Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Drought Cost: $5.20 per ton of CO2

NY Times:
The worst drought in 50 years could leave taxpayers with a record bill of nearly $16 billion in crop insurance costs because of poor yields....

Separately, a record $11.4 billion in indemnities for crop losses has been paid out to farmers, and officials say that number could balloon to as much as $20 billion.
Given U.S. emissions, that works out to $5.20 per ton of CO2.

I'm just sayin'.

4 comments:

Dano said...

But don'tcha know David, taking action is too expensive. Carbon Tax? Too expensive. Can't do it, wouldn't be prudent.

Best,

D

TheTracker said...

Sticker shock aside, the drought relief is a small fraction of the $280 billion spend yearly worldwide on price supports.

And it's not just the cost. It's the distortion: http://bit.ly/11yGfBR

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DocRichard said...

David, I think we ought to be cautious about allocating ALL the US drought to our CO2. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) has been warm for a while, and is likely likely to stay warm for another 20 years or so. The AMO is associated with North American droughts, especially in the Mid and South West.

There is an AGW connection in that greater ocean heat content can be expected to result in more warm AMOs in future.