Many Americans think they’re insulated from climate change. Their finances indicate otherwise
Many Americans think they're insulated from the effects of global warming. But climate change is already having negative and broad impacts on household finances, according to experts.
Just to give a few examples: Insurers are raising premiums for homeowners in many states across the country, pointing to mounting losses from natural disasters as a factor. Extreme weather and flooding raise prices for everyone at the grocery store. Wildfire smoke and heat waves like the one currently blanketing large swaths of the U.S. lower job earnings for many workers.
That's not to mention the perhaps more obvious costs like rebuilding or relocating after a hurricane, flood or wildfire — disasters that are growing in frequency and intensity.
An American born in 2024 can expect to pay about $500,000 during their lifetime as a result of climate change's financial impacts, according to a recent study by ICF, a consulting firm.
«Climate change is already hitting home, and of course will do so much more in the future,» said Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Business School.
«There are a bazillion pathways» to adverse financial impact, he added.
More from Personal Finance:
People are moving to Miami and building there despite climate risk
How to buy renewable energy from your electric utility
You may soon get new federal rebates for energy efficiency
Yet, in 2024, just 55% of Americans believe global warming will «hurt them at least a moderate amount,» according to a joint report published Monday by Stanford University and Resources for the Future.
That's down 8 percentage points from an all-time-high 63% observed in 2010, the study found.
It's likely that survey respondents were thinking more about physical than financial
Read more on cnbc.com
