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Earth Science

JP Morgan Economists Warn of 'Catastrophic' Climate Change (bbc.com) 186

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Human life "as we know it" could be threatened by climate change, economists at JP Morgan have warned. In a hard-hitting report to clients, the economists said that without action being taken there could be "catastrophic outcomes." The bank said the research came from a team that was "wholly independent from the company as a whole." Climate campaigners have previously criticized JP Morgan for its investments in fossil fuels. The firm's stark report was sent to clients and seen by BBC News. While JP Morgan economists have warned about unpredictability in climate change before, the language used in the new report was very forceful.

"We cannot rule out catastrophic outcomes where human life as we know it is threatened," JP Morgan economists David Mackie and Jessica Murray said. Carbon emissions in the coming decades "will continue to affect the climate for centuries to come in a way that is likely to be irreversible," they said, adding that climate change action should be motivated "by the likelihood of extreme events." Climate change could affect economic growth, shares, health, and how long people live, they said. It could put stresses on water, cause famine, and cause people to be displaced or migrate. Climate change could also cause political stress, conflict, and it could hit biodiversity and species survival, the report warned. To mitigate climate change net carbon emissions need to be cut to zero by 2050. To do this, there needed to be a global tax on carbon, the report authors said. But they said that "this is not going to happen anytime soon."

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JP Morgan Economists Warn of 'Catastrophic' Climate Change

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  • Economists? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Way Smarter Than You ( 6157664 ) on Friday February 21, 2020 @10:34PM (#59753180)
    Why is their opinion on a science topic of any more importance than my local dog catcher?
    • Re: Economists? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by fred6666 ( 4718031 )

      They evaluate the economic impact of climate change based on reports from climate scientists.
      It's two different things. Climate scientists are not the ones who can predict the economic impact of a 3C average temperature raise.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        Neither are the economists, because they've been listening to all the misinformation coming from the worst of the climate alarmists.
        • Re: Economists? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by allcoolnameswheretak ( 1102727 ) on Saturday February 22, 2020 @04:33AM (#59753724)

          Neither are the economists, because they've been listening to all the misinformation coming from the worst of the climate alarmists.

          You're probably an American, or Australian conservative.
          Buddy, you need to realize that the world has agreed that climate change is a thing, it is a real threat, and that these conclusions based on real data and a global scientific consensus that includes your very own U.S. agencies like NASA, EPA, etc.

          As an American or Australian conservative it is YOU who lives in a bubble of science-denial, fostered mostly by a guy named Rupert Murdoch, who happens to own a company named News Corp that dominates conservative media in the U.S. and Australia. This is the real "fake news". By the way, your president, the very stable genius Donald Trump, is part of your conservative disinformation bubble.

          While you keep trying to argue the issue away, the rest of the world has moved on and is trying to find solutions.

          Regards

      • but more specifically the economists shouldn't try to _affect_ the situation they should try to make recommendations about where to put the money so they would have more money.

        put on top of that I seriously doubt they have even considered anything like how much spending will be forcibly increased if coastlines move and new buildings need to be made and new embankments need to be made.

        • There is a "Heisenberg indeterminacy" issue there. The economic predictions from a corporation like J.P. Morgan themselves affect the economy.

          Economic models are much like weather models: they attempt to predict quite large scale systems that have chaotic effects from extremely small and unpredictable factors. The systems both share intense positive and negative feedback loops with "threshold" effects where a few seasons of one effect or another devastate entire sets of other feedback looops.

      • Right. Always respected people who can very logically develop the idea that 2x2 could be 5.

        WhatIf.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by SirAstral ( 1349985 )

      Because... like Greta Thunberg the easy path is becoming a mindless sheep is finding out some way to out virtue signal the other virtual signalers.

      The political solutions to the entire global warming problem is proof they do not even believe in global warming themselves. If they cared, they would be screaming the loudest out of everyone about how their "important issue" has now been co-opted into a wealth redistribution scam.

      I personally feel sorry for Greta... she will live long enough to know that she be

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      Why is their opinion on a science topic of any more importance than my local dog catcher?

      Well, their opinion is more believable for two reasons:

      1) They study this kind of thing with lots of data from numerous sources, peer reviewed and based on solid, proven science.

      2) Also, because you're a fucking moron who's too stupid to admit that his local dog catcher is way smarter than you.

      • A scientist, an engineer, and an economist who were on a recently deserted island starving slowly to death after the last boat had left. They dug through the debris left and found three cans of beans. But they had no can openers or tools of any kind to open the cans.

        The scientist knew he could solve this. He scratched in the sand for hours and hours making calculations. He figured out that if he struck the can with a rock of just "this" size in just the right place it would pop open and he could eat. He sea

    • Why is their opinion on a science topic of any more importance than my local dog catcher?

      Stock market analysts are not scientists, and athough many are educated as economists, they are not acting as economists either. Rather, they are marketing-psych types who are trying to guess what the upcoming trends in public interest will be. This determines what stocks people will buy and sell.

  • I still prefer climate chaos, but that isn't trending. At all. Still, if (when) it happens, the Earth will be fine. Cockroaches will probably be fine. But with humans, it might look like something from World War Z.
  • To their profits most likely.
    When corporations care it is always about profit or the lack thereof.

  • by Truth_Quark ( 219407 ) on Friday February 21, 2020 @11:43PM (#59753344) Journal
    The leaked paper [rebellion.earth] it available from the extinction rebellion website.

    It is an climate change report from a bank heavily invested in fossil fuels. They use Richard Tol's research for the cost to the economy. A consequence of Richard's recommended approach to policy would be a cost on carbon that is way too small to limit warming to the 2C that was hoped to be safe.
  • by gTsiros ( 205624 ) on Saturday February 22, 2020 @12:11AM (#59753402)

    ...solve any problem.

    What a coincidence how that always benefits those proposing them.

  • I suggest that a radical investment in these technologies would not only go a long way to slowing down the rate of global warming, it would create an employment boom of the magnitude we have never seen before.

    One option for doing this is to end some of the massive subsidies that Oil/Coal and Nuclear power receives and put that capital into climate objectives that are proven to work. This is something that can be achieved by an act of law in many countries.

    That's not to say that many of the issues these l

    • >"I suggest that a radical investment in these technologies would not only go a long way to slowing down the rate of global warming"

      It might. But only if:

      1) Most of the industrialized world does it.

      2) It can be done rapidly enough.

      3) It can be done without destroying the economies, in which case things could slide backwards very quickly.

      >"If people are given a choice between adapting to using less energy and the survival of the human race"

      And if they are given then choice between possibly making a po

      • by MrKaos ( 858439 )

        3) It can be done without destroying the economies, in which case things could slide backwards very quickly.

        If you haven't already noticed economies are changing. Adaptation means adapting and leaving behind legacy industries like coal/oil and nuclear for new industries like wind, solar, geothermal, wave power and, anything else we can think of that extracts energy from the abundant energy we have around us.

        The way to make sure things don't slide backwards is to implement enough of these technologies whilst we can still use coal/oil and nuclear power so we can transition to a new energy economy.

        And if they are given then choice between possibly making a positive impact now for "some day" or starving now/having no retirement options/not affording transportation now/etc, the choice is just as clear.

        People are give

  • this isn't from The Yes Men? Seems like one of their stunts.
  • If you can predict climate (not weather) with a reasonable degree of accuracy and granularity, it could make you very rich whether you are a scientist or an economist. Knowing even over the medium term when and where conditions will bring high crop yields or destroy them, which places will have more or less snow, fire risks, ocean currents and fish migration..... The potential to make money from knowledge of the future is endless.

    But most of them seem content with their day jobs.

    • Knowing even over the medium term when and where conditions will bring high crop yields or destroy them
      That is actually not so easy.
      I live mostly in Isaan, east Thailand. Last year we had record rain - on paper. Actually 5 times more than the previous years. Nevertheless close to half of Isaan had a drought. The rain was so much and so long that many parts feared about the rice harvest, it mostly barely survived. My wife had a record harvest. 1km away lots of rice drowned. 50km away is draught they had no

      • Fair enough, but you don't need to be able to predict farm by farm. An accurate long term trend for Thailand as a whole would be adequate for speculative investment purposes.

  • They're long carbon futures, have and excess position or have been shorting oil and figure it's time to make some orderflow.

    The fact of the matter is that if they're releasing news, they are already are in a position to sell or buy the mania the news is designed to create. Once a broker makes a recommendation, you can be assured you're already on the wrong side or are too late to participate.
    Ever wonder how a positive earnings report results in shares worth less [outside a bubble]. They sell the news and bu

  • At this time a global catastrophe is assured. The only question is whether it will kill billions and destroy a large part of the basis for human life or whether it will take all of it. If we act decisively now, we should be able to make it the former, but this is far from assured.

  • by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Saturday February 22, 2020 @03:20AM (#59753662)

    I like to think of it in three levels:

    Screwage Level 1 is something like Neal Stephensons Snow Crash combined with Cory Doctorows Walkway. It's a mess, but those that aren't killed live a decent or better life through technology and a post scarcity economy.

    Screwage level 2 is something like Bladerunner 2049 or 'The windup girl'. A modern civilisation still exists, but it largely sucks and regular people can only get by by being dependant on some sort of tightly controlled Co-dependency with megacorps who provide short of clean water, food or some sort of drug one needs to survive.

    Level 3 is "Scary Stalenhag Picture" level where society as we know it can't go on and a few finds some way to transcend todays civilisation or we go extinct or back into some stone age.

    Level 1 I'd say is pretty much given in 3 decades or so. I'm not sure if we can avoid 2 or 3.

    My 2 cents.

    • by lorinc ( 2470890 )

      It's funny how Strange Days was suppose to be a dystopia of the millennium turn, and we're pretty much into it right now. 2049 is in 30 years, so by some dumb analogy, I'd say level 2 is coming in 50 years.

  • "Centuries to come". We can less predict tech in 100 years than 1900 could today. Should 1900 bust their economy to leave us with a pristine environment and 1972 technology? Thanks for nothing mass murderers.

  • The majority of animals in the nature we maintain in a team I work with, are already gone! Many of them extinct!
    We keep a chart of them. It is mostly white space now!

    And hadn't we worked our asses off in the European summer of 2018, we'd now have many more lost species!

    It's seriously not fuckin funny anymore!

    Add exponential changes to that, and the apocalypse is less than 10 years away! (People always underestimate exponential effects. If you watch exponential changes step by step the step, then where it is

  • Futurists.

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend. -- Theophrastus

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