This is the 508th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) usually appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the June 28 Green Spotlight. More than 27,310 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
Dartagnan writes—An Ominous Prediction Of The Impact Of Climate Change On The Southern States: “In a stark analysis based on a study published by the journal Science, the New York Times examines the economic impact of man-made climate change on the United States over the next century. Its conclusion? Southern states will be devastated. In a new study in the journal Science, researchers analyzed the economic harm that climate change could inflict on the United States in the coming century. They found that the impacts could prove highly unequal: states in the Northeast and West would fare relatively well, while parts of the Midwest and Southeast would be especially hard hit… The worst-hit counties — mainly in states that already have warm climates, like Arizona or Texas — could see losses worth 10 to 20 percent of G.D.P. or more if emissions continue to rise unchecked. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the greatest impact will be felt in deaths due to extreme heat. [...] This is in addition to the massive infrastructure costs needed just to keep people alive, such as expanding exponentially the utility power grids to accommodate abnormally large spikes in the use of air conditioning in businesses and residences, and losses in labor productivity due to simple inability to work in the intense heat. Coping with coastal flooding, already a real-world concern in places like Norfolk, Virginia and Miami, will also create enormous demands on state government resources.”