The sweeping wildfires in Los Angeles are just another horrific manifestation of the rapidly increasing and deadly effects of climate change. Those who deny that there is such a thing as climate change are misguided and can cause further incalculable environmental damage, especially if they hold a position of power like Trump, from which they could stop or impede efforts to curb the immense harm inflicted on our planet by climate change. Trump, who champions economic growth, should revisit the effects of climate change and look into the vast opportunities for massive economic growth that can be harnessed by addressing climate change, through creating new businesses and millions of jobs to produce clean energy.
By Alon Ben-Meir, Professor of International Relations, Center for Global Affairs at NYU.
As of January 14, the Los Angeles wildfires have already killed 25 individuals (including 17 in the Eaton fire and 8 in the Palisades fire) and so far may cost a staggering $250 to $275 billion. Over 12,000 structures were obliterated in a disaster considered one of the deadliest fires in American history. In the Pacific Palisades alone, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) reports that 5,316 structures have been damaged or destroyed. These numbers are expected to rise as the fires continue to rage.
Those who claim that climate change is a hoax cannot deny many undisputable facts provided by several scientific disciplines based on decades of research and glaring evidence, including melting glaciers and ice sheets, rising sea levels, changes in plant and animal behavior, and a global temperature which rose roughly 1° C since 1880. This number, which seems small, is vastly significant—economically, a 2017 study found that for every degree Celsius increase in global warming, the US risks losing 2.3 percent of its GDP.
Before we delve, however, into the prospect of economic growth from developing new industries that address climate change, it is essential to point out the colossal damage and fatalities caused by just six devastating events over the past four years alone, among many other disastrous climate-change-related storms in the US.
In August 2020, Hurricane Laura was a powerful category 4 hurricane that produced storm surges over 15 feet and historic wind speeds of 150 mph, the highest since 1856. It caused 42 deaths and $28.1 billion in damages.
From August to December 2020, massive firestorms across California, Oregon, and Washington caused 46 deaths and $19.9 billion in damages. The fires destroyed several small towns and produced injurious air quality, from which millions suffered for months.
Hurricane Ida, which occurred in August 2021, claimed 96 lives and cost a staggering $84.6 billion in damages. The storm swept from Louisiana to New York and is considered somewhere between the fifth- and seventh-costliest tropical storm.
In February 2021, a historic cold wave and winter storm stretching across most of the United States caused 262 deaths and $27.2 billion in damages, the costliest winter storm on record. Texas was the most affected state by this storm, with the majority of deaths (210) occurring there.
In September 2024, category 4 Hurricane Helene struck Florida’s Big Bend region with winds that topped 140 mph. The cyclone caused a whopping $78.7 billion in damage and claimed 219 lives. It produced a storm surge of over 15 feet and a historic rainfall of over 30 inches, precipitating massive flooding in western North Carolina.
Finally, in October 2024, Hurricane Milton, a category 3 storm that rapidly evolved into category 5, killed 32 and cost nearly $35 billion in damage. It made landfall in Florida and produced a score of tornadoes, compounding damage from Helene.
These six climate change-related storms, plus the LA fires, caused the deaths of 722 and cost more than $523 billion in damages, coupled with the unimaginable pain and anguish of thousands who lost a loved one and the hundreds of thousands who suffered from dislocations and the torturous and costly process of rebuilding their lives.
Although fires and hurricanes are natural phenomena and will still occur, climate change has fueled their intensity and frequency, creating larger death tolls and costing billions more in reconstruction. Imagine how many clean energy businesses could be created if only half of the $523 billion in damages caused by these catastrophes were invested in the clean energy industry.
The time is overdue for those who still believe that climate change is a hoax to realize that climate change is real and cannot be slowed down or reversed on its own. Future climate change-related storms and fires will only worsen and at an escalating cost in trillions and deaths by tens of thousands. They must also recognize that addressing climate change aggressively and consistently will not hurt businesses, specifically in the fossil oil and gas production sectors, but to the contrary. It will create new businesses dedicated to producing clean energy in which oil and gas companies can play a significant role, for example, through managing supply chains for renewable energy, and make even more profits.
The US has the resources and scientific know-how to build new and expand current industries that produce clean energy. At this particular juncture, the incoming Trump administration needs to provide federal funding in collaboration with the states to invest in clean energy industries.
This includes advanced battery production to manufacture iron-air batteries for long-duration energy storage, green hydrogen production, building advanced nuclear technology, which is believed to play a significant role in meeting rising power demand, vastly expanding solar manufacturing capability, dramatically increasing all-new utility-generating capacity, and building wind turbine manufacturing facilities both onshore and offshore. Finally, expanding the manufacturing of electric cars and more energy-efficient transportation could dramatically reduce carbon emissions.
The purpose behind all these efforts is not only to hold the increase in global average temperature above preindustrial levels to 1.5° C as stipulated by the Paris Agreement, but also to produce a dramatic increase in job creation. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, new innovations will create many new job opportunities in the clean energy sectors that would not only offset job losses resulting from limiting the use of fossil oil and gas but add millions of new jobs at a net increase of 78 million jobs.
Scores of Republicans in the House and Senate would support a national initiative to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy if Trump signaled that he would support such legislation without necessarily simultaneously mandating new restrictions on the fossil fuel and gas industry. Given Trump’s powerful political sway among Republicans and his mercurial nature, he can change his mind as he has done many times without facing serious opposition from many lawmakers to pass such legislation. And, in this regard, he can count on the near-unanimous support of Democrats.
Many would disagree and insist that given Trump’s public position on climate change, there is little or no chance that he will change his mind. Maybe so. They should remember, however, that Trump is not a staunch Republican ideologue. He is not dogmatic and would embrace climate change legislation if it guarantees the expansion of the economy and the creation of millions of new jobs, which is at the heart of his economic agenda.
Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.
Web: www.alonben-meir.com
