“For the millennial generation,” the study concludes, “today’s status quo on climate and inequality is not only unjust but it is also unsustainable.” (Photo: Joe Brusky/cc/flickr)
Today’s Status Quo on Climate and Inequality Is Not Only Unjust but it Is Also Unsustainable
By Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children,” is an oft-quoted proverb, frequently used to explain the importance of environmental preservation. Unsaid, however, is how much it will impact the next generation if the Earth is bequeathed in a lesser state.
Environmental campaigners NextGen Climate and public policy group Demos published a new study that attempts to quantify the true cost of not addressing climate change to the millennial generation and their children.
The Price Tag of Being Young: Climate Change and Millennials’ Economic Future (pdf) compares some of the high costs millennials will face in the “new inequality economy”—such as student debt, child care costs, stagnant wages, as well as financial and job insecurity—against the fiscal impacts of unmitigated global warming.
“The fact is,” the report states, “unchecked climate change will impose heavy costs on millennials and subsequent generations, both directly in the form of reduced incomes and wealth, and indirectly through likely higher tax bills as extreme weather, rising sea levels, drought, heat-related health problems, and many other climate change-related problems take their toll on our society.”
The impacts from climate costs alone, the report finds, are “comparable to Great Depression-era losses.” The study employs a model developed by researchers from Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley that measures the effects of rising temperatures on long-term economic growth and national productivity drawing on 50 years of data from 166 countries.
The “no climate action” scenario found that by 2100 global per capita GDP will shrink by 23 percent relative to a scenario without climate change. The U.S. is estimated to take a 5 percent hit by 2050 that jumps to 36 percent by 2100 should no climate action occur.
This adds up to a loss of nearly $8.8 trillion in lifetime income for millennials and tens of trillions for their children.
In comparison, the cost of climate inaction overshadows the significant losses from other economic burdens, such as student debt. The report states:
According to Demos calculations, for a median- earning college graduate with median student debt, the lifetime wealth loss due to student debt is approximately $113,000, which is 40 percent less than the $187,000 lifetime wealth loss of a college- educated, median-earning 21-year-old if we fail to act on climate change.
But when these myriad forces are stacked together, they add up to a staggering burden. The report further highlights how climate inaction only exacerbates preexisting inequality:
Communities of color and low-income communities will be hit the hardest, as these communities have fewer resources to deal with the impacts of climate change […]. Further, these same communities have always had the highest exposure to coal-burning power plants and other sources of fossil fuel pollution, with sharply negative health impacts […]
If the transition to a clean energy economy is delayed, or if it is implemented unequally in keeping with historical patterns of racial exclusion, the fossil fuel economy will only deepen its toll on the health and well-being of America’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.
What’s more, the report notes, “the economic risks are compounded even further since inaction on climate change means that we are missing out on a major opportunity for much-needed new investment and millions of new jobs by transitioning to clean energy.”
“For the millennial generation,” the study concludes, “today’s status quo on climate and inequality is not only unjust but it is also unsustainable.”
Democratic heavyweight and NextGen Climate president Tom Steyer said the report underscores the importance of the upcoming presidential election between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.
“When we look at the consequences of this election, the choice between the candidates could not be more stark,” Steyer said, “and the voice of millennial voters has never been more important.”
Sara Jordan, policy manager at NextGen Climate agreed, writing, “Millennials have the numbers to elect climate champions this fall, but we have to show up to vote. Our future depends on it.”
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This is a good work, and I agree with most of your premises. I tend to think moving forward, that the best means of securing America’s future will not be to focus on the National elections however.
Changing party politics, as we have seen over the last 30 years, is nearly impossible besides being excruciatingly slow to boot. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party cannot fix this, and Washington has demonstrated little more that puppetry and obeisence to powerful special interests over the yeaes. It is very clear where most politicians feel their interests lie
The American people quite clearly do not trust the government as it is now, and they have every right to be upset with our farcical electoram, and financial systems
The rise of Donald Trump, and near win of Bernie Sanders should have made that clear to everyone
The scope of the problem, economically, which your article spells out so well, requires more drastic action. It requires a revolution of sorts. Such a movement though, must take place from the bottom up. PTA associations, community boards, etc. Street by street, neighbor by neighbor we need to start engaging with our communties and our environment in a more intimate way.
Millenials and all Americans should be looking to their local decision makers and saying “what are we doing to make this situation better? What can we do as a community to make a viable and honest difference.” As much as they can, local jurisdictions should take back their power to govern land and water use Communities will need to closely examine their potential needs in crisis. Millenials more than any other generation before have the power to do that. With all the skills of education, social media, open-source tech, and big data at their disposal this generation is set to begin doemstic in community building on a grand scale.
That more than anything else would be the greatest help to the country. We are a nation of strangers. Strangers to the land, strangers to our neighbors, and then we become strangers to our kids. A great reversal of that trend must begin in order to more effectively mobilize communties and their political constructions.
Community building in order to engage the with our neighbors and begin building the coalitions that will be so important to our future. We need to begin making decisions about our communities’ broader place in this world and start shifting away from a cebtralized economy to a more diverse and varied one.
The truth is, that all of these things will be much more difficult and time consuming than being able to trust that government will be of any great help. as long as we get the right person in office.
This generation will be tested more than any before, but somehow, I think they are uniquely and perfectly designed to do just the succeed.
It’s time for the Amercan people to begin taking their country and their future back
, This is a good work, and I agree with most of your premises I tend to think moving forward, that the best means of securing America’s future will not be to focus on the national elections however.
Changing party politics, as we have seen over the last 30 years, is nearly impossible besides being excruciatingly slow to boot. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party cannot fix this, and Washington has demonstrated little more that puppetry and obeisence to powerful special interests over the years. It is very clear where most politicians feel their interests lie.
The American people quite clearly do not trust the government as it is now. The graft, the money, nepotism and the above the law attitude that so many governement officials display even as they continially make decisions that benefit a few large companies, at thw expense od millions of the impoverished. Every right to be upset with our farcical electoral and financial systems
The rise of Donald Trump, and near win of Bernie Sanders should have made that clear to everyone.
The scope of the problem, economically, which your article spells out so well, requires more drastic action. It requires a revolution of sorts. Such a movement though, must take place from the bottom up. PTA associations, community boards, etc. Street by street, neighbor by neighbor we need to start engaging with our communties and our environment in a more intimate way.
Millenials and all Americans should be looking to their local decision makers and saying “what are we doing to make this situation better? What can we do as a community to make a viable and honest difference?.” As much as they can, local jurisdictions should take back their power to govern land and water use. Communities will need to closely examine their what their needs would be in a potential crisis. Millenials more than any other generation before have the power to do that. With all the skills of education, social media, open-source tech, and big data at their disposal this generation is set to begin doemstic community building on a grand scale.
That more than anything else would be the greatest help to the country. We are a nation of strangers. Strangers to the land, strangers to our neighbors, and then we become strangers to our kids. A great reversal of that trend must begin in order to more effectively mobilize communties and their political constructions.
Community building in order to engage with our neighbors and begin building the coalitions that will be so important to our future. We need to begin making decisions about our communities’ broader place in this world and start shifting away from a centralized economy to a more diverse and varied system that, when necessary is not reliant upon other cities or states for its food, water, and other necessities.
The truth is, that the economic burden, coupled with hazard global warming may bring will be handled slowly with many missteps, and a hell of a lot of misery. But those communities that work together to solve their problems will benefit mightily nor only in results but in the creation amongst their individual members of a deep sense of partnership and value. But voting and walking away, is exactly what we cannot do.
This generation will be tested more than any before, but somehow, I think they are uniquely and perfectly designed to succeed where the generations before them failed.
But voting and walking away, is exactly what we cannot do. It’s time for the Amercan people to begin taking their country and their future back, and I think we all know it.
#localcommunities
#yourneighborneedsyou
#votingisnotenough
#domorethanvote
#civics, #letsgetcivical,
-j