Climate change is likely the single most important worldwide issue of our generation. Regardless of race, religion, or political beliefs, we are all united by our common home. As global warming persists the effects are just as widespread as the issue itself. Yet millions of people live their day to day lives, lacking concern for climate change because they fail to recognize the effects on their daily lives. However, the economic implications of climate change have the potential to be so destructive that people would have no way to ignore it in their daily lives.

Perhaps one of the most far-reaching of the implications of climate change begins on farms. Almost half of our planet's land is farmland and since crops can only be cultivated within a certain optimal temperature range, climate change endangers our global food supply because of rising temperatures. While the likelihood of mass starvation is very low in our lifetime, we are likely to see a sudden and continuous rise in the price of many foods. Due to the economic inelasticity of food as a necessity, this rise in price won't affect the demand for food, but rather the wages of most people in the workforce. The federal minimum wage would have to rise to meet the price of food for workers to survive but as seen repeatedly in history this will not only lead to inflation, but to major layoffs as well. For most companies and nearly all small businesses, a higher minimum wage would cut profits, so layoffs would need to be made in the firms able to keep afloat while others will be forced to shut down altogether. That is only operating under the assumption that a federal minimum increase could pass-- that in itself is unlikely. As climate change intensifies this series of events would repeat itself, intensifying each time until there eventually is a global food shortage.

Climate change further affects the economy through natural disasters. The rising sea levels due to climate change prompt more powerful hurricanes, which are also occurring more frequently as global warming worsens. Hurricanes like 2012's Hurricane Sandy, 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and this 2018's Hurricane Harvey have created over $72 billion, $108 billion and $198 billion of economic loss respectively according to the National Hurricane Center. However, these losses don't even begin to describe the lasting economic losses like decreased tourism, shut down of local small businesses, and reduced access to education due to damages to public schools.

If we continue to allow climate change to persist and continue to allow people to ignore the issue our common home will be economically as well as environmentally ravaged before it is ultimately destroyed altogether.