Human response to climate change - The Global Climate System: Patterns, Processes, and Teleconnections - page 280

8.4.6 An economic perspective on climate impacts
Losses and gains from climate conditions
Annual loss values from all climate extremes that produce major losses in the
United States have been assembled. Critical to this endeavor was the use of
quality loss data with long historical records. Important variables with good
data included losses due to floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes, plus climate-
induced losses to the nation's major crops and increased costs of energy usage.
These five variables and four others (losses from severe thunderstorms, hail,
windstorms, and winter storms) created a total of nine variables that defined
most of the national climate-related losses during 1950-2000. Energy use costs
ranked highest ($4.65 billion), and three conditions - hurricanes, energy costs,
and floods - accounted for 69 percent of total average loss.
Losses not measured by the variables for which quality data existed have
been estimated. Secondary and tertiary losses and costs that develop over
time (6 months to 5 years after an anomalous event) were estimated based on
findings from recent studies. Unmeasured insured property losses were found
to average $230 million annually and uninsured property losses averaged
$115 million per year. Agricultural losses to livestock and speciality crops
were estimated at $450 million annually (Changnon et al. 2001 ).
The losses and gains defined from recent economic assessments were used
to develop a list of average annual losses and gains for each sector of the
nation's economy. Table 8.4 presents the resulting values, with annual losses
of $35.94 billion (2000 dollars) resulting from these conditions (Winstanley
and Changnon 2004 ). The annual loss average from extremes in Canada is

Table 8.4 Estimated annual national economic losses/costs and gains (billions
of 2000 dollars) resulting from climate anomalies during 1950-2000

Sector Annual losses & costs Annual gains

Transportation 1.60 0.30

Retail sales 1.25 3.80

Agribusiness 1.90 1.65

Farmers, crops/livestock 3.32 1.90

Energy use 4.65 3.92

Property damage 10.46 0

Government 7.00 6.60

Tourism 0.20 0.15

Property insurance 4.36 6.50

Construction 1.20 1.50

Total 35.94 26.32