Opportunity Cost: The Cost Of Climate Change

Opportunity Cost Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Opportunity Cost Global warming has influenced humans greatly. Although there is a denial of the obvious causes, Bjorn believes that human beings are contributing to the rapid change in climate change. However, environmental groups opt to cut carbon emissions as a way of reducing global warming. This project is likely to cost the world trillions. Bjorn does acknowledge an aggregate benefit of controlling and minimizing climate change in comparison of the estimate cost of controlling global warming. He provides wide-ranging estimates on how much it would cost to control climatic changes as well as comparing the cost humans are likely to incur if affected by climate change. The cost of climate change is considered to be more uncertain than the cost of controlling climate change (The Washington Post Company, 2007). Nevertheless, if convenient, there will be a range of costs prior to limited benefits when inconvenient. Failure to incur costs to control climate change would result in species lost, distributional effects, and millions of people would lose their lives. It is not certain how brutal the climate change will affect humans. For example, according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ocean levels are presumed to rise one-foot above the sea level (The Washington Post Company, 2007). A one-foot rise above the sea level is not disastrous but it will have more effects on small nations with islands. However, Bjorn argues that protecting land from rising tides will probably cost less. Water can be drained from wetlands, construction of levees and divert waterways could as well protect the land. Moreover, nations are becoming richer hence these are likely to lead to land scarcity. The IPCC suggests that environmentalists put more focus on the economic growth rather than global warming. Focusing on the global warming is the opportunity cost, and many environmental groups would choose to adopt the hefty ...