Until now the fossil fuel industries have not had to account for the full costs to society of their products. Billions of dollars in climate-related expenses have been hidden inside the budgets for disaster recovery, health programs, national security and numerous other accounting sleights of hand that shield the rippling financial impacts of climate change from the press and the public.
But as the climate crisis intensifies, new studies are lifting the lid on the industry’s free pass, and revealing just how much society spends to keep fossil fuels flowing and responding to greenhouse-gas triggered extremes. One of them recently suggested the tab would be $70 trillion, or more than double the U.S. national debt.
