Report: climate change will cause $12 billion in damage to Houston, Galveston

Says 100k households displaced

Steve Hawley, Jun 11, 09.

A new study commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund and the British Consulate-General Houston estimates that climate change will cause $12 billion in damage to the Houston-Galveston region over the next 100 years, according to the Houston Business Journal. The study examined Chambers, Harris, and Galveston counties, and it used both conservative and aggressive models to generate the numbers.

The report estimates that over 100,000 households will be displaced, including 78 percent of those in Galveston County. If sea levels rise more rapidly than expected, the study indicates that up to 93 percent of Galveston County’s households could be displaced:

“Climate change is happening,” said David Yoskowitz, co-author of the report and a professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. “It is not a hypothetical, it is a fact. Sea-level rise is occurring in Galveston Bay as well as around the Gulf of Mexico, this is another fact.

“We need to consider the socio-economic impact of these changes and begin to take long-term sustainable action to get a handle on the rising sea around Galveston in order to protect the region’s future.”

The Socio-Economic Impact of Sea Level Rise in the Galveston Bay Region (pdf, 4.3 mb)