Heat Batters The Economy, Unanswered Questions About Tesla Semi And Pollution-Killing Houseplants

This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.

New research published Friday in Science Advances found that the heat waves that have resulted from climate change have cost the global economy at least $16 trillion, and possibly as much as $65 trillion from 1992 to 2013. These costs derive from impacts to health and productivity, agricultural output, and disasters. This is one of the first studies that quantifies economic losses from global climate change, and the authors note that the years since, which they hadn’t looked at, saw even more heat waves.

Heat waves are the only economic risk caused by increasing global temperatures, either. My colleague Chloe Sorvino set her sights this week on the Mississippi river, which has seen eight barges run aground this year. The culprit? A severe national drought that now impacts most of the area of the United States. The economic damages caused by the river’s historically low water levels are estimated to be around $20 billion this year due to the supply chain disruptions it causes. That won’t be the only economic cost of this drought, though: the ongoing drought is also expected to cause lower yields of corn and potentially other crops as well. That means even higher prices for food in this inflation-battered economy.

The Big Read

Meet The Entrepreneurs Who Designed Pollution-Killing Plants

Neoplants’ super-plants can help clear indoor air of formaldehyde and other pollutants 30 times better than regular houseplants.

Read more here.

Discoveries And Innovations

Global temperatures will increase by as much as 2.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century under current conditions, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday.

The number of carbon capture and storage facilities planned across the globe grew by 44 percent in 2022, but that’s only a tiny fraction of what’s needed for the world to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century.

San Francisco-based startup Heirloom uses limestone to capture carbon dioxide, then permanently and safely stores it.