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Climate Change Index

PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACTS

  • Amount extreme weather will cost from heat-related deaths by the end of the century: $141 billion
  • Amount of premature deaths that could be prevented under the Clean Power Plan: 4,500
  • Amount of child asthma attacks that could be prevented by 2030 under the Clean Power Plan: 90,000
  • Number of preventable asthma attacks with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards: 130,000
  • Number of preventable heart attacks with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards: 4,700
  • Percentage drop in EPA enforcement over the years 2017 and 2018: 85%

Communities of Color

  • Number of African Americans that report having asthma: 2.6 million
  • Number of times black children are more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than white children: 4.5
  • Number of times black children are more likely to die from asthma than white children: 10
  • The increased health burden of particulate air pollution on African Americans compared to the American population overall: 54%
  • Percentage of African Americans living within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant: 68%
  • Number of African Americans living within a county that is home to a refinery: 6.7 million
  • Number of Latinos that report having asthma: 2.2 million
  • Percentage of Latino children under the age of 18 suffering from asthma: 10%
  • Percentage of Latino children more to likely die from asthma attacks than white children: 40%
  • How many times more likely Latinos are to visit the emergency department for asthma as compared to whites: 2
  • Percentage of Latinos living within 30 miles of a power plant: 39%
  • Estimated number of people displaced from Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria: 130,000
  • Number of school days Latino communities have lost each year as a result of ozone increases due to pollution from oil and gas facilities: 112,000

CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY

  • Number of Americans employed in the clean energy economy (solar, wind, energy efficiency, clean cars, and other clean tech: roughly 3.2 million
  • Clean energy economy jobs by sector:
  • Energy Storage Jobs:
  • Number of states that have more clean energy jobs than fossil fuel energy jobs: 42 + the District of Columbia
  • Percentage of growth in clean energy jobs in 2017: 6%
  • Percentage of energy generated from wind in these four states – Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and South Dakota: more than 30%
  • Number of states that have adopted stronger tailpipe pollution standards for vehicles in the United States: 14 + Washington D.C.
  • Percentage of the U.S. auto market supporting the clean car standards: 60%

PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH

  • Ratio of voters Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan who support statewide goals of generating 100% of electricity from clean sources like wind and solar by 2030: nearly 7 in 10
  • As of January 2019, the percentage of Republicans who believe climate change is happening: 52%
  • Overall, the percentage of Americans in 2018 who think climate change is happening: 73%
  • The ratio of Americans who think climate change is happening to those who do not think it is happening: 5-1
  • Percentage of Americans in 2018 that understand that most scientists agree that climate change is occurring: 57% (highest since 2008)
  • Percentage of Americans that think climate change is affecting them: 49%
  • Percentage of Americans that think climate change affects their family: 56%
  • Percentage of Americans who think that climate change is affecting weather in the U.S.: 65%

EXTREME WEATHER IMPACTS 

  • Total amount of damage caused by natural disasters in the United States in 2017: $306 billion
    • Total amount of damage caused by natural disasters in the United States in 2005: $214.8 billion. The difference: $91.2 billion
  • Number of natural disasters in 2018 that caused more than $1 billion in economic damage: 11
  • Number of Americans that have died from extreme weather from 2011-2017: 2,000

Hurricanes

  • Total amount of economic damage caused by 2017’s Hurricane Harvey: $125 billion
  • Total amount of economic damage caused by 2017’s Hurricane Maria: $90 billion
  • Total amount of economic damage caused by 2017’s Hurricane Irma: $50 billion
  • Total lives lost during 2017’s Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma: 3,000+
  • Total amount of economic damage caused in North Carolina by 2018’s Hurricane Florence: $17 billion
  • Total amount of economic damage caused by 2018’s Hurricane Michael: $25 billion

Wildfires

  • California’s wildfire fighting annual budget in 2018: $442.8 million
  • Amount California needed above its $448.2 million firefighting budget to fight wildfires in 2018: $234 million
  • Total taxpayer cost to fight wildfires in California in 2018: $682.2 million
  • Total increase in federal wildfire expenditures from 2010 to 2018: $857 million
  • Percentage increase of federal fire suppression costs in the last 20 years: 562%
  • Number of lives lost in the California’s Camp Fire in the 2018 Mendocino Complex fire: 85
  • Number of acres burned by the largest wildfire in California history, the 2018 Mendocino Complex fire: 459,000
  • Number of homes destroyed in the largest wildfire in California history, the 2018 Mendocino Complex fire: 14,000
  • Amount spent combatting wildfires by the federal government annually: $3 billion
    • Amount spent by local and state governments to fight wildfires: up to $2 billion

Extreme Heat

  • Expected sea level rise by 2100: 5 to 11.5 feet
  • Number of warmest years on record since 1998: 10
  • Number of warmest years on record since 1995: 20
  • Rank of 2018 among warmest years on record: 4th
  • Number of premature deaths projected due to extreme hot and cold temperatures in 49 U.S. cities: 9,000

National Security 

  • Number of U.S. military bases at risk from extreme weather related tidal floods and storm surges by 2100: 130
  • Amount Air Force needed to rebuild the Tyndall Air Force Base after Hurricane Michael: $5 billion
  • Amount Marine Corps needed to rebuild Camp Lejeune after the damage of Hurricane Florence: $3.7 billion
  • Amount U.S. Department of Defense spent repairing infrastructure after storms in 2017: $1.7 billion
  • Number of times Virginia’s Norfolk Naval Base floods a year from rising sea levels fueled by climate change: 10

FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES

  • Amount American taxpayers spend annually to prop up fossil fuels through federal subsidies: $20.5 billion
  • Percent of annual dirty energy American taxpayer-funded subsidies by sector:
    • Oil and Gas: 80%
    • Coal: 20%

Infrastructure

  • Amount extreme weather will cost in infrastructure damages by the end of the century: $32 billion
  • Amount sea-level rise will cost by the end of the century: $118 billion
  • Number of bridges threatened by increased rainfall and flooding: 6,000
  • Amount sea-level rise will cost in damages to coastal properties over the next seventy years: $3.6 trillion

Agriculture

  • Percentage decrease agriculture communities can expect in crop reduction from climate change: 25%

Economic Effects

  • Amount extreme heat could cause in lost wages by the end of the century: over $170 billion
  • Amount wages expected to be lost by 2090 due to impacts of extreme weather on industries that require jobs to be outside: $160 billion
  • Amount climate change could reduce recreational benefits: $140 billion
  • Percentage climate change could reduce the U.S. gross domestic product: 10%