prone to natural disasters like hurricanes, severe droughts, and wildfires, all of which damage property. (See figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Figure 1: Graphic from Wikipedia showing states by population growth between 2010 and 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau 2018 Annual Estimate of the Resident Population. States with population growth greater than the United States as a whole are in dark green, states with population growth slower than the United States in light green, and states with declining populations in light red.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Florida\u2019s population, for example, has nearly doubled since 1983, putting an additional 10 million people in harm\u2019s way when hurricanes strike there. Population and associated development has also increased in most other coastal locations and along attractive rivers and streams, meaning when hurricanes occur or rivers rise, more people are at ground zero for harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Daily Caller<\/em> interviewed<\/a> University of Colorado professor and climate researcher Roger Pielke, Jr., who explained plainly that \u201c[t]here is no peer reviewed science that attributes any part of increasing disaster losses to changes in climate,\u201d says economic data is not a good metric for making claims about climate change, largely because of the economic conditions that change regardless of the weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNN also says that the \u201ccost of extreme weather events is expected to grow in the near term with a projected rise in sea levels<\/a> and temperatures<\/a>,\u201d but this is more unsupported speculation. While it is true that sea levels have risen gradually since the end of the last glaciation, as discussed in Climate Realism<\/em> post \u201cSorry, Washington Post, Climate Change Isn\u2019t Worsening Hurricanes, but Storm-Resilient Military Bases Make Sense,\u201d<\/a> there is no evidence that sea level rise is making it so storms are more damaging. Also, as Climate Realism <\/em>has pointed out many times<\/a>, there is no data showing an increase in severe tropical cyclones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the point on temperature, CNN does not elaborate on how higher temperatures will cause more costly damage, except that they say \u201cagricultural losses\u201d and \u201cworker injuries\u201d are counted among the NCA report\u2019s damage calculations. This is nebulous at best, but crop production in the United States has been\u00a0increasing<\/a>\u00a0over the same period of modest warming, and worker injuries don\u2019t appear to be getting more common, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics\u00a0data<\/a>. (See figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There has been no increase in heatwaves<\/a> in the United States, either, with the most extreme recorded summer heat in U.S. history was during the 1930s, well before climate alarmists claim there was accelerated human-caused warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weather and natural disasters certainly result in billions of dollars in cost each year, but using economic figures as proof of a climate catastrophe is misleading. Not only has extreme weather not become worse in the United States over time, but the NCA report and CNN both ignore myriad the other factors, like population growth and greater development, that result in higher damages costs now than in the past when extreme weather and other types of disasters strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post\u00a0No, CNN, Climate Change is Not Costing the U.S. Billions<\/a>\u00a0appeared first on\u00a0ClimateRealism<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Linnea Lueken CNN Business posted an article titled \u201cClimate change is costing the US $150 billion a year. Here\u2019s what that looks like,\u201d which cites a recent government climate report to claim that global warming is causing an increase in costly weather disasters. This is false. Data refutes the assertion that extreme weather is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":289679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"CNN Business posted an article titled \u201cClimate change is costing the US $150 billion a year. Here\u2019s what that looks like,\u201d which cites a recent government climate report to claim that global warming is causing an increase in costly weather disasters. This","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691819043,691819069,691818104,691824960,691818772,691824959,691818913],"class_list":{"0":"post-289672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-cnn","10":"tag-droughts","11":"tag-hurricanes","12":"tag-national-climate-assessment-nca-report","13":"tag-u-s-president-joe-biden","14":"tag-weather-related-damage","15":"tag-wildfires","17":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0Kalachakra_Protection_From_Natural_Disasters.jpg?fit=1600%2C959&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1dm8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":289219,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=289219","url_meta":{"origin":289672,"position":0},"title":"CNN Cries Doom Over Snowfall Decline \u2013 Of Just 2 Percent","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By James Taylor CNN published an article this weekend raising alarm about \u201cdisappearing\u201d snowfall during the past 50 years, all the while burying the negligible amount of snow decline. By CNN\u2019s own data, snowfall has declined merely 2 percent during the past half-century, which is statistically insignificant and barely measurable.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"2 Percent\"","block_context":{"text":"2 Percent","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=2-percent"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0snowy-road.jpg?fit=1200%2C772&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0snowy-road.jpg?fit=1200%2C772&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0snowy-road.jpg?fit=1200%2C772&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0snowy-road.jpg?fit=1200%2C772&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0snowy-road.jpg?fit=1200%2C772&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":228418,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=228418","url_meta":{"origin":289672,"position":1},"title":"CNN Is Right, Carbon Credits Won\u2019t Reduce Emissions","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/11\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent article by CNN describes U.S. climate \u201cczar\u201d John Kerry\u2019s latest plan to use carbon credits to raise enough money to help developing nations recover from alleged climate change impacts, as well as fund the development of renewable energy projects in \u201cvulnerable\u201d nations.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0scam-g733e04ae0_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0scam-g733e04ae0_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0scam-g733e04ae0_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0scam-g733e04ae0_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0scam-g733e04ae0_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":218591,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=218591","url_meta":{"origin":289672,"position":2},"title":"Wrong, CNN, Climate Change Driven Extreme Weather Not Behind Declining River Levels","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In short, CNN\u2019s story is more an indictment of its own biases concerning the dangers of purported human-caused climate change than it is a report documenting the dangers of climate change itself.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-628.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-628.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-628.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-628.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-628.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":263384,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=263384","url_meta":{"origin":289672,"position":3},"title":"Wrong, CNN, Attribution Groups Prove Nothing About Extreme Weather and Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent article on CNN relies on the opinion of climate attribution groups, claiming that these groups are able to calculate exactly how much impact climate change has had on various weather events. These claims are always false. Attribution claims are unverifiable, untestable, and rely on the presupposition that climate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0fake-news-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0fake-news-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0fake-news-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0fake-news-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0fake-news-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":219916,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=219916","url_meta":{"origin":289672,"position":4},"title":"CNN Falsely Claims Airline Turbulence Will Increase due to Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"21\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As we have noted time and again model output is not data.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1021.png?fit=881%2C544&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1021.png?fit=881%2C544&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1021.png?fit=881%2C544&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1021.png?fit=881%2C544&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":221426,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=221426","url_meta":{"origin":289672,"position":5},"title":"CNN\u2019s Don Lemon Tries to Blame Hurricane Ian on Climate Change. NOAA\u2019s Hurricane Director Shuts Him Down.","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"30\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The headline says it all. Media climate alarmist put in his place.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1442.png?fit=640%2C396&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1442.png?fit=640%2C396&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1442.png?fit=640%2C396&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=289672"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289681,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289672\/revisions\/289681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/289679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=289672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=289672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=289672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}