The implications of climate change are not just limited to ice melting and extreme weather patterns, it is also affecting the salary people earn. New research shows that climate change has lowered U.S. income by an estimated 12% compared to the world without it. This indicates that Americans are incurring losses today because of climate change and not merely future loss In the evaluation of income and climate data spanning the 1960s-2010s (or 1980-2020), which were taken from more than 3000 counties in the US.
Evaluation of Real Economic Damages
Derek Lemoine and his fellow economic researchers from the University of Arizona examined decades of county-level income data and climate models. They wanted to pinpoint the effect of warming on personal income. By contrasting the actual outcome with an imagined ‘no-climate-change’ simulation, researchers observed a notable drag on earnings across the country, far greater than previously estimated.
Effects Across the Nation, Not Local Only
Unlike previous studies which focused on short duration local temperature fluctuations, this study considers persistent temperature rise and the economic linkages between regions. Heat in one state can have knock-on effects on prices, production and trade elsewhere, magnifying the overall income impact.Heat exposure caused some of the biggest income declines in southern and midwestern states like Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Louisiana, with smaller impacts seen in northern states
Storm not the only culprit.
Significantly, the 12% conception is derived from regular warming changes where there are more hot days and fewer cold days – without costly hurricanes or wildfires added in. Experts mentioned that these extreme events would probably inflate economic losses even further.
Future Risks and Worker Productivity.
Worker productivity, particularly in outdoor manual jobs, declines due to rising heat while absenteeism rises. In fact, both trends are already linked to significant annual economic losses in the US economy. If global temperatures rise by 2°C by 2050, average incomes in the US could drop a further 6-10 per cent, the study estimates.
