‘How Much are Venice, the Everglades, and New Orleans Worth?’

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  07.02.09 | 9:31 AM ET

Photo by delgaudm via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Andrew Sullivan points the way to a Matt Steinglass post about the limits of measuring climate change damage in economic terms:

There will be no Everglades in 100 years. The economic cost of that change to US GDP is marginal. There will be no Venice in 100 years. The economic cost of that change to US GDP is tiny. There will be no New Orleans in 100 years. The economic cost of that change to US GDP is extremely small. ... But the worth of many precious things cannot be measured in money.

Indeed.

Tags: Eco Travel, Global Warming, Europe, Italy, Venice, North America, United States, Florida, Louisiana, New Orleans, News and Briefs

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


1 Comment for ‘How Much are Venice, the Everglades, and New Orleans Worth?’

Ling 07.02.09 | 10:14 AM ET

I usually think of Andrew Sulllivan as a big flip-flopper, but in this case, he’s right. In 100 years neither he nor any of us will be here. So least we can do is try to keep some things which are beyond value as they are, for the generations to come.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.