Sheldon Whitehouse: “The institute warns that ``global annual damages are estimated to be at 38 trillion dollars, with a likely range of…”

“The institute warns that ``global annual damages are estimated to be at 38 trillion dollars, with a likely range of 19-59 trillion dollars in 2050.'' Thirty-eight trillion dollars is the midpoint in a range that could go as high as $59 trillion. That is pretty bad. But it gets worse. This is not a complete accounting of the expected damages. It does not fully account for damage from weather extremes, things like storm and wildfire damage. To quote the Potsdam report about its damage predictions, ``accounting for other weather extremes such as storms or wildfires could further raise'' these predictions. And even that is not the end of it. It gets worse still. The Potsdam economic estimates leave out damages that are hard to monetize but, nonetheless, can be very real to real people. Again, quoting from the report, ``that is without even considering non-economic impacts such as loss of life or biodiversity.'' If your grandfather taught you to fish in a certain place and you can't pass that on to your granddaughter because the fish aren't there or because the creek isn't there, that is a real and genuine harm, but they can't monetize it. So they don't even count it. I am sorry to report that it gets even worse. The Potsdam global damage estimates are based on existing levels of fossil fuel pollution. Back to the report: These near-term damages are a result of our past emissions. We will need more adaptation efforts if we want to avoid at least some of them.…”