Open thread for night owls: 'Guide to the Cold Calculus of a Hot Planet'

Alexander Reed Kelly writes about the Climate Vulnerability Monitor's new "Guide to the Cold Calculus of a Hot Planet":

A landmark report published this week by the Climate Vulnerable Forum links neglect of global warming to 5 million deaths and a loss of more than $1 trillion annually.

The Climate Vulnerability Monitor 2012 is the second edition of an assessment of the current and future human and economic costs of the climate crisis put out by a global society of countries that are most susceptible to its ravages. The report draws on the latest scientific research to assess 34 aspects of global warming and the carbon economy within the subjects of environmental disaster, habitat destruction, health impacts and stress placed upon industries. Before it was published, the study was reviewed by more than '50 leading scientists, economists and policy experts, including former heads of government.'

Among other findings, the assessment reports that 400,000 climate-related deaths occur each year due to hunger and diseases made worse by climate change, while 4.5 million people die mainly as a result of air pollution. Economically as well as health-wise, the least developed nations suffer the most. Eleven percent of their GDP will be lost by 2030. China can expect to lose more than $1.2 trillion in that time, while the U.S. economy will contract by more than 2 percent.

And here's the stupidest part: According to the report, the cost of mitigating climate change'if such a thing is possible'would be nothing compared to those losses. Emissions could be brought down to tolerable levels for half a percent of global GDP over the next decade, a minimum of $150 billion per year for all vulnerable, developing countries.

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