Climate Costs: Financial Malpractice
The costs of climate change are not a forecast: they are all around us. This article is a quick reminder of some of the facts that make Trump’s climate policies terrible for our economy.
In the decade that ended in 2025, there were 202 climate and weather disasters that cost over one billion dollars, resulting in a total loss of $1,600 billion.[1] Compare that with the decade ending in 1989, where there were 33 such disasters and a total loss of $232 billion, (correcting for inflation). That’s an increase in climate costs of over $100 billion every year, beyond what occurred before temperatures rose so swiftly.
Yet Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act cost less than $40 billion a year, and would have reduced U.S. carbon emission 40 percent by 2030.[2] And with that, we were able to push the world toward similar efforts. Now, due to Trump and his Republican Party, no more.
And on top of that, Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill reduced taxes on the one percent by $1 trillion (and another $1 trillion for the next nine percent). Financial malpractice on a grand scale.
Trump has made deals with companies to stop work on offshore wind turbines, paying companies to stop doing the very thing that will help mitigate climate disasters. His push for more coal will not only make climate change worse, but will cause more direct air pollution that will increase respiratory and heart disease. The Big Beautiful Bill eliminated tax credits for solar and electric vehicles, both ways to move away from the fossil fuels that are poisoning our planet. His administration is allowing fossil fuel companies to drill on our national lands, including in the Arctic, when we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
The costs can also be felt in the Nor’easter that pounded the Jersey shore recently. And with the 101 degree temperature at the July 4 World Cup match. And with the 157 degree turf on the Tennessee Titans field, which melted the cleats of Eagles and Titans alike. And the flash flooding in Texas this summer.
In addition to the direct costs of wildfires on the natural and built environment that are part of the billion dollar disasters, the average American breathed in four times more smoke PM2.5 each year during 2020-2025 than during 2006–2019.[3]
The 26-year drought in the Colorado River Basin has reduced the reservoirs of Lakes Powell and Mead by 30 million acre-feet—a loss of two-thirds of their water—since 2000 (an acre foot is enough water to cover a football field a foot deep, or the annual supply for 3 households). This is already making California, Arizona, and Nevada less habitable—and those states have yet to address stabilizing the reservoirs.[4]
Homeowner’s insurance rates have increased by 38% since 2021[5], partly due to the increased cost insurance companies have had to pay out for climate disasters. Many insurance companies have dropped out of states with high climate risk, such as California and Florida. These are direct costs to all of us.
A big reason Trump and the Republicans are losing the midterm elections is the day to day increasing unaffordability of food and transportation. Everyone feels that directly. The rising costs of climate are another of his self-inflicted wounds.
Vote for the Planet!
Resources
[1] https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-services/billion-dollar-disasters/time-series
[3] https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/us-wildfire-smoke?
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/21/colorado-river-water-crisis-plan and https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/2a/35/6b5dfd9c4355b8aefbda35530f56/2026-7-14-final-formatted-reservoir-moment-alex-hager.pdf