The following HTML text is provided to enhance online
readability. Many aspects of typography translate only awkwardly to HTML.
Please use the page image
as the authoritative form to ensure accuracy.
Page 542
TABLE 34.1 Illustrative Costs of Impacts and Adaptations
in Current Dollars. An impact may help, as when a warmer climate
reduces snow removal, or harm, as when a drier climate makes
droughts more frequent. Adaptations may temper the harm or exploit
the benefit of a new climate, as when a new and adapted wheat
variety is created or forest planted. Some entries, like the U.S.
gross national product (GNP) or the changing GNP per capita in the
world, give a scale for judging the costs of impacts and
adaptations. The numbers included for scale are in italics.
|
|
Class
|
Description
|
Dollars
|
Per
|
|
GNP
|
1985 total U.S.a
|
4,015 billion
|
|
| |
1985 average U.S.a
|
17 thousand
|
capita
|
| |
1985 global averageb
|
3 thousand
|
capita
|
| |
2100 global average projectedb
|
7–36 thousand
|
capita
|
| |
2100 average U.S.c
|
150 thousand
|
capita
|
|
Climate hazardsd
|
1980 U.S. heat wavee
|
20 billion
|
|
| |
1988 U.S. droughtf
|
39 billion
|
|
| |
1983 Utah heavy snow, floods, and landslideg
|
300 million
|
|
| |
1985 Ohio and Pennsylvania tornadosh
|
500 million
|
|
| |
1985 West Virginia floodsi
|
700 million
|
|
| |
1989 Hurricane Hugoj
|
5 billion
|
|
|
Recent annual average U.S. lossesk
|
Hurricanesl
|
800–1,800 million
|
|
| |
Floodsm
|
3 billion
|
|
| |
Tornados and thunderstormsn
|
300–2,000 million
|
|
| |
Winter storms and snowso
|
3 billion
|
|
| |
Droughtp
|
800–1,000 million
|
|
| |
1988 budget U.S. Weather Serviceq
|
323 million
|
|
|
(continued on page 543)
