Stanford University scientists estimate that increased precipitation due to global warming has led to more catastrophic flooding in the United States, increasing costs by $ 75 billion over the past three decades. This represents a third of the $ 199 billion in damage. This is reported in an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Experts have determined to what extent the increase in economic damage from floods is caused by climate change, and not by socio-economic factors such as population growth, residential areas and property values. Historical data on changes in precipitation and economic damage from floods were analyzed to find out the relationship between them.
It turned out that climate change contributed significantly to the rise in the cost of floods in the United States from 1988-2017. A rise in global temperatures above the 2015 Paris Agreement is likely to cause further damage from extreme weather events.
The 2015 Paris Agreement provides that humanity should not allow the average temperature of the planet to rise by more than 1.5 degrees. A global warming of two degrees will cause unpredictable changes in the atmospheric circulation system. There will be intense melting of glaciers, which will lead, in turn, to a rise in sea levels.