Breaking news everyone — climate change is serious. Really serious. In fact, a new report suggests that climate change will leave the average income as much as 23 percent lower by the time 2100 hits than it would have been without climate change.
The change in temperature will radically damage the global economy in the next few decades if nothing is done to slow the damage that will be done by climate change. The research itself was published in Nature.
"We're basically throwing away money by not addressing the issue," said Marshall Burke, assistant professor at Stanford University. "We see our study as providing an estimate of the benefits of reducing emissions."
In fact, the effects of climate change on the economy could be far worse than they sound, with the research relying on data from around the world about how temperature can affect productivity. What this means is that the research doesn't even take into account things like the rise in sea levels or any other implications of climate change.
It's important to note that this is not the first study that shows the economic implications of climate change.
The new study breaks productivity down into agriculturally-related and non-agriculturally-related. The effects of climate change on agriculture are easy to explain — crops grow better within a range of temperatures. Not only that, but the productivity of those that work in the fields is lowered when the heat is higher.
The study also highlighted how a rise in temperatures will not affect the world equally. Productivity is at its highest when temperatures are at around 55 degrees Fahrenheit, or 13 degrees Celsius, meaning that in some colder regions productivity may actually be raised. This means that climate change could increase global inequality, with northern, colder countries tending to be better off than tropical countries at this point.
