HEAT WAVES COSTING TRILLIONS

Heatwaves brought on by human-caused climate breakdown have cost the global economy about $16tn since the 1990s, according to a study.
The research calculates the financial impact of extreme heat on infrastructure, agriculture, productivity, human health and other areas.

“We have been underestimating the true economic costs we’ve suffered because of global warming so far, and we are likely underestimating the costs going out into the future,” said Justin Mankin, an assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth College and senior author of the study published in the journal Science Advances Despite having the lowest carbon emissions, it is the tropics and the global south that bear almost the entirety of the economic brunt of extreme heat. This is because they are warmer and therefore hit harder by heatwaves, and also because they are more economically vulnerable and therefore more susceptible to economic depression and the costs of adapting to the climate crisis..

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