US Health Costs of Climate Change-Related Events – $14 Billion
A recent report in the journal of Health Affairs revealed that six climate change-related events from 2000-2009 cost the United States approximately $14 billion in health costs. About $740 million of these costs originated in 760,000 encounters with the health care system while about 95%, most of the costs were attributed to the value of lost lives. The co-authors of this research are affiliated with the Natural Resources Defense Council, UC Berkeley's Boalt Law School in Berkeley and UC San Francisco, they stated that their study was a first attempt to synthesize health data from the literature available on events that are related to climate change, and to develop a uniform method of quantifying their health costs. This study should aid policy makers in planning for the effects of climate change in the coming decades.