Letter: The cost of extreme weather events

It is heartening to see a united response to Hurricane Ian, but we still need to address the causes of such weather events. These more powerful hurricanes that the National Hurricane Center has identified as “rapidly intensifying” are becoming more common. Ian is one of more than 30 such storms over the past five years on the Atlantic coast that became super-charged by warmer oceans and higher sea levels, brought on by the warming of our earth’s atmosphere. CO2 trapped moisture also makes these storms wetter and slower moving, which creates stronger surges and more flooding.

Only recently has there been sufficient political will to proactively address these problems. Congress finally passed legislation that incentivizes manufacturing and installing renewable technologies, sequestering carbon pollution, reducing methane emissions, expanding and modernizing power grids, and developing more battery storage capacity. This is a good start, but more needs to be done. Individual representatives like our local congressman Sean Casten have introduced bills such as the Bipartisan Power Grid Storage Act and promoted ways to lower the cost of energy while fighting climate change.

These proactive measures cost money, but those in the IRA will be paid for by collecting fair taxes from wealthy corporations. Extreme weather events are costly. They cost the U.S. more than $788 billion over the last five years, according to NOAA. Ian alone is estimated to cost the U.S. up to $67 billion in economic damage. It pays to be proactive.

Stephanie Rice

Downers Grove