CanWest News Service: Expressing concerns that the global economic and financial crisis might overshadow the need for governments to tackle environmental threats, a major international think-tank on Tuesday issued an estimate of some of the past and present economic costs of inaction.And those estimates, compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, include $3.5 billion paid by Canadian taxpayers to deal with the collapse of its East Coast cod fishery - "a resource that was clearly one of the most productive and valuable in the world." And that was just the cost to taxpayers in extra jobless benefits and government subsidies, it said, noting that those who livelihoods are lost with the loss of a resource often "bear the highest costs."
The report said that while the cause of the collapse of
But that's just chump change compared with the up to $277 billion US in estimated total damages due to emission of air pollution in the U.S., or what the report says are "even higher" costs of air pollution in China, which it says have been estimated to be equal to 3.8 per cent of that giant economy's annual economic output.
"There is fear that the current economic crisis might overshadow environmental concerns and there are already signs of some governments trying to backtrack on earlier commitments," the Paris-based organization of 30 industrial countries, including
"But can we afford to delay acting on these environmental problems?" it asks, suggesting not, and noting that its new report - Cost of Inaction on Key Environmental Challenges - "shows that not responding adequately to these challenges can be expensive, in some cases representing a significant drag on OECD economies."…
Arctic cod, US Fish and Wildlife Service
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