Of the many climate-related issues mentioned by Gov. Jay Inslee, from detailing this year’s legislative action in Olympia to advocating a World War II-like economic mobilization to mentioning the health impacts of a warming world, that was the thing that stood out: We can’t afford to ignore it.
“People say, ‘How are you gonna pay for this?,’ ” Inslee said. “I go, ‘How are you gonna pay for Paradise, Calif., that burned down? How you gonna pay for the utility industry? The largest utility in California just went bankrupt. How you gonna pay for the floods? I’m going to Iowa next week, where there’s been a billion-and-a-half dollars damage. How do you pay for that?”
Inslee was speaking to The Columbian’s Editorial Board and, naturally, the conversation turned to the climate. Inslee, after all, is a climate-action evangelist who is bringing his gospel to the nation while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. And the underlying message was that ignoring the crisis will be more costly than dealing with it.
Oh, critics might decry the Green New Deal proposed in Congress as too expensive. They might warn that moving the United States’ electrical grid away from fossil fuels will raise utility prices. They might say that the economy will crumble under the weight of decisive action.
All of which is kind of like Franklin D. Roosevelt saying in 1942, “it’s too expensive to fight the Nazis; we’ll just let them win.” As Eliza Barclay and Jag Bhalla wrote for Vox.com: “Is there any benefit now that can outweigh the risk of your descendants suffering or not surviving? The only long-lasting cultures are those that don’t eat their seed corn or choose to always put the present above what they know they’ll need to survive in the future.”
Inslee has long been sounding the alarm on climate change; he even co-authored a 2007 book about it — “Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy.” And, as we detailed in last week’s column about the newly passed state budget, he is a firm believer in government’s ability to use taxes to drive the economy and bring about social change.
So, you might be quick to dismiss the governor’s concerns about the issue.
But on the same day Inslee met with The Columbian, the United Nations Environment Finance Initiative released a report estimating that climate change will cost companies about $1.2 trillion worldwide over the next 15 years. “Investors have a central role to play in moving the world to a low-carbon future,” one of the report’s participants told Bloomberg news. And in November, the Fourth National Climate Assessment predicted that the U.S. economy will shrink by as much as 10 percent by the end of the century if climate change continues unabated. And the Universal Ecological Fund has asserted that extreme weather events and the air pollution created by climate change will cost the U.S. at least $360 billion annually over the next couple years.
Already happening
Of course, those are just predictions. But the cost of the wildfires that last year destroyed Paradise — a metaphor for climate change if ever there was one — and killed about 100 people is real. As are this year’s Iowa floods, which now have caused an estimated $2 billion in damage. As are an endless string of extreme weather events that require emergency responses and insurance payments and reconstruction costs.
“The discussion about this is really the discussion about the difference between confidence and determination, and fear and limited imagination,” Inslee said. He then mentioned how the United States built 77 Jeeps in 1940 and over the next four years made 640,000 because the war effort called for it. “Really, that’s the type of mobilization that we are capable of in the United States,” he said.
It’s a compelling argument. And the fact that the solar energy industry alone employs more Americans than oil, coal and gas combined highlights the benefits of a green economy.
Because when it comes to climate change, we can’t afford to ignore it.
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