Thursday, July 14, 2011

"Scientific" American suggests that if all Americans stopped emitting CO2, we'd save $17,000 each per year

Economists Find Flaws in Federal Estimate of Climate Damage: Scientific American
A report concludes that each ton of CO2 emitted inflicts almost 45 times more "social cost" than the federal government estimates
...
Uncle Sam's estimate of the damage caused by each ton of carbon dioxide is fundamentally flawed and "grossly understates" the potential impacts of climate change, according to an analysis released July 12 by a group of economists.

The study found the true cost of those emissions to be far beyond the $21 per ton derived by the federal government.
...
A truer value, according the Economics for Equity and the Environment Network, an umbrella organization of economists who advocate for environmental protection, could be as high as $900 per ton—equivalent to adding $9 to each gallon of gas. Viewed another way, with the U.S. emitting the equivalent of close to 6 million [I think they mean billion, but what's three orders of magnitude between friends] tons of carbon dioxide annually, the higher figure suggests that avoiding those emissions could save the nation $5.3 trillion annually, one-third of the nation's economic output.
...
In an interview earlier this year, however, Greenstone said the federal panel charged with pricing impacts did consider several studies that pegged the social cost of carbon closer to $3,000 per ton of carbon dioxide.
List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2 United States 5,461,014 [in thousands of metric tons] 18.11%
U.S. & World Population Clocks
U.S. 311,762,292

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