During all of the debate of the
future health of the US economy by the politicians, financial analysts, and
economists, I think the cost of climate change has been almost completely
overlooked in the projections. The climate continues to get warmer and the costs
of the effects of extreme weather are growing. In a recent post, I described a
dream I had several years ago about the effects of Earth changes during the
next decade. I believe that as the weather causes flooding, fires, and crop
failures the costs will climb substantially. And as we experience increases in
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, many nations will become bankrupt.
It was recently announced that the
2019 budget deficit reached $984 billion dollars. The national debt is nearly
$23 trillion dollars. Since we are already running budget deficits around one
trillion dollars a year, what happens when we experience enormous costs from
violent weather and other Earth changes. As a nation, we have no reserve. I
believe we will probably see both tax increases and higher interest rates as
the government finds it necessary to borrow even more money, money that may not
exist since other countries will also have problems.
I have not seen any projections
that include large escalating costs resulting from climate change. Any cost
increases appear to be pushed onto to local communities to deal with, but I
believe the problems will be on a national scale and far greater than local
flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, or fires. The federal government will have to
address them. The government could create even larger budget deficits and add even
more than what is currently projected to the national debt, which could
destabilize the entire economy. Or it could raise taxes to increase revenue to
offset the higher costs. Since the damage experienced may also cause a slowing
of the economy, this is not a good scenario—raising taxes with a slowing
economy.
My conclusion is that the path we
are on with huge budget deficits during relatively good times is a recipe for
disaster, especially considering what my dreams show for the next decade. I
believe that Barack Obama was correct when he said that climate change was the
most significant problem facing humans. But as a nation we are not listening;
we are exploiting the Earth’s resources and spending as if the problem does not
exist. I suspect that in the near future the blame game will start. People will
wring their hands in sorrow, wondering how it happened, how we could be so
unprepared. And then people will look for those to blame, but blame will not
change the reality we will all have to face.
Last week I had a dream that was
taking place as massive Earth changes were occurring. I was with someone else,
and we were above the Earth near the West Coast looking down. Some people far
to the east of the United States were leaving the planet (dying?), and I was
focused on the West Coast of the US. I commented to the other person that it
was going to be much worse when the volcanoes began erupting. The air would be
filled with poisonous gases and debris, making it impossible for people to live
in large areas of the West Coast. I wondered where they would go.
