Climate study warning of $38 trillion-a-year hit to economy yanked for faulty data
Nature magazine, a top British weekly scientific journal, retracted a study predicting climate change would cost an annual $38 trillion throughout the next 25 years after its methodology and staggering...
By Fox News · Fox News
Nature magazine, a top British weekly scientific journal, retracted a study predicting climate change would cost an annual $38 trillion throughout the next 25 years after its methodology and staggering economic findings came under scrutiny. "Readers are alerted that the reliability of data and methodology presented in this manuscript is currently in question," an editor's note on the study read Nov. 6. "Appropriate editorial action will be taken once this matter is resolved." The study officially was retracted Wednesday, according to Nature's website. The study, "The economic commitment of climate change," originally was published in April 2024. It received media attention for its findings that the global economy could shrink by 19% by 2050 due to loss of productivity in climate change, and global economic output would fall by 62% by the year 2100. TRUMP ADMIN'S ENERGY AGENDA HAILED FOR CRUCIAL 'WINS' AS GREEN ACTIVISTS LASH OUT The study was conducted by researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The study projected there would be an annual $19 trillion to $59 trillion in damages by 2050, with researchers citing an annual $38 trillion by 2049 in "middle-of-the road" estimates. The study examined 1,600 regions across the globe and relied on 40 years of data to determine the "impacts of average temperatures on labour and agricultural productivity, of temperature variability on agricultural productivity and health, as well as of precipitation on agricultural productivity, labour outcomes and flood damages." The data received attention from the media by environmentalists as another warning that climate change could ultimately upend daily life on the global scale. The data was far more aggressive than previous studies, including a 2023 World Economic Forum study that projected climate change would cost $1.7 trillion and $3.1 trillion per year by 2050, including the "cost of damage to infrastructure, property, agriculture, and human health." The…