Business as Usual: What Are the Costs?

This chapter describes the additional damages we will face if we don’t cut our carbon pollution. More frequent occurrences of extreme weather will cause more damages. We will also have to pay for stronger climate-proof infrastructure to adapt to new weather conditions and change our lifestyles to stay out of harm’s way. The chapter also addresses the uncertainties of climate change and suggests a way for climate skeptics to think about climate change. The example of Pascal’s Wager is used to illustrate why it is riskier not to act on climate change even in the face of uncertainty about the magnitude of the damages.