Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Bipartisan Report Warns of Extreme Threat to Economy From Global Warming
A new report, "Risky Business," funded in part by Bloomberg Philanthropies, warns that more than a million homes and businesses along the nation’s coasts could flood repeatedly before ultimately being destroyed.
Entire states in the Southeast and the Corn Belt may lose much of their agriculture as farming shifts northward in a warming world. Heat and humidity will probably grow so intense that spending time outside will become physically dangerous, throwing industries like construction and tourism into turmoil.
The report and campaign behind it are being funded largely by three wealthy financiers who are strong advocates of action on global warming: former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., who with his wife, Wendy, has helped finance conservation efforts for decades; Thomas F. Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund executive and Democrat who is pushing to make global warming a central issue in political races around the country; and Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, who now urges cities to confront the threat of climate change….