News story: Hyperactivity disorder called costly for adults, Esther Landhuis, San Jose (Calif.) Mercury NewsSept. 13, 2004

ADHD is blamed for $77 billion in lost household income nationwide each year, ahead of drug abuse and depression.

Article: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children: Excess Costs Before and After Initial Diagnosis and Treatment Cost Differences by Ethnicity. Ray et al., Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, October 2006.

Compared with children without ADHD, children with ADHD had mean costs that were $488 more in the second year before their ADHD diagnosis, $678 more in the year before their diagnosis, $1328 more in the year after their diagnosis, and $1040 more in the second year after their diagnosis. 2006

Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America. Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. April 2008. 124 pages. http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=38438

Factory farming takes a big, hidden toll on human health and the environment, is undermining rural America's economic stability and fails to provide the humane treatment of livestock increasingly demanded by American consumers, concludes an independent, 2 1/2 -year analysis that calls for major changes in the way corporate agriculture produces meat, milk and eggs.

News release/executive summary: Pew Commission Says Industrial Scale Farm Animal Production Poses “Unacceptable” Risks to Public Health, Environment

News article: Report Targets Costs Of Factory Farming. Rick Weiss, Washington Post, April 30, 2008.

News story: Soil erosion is the "silent global crisis" that is undermining food production and water availability, as well as being responsible for 30 percent of the greenhouse gases driving climate change.

Agriculture-see also Food

News story: Farmers' Foe: Smog Damage to Crops Costs Billions, Anne Chaon, Agence France Presse July 17, 2006

Pollution is inflicting a rising bill in damage to food plants, especially in regions where hot, sunny, windless conditions favor ozone formation.

The Illness Cost of Air Pollution. Ontario Medical Association, June 2000. Available online at http://www.oma.org/phealth/icap.htm

Air pollution will cost Ontario’s health-care system and economy more than $1 billion and result in approximately 1,900 deaths this year, reports the Ontario Medical Association. The report mentions free software to calculate the illness cost of air pollution available at the OMA site.

Media Release: Air pollution costs Ontario more than $1 billion a year OMA report says

Measuring the damages of air pollution in the United States. Muller, N., Mendelsohn, R., 2007. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 54: 1–14. Subscription required

The annual cost of damages produced by air pollution in the United States is $71–277 billion (0.7–2.8% of GDP), depending on how health is valued and other factors.

Abstract
This paper measures the damages due to emissions of air pollution in the United States. An integrated assessment model is used to calculate the marginal damage associated with emitting an additional ton of pollution from nearly 10,000 sources in the U.S. The total damage produced by a source is the marginal damage of an emission, its shadow price, times the total tons emitted from a specific source. Adding total damages across all sources yields gross annual damages (GAD) which is a green accounting parallel to gross domestic product (GDP). GAD in 2002 varies between $71 billion and $277 billion (0.7–2.8% of GDP). The range of values depends largely on the value of health and the concentration–response function relating exposures to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to adult mortality rates. Source location also matters. Urban emissions constitute 52% of total emissions by weight yet they cause nearly three-quarters of the GAD.

[from body of text]
Like prior studies, we find that most of the damages from air pollution are due to effects on human health [3,7,20] . In our base scenario, premature mortalities, primarily among the elderly, account for 71% of the damages. Increased rates of illnesses account for another 23% of the damages. Impairment of visibility, enhanced depreciation of man-made materials, lost recreation services, crop yield losses, and reduced timber growth account for the remaining 6% of damages.

The study is also able to determine which pollutants (emissions) cause the most damage. We find that although emissions of fine particulates (PM2.5), ammonia (NH3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) make up half of all emissions by weight, these pollutants cause almost 80% of total damages. SO2 emissions, which are 19% of total emissions by weight, produce 26% of total damages and PM2.5 emissions, which are only 6%of total emissions by weight, cause 23% of total damages. In contrast, the two remaining pollutants, nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and coarse particulates (PM10–PM2.5), are responsible for almost half of the total tonnage but only 20% of damages. NO x emissions account for 27% of emissions by weight but they generate only 8% of total damages. Finally, PM10 emissions (net of PM2.5) are about 20% of the total tonnage and these emissions cause about 12% of the damages.

Blog: Cap-and-Auction: Global Warming’s Big Cash Dividend. Peter Barnes, Common Dreams, March 23, 2007.

Where carbon permits are concerned we should advocate ‘cap-and-auction’ instead of ‘cap-and-trade’ according to the author of Sky Trust.

News story: Outsize Profits, and Questions, in Effort to Cut Warming Gases. Keith Bradsher, New York Times, December 21, 2006

Lucrative cleanup deals distract attention from the broader effort to curb global warming gases, and the lure of quick profit encourages short-term fixes at the expense of fundamental, long-run solutions.

Indoor air pollution: national burden of disease estimates. World Health Organization, June 2007. PDF

In 23 of the 192 countries focused on in the report, more than 10 percent of deaths can be traced to just two risk factors — unsafe drinking water and indoor air pollution because of the burning of so-called solid fuels — including wood, cow dung or coal — for cooking.

News story: Reducing environmental risks could save 13 million lives annually, report shows. Associated Press, June 13, 2007

News story: Smog panel urges EPA to keep weighing the value of life in setting pollution rules. Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times, April 23, 2008.

A National Research Council committee finds 'strong evidence' that people are dying from breathing ozone. For now, the only way to incorporate that evidence into regulation is to continue assigning a dollar value to those lost lives--currently around $7 million each.

News story: Can airlines find a cleaner way to fly? Aviation and carbon emissions: The science. Robin McKie, science editor, The Observer (London), Sunday January 27 2008

Air travel is expanding dramatically. But can aviation reduce its carbon footprint? A UK research program is aimed at cutting fuel use by planes by around 50 per cent by 2020.

News story: Revealed: The real cost of air travel, Michael McCarthy, Marie Woolf and Michael Harrison, The Independent (London, UK) May 28, 2005

Soaring growth in CO2 emissions from aircraft that the cheap flights bonanza is promoting will do terrible damage to the atmosphere and make a nonsense of global warming targets.

Invasive, Indeed: One species—Homo sapiens—consumes nearly a quarter of Earth's natural productivity. Sid Perkins, Science News Online, week of Oct. 13, 2007.

Today, croplands and pastures are among the largest ecosystems on the planet. People farm about 12 percent of the land outside of Antarctica and Greenland and use about 23 percent for grazing. "If the whole world begins to look like Iowa cornfields, we'll have to take an even larger share of global biological production into human hands, and that leaves a lot less for other things. . . like the things that clean our water, preserve our soils, clean our atmosphere, and pollinate our crops."

Bottled Water Pricey in More Ways than One http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5063/print By Worldwatch Institute, Created May 9 2007 - 12:11pm

Global consumption of bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005, securing the product’s place as the world’s fastest-growing commercial beverage. The beverage industry benefits; the environment and the poor suffer. Bottled water can be between 240 and 10,000 times more expensive than tap water; in 2005, sales in the United States alone generated more than $10 billion in revenue.

Nobody can afford a brain tumor: The financial impact of brain tumors on patients and families. Harriet Patterson, National Brain Tumor Foundation, May 2007. [PDF]

Among this report's findings: 1) A brain tumor diagnosis is not just a medical crisis; it is a financial crisis. 2) There are enormous gaps in coverage for middle class families. 3) A brain tumor, even more than other cancers,often brings about a significant reduction in income and productivity. 4) Disabled brain tumor patients are not able to receive immediate insurance coverage through Medicare but must wait two years, leaving many without affordable health coverage.

Excerpted from Sustainable You. Peggy O’Mara, Mothering Magazine, issue 145, November/December 2007 http://www.mothering.com

What would the GDP look like if it included breastfeeding? Some have looked at the numbers—and they haven’t sucked them out of their thumbs. For starters, a year’s supply from a breastmilk bank would cost $30,000.

News story: Cows, Climate Change and Carbon Credits: How a Big U.S. Utility Plans to Use Cattle to Offset Coal. JEFFREY BALL, Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2007

News story: The methane produced by the manure of a typical 1,330-pound cow translates into about five tons of CO2 per year. That is about the same amount generated annually by a typical U.S. car. American Electric Power hopes to gain carbon credits by spreading tarps over manure lagoons.

News story: A rumble over valuable jungle. David Greising, Chicago Tribune, December 3, 2007.

Destruction and exploitation of rain forests spark an idea: paying to preserve them.

Why bother going green? Fred Pearce, New Scientist, Nov. 17, 2007.

Just under half of the emissions for which each of us is responsible come from things over which we have personal control, such as how much we drive and fly and how we heat and power our homes. And we have some indirect control over the rest. Chris Goodall, author of How to Live a Low Carbon Life, believes it is possible to cut individual emissions by around 75 per cent without seriously altering our lifestyles.

News story: The winds of (climate) change.. Leslie Garrett, Toronto Star, Aug. 23, 2007.

Whatever offset program you choose, use it together with sincere attempts to reduce your carbon footprint.

News story: Global carbon trading market triples to £15bn. Mark Milner, Guardian (UK), May 3, 2007.

The World Bank said that on some estimates voluntary carbon offset schemes could rise to 400m tonnes by 2010. It added: "This high potential voluntary sector, however, lacks a generally acceptable standard."

News story: The rush to go green could end in the red. Fiona Harvey in London and Jonathan Wheatley in S„o Paulo, Financial Times, April 26 2007 22:07

Project failures and over-optimism among developers, together with a tendency to exaggerate in applications, mean that 40-50 per cent of the carbon credits anticipated under the Kyoto protocol will never be delivered.

Long-term use of cellular phones and brain tumours: increased risk associated with use for >=10 years. Hardell et al., Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2007; 64:626-632. PDF

Research into the link between regular handset use and disease reveals the risks rise significantly after 10 years, despite official assurances that they are safe.

Abstract:
Aim: To evaluate brain tumour risk among long-term users of cellular telephones.

Methods: Two cohort studies and 16 case–control studies on this topic were identified. Data were scrutinised for use of mobile phone for >=10 years and ipsilateral exposure if presented.

Results: The cohort study was of limited value due to methodological shortcomings in the study. Of the 16 case–control studies, 11 gave results for >=10 years’ use or latency period. Most of these results were based on low numbers. An association with acoustic neuroma was found in four studies in the group with at least 10 years’ use of a mobile phone. No risk was found in one study, but the tumour size was significantly larger among users. Six studies gave results for malignant brain tumours in that latency group. All gave increased odd ratios (OR), especially for ipsilateral exposure. In a meta-analysis, ipsilateral cell phone use for acoustic neuroma was OR = 2.4 (95% CI 1.1 to 5.3) and OR = 2.0, (1.2 to 3.4) for glioma using a tumour latency period of >=10 years.

Conclusions: Results from present studies on use of mobile phones for >=10 years give a consistent pattern of increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma. The risk is highest for ipsilateral exposure.

News story: Public health: The hidden menace of mobile phones. Geoffrey Lean, Independent (UK), October 7, 2007.

News article: Charcoal fuels the economy and deforestation of Mozambique. Stephanie Hanes, Christian Science Monitor, April 2, 2008.

Costs of Preventable Childhood Illness: The Price We Pay, Massey and Ackerman 2003 [PDF]

Preventable childhood illnesses and disabilities attributable to environmental factors impose staggering costs on society; plausible estimates for just a subset of these costs range up to $1.6 billion annually in Massachusetts.

Press release: Preventable childhood illness costs state over $1 billion annually. September 15, 2003

Environmental Pollutants and Disease in American Children: Estimates of Morbidity, Mortality, and Costs for Lead Poisoning, Asthma, Cancer, and Developmental Disabilities. Landrigan et al., Environmental Health Perspectives, May 2002 [PDF]

Landmark estimation of the contribution of environmental pollutants to the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and costs of pediatric disease in American children. Landrigan et al. examined four categories of illness: lead poisoning, asthma, cancer, and neurobehavioral disorders. Total annual costs are estimated to be $54.9 billion (range $48.8-64.8 billion): $43.4 billion for lead poisoning, $2.0 billion for asthma, $0.3 billion for childhood cancer, and $9.2 billion for neurobehavioral disorders. This sum amounts to 2.8 percent of total U.S. health care costs. This estimate is likely low.

The Price of Pollution: Cost Estimates of Environment-Related Childhood Disease in Minnesota [PDF]

Kathleen Schuler, MPH, of IATP; Susan Nordbye, MS, RD, LD; Samuel Yamin, MPH, of MCEA and Christine Ziebold, MD, Ph.D., MPH.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA). July 2006

This is the first study to quantify economic impacts on Minnesota from childhood cases of asthma, learning and behavioral disorders, cancer, lead poisoning and birth defects attributable to environmental contaminants. Pollution costs Minnesota an estimated $1.5 billion each year in costs related to childhood disease.

Childhood illness, cost of preventable MN editorial
In Minnesota alone, environment-related childhood diseases cost $1.5 billion every single year.

Full report (329 pages): Principles for Evaluating Health Risks in Children Associated with Exposure to Chemicals. United Nations World Health Organization, July 2007. PDF http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2006/924157237X_eng.pdf

This is the first UN report to highlight children’s special susceptibility to harmful chemical exposures.

Press release: New WHO report tackles children's environmental health. July 27, 2007, United Nations World Health Organization, Geneva.

China's Three Gorges Dam: An Environmental Catastrophe? Mara Hvistendahl, Scientific Anerican, March 25, 2008.

Even the Chinese government suspects the massive dam may cause significant environmental damage. Scientists' early warnings about landslides have come true. Now they are concerned about dam-triggered earthquakes.

Chronic disease overview, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC analysis shows the profile of diseases contributing most heavily to death, illness, and disability among Americans changed dramatically during the last century. Today, chronic diseases-such as cardiovascular disease (primarily heart disease and stroke), cancer, and diabetes-are among the most prevalent, costly, and preventable of all health problems. Seven of every 10 Americans who die each year, or more than 1.7 million people, die of a chronic disease. Chronic, disabling conditions cause major limitations in activity for more than one of every 10 Americans, or 25 million people.

Chronic illness costs the economy more than $1 trillion a year. Victoria Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, October 3, 2007

More than half of Americans suffer from chronic disease, including the most common forms of cancer, hypertension, mental disorders, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and pulmonary conditions such as asthma. The number of cases diagnosed in those seven disease categories is expected to increase by 42 percent in the next 15 years. Prevention is the only affordable approach.

An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease. Milken Institute, October 2007. Access executive summary and full report at http://www.chronicdiseaseimpact.com/

News article: 15 Illnesses Drive Up Costs: Conditions Linked to 56% of Increase in Health Care Bills, Ceci Connolly, Washington Post Aug. 25, 2004

Emory University health economist Kenneth E. Thorpe tracked 370 conditions and found that 15 accounted for 56 percent of the $200 billion rise in health spending between 1987 and 2000.

Chronic disease: an economic perspective. Suhrcke et al., Oxford Health Alliance 2006 [PDF]

Chronic diseases - heart and lung disease, cancer and diabetes - are having a negative economic impact on both the developed and developing world and should thus be adequately addressed by domestic and international policy makers. In low- and middle-income countries chronic diseases currently account for about 40% of deaths and 80% of the disease impact for those aged below 60. Economic reports show the diseases can cost up to 6.8% of a country's GDP.

Executive summary: http://www.oxha.org/initiatives/economics/chronic-disease-an-economic-perspective

First Prospective Study, 1990 to 2010 - On November 15, 1999, EPA issued the second in this series of reports, "The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act, 1990 to 2010" This second study, the first of an ongoing series of prospective analyses, was also issued after a six-year process of study development and outside expert review. This first prospective study also finds that the benefits of the programs and standards required by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments significantly exceed costs.

Second Prospective Study, 1990 to 2020 - On May 12, 2003, EPA released an analytical blueprint for the third study in this series of Reports to Congress. The third report will update and extend the November 1999 prospective study. EPA's Science Advisory Board Council on Clean Air Act Compliance Analysis conducted a public review meeting to discuss the analytical blueprint on June 11-13, 2003. Additional materials were made available in August 2006.

Environment and happiness: valuation of air pollution using life satisfaction data. Welsch et al. Ecological Economics July 2006.

The effect of air pollution on well-being translates into a considerable monetary value of improved air quality. The improvements achieved in Western Europe in the 1990s are valued at about $750 per capita per year in the case of nitrogen dioxide and about $1400 per capita per year in the case of lead. (Abstract only)

Macroeconomic Impacts of the Clean Development Mechanism: The Role of Investment Barriers and Regulations. Niels Anger, Christoph Bˆhringer, and Ulf Moslener, Center for European Economic Research [PDF]

Abstract:This paper quantifies the macroeconomic impacts of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol. . . . Our numerical results show that the macroeconomic impacts of transaction costs and investment risks are negligible: Given the large supply of cheap project-based emissions credits in developing countries, compliance to the Kyoto Protocol can be achieved at a very low cost. . . .

News story: 2003 climate havoc 'cost $60bn'. BBC News Dec. 11, 2003

The climate cost calculator: Economics whiz kid Peter Larsen is predicting big costs for adapting to a warming climate. Erika Englehaupt, Environmental Science & Technology, Policy News – August 8, 2007

Climate change will add 10-20% to Alaska’s infrastructure costs in the next decades, but the cultural costs are incalculable. "There's probably more economic value in a few square blocks of Manhattan than in all of Alaska,” says the resource economist. “However, there's an enormous amount of cultural value that we can't, as ethical economists, put a value on."

Summary and full report available here. http://www.iser.uaa.alaska.edu/Home/ResearchAreas/climatechange.htm

Florida and Climate Change:  The Costs of Inaction. Elizabeth A. Stanton and Frank Ackerman, Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, November 2007.

If left unchecked, climate change will significantly harm Florida's economy in the next several decades. Impacts on just three sectors - tourism, electric utilities, and real estate - together with effects of hurricanes would shrink Florida's Gross State Product by 5%, or $345 billion in today's dollars, by the end of this century.

Full report and press coverage at http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/FloridaClimate.html

News article: Change for the worse? Global warming could further damage Michigan's economy. Elizabeth Shaw, The Flint Journal, April 22, 2007.

This 2007 Earth Day article is an example of the many fine local reports on the felt and foreseeable effects of climate change. For others, see Above the Fold archives.

News story: Ecology equals economy: Savvy businesses find opportunities in climate change. Katherine Reynolds Lewis, NJ Star Ledger, July 19, 2006

Climate change is already influencing fuel costs, insurance rates, cleanup costs and property values.

Summary: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group III [PDF].

This report of the International Panel on Climate Change puts a price tag on what it would take to avoid the worst effects of global warming, concluding that the effort would be affordable and would be partially offset by economic and other benefits. The most ambitious option, aimed at stabilizing the level of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels by 2030, would require measures that would add $100 to the costs associated with each ton of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere. By some estimates, that translates into US gasoline prices from 25 cents to $1 a gallon higher than today's. But in the context of global economic activity, the cost is modest, according to the report. Its most aggressive emissions-reduction scenario would slow growth rates by an average of 0.12 percent a year between now and 2030 – or by roughly 3 percent over the entire period.

News story: Panel Calculates Cost of Global Warming Fix--Nations Could Afford Solutions, Scientists Say. Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, Saturday, May 5, 2007; A02

The regrets of procrastination in climate policy Klaus Keller et al. Environmental Research Letters Volume 2, Number 2.

The cost of procrastination on addressing climate change range from billions to trillions of US dollars.

The article can be found online at: http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/

Abstract: Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are projected to impose economic costs due to the associated climate change impacts. Climate change impacts can be reduced by abating CO2 emissions. What would be an economically optimal investment in abating CO2 emissions? Economic models typically suggest that reducing CO2 emissions by roughly ten to twenty per cent relative to business-as-usual would be an economically optimal strategy. The currently implemented CO2 abatement of a few per cent falls short of this benchmark. Hence, the global community may be procrastinating in implementing an economically optimal strategy. Here we use a simple economic model to estimate the regrets of this procrastination--the economic costs due to the suboptimal strategy choice. The regrets of procrastination can range from billions to trillions of US dollars. The regrets increase with increasing procrastination period and with decreasing limits on global mean temperature increase. Extended procrastination may close the window of opportunity to avoid crossing temperature limits interpreted by some as 'dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system' in the sense of Article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Global Climate Change.

News story: British insurers warn storm clean-up costs will soar with global warming. Agence France Presse, June 30, 2005

The worldwide cost of cleaning up major storms could rise by two- thirds to 27 billion dollars (22.35 billion euros) annually unless urgent action is taken to fight global warming.

While scientists increasingly view the climate problem as calling for immediate action, many economic models still imply that the optimal policy is to do very little for now. The goal of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University is to identify the key economic assumptions that lead to this passive policy prescription, and to create alternative economic analyses consistent with the widespread scientific sense of urgency about climate change. For GDAE publications on climate change economics see http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/ClimateChange.htm

News story: Katrina, Rita Caused Forestry Disaster: Die-Off Will Add To Buildup of Greenhouse Gases. Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, Nov. 16, 2007.

New satellite imaging has revealed that hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in the nation. The die-off, caused initially by wind and later by weeks-long pooling of stagnant water, was so massive that researchers say it will add significantly to the global greenhouse gas buildup -- ultimately putting as much carbon from dying vegetation into the air as the rest of the nation's forest takes out in a year of photosynthesis.

The Real Costs of Saving the Planet. John Carey, Business Week, Dec. 4, 2007.

A new analysis from McKinsey & Co. not only pegs the price tag for making substantial cuts at just a few billion dollars, it also shows that at least 40% of the reductions bring actual savings to the economy, not costs.

Full report, executive summary, and videos are available at http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/greenhousegas.asp

News story: Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases. Matthew L. Wald, New York Times, November 30, 2007.

News story: Global warming costs to spiral out of control, warns Swiss Re. Reuters Mar. 4, 2004

The world's second-biggest reinsurer warns the economic costs of global warming threatened to double to $150 billion a year in 10 years, hitting insurers with $30 billion to $40 billion in claims, or one World Trade Center attack each year.

The Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University is a center of research on climate economics. The following recent publications and others may be accessed at http://www.ase.tufts.edu

Debating Climate Economics: The Stern Review vs. Its Critics, a report to Friends of the Earth-UK, by Frank Ackerman. July 2007
British economist Nicholas Stern, in a report to the UK government released in late 2006, found that the benefits of immediate, active climate mitigation measures would be several times as great as their costs. Other economists, many of whom have come to different conclusions, were quick to criticize Stern's conclusions. Frank Ackerman reviews the debate.

Law and Economics for a Warming World, by Lisa Heinzerling and Frank Ackerman, Harvard Law and Policy Review volume 1, no. 2, pp.331-362.
Contrary to implicit conservative assumptions, maintaining the status quo is not an option; "business as usual" will lead to rapidly worsening results as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. The causal links between actions and impacts extend across centuries; the most important effects of our actions occur long after our lifetimes.

The Carbon Content of Japan-US Trade, by Frank Ackerman, Masanobu Ishikawa, and Mikio Suga, Energy Policy, volume 35 no. 9, September 2007, pp.4455-4462.
The US, on balance, is a small net importer of carbon from Japan - and both countries are large net carbon importers from the rest of the world.

The Economics of Inaction on Climate Change: A Sensitivity Analysis, by Frank Ackerman and Ian Finlayson, Climate Policy, volume 6 no. 5 (2006), pp.509-526. (Despite the nominal publication date, this first appeared in print in mid-2007.)
Why do economic models of climate change so often find that the "optimal" policy is to do very little about this serious global threat? Ackerman and Finlayson examine the widely used DICE model, focusing on its choice of a discount rate, its somewhat dated science, and its curious assumption of global net benefits from moderate warming. Alternatives to these three assumptions cause significant changes in the model's optimal policy, resulting in a high and rising carbon tax which would stimulate immediate, large-scale mitigation.

News story: In Study, a History Lesson on the Costs of Hurricanes. Kenneth Chang, The New York Times December 11, 2005

With wealth and property values increasing, and more people moving to vulnerable coasts, by the year 2020 a single storm could cause losses of $500 billion -- several times the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.

Waste Couture: Environmental Impact of the Clothing Industry. Luz Claudio, Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 115 #9, September 2007. [PDF]

The environmental impact of the clothing industry is growing, driven by the "fast fashion" marketing of constantly changing styles to young Americans. Can recycling (itself a global industry) and eco-friendly fabrics help? It's really up to consumers.

News story: Many pressures led to cave-in. Vick and Geis, Washington Post, Aug. 20, 2007.

The recent rise in coal prices was a factor in the Utah mine disaster of August 6, 2007.

News article: Dirty king coal. May 31, 2007, The Economist.

Scrubbing carbon from coal-fired power stations is possible but pricey. “The challenge is to put [the required] technologies together and deploy them at a reasonable cost, and on a scale that can make some impact on emissions. That will take some doing. If 60% of the 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 that America produces every year from coal-fired power stations were liquefied for storage, it would take up the same amount of space as all the oil the country consumes.”

Cost-benefit analysis: Replacing Ontario’s coal-fired electricity generation. Prepared for Ontario Ministry of Energy. April 2005. PDF

This is one of the few government studies to attempt to incorporate environmental damages and health costs into a cost-benefit analysis of energy options. The options are limited to conventional scenarios that do not include significant alternative energy development, but the methods used in this CBA are worth examining.

News article: To south, Montana sees cautionary tale on energy. Matthew Brown, Associated Press, Billings Gazette, May 12, 2007.

T.O. Smith, energy coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks says, "When we look at Wyoming, we don't want to do development in Montana if we're going to see the same fish and wildlife declines they're seeing."

Easy money, hidden costs: applying precautionary economic analysis to coalbed methane exploitation in the Powder River Basin. Skov and Myers, Science and Environmental Health Network 2004. [PDF]

Determining the net change large-scale projects bring to the general public welfare requires a more thorough consideration of the magnitude and distribution of benefits, costs, and uncertainties than conventional cost-benefit analysis offers. Decision processes built on the precautionary principle-the notion that prudent measures should be taken to avoid uncertain but likely harmful consequences-add essential ethical and analytic elements to economic analysis. This report subjects the proposal to expand coalbed methane extraction in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana to qualitative precautionary economic analysis.

Factsheet: Coalbed methane in the Powder River Basin

In August 2007 the Denver Post published a three-day series on water costs and controversies associated with coalbed methane drilling. The well-researched articles by reporter Kim McGuire are:

No one is neutral in water fight. August 12, 2007. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_6603026

Uncharted waters for Wellington. August 13, 2007. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_6608638

Battle looms over water quality. August 14, 2007. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_6616176

Discounting the Future: John Rawls and Derek Parfit's Critique of the Discount Rate. Luc Van Liedekerke, Ethical Perspectives 11 (2004) 1, pp. 72-83. [PDF]

This is a lucid critique of the practice of discounting in standard cost-benefit analysis. A crude rule of thumb, which is caught between the conflicting objectives of guaranteeing an efficient and fair solution, has been treated as a definitive decision guide. This is worth reading to the end for the discussion of how economists calculated the discount rate for measures to address climate change.

News story: From Beaches to Pine Barrens, a Study Puts Values on New Jersey’s Natural Assets. Pam Belluck, New York Times, May 21, 2007

This article on economic valuation of natural resources is an introduction to a large body of work not generally covered in this database. See Links for more on this topic.

News story: Ag Expert: Growing corn for green fuel could ignite Gulf of Mexico dead zone. JANET McCONNAUGHEY/Associated Press, June 14, 2007

Growing corn in the Midwest for green fuel could increase pollution downriver and contribute to a “dead zone” that forms each summer in the Gulf of Mexico.

Editorial: The price of Corn. New York Times, Feb. 6, 2007

No matter how high prices go, what will need to change isn't the amount of corn acreage available or even the size of the harvests but the size of our appetites.

Blog commentary: Many Fear the Inevitable Bust of Ethanol. Alan Guebert, Farm and Food File for week of November 26, 2006

Rapid overbuilding, the lack of coordinated planning, and pie-in-the-sky economics threaten ethanol boom.

Op-ed: UC's biotech-biofuel benefactors: The power of big finance and bad ideas. Miguel A Altieri, Eric Holt-Gimenez, Guerrilla News Network, Feb. 6, 2007

BP has donated half a billion in research funds to UC Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore Laboratiries, and the University of Illinois to develop biofuel.

News article: Clearing the air on ethanol. Engelhaupt, Environmental Science and Technology Online, April 18, 2007.

New research predicts that E85 vehicle emissions could cause just as many deaths as gasoline, or more.

Editorial: Green Plants, Fossil Fuels, and Now Biofuels. BioScience November 2006

If the entire corn crop were used, it would replace only 6 percent of current petroleum used in the US.

Ethanol Production Using Corn, Switchgrass, and Wood; Biodiesel Production Using Soybean and Sunflower. Pimentel and Patzek. Natural Resources Research, March 2005. [PDF]

Findings in terms of energy outputs compared with the energy inputs were:

• Ethanol production using corn grain required 29% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced.
• Ethanol production using switchgrass required 50% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced.
• Ethanol production using wood biomass required 57% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced.
• Biodiesel production using soybean required 27% more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced
• Biodiesel production using sunflower required 118% more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced.

News story: Higher ozone levels from renewable fuels. Catherine M. Cooney, Environmental Science and Technology, May 16, 2007

The Renewable Fuels Standard combined with a rule relaxing requirements on producer emissions will lead to increased ozone levels, particularly in Midwestern states.

Biofuels – At What Cost? Government support for ethanol and biodiesel in the United States. Prepared by: Doug Koplow, Earth Track, Inc., Cambridge,MA Prepared for: The Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Geneva, Switzerland [PDF]

Current subsidies to biofuels in the United States are large, between $5.5 and $7.3 billion per year and expected to soon reach $8–11 billion per year. The largest subsidies remain those provided under federal programs, but many state-level programs provide significant amounts of support to the industry. The study suggests they are not a particularly efficient means to achieve many of the policy objectives for which they have been justified.

Water Implications of Biofuels Production in the United States. National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences 2007. PDF (report in brief)

National interests in greater energy independence, concurrent with favorable market forces, have driven increased production of corn-based ethanol in the United States and research into the next generation of biofuels. The trend is changing the national agricultural landscape and has raised concerns about potential impacts on the nation’s water resources.This report examines some of the key issues and identifies opportunities for shaping policies that help to protect water resources.

News story: Biofueling water problems, by Erika Engelhaupt, Environmental Science & Technology Online News October 10, 2007.

News story: Ethanol Bust Makes Loser of Bush, Gates, Archer Daniels Midland. Joe Carroll and Mario Parker. Bloomberg News, Nov. 19, 2007.

Ethanol, the centerpiece of President George W. Bush's plan to wean the U.S. from oil, is 2007's worst energy investment. An investor who put $10 million into ethanol on Dec. 31 now has $7.5 million, a loss of 25 percent.

Cheap no more. Gerritt Buntrock, The Economist, Dec 6, 2007. http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10250420

Despite a record world grain harvest, grain stockpiles are dropping and prices soaring. The demands of America's ethanol program alone account for over half the world's unmet need for cereals. Without that program, food prices would not be rising anything like as quickly as they have been. According to the World Bank, the grain needed to fill up an SUV would feed a person for a year.

News story: US corn boom threatens sea life; Fertilizer runoff polluting Gulf. Henry C. Jackson, Associated Press, December 18, 2007. Because of rising demand for ethanol, American farmers are growing more corn than at any time since the Depression. The nation's corn crop is fertilized with millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer. And when that nitrogen runs off fields in Corn Belt states, it makes its way to the Mississippi River and eventually pours into the Gulf, where it contributes to a growing "dead zone" - a 7,900-square-mile patch so depleted of oxygen that fish, crabs, and shrimp suffocate.

News story: Power, Politics & Poultry: Are litter plants worth trade-off for energy? Monte Mitchell and James Romoser, Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, January 20, 2008.

A new North Carolina law requires that 900,000 megawatt-hours of electricity must be generated annually by poultry litter by 2014. Does it make sense to burn poultry litter, which is a valuable fertilizer and pollutes nearly as much as coal?

News story: The new dirty energy: It's big, it's growing -- and it's bad for the environment. Drake Bennett, Boston Globe, Aug. 19, 2007.

Touted as alternative energy, the oil-sands industry has "a greenhouse gas footprint much larger than the traditional oil business -- estimates range from 40 percent more to five times the emissions. The process also uses enormous amounts of water: a study by the Pembina Insitute, a Canadian environmental watchdog organization, found that, depending on the method of extraction, every barrel of oil produced requires 2.5 to 4 barrels of water, all of which is then rendered too polluted to return to the water supply. And most oil-sands operations [are] very disruptive to surrounding ecosystems."

News story: News story: Shifting Sands, Part IV: Life on the cold side of the country's hottest economy. Gordon Pitts, Globe and Mail (Toronto), Jan. 30, 2008.

The oil sands dominate Alberta's wealth and growth, but not all parts of the province are taking part – including, surprisingly, the conventional oil industry

Preventing Disease Through Healthy Environments: Towards an Estimate of the Environmental Burden of Disease. World Health Organization, June 16, 2006 [PDF]

Environmental risk factors play a role in more than 80% of the diseases regularly reported by the World Health Organization. Globally, nearly one quarter of all deaths and of the total disease burden can be attributed to the environment. In children, however, environmental risk factors can account for slightly more than one-third of the disease burden. The environmental risk factors that were studied largely can be modified by established, cost-effective interventions. The interventions promote equity by benefiting everyone in the society, while addressing the needs of those most at risk.

Executive summary: Preventing Disease Through Healthy Environments. [PDF]

Press release: Almost a quarter of all disease caused by environmental exposure

Radio interviews: by Dr Maria Neira, Director, Public Health and the Environment Department, WHO, Dr Annette Pruss-Ustun, Scientist, Public Health and the Environment Department, WHO and lead author of the report Dr Carlos Corvalan, Scientist, Public Health and the Environment Department, WHO and co-author of the report

Video message: Health is the key in motivating to solve environmental problems by Dr Maria Neira, Director, Public Health and Environment Department, WHO.

The Economic Costs of Environmental Diseases and Disabilities. Kate Davies, Antioch University, Seattle. Rachel's Democracy & Health News, January 2006.

Overview of recent studies of economic costs of environmental illness and the economic case for taking precautionary action.

Economic Costs of Diseases and Disabilities Attributable to Environmental Contaminants in Washington State. Kate Davies, Antioch University Seattle, 2005. [PDF]

This study shows environmental contaminants cause $1.6 to $2.2 billion in direct and indirect costs in the state of Washington for childhood conditions such as asthma, cancer, lead exposure, birth defects and neurobehavioral disorders. Adult conditions (asthma, heart disease, cancer and more) run up $2.8 billion to $3.5 billion.

Article: How much do environmental diseases and disabilities cost? Kate Davies, Northwest Public Health, Fall/Winter 2005. [PDF]

News story: Exposure to toxins costs us billions each year, study shows. Bob Condor, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 11, 2005

Abstract: Economic Costs of Childhood Diseases and Disabilities Attributable to Environmental Contaminants in Washington State, USA. Kate Davies, EcoHealth Journal Volume 3 Issue 2, June 2006, pp. 86-94. Abstract only. Full article is available by subscription.

Up to 13 million Canadians, more than 40 percent of the population, will suffer from food-borne illnesses this year, many related to imported foods. The epidemic is costing $1.3 billion annually in lost productivity and medical expenses.

News story: Canada’s risky business. Carly Weeks, The Ottawa Citizen. August 7, 2007.

External Costs of Agricultural Production in the United States. Erin M. Tegtmeier and Michael D. Duffy, International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, vol. 2 #1, 2004. [PDF]

This Iowa State study estimates $5.7-16.9 billion annually in external costs of conventional/industrial agriculture in the U.S. This conservative estimate does not include agriculture subsidies. The tables in this report give a good overview of the range of cost/harms associated with current methods of food production.

News article: Where Every Meal Is a Sacrifice. Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, April 28, 2008.

Mauritania, and much of Africa, relies on imported food. But globalization has not worked for food. As trade breaks down, destitute people face tough choices.

The new face of hunger. Apr 17 2008, The Economist.

Global food shortages have taken everyone by surprise. From January to April 2008 rice prices soared 141%; the price of one variety of wheat shot up 25% in a day. The prices mainly reflect changes in demand—the gentle upward pressure from people in China and India eating more grain and meat as they grow rich and the sudden, voracious appetites of western biofuels programs, which convert cereals into fuel. To make matters worse, more febrile behavior seems to be influencing markets: export quotas by large grain producers, rumors of panic-buying by grain importers, money from hedge funds looking for new markets.

News article: Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler. Mark Bittman, New York Times, January 27, 2008

“If price spikes don’t change eating habits, perhaps the combination of deforestation, pollution, climate change, starvation, heart disease and animal cruelty will gradually encourage the simple daily act of eating more plants and fewer animals.”

News story: Trading Short-Term Food For Long-Term Environmental Losses: Modern agriculture is depleting earth's long-term potential. Agence France Presse July 25, 2005

Changes in land use have enabled humans to appropriate an increasing share of the planet's resources, but they also potentially undermine the capacity of ecosystems to sustain food production, maintain freshwater and forest resources, regulate climate and air quality, and ameliorate infectious diseases.

News story: Taste, nutrients decline as size of crops grows. Andrew Schneider, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 12, 2007.

By breeding for size and abundance, modern agriculture has produced food that contains dramatically lower nutrients than food of just 20-50 years ago. Even organic crops are not exempt. Scientists are just now noticing and trying to reverse the trend.

News story: Tainted Chinese Imports Common--In Four Months, FDA Refused 298 Shipments. Rick Weiss, Washington Post, Sunday, May 20, 2007; A01

For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the U.S. with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught. So pervasive is the U.S. hunger for cheap imports that the executive branch has repeatedly rebuffed proposals by agency scientists to impose even modest new safety rules for foreign foods.

Op-ed: Amber Fields of Bland, Dan Barber, New York Times, January 14, 2007

Succinct summary of problems with Federal farm subsidy programs that directly contribute to environmental degradation and adverse impacts on human health.

How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture. Leo Horrigan, Robert S. Lawrence, and Polly Walker. Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 110 #5, May 2002. [PDF]

The industrial agriculture system consumes fossil fuel, water, and topsoil at unsustainable rates. It contributes to numerous forms of environmental degradation, including air and water pollution, soil depletion, diminishing biodiversity, and fish die-offs. Meat production contributes disproportionately to these problems. This article outlines the environmental and human health problems associated with current food production practices and discuss how these systems could be made more sustainable.

Healthy Waters, Strong Economy: The Benefits of Restoring the Great Lakes Ecosystem.. John C. Austin, Soren Anderson, Paul N. Courant, Robert E. Litan, Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution, September 2007. [PDF]

This report summarizes the major findings of a more in-depth study-Developing America's North Coast: A Benefit Cost Analysis of a Great Lakes Infrastructure Program-of the benefits and costs of the federal-state Great Lakes Regional Collaboration (GLRC) Strategy by the same authors. It begins by outlining the major elements of the restoration strategy, and the costs of cleaning and preserving the Great Lakes ecosystem. It then describes the results of a rigorous analysis of the GLRC Strategy, highlighting the economic benefits of its implementation. The report concludes by discussing the policy implications of this analysis, arguing that, because the restoration plan outlined in the GLRC Strategy is likely to produce economic benefits well in excess of its costs, federal and state policy makers should act on its recommendations. Original URL: http://www.healthylakes.org/site_upload/upload/GrtLakesCostBenefit.pdf

News story: Benefits of cleaning Great Lakes cited; $26 billion plan would bring in more, experts say. Dan Egan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sept. 6, 2007.

See also "Property value benefits of cleanup-Great Lakes"

Little Green Lies, Ben Elgin, Business Week, Oct. 29, 2007

Making a company environmentally friendly may not increase profits.

News story: How Going Green Draws Talent, Cuts Costs. Dana Mattioli, Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2007

More corporations are going "green" and discovering that helping the environment isn't the only payoff. Eco-friendly policies can also help companies attract young talent, increase productivity and reduce costs.

Green Chemistry: Cornerstone to a Sustainable California. Michael Wilson et al., Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, UCLA and UC Berkeley, January 2008. PDF

Chemical- and pollution-related diseases among children and workers in California cost the state's insurers, businesses and families an estimated $2.6 billion in direct and indirect costs, With global chemical production predicted to increase 330 percent by 2050, health problems related to environmental contamination are likely to grow unless comprehensive steps are taken now, the report's authors say. "Green chemistry" — the use of renewable and safer raw materials, manufacturing processes and products — offers a sustainable solution, according to the report.

News release: Chemical exposures cost California an estimated $2.6 billion, research shows. Policy report endorsed by 127 University of California faculty members. Phil Hampton and Sarah Yang, January 17, 2008.

National Health Care Expenditures Projections: 2004-2014. National Health Statistics Group 2006 [PDF]

Healthcare will account for 1 in 5 dollars spent in the United States by 2015, and health savings accounts are unlikely to help much in containing costs. The U.S. healthcare bill is expected to reach $4 trillion by that year, according to an annual forecast by the National Health Statistics Group at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

News story: Steep Rise Projected for Health Spending. Lisa Girion and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, February 22, 2006

Op-ed: Untreated social ills make for higher medical costs. Andre Picard, Toronto Globe and Mail, June 22, 2006

In Canada, a former minister of health and welfare says that nation would do far better by spending less on health care and more on keeping people healthy in the first place, preventing disease instead of trying to cure it.

Environmental influences on healthcare expenditures: an exploratory analysis from Ontario, Canada. Jerrett et al.. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2003 [PDF]

Both total toxic pollution output and per capita municipal environmental expenditures have significant associations with health expenditures. Counties in Ontario with higher pollution output tend to have higher per capita health expendituress, while those that spend more on defending environmental quality have lower expenditures on health care.

What's a pound of prevention really worth? David Leonhardt, New York Times, Jan. 24, 2007

A perverse system of incentives nudges doctors and patients toward expensive tests and procedures when cheaper preventive measures might actually produce better results.

Household Hazards: Potential Hazards of Home Cleaning Products. Women’s Voices for the Earth July 2007 PDF

This report examines 5 types of chemicals commonly found in household cleaners. These chemicals are of concern especially to women and children since they are linked to increases in either asthma or reproductive harm such as birth defects or fertility problems. Current U.S. law does not require manufacturers to disclose ingredients in household cleaning products, nor does it require any testing of these chemicals to assess potential health hazards. For fact sheets and further information see http://www.womenandenvironment.org.

News story: Hazard warning on home cleaners: Study says many use chemicals linked to fertility problems. Jane Kay, San Francisco Chronicle, Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Jobs Versus the Environment: An Industry-Level Perspective. Morgenstern et al., Resources for the Future, 2000. [PDF]

Note: a later version of this paper, revised in 2001, appeared in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 43: 412-436.

Abstract
The possibility that workers could be adversely affected by increasingly stringent environmental policies has led to claims of a "jobs versus the environment" trade-off by both business and labor leaders. The present research examines this claim at the industry level for four heavily polluting industries: pulp and paper mills, plastic manufacturers, petroleum refiners, and iron and steel mills. Combining a unique plant-level data set with industry-level demand information, we find that increased environmental spending generally does not cause a significant change in employment. Our average across all four industries is a net gain of 1.5 jobs per $1 million in additional environmental spending, with a standard error of 2.2 jobs-an economically and statistically insignificant effect. There are statistically significant and positive effects in two industries, but total number of affected jobs remains quite small. These small positive effects can be linked to labor-using factor shifts and relatively inelastic estimated demand.

News story: Criminal element. Jascha Hoffman, New York Times, Oct. 21, 2007.

In the early 1990s, a surge in the number of teenagers threatened a crime wave of unprecedented proportions. But to the surprise of some experts, crime fell steadily instead. An economist at Amherst College believes cleaning up lead was a contributing factor.

Testing the Dose–Response Specification in Epidemiology: Public Health and Policy Consequences for Lead. Stephen J. Rothenberg and Jesse C. Rothenberg, Environ Health Perspect 113:1190–1195 (2005). PDF

ABSTRACT: Statistical evaluation of the dose–response function in lead epidemiology is rarely attempted. Economic evaluation of health benefits of lead reduction usually assumes a linear dose–response function, regardless of the outcome measure used. We reanalyzed a previously published study, an international pooled data set combining data from seven prospective lead studies examining contemporaneous blood lead effect on IQ (intelligence quotient) of 7-year-old children (n=1,333). We constructed alternative linear multiple regression models with linear blood lead terms (linear– linear dose response) and natural-log–transformed blood lead terms (log-linear dose response). . . . We found that a log-linear lead–IQ relationship was a significantly better fit than was a linear–linear relationship for IQ (p=0.009), with little evidence of residual confounding of included model variables. We substituted the log-linear lead–IQ effect in a previously published health benefits model and found that the economic savings due to U.S. population lead decrease between 1976 and 1999 (from 17.1µg/dL to 2.0µg/dL) was 2.2 times ($319billion) that calculated using a linear–linear dose–response function ($149billion). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention action limit of 10µg/dL for children fails to protect against most damage and economic cost attributable to lead exposure.

Long-term costs of lead poisoning: How much can New York save by stopping lead? Katrina Smith Korfmacher, Environmental Health Sciences Center, University of Rochester July 9, 2003. [PDF]

This study, especially the summary table at the end, is a model of how to present more- and less-quantifiable data along with uncertainties. The author explains: "I have asked what costs would the state of New York avoid on an annual basis if lead poisoning due to deteriorated housing were eliminated?"

News story: Why lead in toy paint? It's cheaper. David Barboza, The New York Times, Sept. 11, 2007.

Paint with higher levels of lead often sells for a third of the cost of paint with low levels. So Chinese factory owners, trying to eke out profits in an intensely competitive and poorly regulated market, sometimes cut corners and use the cheaper leaded paint

Industry reports show major waste liabilities in asset retirements. Superfund Report, Feb. 13, 2006.

Companies must examine the future liabilities they face when selling or retiring assets, including buildings that may have asbestos and sites such as electric utility poles containing polychlorinated biphenyls. In addition to including the liabilities in their income statements, the companies are expected to detail actual cleanup costs.

Beneath the skin: Hidden liabilities, market risk and drivers of change in the cosmetics and personal care products industry. Investor Environmental Health Network, Feb. 2007. [PDF]

Shareholder resolutions, improved health risk information, European and U.S. regulatory changes and growing consumer pressure could drive sweeping changes in the U.S. personal care and cosmetics industry, with significant implications for investors.

News release: What price beauty? Risk posed by toxics in cosmetics could leave unwary investors with a black eye

Fiduciary Guide to Toxic Chemical Risk. Investor Environmental Health Network, April 2007 [PDF].

This guide for institutional investors examines the financial dimensions of toxic chemical risk, including how to quantify such risk, the theory behind the danger posed by toxic chemicals to the wealth of shareholders, and a comprehensive set of action steps that can be taken by investors to translate the long-term threats and opportunities associated with toxic chemical issues into prudent portfolio stewardship.

News release: Toxics in your portfolio? Companies facing shareholder resolutions on chemical risks in products jump from just three in 04-05 to 17 in 06-07

Audio (22 min.) of Richard Liroff, Director of IEHN and Sanford Lewis, Counsel, discussing shareholder season here.

Cross-Cutting Effects of Chemical Liability from Products. Innovest, January 2007. [PDF]

Electronics, cosmetics, and pesticide manufacturers are among the many companies that could face loss of market share and access to major markets due to "toxic lockouts." This report was sponsored by the Investor Environmental Health Network. For details on IEHN's shareholder resolutions addressing PVC, PFOA, cosmetics, and other safer chemicals issues, visit the resolutions page at the IEHN website, www.iehn.org.

Press release: Value at risk from toxic chemicals in company products. Feb. 8, 2007.

News story: N.J. seeks 'lost-use' damages. Tom Avril, Philadelphia Inquirer Apr. 11, 2004

Polluting firms in New Jersey are told to pay for resources once usable, even if nobody wanted to use them.

Environmental disclosure: SEC should explore ways to improve tracking and transparency of environmental information, July 2004 [PDF]

While companies are required to disclose all information considered important or "material" to investors in their annual reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), there is currently no standard for reporting environmental risks. Yet, environmental liabilities ranging from hazardous waste contamination to greenhouse gas emissions, can pose significant financial burdens to corporations.

Executive summary [PDF]

News story: GAO Identifies Financial Downside of Underreporting Environmental Risks, Greenbiz.com Aug. 18, 2004

Public Health and Economic Consequences of Methyl Mercury Toxicity to the Developing Brain. Trasande, Landrigan, and Schechter. Environmental Health Perspectives, May 2005

Children with mothers whose mercury levels were at or near the safety level suffer an IQ loss of less than 1 point, while children whose mothers are among the 5 percent of the population most highly exposed suffer IQ losses ranging from 1.6 points to 3.21 points, significantly reducing economic productivity over a lifetime.

News story: Study: mercury costs billions in lost productivity. Joan Lowy, Scripps Howard News Service, February 28, 2005

A Comparison of the Monetized Impact of IQ Decrements from Mercury Emissions. Charles Griffiths, Al McGartland, and Maggie Miller, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environ Health Perspect 115:841–847 (2007) 2007. PDF

ABSTRACT: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that the upper bound of benefits from removing mercury emissions by U.S. power plants after implementing its Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) is $210 million per year. In contrast, Trasande et al. [Environ Health Perspect113:590–596 (2005)] estimated that American power plants impose an economic cost of $1.3 billion due to mercury emissions. It is impossible to directly compare these two estimates for a number of reasons, but we are able to compare the assumptions used and how they affect the results. We use Trasande’s linear model . . . [and] introduce the assumptions that the U.S. EPA used in its Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) analysis and discuss the implications. . . . CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of all the U.S. EPA assumptions, except for those related to discounting, decreases the estimated monetized impact of global anthropogenic mercury emissions in the Trasande model by 81%. These assumptions also decrease the estimated impact of U.S. sources (including power plants) by almost 97%. When discounting is included, the U.S. EPA assumptions decrease Trasande’s monetized estimate of global impacts by 88% and the impact of U.S. power plants by 98%.

Mercury from U.S. wildfires. Rhitu Chatterjee, Environmental Science & Technology Online News, Oct. 17, 2007.

U.S. forest fires emit nearly as much atmospheric mercury as industrial sources. When fires sweep through forests or any other kind of vegetation, they release mercury that was taken out of the air by plants and deposited in leaf litter and soil.

http://pubs.acs.org

News story: Report Tallies Hidden Costs of Human Assault on Nature. Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times, April 5, 2005

See http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx for the UN's 2005 landmark, comprehensive assessment of damage to life-supporting ecosystem services.

News Story: Alaskans Weigh the Cost of Gold. Karl Vick, Washington Post, December 25, 2007. (pg. A1)

News story: Alaskan economy faces a fork in the river. Margot Roosevelt, LA Times, Sept. 1, 2007.

A watershed-the largest sockeye run in the world--and a host of other wildlife could be casualties of one of the world's biggest mines. The Pebble Mine project would entail five earthen dams, of which two would be bigger than China's Three Gorges Dam.

An Estimate of the National Cost for Remediation of MTBE Releases from Existing Leaking Underground Storage Tank Sites. ENSR Corporation 2005 [PDF]

Estimated remediation costs for currently leaking underground storage sites is $2 billion. This does not include tanks not currently leaking.

A little risky business. The Economist, Nov. 22, 2007.

The unusual properties of tiny particles contain huge promise. But nobody knows how safe they are--and too few people are trying to find out. Meanwhile, in the past few years the number of consumer products claiming to use nanotechnology has dramatically grown—to almost 600 by one count.

News article: Noise Pollution Takes Toll on Health and Happiness. Rick Weiss, Washington Post, June 5, 2007; HE05

Everyday noise can overstimulate the body’s stress response.

News article: European Heat Wave Shows Limits of Nuclear Energy.. Julio Godoy, OneWorld.net, July 28, 2006.

Nuclear power depends on a lot of water for cooling. But as the weather gets hotter, so does the water—and it gets scarcer, too.

News article: Rocky: U.S. nuke work afflicted 36,500 Americans. Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News, August 31, 2007

The U.S. nuclear weapons program has sickened 36,500 Americans and killed more than 4,000, the Rocky Mountain News has determined from government figures. Those numbers reflect only people who have been approved for government compensation. They include people who mined uranium, built bombs and breathed dust from bomb tests.

News story: More stricken Cold War-era nuclear workers qualify for aid. Daniel Lovering, the Associated Press, Jan. 5, 3008.

Tens of thousands of Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers across the country have sought reparations under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act passed by Congress in 2000. A total of 156,906 claims have been filed by 65,484 individuals under a government program that so far has paid compensation and medical bills totaling more than $3.4 billion. But the program moves so slowly that many die before they are paid.

The treatment of illnesses related to obesity costs America tens of billions a year.

News story [A]: Health Costs of Obesity Near Those of Smoking: HHS Secretary Presses Fast-Food Industry. Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, Wednesday, May 14, 2003

News story [B]: Obesity costs U.S. $75.1 billion, study says: Taxpayers paid half that. Pa. and N.J. paid billions. Marian Uhlman, Philadelphia Inquirer Jan. 22, 2004

Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: New Evidence, 2005-2007 Richard W. Clapp et al., Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, U. Mass. Lowell, November 2007. PDF

As of 2007, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has identified 415 known or suspected carcinogens. Cancer arises through an extremely complicated web of multiple causes. We will likely never know the full range of agents or combinations of agents that cause cancer, though we do know that preventing exposure to individual carcinogens prevents the disease. This report chronicles the most recent epidemiological evidence linking occupational and environmental exposures with cancer. Despite weaknesses in some individual studies, the evidence linking the increased risk of several types of cancer with specific exposures is somewhat strengthened by recent publications, among them:

• brain cancer from exposure to non-ionizing radiation, particularly radiofrequency fields emitted by mobile telephones;
• breast cancer from exposure to DDT prior to puberty;
• leukemia from exposure to 1,3-butadiene;
• lung cancer from exposure to air pollution;
• non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) from exposure to pesticides and solvents; *
• prostate cancer from exposure to pesticides, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and metal working fluids or mineral oils.

News story: American imports, Chinese deaths: The human cost of doing business. Loretta Tofani, Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 21, 2007.

Their lungs shut down, their kidneys fail, they lose fingers, limbs, all so Americans are guaranteed an unfettered flow of cut-rate merchandise. China has more deaths per capita from work-related illnesses than any other country, according to the International Labor Organization. And China's failure to permit free trade unions translates into additional cost savings for American consumers and profits for American companies, reducing the cost of manufactured imports from China from 11 percent to 44 percent

Radio news report: Who pays the price of platinum? Angus Stickler, BBC News File On 4, March 25, 2008

The global drive for clean air is driving the market in platinum, which is used to produce catalytic converters. Nearly 90% of the world's platinum reserves are in southern Africa, where people are being forced off their land, losing access to water, and suffering from health problems.

The next generation of hybrid cars: Plug-in hybrids can help reduce global warming and cut oil dependency. NRDC July 2007. PDF

But there's a catch: This report says on p. 3,"In regions of the country that have a relatively clean generation mix, PHEVs are also likely to reduce soot and smog-forming pollution. However, in regions that are heavily dependent on dirty, coal-fired power plants, there is a possibility for significant increases of soot and mercury."

News story: Plug-in cars could actually increase air pollution. James R. Healey, USA Today, Feb. 2, 2008.

News story: China birth defects soar due to pollution. Guardian (UK), Reuters, Oct. 29, 2007.

Birth defects in Chinese infants have soared nearly 40 percent since 2001, a government report said, and officials linked the rise to China's worsening environmental degradation. About 460,000 Chinese die prematurely each year from breathing polluted air and drinking dirty water, according to a World Bank study.

Cost Effectiveness and Health Impact of Remediation Of Highly Polluted Sites in the Developing World. David Hanrahan, Richard Fuller, Aadika Singh - Blacksmith Institute, May 2007. PDF [PDF]

This study examined four locations where pollution had been causing health problems, and where the pollutants have now (or will soon) been cleaned up. The projects ranged in cost between $1 and $50 per year of life gained. These estimates compare favorably to $35 to $200 per year of life gained for World Bank estimates on interventions related to water supply, improved cooking stoves, and malaria controls. The health benefits gained by the local population are substantial, indicating that remediation of these sites is extremely cost effective. Authors argue that the low cost of this kind of intervention, along with its enormous health impact, justifies strong support for a concerted effort to deal with this issue globally.

News article: North Dakota Law: It's forbidden to consider pollution in power-plant proposals. Jonathan Rivoli, The Bismarck Tribune, N.D., January 22, 2008.

In a dispute with Minnesota a decade ago—and egged on by the coal industry—North Dakota made it illegal for the state Public Service Commission to consider environmental damage as part of the cost of producing power. Minnesota caved in a decade ago but may be about the challenge its neighbor again.

Mortality from Ship Emissions: A Global Assessment. Corbett et al., Environmental Science & Technology, Nov. 7, 2007.PDF

A new health study links air pollution generated by international shipping to more than 60,000 premature deaths across the globe annually, including as many as 8,800 in North America.

News story: Shipping pollution linked to deaths: Up to 8,800 premature deaths in North America each year cited in report. Kristopher Hanson, Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram, Nov. 6, 2007.

News story: Earth's Eighth Continent: It swirls. It grows. It's a massive, floating 'garbage patch.' David Reid, The Phoenix, Nov. 21, 2007

Located in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii and roughly twice the size of Texas, an expanding, elusive mass is home to hundreds of species of marine life. It has tripled in size since the middle of the 1990s and could grow tenfold in the next decade. The island is almost entirely comprised of human-made trash, mostly plastic.

An ounce of pollution prevention is worth over 167 billion pounds of cure: A decade of pollution prevention results, 1990 - 2000. National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, 2003. [PDF]

More than 167 billion pounds of pollution were prevented and 4 billion gallons of water were conserved. Annual savings in programs averaged 5.4 times the budget allocated to implement pollution prevention programs responsible for these results.

News release: ATFF Applauds Spitzer's Budget Initiatives on Pollution Prevention, Environmental Protection Fund and DEC Staff Increases, Jan. 31, 2007

New York's proposed Pollution Prevention Institute will help New York businesses remain competitive with neighboring states and Europe that have already taken steps to find safer alternatives to toxic chemicals.

Economic benefits of sediment remediation. Braden et al., Great Lakes National Program Office, USEPA Chicago, December 2006. [PDF]

An EPA study finds that cleaning up of the heavily polluted Buffalo River and Sheboygan River would boost property values near and bring other economic benefits.

News story: Restore a River, Boost a Tax Base: Buffalo study finds still more gains from cleanups. Andy Guy, Great Lakes Bulletin News Service, November 2, 2006

News story: With Longer Sentences, Cost of Fighting Crime Is Higher. Fox Butterfield, NYT May 3, 2004

The cost of fighting crime in the United States, for police, prisons and courts, rose to a record $167 billion in 2001.

The Economics of Phasing Out Vinyl, by Frank Ackerman and Rachel Massey, Dec 2003. [PDF]

The economic advantages of vinyl or PVC are overstated, and substituting vinyl with safer alternatives is cost-effective and practical.

Press release: New Tufts report concludes vinyl isn't cheap: Economic analysis supports phase-out for environmentally hazardous vinyl. Feb 5, 2004

Executive summary: Carving up the Congo. Greenpeace, April 11, 2007. [PDF]

Predictions for future deforestation in Central Africa estimate that by 2050 forest clearance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will release a total of up to 34.4 billion tonnes of CO2, roughly equivalent to the UK's CO2 emissions over the last sixty years. The DRC risks losing more than 40% of its forests, with transport infrastructure such as logging roads being one of the major drivers. Meanwhile the World Bank is blamed for deals in which communities sign away forest rights for 25 years, for next to nothing.

News article: Vast forests with trees each worth £4,000 sold for a few bags of sugar. John Vidal, Guardian (UK), April 11, 2007.

News article: World Bank criticized for ties to timber firm. Pasternak and Gaouette, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 17, 2007