Arctic Methane Melt ‘Could Cost $60 Trillion’ [View all]

[marmar]

Arctic Methane Melt ‘Could Cost $60 Trillion’

Posted on Jul 25, 2013
By Tim Radford, Climate News Network


LONDON—The true cost of an ice-free Arctic summer could be counted in lives lost, communities flooded and economies ruined, three scientists warn.

Methane in the submarine permafrost could be released on such a scale that the cost to the world’s economy could reach $60 trillion. The value of the entire world economy in 2012 was $70 trillion.

Gail Whiteman is at the school of management at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Peter Wadhams is a professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge and Peter Hope is at the Judge Business School in Cambridge.

All three argue, in the journal Nature, that while businesses consider the benefits of Arctic warming in terms of shorter sea routes and easier access to fossil fuel reserves, the potentially catastrophic consequences are being ignored. .........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/arctic_methane_melt_could_cost_60_trillion_20130725/