SPRING WISRD MAGAZINE, VOL 6, ISSUE 2

lose over $1,870 billion in GDP as a result of anthropogenic climate change? and that?s just account ing for these four factors. Combined, the economic losses from these four factors alone are projected to account for a $1.9 tr illion economic loss annually, with that number topping $3.8 tr illion per year by 2100 when health r isks and wildlife damages are included. These stat ist ics present a daunt ing future if anthropogenic climate change cont inues without intervent ion. Luckily, though, markets, investments, and consumer habits are shift ing towards sustainability in the United States and abroad. And under the Biden administrat ion, it?s clear that climate change policy is a pr ior ity in a way it never has been before. Biden?s climate plan has an est imated cost of $1.7 tr illion and focuses on invest ing in clean energy, green jobs, updat ing infrastructure, offer ing tax incent ives for using renewable energy sources and electr ic vehicles, and creat ing 10 million new jobs in green industr ies. This focus on building a br idge to sustainable energy rather than an abrupt switch would ease economic pain and job losses and make decarbonizat ion a feasible opt ion. While new green jobs, less fossil fuels, and more clean energy and transportat ion will cost us $1.7 tr illion over the next four years, wait ing to address climate change will cost us over $15 tr illion in the same amount of t ime. If we want a livable future, healthy planet , and flour ishing economy, the choice is clear. We don?t have to choose

condit ions. Increasing temperatures and more severe weather pat terns like droughts and heat waves indicate significant ly less rainfall dur ing the remainder of the twenty-first century. The impacts of this decreased rainfall have been felt in California dur ing the longest drought in state history, which spanned from 2011 through 2019. Dur ing 2015, California?s agr icultural industry alone lost $1.8 billion in direct costs and 10,100 in jobs and was forced to idle 78,800 acres of farmland. The agr icultural industry?s troubles didn?t end there: decreased rainfall required farmers to truck in irr igat ion water, the pr ice of which could soar to more than $1,000 per acre-foot . Consequent ly, in many areas where crops did manage to survive, they were rendered unprofitable by the cost of product ion. The catastrophic impacts are inextr icably linked to anthropogenic climate change, as confirmed by Stanford University researchers in a 2014 study. With the help of computer modeling and data, researchers uncovered a link between emissions and California?s drought : the increased presence of greenhouse gases as a result of human emissions tr iggered the format ion of a high atmospher ic pressure system that repelled water-r ich storms from California, leading to an intense per iod of drought condit ions. The study found that the increased likelihood of this pressure system?s format ion is direct ly correlated with r ising CO2 levels. By the end of the century, the United States is on track to

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