Harvard University’s Report on the True Costs of Burning Coal

Here’s a piece to which I’ve referred a few times: Harvard’s report suggesting the cost of externalities of burning coal in the U.S. is roughly half a trillion dollars annually. Of course, these are the easily quantifiable cost items, like dealing with the lung disease. And, though the report makes an attempt to estimate the cost of the long-term environmental damage, this is approximate at best.

How many extreme weather events will be caused by global climate change, and what will be their price in terms of property damage and human fatalities? What will be the cost of dealing with tens of millions of “climate refugees?” Droughts that cause food and water shortages? Loss of biodiversity? Ocean acidification?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the (hot, dry) wind.