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Climate-worsened disasters have cost the U.S. more than $740 billion in damages over the past decade [1]
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Date: 2022-11-16
The report makes similar conclusions to what I’ve found doing on-the-ground work and in my reporting, especially when it comes to how relief is disbursed and which communities are able to recover following a disaster:
“Lower income households also typically have less of a financial safety net to withstand additional negative economic impacts that follow an extreme weather event, and may lack insurance or be underinsured. Additionally, federal assistance dollars disproportionately benefit homeowners over renters, who are more often concentrated in lower-income communities.”
Grist found that, as comprehensive of a report as the “Atlas of Disaster” is, it still excludes climate-worsened extreme heat and droughts due to the fact that such events don’t lead to disaster declarations. Even the alarming numbers reported by Rebuild by Design don’t capture the full extent of the climate crisis.
Rebuild by Design does do a great job of rethinking how the country responds to disasters, from upending “benefit-cost analysis” to centering equity and including “a holistic range of benefits spanning climate, health, jobs, and more.” As these disasters don’t exist in a vacuum, neither should disaster recovery, climate mitigation, and adaptive measures.
Keeping with that status quo or—even worse—doing nothing at all is simply accepting a death sentence at the hands of climate change. Many conservatives are willing to go against the better interest of their constituents. Republicans want to claim fiscal responsibility but their policies, like ignoring climate change, are reckless. There’s no time like the present to commit to doing the work for the sake of a more equitable future. Climate change affects all of us. It’s time we collectively do something about it.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/16/2136566/-Climate-worsened-disasters-have-cost-the-U-S-more-than-740-billion-in-damages-over-the-past-decade
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