Notes: In this interview, Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey stated:

"(Hurricane Sandy) has real world impacts on ordinary people...the ocean is now much hotter as a result (of climate change). The ocean is now much higher. The Arctic is now melting and that is changing the jet stream, which would have ordinarily put this storm off to sea.

So, as a result there is going to be an extreme weather tax that is going to cost billions and billions of dollars."

In a December 31, 2012 ClimateCentral.org article, Sandy Tops List of 2012 Extreme Weather & Climate Events, New York and New Jersey recently sought upwards of $77 billion in federal aid from the destruction from Hurricane Sandy. This included $16.4 billion requested for new construction projects intended for adaptation from future storms.

With those figures, Hurricane Sandy is the most destructive storm to hit the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and one of the worst storms in recorded history to strike New York and New Jersey.

On top of that, 2012 had the worst US drought since the 1950s. When U.S. Department of Agriculture releases the official data in February, 2013, estimates of damage from crop losses alone could total more than $35 billion. Even more, damage from the drought may eclipse the total bill from Hurricane Sandy, which some estimates put at more than $100 billion.

Even more disturbing, Climate Change is Already Damaging Global Economy.  It is already contributing to deaths of nearly 400,000 people a year and costing the world more than $1.2 trillion, wiping 1.6 percent annually from global GDP. This data comes from a study, released in September, 2012, entitled Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus of A Hot Planet.

Again, don't like high taxes?  Then take action to reduce the threat of climate change.

Image Source: regulus-starnotes.blogspot.com